Monday Nook

The 'House That A-M Built Clothesline'.

This Monday's Nook is 'oh so NOT glamorous' but had to be shown, as a lesson to those folk out there planning to do their OWN plans in a house build.

Just before you submit your plans, ask yourself, "where's the clothesline going to go"?

Err slight oversight. I don't have a clothesline! I just assumed that my clothesline would live on the wall outside the laundry but no, you can't mount a clothesline on lineaboard, it has to be mounted on masonry. The only masonry is down the end of the laundry deck, at the end of the porch, but it has two shuttered windows in it and no width for a clothesline. The laundry deck is only 1.3m wide and most 'family' sized clotheslines are 1.5m wide anyway.

Major lesson A-M. So what are you going to do besides shrink everything in the clothes dryer? ..... not to mention power bills. We can't put an old hills hoist up in the lawn area as one, it would be grossly ugly, and two, the walk from the laundry would be too long and through pool gates! Any suggestions?

Access down to the laundry from the powder room.

Here are some more photos of the laundry. A special request for laundry photos came from Villa Anna..... and rightly so. Dear Anna posted the very pictures that inspired my laundry, a very long time ago. They are still on my blog side bar.

The ceilings are 3 metres high as the laundry is on the same level as the Great Room and Study.

View of laundry from side deck. Now what is a blue defect sticker doing way up there?

Looking out to the hall and Great Room. Steps up to powder room on the right. Oh look , there's another blue defect sticker. I thought I'd got them all!

This is where I had hoped to mount a decent sized clothesline, just past the 2 kitchen windows down the end. This is the deck from the laundry down to the pool, complete with hose! Oh look ... and there's hubby sanding the back picket fence. Yay, we are now so close to getting a coat of paint on it!

Laundry deck, looking down to the street.

So that's my laundry so far. I am hoping to have some pretty glass shelves installed along the subway tiled walls. I allowed 900mm distance between the benches and the overhead cupboards in order to have enough headroom to work at the bench and have some glass wall shelves.... and yes I can just reach the overheads.... being only 5 ft 3... it was always going to be close!

Latest Goss From The Study

Don't mind the blue stickers everywhere - they're the defect stickers, still keeping us company after 5 weeks in the house!

Latest additions to the study...... a bordered sisal rug and a coffee table. Still waiting on the desk chair so the kitchen ones will have to suffice at present. It was a very windy, cold day here in sunny Brisbane yesterday so I sat on that very sofa with my feet up on that very coffee table, tapping away on my computer. For some strange reason, the heating is the warmest in the study so I ditched the freezing cold 'Frog Room' aka 'Armchair Trader Gimp Room' downstairs and set myself up in this lovely space... complete with piped guitar music!
Have a lovely weekend everyone. I am scooting off to the Trade Fair here in Brisbane, with my 'instant, new best friend, neighbour'. See you Monday.

The House That A-M Built

I think the last time I posted a picture of the front elevation of the house, there was a big pile of dirt in the driveway and a port-a-loo off to the side!

So here she is today, waiting for a coat of paint for the front wall (it's just bare render at present), and the beautiful front gates we have on order. The gates will be similar in design to the porch balustrade. Some greenery would be nice too. We plan to plant a leopard tree in the 'garden-bed-to be, behind the wall, off to the right side.... and something else green, down the sides. The front steps and courtyard, up from the gate, will be paved in the same stone that we have out on the terrace.... eventually. The front wall lights are sitting in a cupboard, in my laundry, waiting for hubby to paint the front wall ..... and there they will sit while the back wall painting is completed first. We have one tiny strip of lawn up to the front gate, which our landscaper dropped off one day... excess from a job he was doing. At least it gives us a relatively 'clean' entrance up to the gate. The rest is dirt with building remnants all through it. It is still such a work site... I pick up stuff everyday and dump it in the bin.

So that's her. It's amazing to sit back and look at her now. The first house I have ever built. I know everything about her, every nook, cranny, beam, window dimension, tile. It is a surreal feeling to know her so intimately. She does have a presence in the street but she sits nestled into the block so comfortably, like she has always been there..... and living in her?... she's light and bright and warm and she feels like I have always known her. I love her now, even with all her flaws and blue sticky defect spots. She feels like home.

Time For A Breather

Image Courtesy Good Housekeeping

Sorry about my absence over the past few days. I have being suffering a stocktake for my little store, while entertaining a house full of boys and cooking for them and cleaning up after them and mending them (falling down steps is a full time job in this house). Now to take a breather ... well sort of... I'm now starting on the end of year accounting today. Done the counting, now the accounting.

I really do need to swan around and take lots more photos of the place. Things have come to a standstill, sort of ... funny how things stop when the funds dry up. I am waiting on some more furniture for the Great Room, a desk for moi (you should see the little setup I have here in the 'Frog Room'.... and it's freezing down here!) and all my beautiful soft furnishings, that will be installed in a few weeks time.

The new painter starts today, in 45 minutes!. "Just start at the Front Door and work your way to the back". He will arrive at 7am every day, I have been told, so he'll be joining hubby and me for a coffee in front of the fire, before he starts!

Have a great day everyone. I will put together a few more photos of "The House" for you tomorrow.

Pool

Pool goss:

It's now sparkling blue..... and according to my blue lipped boys yesterday, "it's the best pool ever". Yes, they attempted a swim. It was freezing and despite hot showers afterwards, both my boys shivered all afternoon. Hubby purchased some little remote controlled boats for the boys to play with, from the sides, until it gets a little warmer to swim. There were shrieks of delight yesterday, with boats smashing into pool noodles and floaty toys just everywhere. 5am this morning, "Mum, can I go and sail my boat?". "When there's some daylight sweetheart".

Don't mind all the junk in the pool house. There is still so much to be done. Took hubby all Sunday to sand the left hand side picket fence, for painting. The pink fence will soon be white and the rendered wall will be the same grey colour as the house. We are installing flowing white outdoor curtains on the pool house posts and of course looking for a nice white outdoor setting. We will have lots of greenery in pots, around the sides of the pool.

We put a tile band on each step in the corners so that there would be no bumped heads on steps.

Close up of the blue pebble fleck. All the edges have been smoothed off so this shallow area, with the spa jets, will be lovely to sit on, in summer.

So that's our pool for now. I hope to have a 'before and after' reveal, once we paint everything and add some greenery and some furniture. I just need to get through the internal repaint first!

Monday Nook

'Bun-Bun', 'Fluffy', 'Froggie' and 'Ted-Ted' welcome you to this Monday's 'Monday Nook'. A spontaneous photo of how my youngest arranges his loved ones in his new bedroom.

House Update

T'was a busy weekend. Hello muscle that I didn't even know I had! The contents of our garage are now in our garage and sorry boys, the 'Frog Room' is now the 'Armchair Trader' Home Stock Room, out of pure necessity.... for the time being anyway.

Speaking of frogs - 1 death in the move and 1 MIA. The change to a temporary environment did not bode well for poor 'Max' ......and 'Limpy'?.... well, we don't know how the hell he escaped! The frog tank is now all set up again in a special spot in the garage, UV light and all. Just between you and me 'Rocket' isn't looking all that flash now. Very traumatic..... moving house.... for frogs.

So my floors now are really, really clean, for the first time in a month. We have a 'clean' entry to the house now through the garage... shoe baskets all in position, school bag racks... all very civilized.

Now back to creating a 'work site' again... the new painter starts this Tuesday. I am so relieved that some of the painting is being fixed but so annoyed that I am being put through a long drawn out process of really messy 'repairs'. All the internal gloss work is being redone (sanded!!!! and repainted), every window, door, skirting, architrave..... sigh. If it was just done properly in the first place... sigh. I'm weary now! (found some more 'only undercoated' skirtings in the garage on the weekend and the sides of the stringers of the front porch steps... no gloss, only undercoat). Did they think I would not ever find out?

You just don't want to sit still and look, for too long here at "The House", or you'll find something else that they managed to sneak past us. Just last night, while we were all sitting at the dinner table looking back at the kitchen, I noticed that one side of the kitchen is tiled, in the small gap between the architrave and the wall cupboard, and one isn't!!!! It's so obvious and we never noticed! Grrrr! Get the list out boys.... found another one!

Anyway... pool is full... but green. Lloydy says that's the colour of town water. Once the salt gets to it and the filter has done 24 hours of hard labour, it should be sparkling blue. The bubblers on the entry step work a treat and the lights just finish it off perfectly. It's beautiful. Lloydy did a spectacular job! The boys will be in it this week, I know, I can see them scheming and eyeing it off. Forecast 26 degrees on Friday and that's mid winter! I will take photos that day!
Have a great week everyone!

Keeping It Very Real

We had to put the contents of our garage somewhere, while the garage floor and downstairs rooms were coated and sealed in a waterproof coating (results in a subtle flecked resin look)....so they ended up here ... in my lovely Great Room. You dont want to see the hall! It's been over a week since we cleared everything out so 'sing songs' around the fireplace have been out for a while. The rest of the stuff, the large stuff... fridge, exercise bike, treadmill, tables, cupboards have been stacked neatly under our front steps/porch. It's been raining for a few days... very heavy at present... so I am not looking forward to inspecting the potential damage. We had nowhere else to put the stuff. .....so todays task... move everything back in/down to the garage.

It's all very real here at "The House".... lots of hard physical work... no more pretty pictures for a few more days. Oh I have to show you my ensuite bathroom and my laundry. I'll tidy them up! and show them to you next week. Have a great weekend, my friends.

It's All Happening

We're filling our pool! ......first from the rainwater tanks and then from town water. I don't feel so guilty starting with the rainwater. We have 2 large tanks so they will fill half of it. Little one has been keeping a vigil since it was dark this morning.

House Update:

Fireplace works perfectly now. Yanked out of the wall and then reinstalled correctly. It's just so nice to be able enjoy it now, for this short winter we will have.

New painter starts next Tuesday. He will be redoing ALL the internal gloss work and some cornices, repairing walls that were never prepped and have big gouges in them, and painting some walls that had only received un undercoat! We are getting a Master Painter out to take samples of the exterior paint work as one of my pool guys (who had been a painter previously) said "hey love, sorry to tell you this, but that's only one coat there". Can you believe it????

Our music system is just divine. I have not lived with music for so long... it changes the way you live. "Lets put some music on for dinner". Morning coffee to the dulcet tones of Michael Buble. I have a bit of a crooners addiction which I am currently inflicting on my Armchair Trader Blog readers!..... in small doses!
I spend so much time in front of the computer, I thought I may as well take my music with me..... if it's not blaring through this fabulous sound system that these guys installed. They also do all my brother's property developments so we're keeping it in the family! If you are in Brisbane and after some smart wiring, sound systems, security, give Nic, from Smart Environments, a call on 1300 763 880. They come HIGHLY recommended. Their after installation service is outstanding. Wow, someone I can rave about. I could get used to this. Lloydy, you're next! More tomorrow.

Chillin'

School holidays are exhausting, especially when you've helped your Mum all day, unwrapping things and compacting boxes by doing lots of jumping. I insisted on staying up to watch my big brother's favourite show, 'Ghost Whisperer', but thank goodness I fell asleep 2 minutes into the show, just before the scary stuff or else I would have kept Mum awake all night, with my nightmares!

Pretty Things

Image Courtesy Country Living

Taking a mental break from the 'The House', to load up all my lovely new stock into my online store. Be back in a day or so, with all the house goss'!

The Terrace

Image Courtesy Canadian House and Home

Look at this gorgeous porch/terrace! Ours was supposed to be this wide but Lloydy's creative licence, with the pool size, reduced the size of our terrace out the back somewhat! Now that we have the pool fence up, the size is just perfect for us though. We plan to place an outdoor kitchen (fridge, sink, BBQ and bench) at one end of the terrace and an outdoor lounge setting, like this, at the other. It's difficult when one gets to this stage of the project though as you don't want to spend one more cent.... but then if you don't finish it, what was the point of the whole exercise?

It will be finished... hopefully before hubby's 40th birthday, in September (he's younger than me!). Picture twinkling fairy lights on the terrace, black tie attire, beautiful live guitar music by Adam O'Connor (www.adamoconnor.net), champagne and merriment! We have booked Adam for 2+ hours.

This is where we are at, with the pool and terrace at the moment.

Don't mind the bags of cement at one end of the terrace! Lloydy will be back, once this rain has stopped, to completely finish the pool... it should be finished by the end of next week. My little 6 year old stands at the pool fence and just gazes out to the empty pool (we've never had a pool before). Even though it is winter here, there will be one very happy little boy here next week, when it is all finished.

More Deep Breaths.....

Image Courtesy Canadian House and Home - this is what I WAS aiming for with my staircase....saga... to be continued...

A busy day today.

Licensed fireplace installers are coming out to re-install the fireplace (I will be the one in the background fussing over my floors and the stone hearth, trying to protect them from scratches, as they yank the whole unit out of the wall).

The tiler is coming to create 'a fall' in all of our showers (I will be the one in the background trying to protect my beautiful new carpets from tile sand).

The guys are coming to repair our garage floor, and the floors in all the rooms downstairs, (they were severely damaged with all the trade work that occurred in the garage, during the build) and coat them with a special waterproof resin. We have been advised (by a building inspector) not to tile or carpet any of the rooms downstairs due to the uncertainty of the 'water problem' we purchased with this house build (I will be the one in the background checking for regrowth of mould on our skirting boards downstairs... the painter just painted straight over the last lot of mould!!!!!).

... and last but not least, .... this is the biggie......our supervisor is meeting with our 'requested' painter, here on site, so that our painter can highlight what needs to be repaired and redone in the painting department..... big job......it's 'head in hands' sort of stuff, so it's better coming from him rather than me. "A prophet has no honour in her own home". The biggest disappointment is our staircase (.... no prep work, painting over holes and divets and paint runs, bleeding edges, no stain on the undersides of the stairs!! ... it's just appalling) and my beautiful windows and doors (once again, no prep work, no paint on top and bottom edges, insufficient paint, use of different paint types on the same door - acrylic/gloss!!!, paint runs, paint left all over the glass panes, NO cutting in..... doubly appalling). I paid for primed white windows and doors... tell me, with a coat of primer + an undercoat + 2 coats of gloss paint, (all in the spec.sheet) should I still see the cedar underneath???? C'mon, who's having a lend of who mate!!??

I'm exhausted just thinking about it all....by this stage I will be the one in the background, hiding in the kitchen, making coffees for everyone. I am just so disappointed that after all MY site supervision efforts and all my gracious compromises, there was no effort to finish it off nicely. What?... did they think I wouldn't notice. I only let it all go this far so they couldn't say to me... "come on, you didn't even give him a chance". I gave him a chance all right.... the so called 'fix' on my staircase and the paint footprints and blobs all over my brand new side decks were the LAST STRAW. It's a beautiful home and it needs to be finished off beautifully..... oh and with paint drop sheets please.

PS Oh and can someone please come and take all the building waste products out of our gutters. It rained on the weekend so we discovered another oversight!... huge chunks of wood, coke bottles, you name it, it's in our gutters.....another episode of 'Faulty Towers' tomorrow!

Thank You

Image Courtesy BHG

Happy Weekend everyone. Thanks for all your encouraging and inspiring comments this week. We still have some challenges ahead of us, in completing 'The House', and knowing that you are with me on this journey makes all the difference.

My Good Boys

It's school holidays here, for a glorious 3 weeks. My boys need a break. They presented me with the best report cards a mother could wish for.... and my big boy won a part scholarship for his school, through the National Scholarship Program, for his entire schooling, until Grade 12. I cried like a baby when they called me. It was like winning lotto!

Back in February, all my friends thought I was the cruelest mother saying, "son, you're 11 years old, it's about time you started contributing financially to your education. You are sitting the scholarship exam. Come here and we'll practise fractions."

Boys, I am bursting with pride. Living in a caravan, on the school oval, is far less a possibility in the future!... oh and little one, you are sitting it, in 4 years time.

Never. A. Dull. Moment.

Oh I am soooo glad that I insisted on getting a licensed fire place installer out to confirm that our fireplace was installed correctly.

Result? - 'Defect'Report lodged. "Illegal installation. Do not use until installed correctly". Illegal installation of flexi pipe instead of copper pipe. Logs installed incorrectly and one was broken, causing severe 'smoking' when the unit was used. External flue installed incorrectly and not sealed (even I picked that one up!). Remote did not work as the LCD was broken. Besides all that, a whole can of touch up paint was used to cover all the scratches left by the guys who installed the thing. The installer today was appalled at the quality of the job. The thing still is not to be used, until someone else comes out on Monday to start again and install the whole thing again correctly. There goes my beautiful hearth. They have to yank the whole thing out of my wall and drag it over the stone hearth.....that doesn't have one scratch on it yet.

Ok..... what else do I need to prepare myself for? Tell me now. I have never consumed so much red wine in my life. This is just like that Tom Hanks movie, "The Money Pit". GIVE. ME. STRENGTH..... and a good painter. To be honest, when we got the fireplace diagnosis today, I raised one eyebrow, looked at hubby and gave him my "why am I NOT surprised, weeping, curled up in a foetal position look". Nothing surprises me now. Nothing. Moral of the story and my new mantra... "go with your gut feeling and question everything......... or else your house is going to burn down".

Positive side?.... we got to it before our house burnt down..... hmmm, doesn't sound as good...... "The House That A-M Burnt Down"..... and to think you were worried that I would have nothing to blog about once we moved in. As our local radio station says, "The Hits Just Keep On Coming". More tomorrow, you can be sure of that!

Study

No desk chair yet. Arriving soon.

Oh my! We have another room we are in love with. Even without a desk chair (we are using a kitchen one until the proper one arrives) rugs, a coffee table and window coverings.... delayed gratification is ever so sweet. What do you think? The photos don't do it justice. I keep forgetting to photograph in daylight (too busy making Anzac biccies for the renderers and 'Lloydy'... oh and sitting having tea with them!). In real life, the wallpaper defines the corners of the room and makes the room look even bigger than it is. It provides a real third dimension.... like one of those 'play with your eyes rides' at the fair! Last night, my hubby and I sat on the sofa opposite the wall with a glass of red each, musing about how Tricia Guild is our new favourite person in the world.... "better than artwork", hubby said..... bigger than artwork!

That's the start of hubby's liquor cabinet, over there on the table. He keeps referring to the study as his 'parlour'.

Being a hopeless stager, you will have to imagine the natural fibre rug, bordered in black, in front of the chairs, with a low coffee table ( perfect for all hubby's home work appointments). The windows and doors will have Roman blinds to match. Just like this..... my curtain people are making to the photo!

Image Courtesy Pottery Barn

House update, in 25 words or less, give or take 25.

Front fence renderers have started and the front gates have been ordered. They are the same design as the front porch balustrade. 'Lloydy' was here yesterday scraping out the muck in the pool. All the filter stuff has been elegantly dumped in the pool house until it can be installed behind the pool house sometime in the next week or so.

I had a lovely day yesterday, only after my trainer severely 'smashed' me (as he puts it) to make up for all my building appointment excuses for sporadic attendance over the past 9 months. You asked me to message you if I was hurting Shaunie..... I'm hurtin'! I road tested our sound system with a bit of Michael Buble, bit of flamenco guitar, while cooking biscuits for tradesmen, lending an ear to those who needed it and wrapping my shoppe purchases on my kitchen bench. I can honestly say that yesterday was the first day I have really cherished 'alone' time in my home. All the traddies were working outside. Oh the renderers have just arrived and Foxtel is on his way to fix up... you guessed it, another thing that isn't working! I'm off to make them all a coffee. It's cold outside!

A Final Rant

Just had to post a little picture of the ONLY things that are really important, despite the following ranting.

I know I promised photos of the study. They're coming I promise.

The latest developments at 'The House'.

Just between you and me, the painter is gone. He doesn't know it yet and neither does our builder. When he shows up this morning, hubby is going to politely request that he leave. His touch up/repair (of his first woeful attempt at our staircase) yesterday almost brought me to tears (I did the usual, deep breath, " you and your family are healthy A-M, you have 2 beautiful boys and a gorgeous husband, this is just a staircase, ra, ra"). ... and what I was looking at was the finished product. Mate, even I have a roll of painters tape in my back pocket! Use tape if you can't paint in a straight line. It's an intricate, delicate, highly visible staircase that is supposed to be a feature in this house. Oh well, there's always carpet... I tried, I really tried. He left all his sanding dust and rubbish strewn everywhere too, for my boys to walk through... and we are LIVING HERE! Total contempt. He just doesn't want to be here (maybe it's my Michael Buble music?) and we don't want him here anymore.

The painter came as part of our contract with our builder. I am assuming our contract is probably finished now leaving us with plenty of weekend jobs from here to who knows when. He was taking his time, didn't appear for a whole week there after we moved in, does a few hours a day and then disappears. Our builder refused to replace him with someone who could do this beautiful house justice so THAT's IT. I can't stand to see one more of my beautiful inclusions ruined by a shoddy paint job. Oh my doors and windows.... me and the razor blade... we are going to have a very intimate relationship over the next year, removing paint.

So I suppose our whole contract with our builder is officially finished now. No official handover, no fanfare. This beautiful place is now ours to complete...... at extra cost ... but at least we have CONTROL over things now.

PS Only pretty things from now on.... apart from maybe a photo of me scraping paint off windows?

Monday Nook

Today's nook is actually not really a nook, well maybe it is, sort of..... a little portion of my kitchen bench, displaying the gorgeous housewarming gift my new next-door neighbours, Denise and Ray, presented me with yesterday.

During one of our morning coffee sessions, Denise (instant new best friend) noticed that I have a few pieces of the Royal Albert Zandra Rhodes china collection so she and her husband, Ray, found me the beautiful matching jug..... that now will sit proudly on my kitchen bench, full of flowers... for like... ever. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Denise and Ray.....Denise reads my blog, even though she's like 10 metres away...... might miss something between our morning coffee's!

It's me who should be bearing gifts: to compensate for hubby accidently leaving our VERY bright outside sidelights on all night..... they shone directly into their main bedroom....... oh and for the scary noises coming from our heating unit (also outside said bedroom window) yesterday....... before it promptly blew up! Denise and Ray have an 11 year old son who has also become my eldest's 'instant new best friend'.


House Update, in '25 words or less', give or take 25 words:

*trying to get a new painter after our Master Painter's Association Inspector's opinion of our paint job = "Woeful".
*fast internet connection is now slow again, due to some interference with Foxtel, which doesn't work at all now!
*airconditioning/heating unit blew up (see above)...... and it's particularly cold at present here in Brissie!
*front fence renderers didn't turn up at all last week and rain is now forecast for all of this week.... delaying painting, front electrical work, gate installation, paving.
*fireplace vent has not been water proofed (despite my screaming requests to have it done) so as soon as it rains, our Great Room will be filled with water.... can't wait for that one!

Another eventful week at "The House" I am sure.... never a dull moment. Oh some good news... study wallpaper is being done today. I will have to show you pictures of that tomorrow!

A Brand New Life

'Abelia Cottage' - previously 'The House Before A-M Built'.

I was delighted to receive an email yesterday, from the lovely couple (Fred and Janette) who answered our "Free House" advertisement, all those years ago, when we first bought this block of land (with house). The deal was, "you can have the house for free (actually it was a $1 contract) as long as you leave the block clear, for us to build our new house on". I could not bear to demolish the original house. We had previously lived across the road from a home that was demolished in the early hours of the morning. I still remember the sound of the demolition... it was horrific.

This little place had been built in 1947 and had remained in the one family until the last parent passed away, just before we bought it, in June 2005. It had history and the potential for a whole new life. We even had a moment in the front bedroom soon after we bought it, where we all held hands as a family and thanked the previous owners for their home and land and informed them of our plans to build our family home.

Poor Fred and Janette spent many weekends clearing our block before the house was relocated. The little old man who lived and died in the house had been a bit of a 'Steptoe and Son' and had a penchant for plastic pot collecting. I swear, the whole top part of our block, which is now lawn, was covered in pots, sheets of fibro and general rubbish. A belated sorry, Fred and Janette, for what we left you to clean up!

The original house on our block, before it was moved. Is that you Janette?

The house was moved in the early hours of the morning and arrived on Fred and Janette's lawn, on the outskirts of town, at 3am. They are actually living in the house, while their main house, on their large property, is rented out. I thought you might enjoy some before and after photos of the original little house and the wonderful transformation Fred and Janette and their son (carpenter) have done.

Ready to move

In position at Fred and Janette's Place

A work in progress

Her name is 'Abelia Cottage'. She is just so beautiful. It brings a tear to my eye to see her in her new life. Thank you Fred and Janette for sending us these photos. What a wonderful ending to such an exciting journey for all of our families..... yours, ours and little 'Abelia's' previous family!

Now that's what I call recycling! Isn't she beautiful!

PS. I have cable now. I'm coming to visit you all this weekend!

Breakfast At A-M's

This is our little breakfast area. It's a bit bare at the moment. I have a few more bits and pieces to add. It's all very much still in that "I have just moved in" stage. Note that I chose furniture that can be so easily wiped down... no fabric... little boy proof! I am having a gorgeous natural fibre rug made up for this area, with a lovely chunky border in the same fibre... one that will withstand spaghetti and meatballs. I will post a picture as soon it arrives. I am also having beautiful linen sheers made up for all the French Doors..... but they will come a bit later....
The table, chairs and French mirror are all available through my store via special order. Please email me for details.

See how the morning sun is just coming in through the French Doors on the right. It comes in just far enough to warm my feet, while I am making the school lunches. I have my second morning coffee (first one is here, in front of the bloggy blog) on the terrace just outside the kitchen, in the sun, just before the school lunches! Have I mentioned that I am now addicted to coffee... and tea.. any excuse to sit in a pretty spot and ponder.

For those who have emailed me re my floors - they are proving to be a dream.. so easy to clean. I wipe them over once with a dry mop and then a damp mop (just a basic Sabco one, that you can velcro on the attachments). I rinse out the detachable mop attachment a few times during the whole process and then pop it in the wash at the end. My floor guy suggested only using a touch of Morning Fresh detergent for greasy moments as it does not leave a residue. As my floors are a semi gloss (I reckon there's more matt in them than gloss, but that's just my personal, unprofessional opinion) - the mopping does not leave ANY mop marks! I am so pleased as I was not going to be a slave to my floors. I do them just after dinner and they literally take me 10 minutes. Oh and yes, they are a hardwood... Spotted Gum Select. Hilston Wood Floors, Brisbane. Ask for Jim.

PS. Fireplace stone queries..... 'Architectural Ceramics Slate and Stone', Newstead, Brisbane.
I should be on commission! Wait until you see the pool... you'll be emailing me for 'Lloydy's' number next!

Back To Reality

Desperate search for placemats, resulted in dragging out some from my shop stock! Where is that box with all my table things in it? There's always one box you miss. I might have to venture down to the muddy garage.

......meanwhile, while 'Lloydy' was doing the pool stuff, I was whipping up a storm in my new kitchen. Oh my stove... pure bliss. I had a potato bake, my chicken (as shown below) and bread all cooking away in 90cm of pure oven heaven. I might actually start enjoying this whole 'feeding the family for the rest of my life thing'. I had my Mum and StepDad over for lunch and completely fooled them into thinking I was a Masterchef.... thank you, new stove!...... oh and 'Women's Weekly - Food We Love'.

Chicken Parmesan With Basil Sauce - p72, 'Women's Weekly - Food We Love' - total crowd pleaser!

Believe it or not, this place is still so busy with tradesmen. The driveway was done yesterday and is being sealed today. It looks fantastic (if a driveway can look fantastic)... photos to come. The airconditioning guys are back to finish off today. More Romans are going in today. All my crooked French door handles have been taken off and straightened!!! I think the apprentice was given that job!

The tiler is back this afternoon. Wait for it....... ALL my showers have to be ripped out and redone as there is no fall to the drains!!!! Not impressed. At all. How do I protect my beautiful carpet upstairs while all this happens?

The painter will be here for ages, I'm sure. Just between you and me, the paint job is very disappointing (that's my most tactful take on it). Every visitor has noticed at least something that we haven't noticed wrt paint job. I'm scared to sit still and look up... or down. Please don't take this euphoric state away from me painters!! There has been some hand ringing. Our builder has reassured us that he will fix everything so I am going to attempt to continue enjoying the beautiful things and push all these 'real' issues to the far reaches of my mind, while he sees to it. Why am I telling you all this?.... because this is a REAL journey and not something out of the pages of House and Garden! Despite all 'this' (which I am so used to now... water off a ducks back) I still can't sleep ... still swanning around at 4 am... thank goodness for blogging!

PS. The birdsong here at dawn is just divine. You would never know that we are 2km from the city..... more birds than where we were renting out in the sticks!

Pool Shenanigans

'Lloydy' holding up the waterline tiles, for us to decide on a suitable width - we decided on the smaller width.

'Lloydy' arrived yesterday to start back on the pool, Public Holiday and all..... so impressed Lloydy. He went all silly when I told him that his arrival was worthy of a mention on my blog. I made him hold the position he was in (in the photo above) while I ran through the house to get my camera.

Look, hubby has bogged up all the holes in the picket fence before he paints it white... this is going to be interesting to watch!

Craig - Master Tile Craftsman

My boys loved the whole 'Lloydy' day. Little one kept thanking them for doing the pool. Look, my boys match the pool tiles!

Our random stone outside the French Doors - isn't it beautiful!

'Lloydy' is still threatening to move into the pool house, as a contra-deal for completing the pool. We will have to get an outdoor kitchen now so he will have somewhere to refrigerate the milk for his morning cereal. He reckons he is going to swan around in a white suit to blend in with his surroundings... so that when anyone says "I've been meaning to ask you, who's that guy in your pool house?" we can just say, "what guy"? More photos of the pool next week when the internals are done! Promise.

Monday Nook

Photo taken by my youngest -didn't he do a good job! "Go take a photo of Kim's birdies for me darling"......all so professional here now at 'The House'.

New idea.... "Monday Nook" Posts. Now that I have the opportunity to be creative, each Monday morning I will be featuring a little nook, somewhere in my home. This Monday, we will start with the darling little birds I purchased from my 'online store buddy', Kimberlee, over at her shop, Brown Button Trading. Us 'onliners', we're a unique bunch. Take a look at her gorgeously groovy shop. Love ya stuff Kim!

PS. 'Monday Bed Posts' will still continue over at my shoppe blog - can't give up the Monday beds!

The Powder Room

This is our downstairs powder room. If you enlarge the second image, you might be able to see the pretty damask pattern in the wall tile. When the light shines brightly through the little window the pattern on the wall tiles is very evident and is just gorgeous.

Behind the sink wall is a generously sized shower and to the direct right another wall hides the toilet. To the centre right are the steps down to the laundry. I cut up the grey floor tile into mosaics for the shower recess. They look great and they were so affordable! Everyone comments on the tiles. Oh how I LOVE a bargain.... with lots of bang for your buck!

A wonderful Mum at my boys school, sourced the taps and sink also at great prices for me as she is a qualified Interior Designer. Thanks J... we love them!

The rose is from my hubby.... my first bunch of flowers for our new home. He has his 'beer goggles' on at the moment and keeps staring all googly eyed at me and thanking me for the house!!! I'm lapping it up and using it to my advantage whenever he suggests something tragic wrt decoration/design. "Trust me" has so much more mileage now!

We have made a new house rule. We all sit down at our little 4 seater table for dinner together each night and we take turns at saying what we were most grateful for in the day. It's now getting a bit tedious as "this beautiful house" has been done to death. Last night my 'grateful thing'?.....the concreters started on the driveway yesterday and will be all done by the end of Tuesday..... less mud! Oh my poor floors... they're not lookin' too flash at present!

PS. I have tried to visit you all but my internet connection is too slow. It's like being locked out of a lolly shop. The cable guy didn't even turn up for his appointment yesterday so I have to wait until Thursday now for the resheduled appointment.

My Great Room

Designers/stagers - you have my permission to weep over the fact that I did not remove the packing foam from under the piano legs for this photo - too tired by this stage! I was only thinking of my readers and their need to see photos..... any photos!

I would like to thank each and every one of you for your LOVELY comments. I am dying to visit all of you individually but I am still on a dial up internet connection and everything takes absolutely AGES! How did I run an internet business on dial up all those years ago?????Isn't it funny how quickly you get so used to things.

This is the piano end of the Great Room, still waiting on 2 Louis chairs to soften the 'dagginess' of my 8 year old beige suede Freedom sofa (still in such good nick, I could NOT justify ditching it....... just yet!). The sister of this sofa is upstairs in the main bedroom..... which consists of bed and sofa... ran out of funds! The fireplace works but it makes me nervous. I have never had a fireplace before and..... with gas... it scares me for some reason...... oh and 'she of peasant stock' keeps thinking, "every millilitre of gas in this thing is one less millilitre I could use for my hot shower". Oh and don't get me started......... if I have to say one more, "turn off the lights".....

I am having gorgeous duck-egg blue silk curtains made for the French door behind the piano and Romans in a similar coloured patterned fabric. The window seats will have piped linen cushions in a darker blue hue. There will also be some sort of natural fibre rug...... that I haven't met yet. I am also having a beautiful lamp shade made up for that little lamp on the black drawers in the corner.

I can't wait for my fast internet connection. I have all this lovely new homewares stock for my store that I am very keen to load up. I will of course be displaying it first in my home..... who needs a boring old photo tent now. My Great Room window seats have the most perfect light for product photographing. Will I ever leave this place? I can't even bear to go grocery shopping. Where did A-M go?.... she was swallowed by 'The House'.

My Kitchen

I wasn't going to wait until I replaced the pendant lightbulb, smashed by a wayward champagne cork, or tied the bows on the chairs perfectly or even taken possession of my beautiful duck egg blue, English ticking Romans, before I posted pictures of my kitchen. No..... images that you see here at 'The House', from now on, will be of a lived-in home.... no staging... just a quick clean up before photos..............the lunch boxes from school have been strategically placed, out of sight in the sink!

The most exciting thing?... the sensor light in the pantry!

That's the outdoor table on it's side, to the left!
We are waiting for Kurt to seal the stone out the back, before we move everything out to the terrace.

This is my kitchen!

Kevin, lineaboard man and master craftsman of everything, is coming today to cut down my kitchen stools. They were purchased for a customer who didn't realise (and neither did I) that they were too high for a standard kitchen bench. No problem, A-M will keep 'em and chop 'em up for her kitchen. The oven makes a mean batch of Anzac biscuits. I had 4 plumbers, 1 painter and 2 children hovering in my kitchen late Wednesday afternoon.... the biscuits were all gone in a millisecond. It's hungry work, installing fridge water, washing machines, fireplaces. I thought the smell of cooking biscuits would spur them on......

As for the rest of the place..... mud, boxes... sums it up perfectly. I don't care. We're in. Still waiting on a driveway. My kingdom for a sunny day or two.

My Roman blinds are all in upstairs. Absolute perfection. They were made to ensure you could still see the top window cross bar when they are open. I will meet my beautiful kitchen Romans, the study Romans (bordered by black grossgrain - Ralph style) and Great Room window dressings some time in July, when the installer master returns from his holidays. The study wallpaper should be up in the next week or so.

The site was given a bit of a tidy up yesterday.... the coke bottles, banana skins and used bandaids were getting a little bit depressing. It's bad enough having to 'stepping stone', on bits of wood, through mud, to get to the car. Thanks Clint for even pulling out the weeds!

I still can't sleep. I sat in the gutter across the road last night just sighing over how pretty it looked, all lit up.... like a fairytale. I love this place.

Hello

Hello my friends! Another pictureless post.... can't find my camera cord! Here I am, up at the crack of dawn...still too excited to sleep. Had the phones connected yesterday and have managed to get a temporary dial up account in order to still run my business. As much as I would love to visit you all, each page load up takes 10 minutes, so I will wait until our cable has been set up to catch up with you all! Unpacking continues. I pretty much have unpacked everything upstairs. The garage is a mess...with mud (it is an access point through the mud), garage stuff, some of my shop stock, and of course the frogs (in their temporary home... we've had one death... rather emotional journey for my boys).

Painting still continues. Wayne has made it inside now and it working on all the blue stickers we placed everywhere during our walkthrough this week. Hopefully the plumbers will be here today. The waterproofers (for 'the wall') have finally finished and the plumbers have to connect up pipes from the laundry and the rainwater tank, on the right hand side. I have no washing machine connected, which is a killer... so thanks Mum for doing the washing run! .... not only plays a mean piano but is a dab hand at washing dusting rags and dirty soccer clothes!

My Roman blinds are being fitted upstairs today.... no more duck and run from the shower... yay! I will have to enjoy delayed gratification with the Great Room, Study and Kitchen window dressings as they are still being created, mulled over, schemed about. My kitchen? .... my kitchen...oh how I love my kitchen...... you are going to love it. It will be the first picture I post.
I lovingly cleaned the stove top after dinner last night, thinking....."this is the first new stove I have ever had... every other one I have had has been used by someone else.... I will never complain about cleaning this stove"!!!

My boys are joyous.... meeting toys they have not seen for over 2 years (2 years in storage is a long time for a toy... there is a danger that they have been grown out of...... but no, we have found a place for every treasured thing... even the rock collection... from which a few have been taken to be proudly displayed in the Great Room, above the 'games cupboard'...... how flash does that sound...'The Games Cupboard'!

Well I could literally ramble on for hours... I am euphoric at the moment and ever so grateful that we are in. My goal today is to find my camera cord and start posting pictures of our home.
I'm home!

We're In

Hi everyone! I am standing in the empty kitchen at our old place, about to embark on a massive floor mopping session. I left the phone connected so I could check my emails and still attempt to run my business! Our phone lines get connected next week but internet possibilies might be a bit tricky.. still working that one out.

Our move was exhausting ...7am start, truck left at 9pm. 2 truckloads and 2 very sick removalists that I kept watered and fed during the day. Hubby and I worked full on, loading with them...great exercise... made up for all the disgusting takeaway we have been eating over the last week. Hubby ended up completely taking over for the sickest removalist at about 8pm, when it started RAINING and we were down to moving the mattresses from the truck!!!!

I haven't really slept much in the past 48 hours. We heard from our bank at 4pm Friday that they had approved our loan transfer. Hence our builders said, yep, you can camp at 'The House'. I am so grateful that we were able to move in before handover. A double move would have killed me. The first night, I just couldn't believe where I was. I kept waking and listening to the different sounds in a different neighbourhood. Last night, once I'd had about 5 hours sleep, I was up, unpacking books for the Great Room. It's going to take a while to unpack..... loving every minute of it... especially discovering stuff that has been in storage for over 2 years.

Hubby and I have shed tears many times over the weekend. We are so emotional about our journey and as soon as my Mum started playing 'Blue Moon', on our piano, under the chandelier in the Great Room, well I was gone. I can honestly say I am living in my most favourite house in the whole world..... mud and all.

Well work continues on the house. Painting is still not finished, driveway is being done this Thursday. Pool is being started on again this week. There is mud everywhere so my floors are disgusting. They'll come up a treat when we have a driveway and less dirt is being tracked into the house.

I don't know when I'll be able to update bloggy blog again so I'll say farewell for now and I promise some photos next time I'm online. You are going to love it! I promise!

I'm Outa Here

Image Courtesy Debi Treloar

I am deliriously tired from a very long day. Spent the day cleaning, helping with appliance deliveries (fridge arrived all dinged so I will be getting replacement doors in a fortnight or so!), paying bills, rushing home to fax documents, vacuuming new carpet and pretty much detailing the new abode. We left the house after the sun went down and after we played with all the lighting combinations. I am so pleased with our lighting... very simple, basic actually, but considering combinations of pendant, task and lamp lighting, it all looks spectacular.

I started taking photos this morning, then got distracted and never considered the camera again so I'm sorry you will have to wait until at least some of our furniture is in before I post some more.

We have done our sums tonight, while paying stressfully large bills! and I am also pleased to say that we came in right on budget, give or take a few thousand. I'm wrapped. I've kept control of everything I could have down to the letter and the few unavoidable blow outs... plumbing, electrical circuitry... couldn't be avoided, but were offset by bargains where I could get them......

Boy this has taken a physical toll on me... I STILL HAVE MY COUGH ..... but it has been well worth it. The place tonight (despite the mud) looked magical. My heart skipped a beat when we left. I'M FINALLY EXCITED! Thank you for all your wonderful support, my friends. You have helped me deal with the tough times and have been so generous in your compliments. I am sorry I have not been able to visit many of you lately. Once I am settled, I will have a big 'session'. This bloggy blog is not over. I will continue to post as often as I can but I will also be spending time over at my shop blog.... now need to pay for all this. Good night my friends. See you on the other side... whenever Telstra can get their act together and get me a phone line! (another story).

Down To The Wire

Blurry photo sorry. I was talking while I took it!

The cleaners were in today. Oh they were doing a good job. It was all I could do to not join them. Itchin' to get in there too! The windows were scraped of all bits of paint and polished to perfection. Who needs window coverings with such perfectly clean windows! The cleaners were so lovely and said to me, "wait until you see your bathrooms when we're finished".

The front concrete path has been completed. It will be enough for us to manage the move now. My stalking of Energex paid off. They arrived this morning to connect up the power. I almost hugged them when they arrived. I don't think they have ever received such an excited welcome. Gas people have been notified of our Form 8 and duly stalked all day. City Council 'water meter relocation department' gave in to my daily phonecalls and have now rescheduled the water meter relocation to TOMORROW and not June 17th... this means we will 1. have water, and 2. be able to do a driveway next week. Shower screen door arrived just in time for the final building inspection/certificate. Our bank.... hmmmm, couldn't be more unhelpful. They will be the reason we will be camping on the floor this weekend. I am still hoping that some sort of miracle happens before Friday... but that's only a day away... we'll see.

'Red dot defects' walkthrough is tomorrow. Carpets will also be laid tomorrow and appliances arrive first thing in the morning. I will take some photos of everything all clean and tidy tomorrow during our walk through.