(Thanks to the good folks at Mov8 for letting me use these images!)

So, where did we begin? Well I got my paws on this place nearly 7 years ago…how time flies! It was an interesting experience getting it. The previous owners were in New Zealand – through my shady connections I had managed to pick up a few key details about the place (the house below was, strangely, owned by a co-worker – what are the odds?).

It was a cold day, in the run-up to Christmas. No heating, an unfurnished house, clearly no one had been here for a while. Yet there were details that showed it had been a beloved home. A comfy old couch. A son’s heights scribed into the architrave of a bedroom door. It was mostly young couples looking at it, and I got the sense than, in each one, somebody thought ‘this is too much work’. I took a bit of a punt, made a bit of a cheeky offer and, after some negotiation, we agreed that the place was mine! Huzzah!

Cut to February. One breakup and a few scary mortgage moments later, I had the keys! What had I taken on?

Well, some slightly scraggy grass, an Ikea dining chair and a fascinating floorplan! With a bit of prodding and investigating under floors, it became pretty clear this wasn’t the original layout. After checking Edinburgh City Council’s planning portal, my neighbour’s plans made clear what happened. The space making up the ‘bathroom’ and ‘bedroom 2’, plus the hallway (with ladder), was the entire original kitchen. Current kitchen was a washroom-come-scullery, most likely, with the nasty water-closet (aka crapper) downstairs to keep such evil things far away – how Victorian! Still, pretty cool that (I think) it had an indoor toilet so early!

Over the next few weeks I measured the place in disgusting detail, to build a proper map in Google SketchUp. What could I do with this 3D puzzle?