Countdown!

It's been 6months!  The lease is up!  Time to u-haul home!


So, this was the weekend past:  we had lots of things to do, which meant staying past dusk
and getting to play with the lights ( ooh! )





As you can see, my stove is now in!  Bought cheap ex scratch-and-dent before the reno
ever started, freighted from Sydney sight unseen.  Phew, it looks ok ;)  I really wanted a
dual oven, but not a wall oven.  I'm looking forward to honing in on my suzie homemaker
mad skillz  ;)

Down the hallway .. my exposed brick wall is looking the goods, and the drum pendants
are perfect.  I had a cut out of those pendants blu-taced to my laundry wall for like 2years ..
luckily they didn't go out of fashion!






Finally .. my bedroom..

The WIR is now in, and the funky bedroom light that will make instant wallpaper patterns
on my wall.  Love.





Just the carpet to go in now.  I have picked a Carpet Court exclusive - the GAIA wool range,
and from that, the Rivers Collection ( go look at the names - I am a sucker for a good product
name and feeling *invested* ) .. so I picked the colour Swan.  As in the Swan River, Perth. 
Makes me feel all dinky-di and patriotic.  I had to laugh they didn't have a Yarra River to
choose from.  I probably would have picked it too.  The poor old Yarra gets a bit of a bad rap :/

I would have loved to have gone a loop pile .. but i'm worried one of my naughty cats might
pull at it when my back is turned and then I would cry.  So a cut twist pile it is. 
I can't wait to see it installed!


Today they are waxing my boards. I went with an oil/wax combo rather than your usual poly.
No idea how that will go, but I want the grain and depth of the wood to be cranked, and
apparently this will do it. The wood is still a lot lighter than I prefer it, although I know from
wood-bought-past that it does indeed darken with age and exposure to sunlight.

I want my boards to look like an old ship's deck, me hearties!


This is how it looks with just the oil so far:








Wacky angles due to me just sticking my head around the doors etc.
Very tasty!


Well, I can't believe we're finally here!
I kinda have to keep pinching myself that it's true!

xx

Related articles

• Home Art
• And now .. with Furniture ...
• Where the Wild Things Are.
• Garage Finds

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