And now .. with Furniture ...

My goodness that bed is heavy. 

Still, I couldn't stand it a moment longer, I *had* to see what it would look like on carpet.
Pretty darn good, it turns out..







and my mustard vinyl armchair looks fabbo on it.







I was looking at bedside tables and etc yesterday online, but they inspire in me the same kind
of meh i've always felt when looking at coffee tables.  Therefore, i've always compromised
and improvised on both.

You know .. like milk crates .. or .. maybe besser blocks and planks of wood for a classier look.
ok, so that was a long time ago.. but still..

I think i'll be making my own.  That's an old crate next to my bed at the moment ..
the carpet deserves something a bit more upmarket though - something more chic. 
But still like me, so not that chic ..
A compromise.


I love how the Pride of Madeira we planted outside the bedroom window is getting so big..
the leaves are gorgeous presed up against the glass...

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Gaga over Gaia :: Love the Look

My Carpet arrived yesterday!

We've carpeted both the bedrooms, and chose the Gaia Wool Collection,
exclusive to Carpet Court.

I've never bought carpet before and if you haven't either, you will find there is
a LOT of it in store, and it's kinda overwhelming if you don't know your loop
from your plush from your twist.





I started by looking ( a LOT ) at the Carpet Court website.

Things I knew:

- I like natural products whenever possible
- I have kids, and cats
- I love a loop pile
- I have cats.  With claws.  So no loop pile.
- I didn't want a carpet that left vacuum cleaner lines
- that's about it


So .. pretty easy.
A cut pile, in wool.  I think ??!?





Doing your homework first online really helps in store I think.

I suggest compiling a shortlist of carpets & colours you think you'll like, then pop in.


I found once in store, it was then easy to then whittle that list right on down when talking
with a consultant about care ( it was in-store I learned that PLUSH carpet was the stuff
that left the vacuum cleaner lines, so an automatic line went through I a whole heap of
products I was going to look at ) 

They also knew how to work those rolls and samples quickly, as I had kids in tow ..

Too brown, too blue, that's nice, wrong blend, too mottled, ooh, yum, what about that,
no that, and the other one?  Hmm, yep, nope, the first one, ok, yes, done.

I also had to force myself not to look at the loop designs. 
Those cats are lucky I like them a lot, I swear.




And this is what I ended up with:
GAIA Wool Carpet, from The Rivers Collection, and I bought "Swan" - as in the Swan River.

Hello Perth!

I'm a sucker for a good name, or one that resonates.  All the GAIA collections are
locally named, and I admit I was hoping for a Melbourne experience
( we laughed that there was no "Yarra" to chose from in the Rivers Collection ..
the poor old Yarra .. it gets such a bad colour rap ... )

But we could have bought Sorrento, darling ( Coast Collection ), and I was looking at
Southbank form the ParkLife Collection for a while too .. that combines Melbourne
( and Blur ).. or any number of Numbats and Eucalypts.  A bit of Australiana, darl!





Pretty, isn't it?

Next job is to get my bed in there and out of my front room.

Might go do that now.

x

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Still Moving.

We started moving in this Tuesday past.
AB is working 7days at the moment, so the routine is:

- drop off kids to school
- drive to flat
- up & down stairs until the car is filled
- back to house, unpacking, cleaning, washing, sorting
- pick up kids
- go to flat, lather, rinse, repeat
- ignore whining
- afterschool activities
- arrive home exhausted and realise I need to cook dinner.


But it's beeee-yooo-ti-ful! 
I just wish all these boxes would unpack themselves and the flat would clean itself.






There's still things to be done .. like my cupboard handles only all went on today, and the
sparkies were here yesterday doing things.  The splashback needs to be sealed,
and the bedrooms are sans carpet.

I love my Escapees cushion above.  Seems apt somehow..





Kids are spoilt.  We offset sharing the smallest bedroom in the world by putting a tele
on the wall for them to play their Minecraft on.  ( I am anti-bunk-bed after (a) having them
myself as a kid, and (b) having already dealt with a broken arm once in this motherhood,
I am not going to be tempting that kind of fate again..)





And for all those that thought it was a bit weird that my kids shared a QS bed, you'll be
happy to know they now have their own beds.  I love the red frames with their grey striped linen

Not sure what's the story with my kid staring at the tap.  He's weird.
Also: the under-bench kickback thingy yet to arrive..




And a pano after dinner the other night when I sat back and went
"I freaking love this house, how's the serenity?" ( ignoring the mess )

Removalists booked to get the last of the furniture out of the flat tomorrow.

Home Straight.

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Week 3: The Brickies

I can't believe it's only been 3 weeks .. everything seems to be chugging along so fast I wonder if there will come a day when I pop over and there *isn't* something new to see?

It's all very exciting!


So what's been going on?


Firstly .. I found some old newspapers used as padding on the old joists, so we've finally been able to date the old girl:





Yep, January 1949.
There was a rabbit plague on in the Nation's Capital .. and lots of labouring type jobs for men.

Very non-discriminatory in 1948 as work was available for both types of gent - be he married or single.
Equal opportunity and all that.

I also found an ad for Durabestos - it sounds wicked good, what being fire retardant, vermin repellent and never needing painting ever again.

And crappy comics.
Mandrake.
( Gimme a break )





We also had an old copper in the roof. Full of water. Ugh.






( look at our poor dead grass!! it's been hot & dry here, and we face West - phew! )


Which brings us up to yesterday with the arrival of brickies.

I now have a nice hole in my bedroom wall to enter my WIR from .. and the boys have a new door to their room too.

Finally, in the hall, we are widening the door to my office and inserting double doors to match the ones to the front/formal room...









We ordered floorboards this week too, and I even managed to select a board cheaper than our allocated quote!!  So chuffed .. but you know it's all swings and roundabouts and the perfect tapware will bring us back into line ...


xx
Lea

The Tradies Arrive today

In fact, they got there an hour or so ago.

I am staying away, but i'll go have a peek this afternoon.


AB and I have been working on the old house for about a month now - mainly him, every night, after work, chipping, clearing, removing, rumbling.  It should save us a bit of money.  Yesterday was our last heave-ho, and I have to say, i'm happy to be at home today ( at the flat ) in my jammies.  Resting.

Here's some pics:


Firstly, to give you some bearings, the R/E brochure from when we bought the house, in 2006:





And the floorplan:





They couldn't sell this house, you know?
The pics look ok, but there was crap everywhere and people just walked around sneering and grimacing.  The owners also tried to save money by selling at Christmas when no-one was about.

Right after we bought it, the property market here went BOOM! and a condemned lot across the street sold for $250k more than what we had bought this only 6months prior.

Lucky.





Above: the old bathroom ( will be a WIR )

Below: the boy's bedroom.





Below:
Master Bedroom, main living area, and some kitchen rubble up the driveway.





Below:  the old kitchen, which will now be a hallway.





Below:  the old laundry, which will now be a butler's pantry/laundry off the new kitchen
( the middle pic is where I used to take my selfies .. hee hee :)





Below:  the Playroom, or according to the map above, a 3rd bedroom
This will now be my kitchen, and that doorway will lead into my butler's pantry/laundry.





So that's it for now.
Basically what happens next is the floors and ceilings come down.  That stupid playroom is the main reason for the reno - the way it cut into our usable space for no good reason.  However, it does keep the house up, so a steel beam is going in the roof to replace it.  We are also putting in the foundations for a 2nd story in the roof, which we can't afford right now, but since they have to take off the ceilings anyway, it makes sense to do that now.

This means, in 4yrs time, we can just pop in some stairs and a pre-fab 2nd story, and boom:  separate rooms for the boys before high school.  Neato.

Because, yes, even after this reno, we will still be a 2bedroom house, which is probably crazy by other people's standards.  I'm ok with that.


What do you think?
Feel free to offer me any advice, or discounts from your Uncle Dave.


xx
Lea

Master Bedroom .. Almost There!..

I can't tell you how excited I am about my new bed & linen!





It's just freaking gorgeous! ( if I don't say so myself! ) .. and lush, oh, lush. I feel like i'm a hotel!







I still need to get a new light ( i'm thinking a black drum lightshade ), and the carpet will one day be replaced.





We'll also sell that "colonial" chest of drawers with the mirrors once we smash a hole in the wall where it currently sits, and install a WIR in the original bathroom ( if you know the floorplan of a typical 1950's house, that's us )

As you can see below, our "wardrobe" is a freestanding rack ( $10, IKEA, bargain )





My "beside table" is an old crate.
Resting on it is a framed print we bought in Paris, pre-kiddos. You can't see, but the glass is totally smashed. I need to get it fixed, but I also quite like things to be a bit not-perfect. Damaged. 
( Like me. ha ha. )

AB's side features an old ladder I bought on ebay about a year ago. He's not allowed to have a bedside table as all he does is collect dust and freaking junk on it.
He's happy with that, he's a bit like me in the fact he'd rather something look good rather than be completely functional.





Heaven.

What do you think?
Is it a Yay or a Nay?
( Be honest, I don't care, you can't make me not love it :)


Xx

Master Bedroom: Before..

We're getting a new bed in a few weeks!! So excited!

The carpet, fittings and other assorteds will come later, but I just took a couple of quick pics today before AB dismantled the bed so we can compare later :)

We haven't done much to this room since we moved in ( in 2007 ) .. in fact, here's a pic I took after we just moved in ... showing of the fabulous carpet, and with old-lady curtains..






Typical of the era, we also have no storage in this room .. no wardrobes, no nuffin'

What you can't see in this pic is the total mountain of crap behind me .. mounds of shoes, chairs loaded with discarded clothes, paintcans from the recent painting, paperwork, receipts, books, mags .. the usual debris you'd find in the house of the not-so-tidy and very-busy-and-tired type peeps that describes us.

So, AB is out in the garage atm sanding back the varnish from our marital bed.
We're painting it bright red and it's going in the boy's room.
Yes, they are going to share a bed for a while, they do anyway.. squooshed into a KS single. I don't care if you think it's weird, it works for us.

I'll be "de-baby-fying" their room and am going with a red & teal theme.
Red Bed, Teal bedside tables, a teal map of the world and little airplanes i've sourced to stick on the map places they have visited in the world.

I'm hoping I might get back into blogging for ME again, and feel very enthused about house things again, so at the very least i'll be updating on the before&after front. Babysteps :)


xx
Lea