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    Showing posts with label melbourne. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label melbourne. 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




    Saturday, August 31, 2013

    Spring 2013Style!

    Yes, it's been a while, bad blogger, no updates.


    The house is now finished,
    furnished and wonderful.

     
    Sure there's some thought that needs to go into wall decoration and finishing touches,
    and yes, I need to photograph it.


    What happened?
     Life, life happened.


    I went back to work and also started a new job-aside with a friend.


    In fact, I can't tell you how nice it is to *collaborate* again.
    Running your own ( solo ) business, even in this online age where I have a 100 colleagues
    online to lean on, doesn't match the fun and energy I used to get from working alongside others,
    bouncing wit, combining ideas and brainstorming. Much fun.

    But i've popped in tonight as it's been Wonderful in old MelbsTown recently.


    It wasn't a bad winter at all, but there's something about the blossoms and scent in the air ..
    the late afternoons sports where the kids protest in confusion "but why isn't it dark yet?
    It's supposed to be dark.."

    We've got a sleepover tonight, and it's been a glorious day - 3 loads of washing dried
    in the sun, started on weeds, did some pruning, marveled at new growth, then we headed
    on down the beach for some sandcastle action and watched 9 ( NINE! ) brides battle for
    the best position on the beach with their hired photographers and the hordes of many
    taking pics with their i-pads.

    Ugh.
    No envy.



    beachbrides


    So anyway, a great day.
    We came home & ordered fish & chips and walked up to collect them.
    The kids watched a movie, and then had icecream.
    And I loaded the dishwasher with a contented happy sigh.

    "Did you have a hard day mum?" said my smallest? ( reacting to the sigh )
    "What?" I asked, bemused ( because I didn't have a crankyface on )

     "Did you have a hard day, having to look after 3 kids?" ( with HIS concerned tv-dad face )


    So cute, his empathy only topped off a great day.



    House pics soon - I promise! x

    Thursday, March 07, 2013

    Gallery Space

    These pics are a little bit crunchy, but I just wanted to pump out this little mini-reveal into a space I am quite excited about.

     artwall1
     ^
    the Space as it is now .. and an artist's impression ( ha! ) of future space ...


     Ok .. so this is a little alcove after you come in the front door.  it used to be the kitchen, and one day, about 5years from now, it will be an open stairwell.

    I like it.  A lot. 


    artwall2

    The amount of  perfect going into the house bothers me somewhat - sure I love clean lines and surfaces, but i'm also drawn to the quirk - textural interest .. imperfections, flaws..

    Which, if homes are a reflection of their owners, then I think i'm pretty true to myself.

    And I dreamed of this wall.
    I trust my dreams implicitly.


    Yesterday I found these metal letters.
    Today I bought them.


    I can't tell you how happy they make me.

    Monday, March 04, 2013

    So How's that Mini-Fridge Situation Treating You?

    Me?

    Oh hai, well, i'm glad you asked.

    It's .. been ... a bit annoying frankly .. but not so much for me to whine .. i've been using it as a ..
    character building excercise.

    And of course, i've offset the UGH! by shopping for a new fridge for the new house with
    all the bells and whistles, which has been fun and involved a salesman writing up a docket,
    which was later cancelled, then making my mind up FOR SURE and telling my cabinetmaker
    the dimensions .. and then buying a completely different fridge.

    In fact, a fridge I refused to even look at or entertain the notion of originally. French Door?
    What a load of saleswallop. Add some ooh-la-la, it's Frunch, darhlinks and the punters will come.

    Well, I sneered. Then later had to eat my sneer.
    Sneerlicious.


    What I wanted:

     A side-by-side with water & icemaking facilities in the door.
     My family crunches ice like frozen crack.

    When we go to the 7-11 in Summer for supersized slushies ( $3 a pop ),
    the youngest selects instead a bag of PartyIce for the same price.
    It's weird, but his stash lasts longer than ours.

    Oh, and please don''t tell me you shouldn't eat ice out of the esky.
    I'm sure it's made with carcinogens and stuff, but hell, it's hot, and I don't like arguing
    with 4yr olds in the heat.


    What I don't like:

    Freezers on the bottom. I just don't.
    I don't think they're smart with young children, and I just don't like them.

    Deep ugly baskets remind me of fishing in the deep freeze for the last Bubble-O-Bill 
    in your ill-stocked and probably ill-kept corner store.   All crusty and use-by-date of 1976.

    No.


    BUT .. what happened is this:  i'd picked my side-by-side .. the widest in the land.
    Oh I was chuffed with myself. I was simply in at the Good Guys  to battle out the price.
    I'd done my research and our budget was tight. I was going to make back the money
    I had thrown in the recycling by being a bitch in the sales arena.

    But I arrived at lunchtime, obvs.

    Other times i've had to kick away salesdudes, but today, there was just one..
    helping another couple looking for pretty much the same things as I.
    I kind of hovered and looked over their shoulders and was introduced to fridges
    i'd refused to look at.

     Then I felt a bit creepy and backed off.

    And that's how I ended up in the Frunch Door area.



    frunch


    My friend Kelly, who isn't really a friend because i'm scared of her,  teased me once
    about Les Mis  and I sniffed I wouldn't go see it with her because I felt Les Mis 
    was something to be watched on SBS, in French, with subtitles.
    Of course, she mocked me mercilessly about oh it's not in FRUNCH, and I laughed,
    and now I think of her when looking at whitegoods that are actually silver.

    Hi Kelly.

    And I kinda liked them. And the 'down below' freezers are much better now,
    with magic slidey-outtie shelving and lots of ooh-la-la.


    fridgefreezer


    And the fridge part isn't compromised in width. So all those imaginary parties
    I fantasised about catering will be just fine. Turkey platters, sushi platters,
    my famous Croquembouche....

    Yeah, kidding, I only do savoury, and I order in my sushi platters.
    I do bake a nice ham at Christmas though...


    So yeah, bought a Frunch Fridge. Made in Korea. It's quite spesh.

    My side-by-side I originally was going to purchase was Made in Australia.
    When I looked at the Frunch-Door equivalent in store,
    the handle fell off and it seemed quite .. clunky.

    I feel both bad and good for my choices, don't sue me, ok? ok?



    YES, BUT HOW IS IT GOING WITH THE BAR FRIDGE, LEANNE?


    Yeah, ok, not good, not bad, you know?

    It's been SWELTERING here in Melbs, and we're here in a top story flat with no A/C.
    We should be totes skinny just from the sauna effect. However, people still need to be fed,
    and even if you're doing a simple salad, there's still a component to be boiled/fried/cooked,
    or maybe just for a change of pace/texture .. which left me hot & sweaty & resentful.

    I googled fridgeless households which led me on a merry journey of discovery ..
    but most of the fridgeless blogs/sites I found belonged to self-sufficient/off the grid type people ..
    milking their goats and creating their own sub-floor cooling chambers etc etc ...
    The only trick I learned for apartment living was to invert my lettuces in a glass of water
    to keep fresher longer. Which is cool.. but .. not enough..

    So the tiny fridge is hard work.
    For one, it freezes nothing, which means I have to shop daily
    really, and in miniscule quantities .. which isn't great.
    Too much food and I can't store leftovers, too little and everyone is hungry.

    It's a fine line.


    carrots


    ^
    Unrefrigerated carrots develop black mold spots in only a couple of days.

    It's hard.  A's kinder has a kid that is allergic to his own shadow, which means most foods are out
    and carrot sticks are a healthy lunchbox staple I can guarantee being eaten.
    Anything that can last 1000 days in a pantry, or the apocolypse, is not to be packed.
    NOT COMPLAINING .. geeze, poor kid, poor parents .. my setback is but an annoying interlude
    in an allergy-free life.

    Not complaining.


    Over the weekend, my everlovin' husband offered to do a shop. 
    That would be lovely, I said, but remember we can't store anything fresh,
    You can really only buy food for ONE dinner! 
    Be careful on the PERISHABLES!

    Well, he found some ready-made meals, for $6 a pop discounted,
    and By God they were yummy.


    Small, but good.
    I love it when my husband shops because I do not entertain ready meals.
    I cook from scratch mostly, using fresh ingredients. A set list of things to get,
    and I do not deviate into dangerous territory ( the lolly aisle, the frozen food aisle )..
    but it is such a relief he shops guileless, wandering about.

    Thus we ate from Emily's kitchen this week. It's a Woolworths thing.   
    An abundance of packaging isnt cool .. but .. oh my .. two nights this week,
    we all ate different meals and tasted from each other's plates and not one was a dud ..
    they were small .. but .. pretty much like my own cooking .. but without the PITA!

    We tried:

    Chicken Korma with Indian Style Pilau Rice
    Angus Steak in Ale
    Chicken Tikka Masala with Rice
    Spanish Chicken & Chorizo with Rice
    Chicken Moroccan Tagine & CousCous

    and they were all YUM!

    Please keep in mind however, I cook every night, so for me, this was like going to a restaurant -
    ha ha! It also made eating in front of the tele ( Masterchef Professionals ) not such a sad experience
    ( I don't know about you, but looking at edible art on the tele while eating something less impressive
    always makes me left wanting :)

    I also enjoy eating on planes, and in hospitals.
    Yes I do.

    Again, someone else cooked for me.
    And that's like a holiday unto itself.

    Xx

    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.




    Saturday, December 08, 2012

    Renovation Discoveries

    One of the best things I think, about renovating, is uncovering stuff and finding things.

    No, i'm not talking about a 4yr old rusk behind the fridge ( please don't let me find anything gross that points at me as a bad housekeep ) .. but more the thing that have been covered by past owners, like newspapers under floorboards, trapdoors, bodies, booty.

    Or in my case, an old travel ticket under the original tiles in the front room:


    originalfrontroom750


    and sorry - that's the biggest pic I can find of the old mantle.
    Of course .. that dowdy room in time became this ..



    Front Room


    ( Yummy, yummy )


    So anyway, i'm assuming the tiler came to work via train and maybe one of the tiles was wonky so he propped it up? Or maybe it was just in his pocket from a previous trip, not sure.


    hbfotografic-linoandticket


    Can you read it?


    The way I read it is thus:
    The traveller took a Single First Class Ticket on the 14th December at 5.31pm on a train that started at Flinders St and travelled to Altona -> Blackburn -> Deer Park and terminated at Moorabbin OR Mt Waverley.


    Which, for those of you not in Melbs, is the most implausible trip ever .. weird.
    This is how it looks on a map:


    map


    So i'm sure i've read it wrong.  Maybe the digit thing chomped out of the tag means he STARTED in Deer park and got off in Moorabbin.  Now that would make much more sense. 


    -------------------------------------------


    My other find ( under the ticket ) is from today.  Impatiently, i've started chipping away at stuff just to see what lies beneath.  It seems my ugly kitchen tiles have been laid directly onto the floorboards ( which look a bit dry-rot-ish :/ ) .. but I know we had lino once as there's some dirty old remnants under the dishwasher.  So I washed some up, and it seems we had a camo lino with gold sparkles. 

    Spesh.


    Other than that, the finds in my houses haven't been that interesting.. there was the old mission brown and dusky pink wallpaper behind the built-in robe in my old house .. and the petrified cat whose eyes had turned to amber under the Collingwood house ( morbidly facsinating ) .. oh, and the tombs I dug up under the back garden here* ..


    * probably garden borders, not tombs, but, you never know..


    What have you uncovered when renovating or decorating old homes?  Anything interesting?
    Any bodies or booty?