Umina Renovation - July 2026

After 20+ years of ownership, we decided to give our Umina Beach house a major renovation. 

I didn't take a before pic of the front but this is downloaded from Google. In fact it didn't look this good, because one tenant had put pebbles down over the grass and over time it had been let go so it looked pretty bad. The only thing we had done to the house was replacing the roof, which we did 20 years ago when we bought it...

We had the house 'wrapped' which gives it a much more modern look and should mean it will never have to be painted. I subsequently painted those poles and gutter, and cleaned up the garden...

We had a merbau deck built out the back which looks great...

There was an out of control Bird of Paradise at the front...

So we had it taken out...

I planted these down the side. I took them from my Pymble garden...

The back garden had really been let go...

We had it turfed and all the pebbles removed. It was a big job...

We had that tree removed, along with several others...

These are the remaining pebbles in this existing garden so not sure what we will do here...

Back garden looks great. Probably will add some plants over time...

The third bedroom...

Bathroom before. That window really dates the house...

And after. That window was surprisingly expensive but it allowed us to have a solid wall for the mirror...

Kitchen before...

And after...

That room at the right was a small 4th bedroom so we removed that wall you can see to create more living space...

We had the boards polished and new lights installed. You can see the wall has gone...

The second bedroom...

The front lounge room...

The concrete slab for off-street parking was the last thing to be done...

This is a better pic of the house after the slab is down and the garden has been tidied up...

Sydney - June and July 2026

The month started with Eliza's birthday and we tried a Lebanese restaurant in Crows Nest... 

Nice to be back in the routine after two months of travel. I cooked spaghetti bolognaise one night...

Loving my new sunnies that I bought in Madrid...

Heading to the gym - Planet Fitness at Tuggerah...

The Umina house renovation is coming along nicely. This is what the house used to look like, but it got worse after one tenant put pebbles down over the lawn and then it got neglected for many years...

And after the renovation. I still need to do some work on the garden and a concrete slab needs to go down for some off street parking...

See separate post for more photos.

A cold but spectacular day #nofilter. The flooding hasn't subsided in spite of a couple of days of no rain...

I like the shadow in this pic...

I am going to a new cafe in Long Jetty now. It has a bike rack right outside...

Getting ready for a visit by Eliza :-)

Full moon...

One day I loaned my car to Jacqui. So I drove it to Pymble, and got the train back to Tuggerah. It's a nice ride and the hour passed quickly. This is the Hawkesbury River...

Passing through Tascott... 

I cooked Pad Kra Pao one night which is one of my favourite Thai dishes...