Year of The House: September update

  #YOTH15 update for Sea-Spray #2:  

I promised you that September would be a Progress-Packed month and it certainly has been.
David has devoted allot of time working here at home so, there's lots to report! 

  Carpet installed to Playroom, Main, J's and Guest Bedrooms!

Playroom carpeted and lounge in place!

 WE MOVED UPSTAIRS!!!!!! 

Occupying Main Bedroom at last. Art hung. Those lamps are too big! Eeek!

Guest Bedroom ready for visitors!
 

As we have now vacated this room, it's ready for guests! Love my charcoal carpet!

Ordered this bed for one of the downstairs bedrooms as an update. 

Image via Freedom

  Stone top for playroom, Custom entertainment unit delivered and all pieces assembled.

Now to get the telly installed!

  The custom joinery robe for the Guest bedroom has been installed, ready for painting.

TIP: We saved a motsa here by ordering craftwood doors for us to paint in satin enamel, the same as all the other doors in the house. The difference between doing this and ordering two-pac saved thousands!

The fireplace for the main lounge is ready to be collected. Yippee!
David just waiting for some 'muscles' to help collect and unload here. The supplier doesn't deliver. WTF?

  Kitchen and Laundry joinery installed!

Main Kitchen Install: Lots of 'missing' pieces!

 With two big installs at one time, there were bound to be a few hiccups! We are missing drawer and door fronts, trim pieces, an appliance and oven cupboard to name a few. Pretty pics will have to wait! This week I will organise for the stonemasons to come and template the bench tops....
 

Laundry / Kitchenette; Still some parts to come too...

 Stone Walling feature stone delivered 

$500 delivery fee on this lot. The added cost of building in a regional area!

Custom steel handrail for internal stairs installed!

The fixing plates will be hidden in wall & behind a timber riser.

Frameless Glass balustrades for top decks installed.

Support sticks there till grout dried only!

Ordered Faux Grass for Poolside deck area.

Was able to get only one Fencing quote! Accepted this and installation is now complete!

A 5' fence was installed...it's now 6' as ordered. Ooops!

Timber Flooring installed to all areas; upper and lower halls, stairs, study, lounge, dining and kitchen.
 

Study looking a bit Ho-hum.

We decided to wall hang David's desktop. The supports will be painted the wall colour but the whole room looks pretty ordinary. It looks worse now with all the busy paraphernalia a working office contains. Think I'm going to just figuratively and physically, 'shut the door' on this room for awhile!

Lounge room Bookcase shelves installed.

Waiting to be painted now...

I haven't done much blogging as we've been so busy with the house and life in general. 
I'm popping updates on Instagram more frequently if youre interested in the 'gaps'! 

Renovating? Building? Got some House Projects to complete?

Join in! #YOTH15

(also on instagram of course!) 

Missed the progress? Catch up here:

August

July

June

April / May

February / March
January / February

x KL

Thank you for stopping by my blog.

You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

Bubbles...

I am so excited!

Two bedrooms upstairs (our main and J's), the playroom and lower guest bedroom are being carpeted on Wednesday! This had hinged on the timber flooring being laid in the halls adjacent to those rooms, which is what David did today!.

Yesterday we finalised little bits and pieces in the main bedroom en suite in anticipation of the 'big move' upstairs after years of living in only the lower portion of the house.

Heated Towel Rails and shelves for pretty bibs 'n bobs!

Whoop! Whoop!

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I've been unpacking some treasures and purchases from eons ago too. It all feels a bit Christmass-y to be honest! LOL!

The first thing I'd like to do after Wednesday is to have a bubble bath in our freestanding tub...
which made me realise that I have nowhere to rest my celebratory glass of Verve!

Eeeek! How on earth could I have overlooked an item of such importance ? !

Sooo...although it wont materialise before Wednesday, THE bubbly resting spot / table / stool has been on my immediate hit-list!

Here are my (seriously whittled down), main contenders:

L to R: Warren Platner Side Table, Metallic Grande Drum, Mark Tuckey Egg-cup stool, Marcel Wanders Stone Stool, Bamileke stool.

And below are some inspirational images of similar stools / tables like these in situ:

More delicious decisions! (In the interim, a box will suffice!)
But bring on the Bubbles!

x KL

Thank you for stopping by my blog.

You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

Bits 'n Bobs AND a progress report

 School holidays have started here (Whoop! Whoop!) and my gorgeous nieces, aka the Glamourzons, nephew and SIL are visiting. YAY!

We're in a mess house wise, but who cares? ! We're planning on an overseas jaunt to Asia with them next year so we'll be dreaming and scheming....

The house progress is continuing. I'll do a YOTH update soon. At this point there's lots of quote gathering and budget balancing. Boring but practical foundations for getting the house finished! 

The carpet has FINALLY been ordered and although the 6-9 week lead time seems excessive, (slow boat from from New Zealand!) the time frame will probably suit us well.

I chose Cavalier Bremworth Inscape (pictured left) for all the upstairs areas and also for the insert piece in the family room, located on entry level. A less dense, shorter napped version called Verve (above, right) will go in the downstairs bedrooms to help us stay within our newly formed budget. It's the same colour (why they look different in the pics is beyond me) and both are solution dyed nylon for colour fastness and durability.

 The main bedroom robe fit out is complete and I'm slowly 'moving' things into it and unpacking stored clothes (many which no longer fit me...*sob*) 8 bags for Vinnies and counting!

I decided on simple white laminate, without drawers, which was cost effective. I added one drawer only to a 'dressing table' area. (The missing bit on the left in the image above is now fitted!) The drawers in our last home's WIR were used mostly for shoes and since we I have a designated shoe cupboard, I thought the open shelves would suffice. And of course we have bedsides and a beautiful bone-inlay chest in the main bedroom too!

I'm considering fitting the dressing table drawer with jewelery trays for ease of access. The pics on the left below, are from the 'Stackers' range available from Howard's Storage World. My inspiration  image is on the right...

 The range from HSW is limited, but an online search revealed a plethora of configurations available from UK and US stockists via Fishpond.com.au. Has anyone bought via them? Comments?

Some artwork has arrived here too in readiness for the project wrap up....(LMFAO!) 

Frustratingly, I think it's wise to not unwrap the African painting (had been on layby for eons..) nor the recently framed Kara Rosenlund print as they're better protected from the persistent dust as they are. 'Gilbert' has been slotted into a cost-effective  Country Road ready-made frame in preparation for J's bedroom.

Calm Before                                                                                 Muhammad Ali Miami 1961

My recent infatuation with Trevor Mein's photographic artwork and our fiscal predicament led me to purchasing 'Calm Before' on a whim (well, not really... I posted about it HERE) and, oops! 

 It's OK, and will fill a spot, but ultimately, I already know it's no substitute. Which leads me to the Powder room art quandary I posted about recently. 

What do you think of the Muhammad Ali underwater, boxing training artwork??? 

Ticks a few boxes....?

We have found a new tiler (Alleluia!) and I am SO excited about him starting in a few weeks. All further progress seems to hinge on him doing his bit - first! 

Renderers are engaged to start in a week and the scaffolding has been erected in preparation, so we are all systems go with finishing the exterior.

And on a family finale...both our nest leavers are on the move again, so we'll be shuffling and storing lots of additional bits 'n pieces. Gotta laugh....

Never a dull moment!

x KL

Thank you for stopping by my blog.

You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

Year of The House: update

Here are our APRIL / MAY  #YOTH achievements...

APRIL

 David tiled two walls in J's bathroom / powder room with white tiles over Easter.
(and here I was thinking he'd finish the whole room! Ba Ha Ha!)
J's bathroom vanity installed.
Playroom blind for the external door opening to the winter sun spot, latte deck, milkshake deck installed then reinstalled, the right way round :-/ 

MAY
Joiner visited and kitchen and laundry designs discussed to be quoted.
Two new carpet quotes received after my previous choices discontinued!!! (WTF!)

Is a shade difference worth an additional $3K?...

Main bedroom walk-in-robe fit out quoted and accepted.
Quotations sought for completing rendering to external areas.
J's bathroom shower screen and mirror quoted and ordered.
Sought & received Curtain costings (Eeeek!) for entire house and chose fabrics for same.
Trying to find a new tiler for here and our company....Grrr (*major headache*)
Ordered custom made grates for top external deck areas.

Custom made, Tile Insert external grates ordered for our deck areas! Image from My Shower Grate Shop

 
Bathroom accessories; towel rail, toilet paper holder and shower shelf installed to J's bathroom.
Stone top installed to J's bathroom vanity.

Action shots...

Whew! On a roll.....

Renovating? Building? Got some House Projects to complete?

Join in! #YOTH15

(also on instagram of course!) 

Missed the progress? Catch up here:

February / March
January / February

x KL

Thank you for stopping by my blog. 

You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

DETAILING: Family Room

 I haven't done a building, detailing post in a long while. Mostly because these posts were a dialogue of decisions made to the top storey rooms as they were being finished. 

The middle level, where we are living, is already completed. The big building stuff anyway. 

I thought I might do some retrospective posts though to show what decisions were made in these rooms and to allow a better understanding of the house as a whole.

So... here is a plan of the family room.

 It is situated to the right after entering the house. It is deliberately kept quite separate from the entry as I wanted guests entering the house to immediately gravitate towards the stairs and the upper level, where the main living area is located. 

There will be a large retractable door / wall between the entry and the family room (rebated track image below) to isolate noise and to provide privacy when necessary. (And yes... those ceiling discolourations are water stains...if you missed the flood disaster, click HERE) 

 A stairwell to the lowest level; storeroom, plant, cellar and garage is accessed from here too. Doorway to lower area seen above RHS.

To delineate the family room from the walkway, we lowered the ceiling in the thoroughfare (marked in red on the plan above) and also added a bulkhead around the perimeter of the room to accommodate a recess for blinds.(green line) This will mean that when not in use they will not visually or physically encumber the doors and windows they were intended to cover. The bulkheads also provided easy insertion of surround sound stereo equipment as this room houses our largest T.V.

The three large panes of glass seen in the picture above (as is J!) are sliding glass doors that completely retract inside a thick nib wall on the left that I further deepened to create a niche for art. This is potentially a major line of view upon entering the house so I wanted it to be WOW! The latest decor incarnation for the niche was discussed HERE and can be seen again below.

We also doubled the wall cavity on the stairwell / family room wall to allow depth for a television niche and again, the surround sound equipment to be built in.

Provision has been made for underfloor heating which every winter I anticipate greatly! The marble flooring....600 x 600 tiles - is bought and tarped on the verandah, waiting till we move upstairs so the tiler can do his bit! (Completed bathroom marble floors shown below)

 We are also intending on dropping in a carpet piece like we did in our last house above.

TIP: A broadloom metre of carpet (average 3.6 m x length required) is cheaper than a rug any day. Even the exy pure wool ones!!! If you recess it into a tiled or timber floor it is easier to vacuum because it's the same height, looks integrated and is usually more cost effective than the hard floor itself on a completed square metre rate. (which you may then wish to put a rug on!..... Go figure!)

So, that concludes the 'family room'. At present it is our only living and dining area but I am looking forward to relinquishing it to the kids and for family entertaining / movie marathons only!

x KL

 Thank you for stopping by my blog. You are very welcome and encouraged to comment. I love receiving feedback! I also love watching a new pretty picture box added to my followers - would love you to join me so I can get to know you too!

Learning fast and hard

When I  lamented the woes of drawn out building / decorating projects in my last post, I must have jinxed myself!
I had chosen the most divine charcoal plush pile carpet; Godfrey Hurst, 'Highbury Plush', colour: Flagstone. That was almost twelve months ago, BUT when I rang my local carpet supplier for a measure-up recently, to my absolute horror, found it has been discontinued!!!! My colour choices have hinged on this large floor area being definite for eons....back to the shop around, and those zillions of choices, again!
And, to add salt to the wound, a much loved decor piece has also been taken off the import list.

SO... if you see something you really, really LOVE, buy and store, just in case!
(By the way, Eclectic is my middle name! LOL!)
x KL