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    Showing posts with label australia. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label australia. Show all posts

    Tuesday, August 26, 2014

    Debut House Tour: Apartment Therapy

    Well, my first tour is now live.
    I hope you like it!!


    housetour1




    You can pop over and see it here:
    Apartment Therapy


    ***

    Do you know someone with a cool home?
    Maybe it's you?


    Apartment Therapy is not about having the best things or the most money. 
    It’s about real people with real lives.  It’s about people that craft a home with what they have
    and curate and comfort their nest with a mixture of old and new, of things bought,
    of things found or things made with their own hands.

    Items that reflect their travels and interests and people that follow their heart.

    Words I would use to describe a good Apartment Therapy “fit” would be:

    - artists
    - artisans
    - collectors
    - eclectics
    - designers
    - hipsters
    - eccentrics
    - scavengers
    - amassers
    - lovers of colour
    - creatives
    - individuals


    So, you know ... people! 

    If this is you or someone you know, get them to flick a few pics my way and say Hi!
    You ( or they ) can reach me at: apartmenttherapy@leannebertram.com


    I hope you love Jo's house .. make sure you leave her some love .. I know she's pretty nervous too!

    xx
    Lea




    Monday, January 20, 2014

    Holidays: At the Beach

    Not all taken on the same day .. but a little walk through the hours..


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    When not at the farmlet .. we popped down the beach.

    I even read a magazine ( Marie Claire ) and felt like I was 15 again .. ( with a copy of Dolly )

    I don't get to read magazines much.

    It was delightful.

    Sunday, February 10, 2013

    What's in a Name?


    that which we call Wormy Chestnut
    By any other name would look as hut*



    wormychestnut



    You likey?
    I likey!


    I thought our prev floorboards were fine, but you know, with the this and the that and some issues we have with levels and stuff .. it was cheaper to dump and run anew.

    There was some stress with the levels in the fact my builder felt the best option would be to carpet offending 'lowered' areas to bring them up to height.  Those areas would be my studio and front room, which I kinda love the way they are



    finishedrooms



    So I to'd and fro'd. 

    And eventually we shook hands on a floating floorboard in those rooms.
    It seems a bit of a pity, but the wood I picked has lots of old-style character and flaws so I think it will work ok.  Basically, we buy in two depths .. regular & lite, I guess.  Full fat Cap' for the most of the house, and a skinny decaf latté for the front rooms.  Done.


    It's also a heap cheaper than Tas Oak .. which is the industry-quote-standard.

    So yay, I picked me some bargain floor and saved us some money!


    Which is good, because I seem to have put a big wad of gift cards we'd nervously been saving and storing ( ok, so I was the nervous hoarder ) and well .. I think I hid them somewhere stupid over the holidays and I think they went out with the recycling :/

    I'm not sure i'd be as forgiving as my husband if the roles were reversed.
    I'm pretty upset about it, truth be told.  Have flipped this place numerous times.

    Naturally, i've also been googling early-onset dementia and et-cet-era .. because .. well, shit .. I think i'm losing it.  My mind.  My short term memory. 

    Hopefully with a step back from work this year .. maybe if I learned how to unwind ...

    What is your mind? - A STEEL SPRING!
    What is it going to do? - YESTERDAY! )


    Huh?
    Yes, well, with apologies to Gallipoli .. Hurl me down the track, brain, and let me recall in vivid detail every moment of October 2nd, 1994 ... but today is worrying me.  Just a little.  My brain hurts.


    But back to Wormy Chestnut, which sounds like something diseased and looks like a ship's deck.
    I love it.

    We got the salesguy that kinda shrugged and scratched himself, but the google in the car ride home was more enthusiastic..


    Salesblurb:

    No two pieces of Australian Wormy Chestnut are ever the same.

    Deep in the forests of southern eastern Australia, the trees are affected by wildfires, years of drought, attack by insects, the occasional flood and winds so strong that the trees stunt their growth to cope with the environment. It is from these trees that Australian Wormy Chestnut is born with each piece showing nature's signature. Deep red gum veins formed by fire, ambrosia beetle marks, pin holes and squiggly worm marks are all reflected in Australian Wormy Chestnut.


    Oooh, sexy imperfect Australiana, the perfect battler wood to spill your tinny on.

    Or your G&T.  You know. 
    Or the French Champagne I will be christening my new kitchen with.
    Oh Lordy Yes









    * use a Nu Zelund accent, eh?


    Tuesday, January 15, 2013

    Day One: Done & Dusty

    So I wouldn't normally post two days in a row ( hold your horses, don't get too excited! ), but it seems the first day back from tradie holidays goes off with a bit of gusto...



    day1


    Also, while I was there, I found the plans floating around in a wheelbarrow, so snapped a shot for people to get an idea where we are going with things.

    Think of them as a guideline only though - there were compromises I had to make due to where the upstairs may one day go ( words like "load bearing" ), and things like that. Also, I hate the pantry/cabinets and laundry set-up, but figured i'd fix them later on, rather than do this back-n-forth dance with the draftsman, a dude who's probably not even aware that we are no longer communicating.

    plans


    So it's pretty basic I guess, but will make a big difference.
    I'm taking out the double doors that lead from the living to my office ( listed on the plans as "dining" ), and placing them out in the hall, which will have a nice continuity about it I think.

    Massive WIR - yay! ( will be for 4 people though, until we go up )

    Door to the boy's room will be moved to "under the stairs" as the old entrance will now be part of my WIR.

    And a kitchen.

    And that's it really!!


    What do you think?  Now's the time to speak if you've got a suggestion!!


    xx
    Lea

    Thursday, January 03, 2013

    Smashy Smashy

    A little update montage..


    renovationblog02012013


    I'm posting these as we go on my facebook page, so feel free to join the conversation and add your 2¢ in realtime :)

    This is all our own work ATM.  AB is there every night after work, and I pop in during the day.
    Tradies are still a couple of weeks away.

    ( We have no asbestos, btw.. )

    Sunday, December 23, 2012

    The Thing Is

    .. AB and I both love renovating.

    The ideal gift for either of us is a Bunnings voucher, and we hang on ads for new power tools ( oOooOoh ).  I have a thing for tiling and caulking guns, and a flair for pointing out thin spots in his painting ( right there, in that awkward-to-get-to spot on the ceiling .. it's bugging me... )

    We've been looking forward to doing the things we can do ourselves .. ourselves..

    But then, there's this site:

    http://www.asbestosawareness.com.au/



    AB says "the builder says our house is ok!"
    I say: "but the site says it's very hard to tell with the naked eye, has he done tests?"
    AB says: "His blokes wouldn't be allowed on site if there were asbestos"
    AB says: "They did our bathroom and said it was fine"
    I say: "but apparently it can be under tiles, under carpet, in the textured paint on our walls.."
    I say: "unexplored territory"
    AB says: "we'll wear masks and make sure the kids aren't around"
    I say: "I'm sure they'll appreciate that when they're orphans"


    Which has left us kind of bummed.

    I am *pretty sure*  we have no asbestos in this home .. and we're only doing some grunt work ( stripping the kitchen, the tiles, the carpets etc ) .. not tearing down walls etc .. but when the stats say 1 in 3 homes .. you've got to wonder.