Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts

5.10.15

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:
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!

11.7.15

pondering product possibilites....

With progress here gathering pace, I've turned my attention to the joinery proposed for the kitchen, laundry, playroom, office and lounge. In doing so, I stumbled across an impressive new product (well, new to me!) called Maximum. It is a pressed porcelain product available in generous panel sizes which is both light weight and resilient. The range includes finishes resembling wood, concrete and marble in several surface options.


Marmi Calacatta is my favourite in a matt finish. The large sheets are absolutely stunning. There are four print variations and bookend options too ensuring little repeat even when sheeting walls. It is very cost effective compared to real stone and its light weight and practicality make it a very flexible product.


 I'm totally hooked but need to examine further a few concerns such as its suitability as a bench top and possible 'chipability', given it's essentially a 6 mm tile.
Here's some lust worthy in-situ pics from the Maximum website:







 At the very least, I think I've found my kitchen splash back material! 


x KL

Thank you for stopping by my blog.
 You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

3.4.15

Year of The House: update

You may remember when I posted HERE about our new year's commitment to instigating some 
major progress at La Hacienda. 
Well, to show our sincerity, here's a #YOTH15 update:



 FEBRUARY: 
J's bathroom floor screed has been laid.
Front main bed deck and rear top decks waterproofed. 
Drafted kitchen plans to take to joiner for quotation. 
Drafted J's bathroom and main bed ensuite vanities to give to joiner for quotation.
Ordered our oven / cooktop; 900 mm Freestanding Smeg with tepenyaki plate. 
(The Miele oven we originally bought will go into storage)
Ordered a Smeg convection / microwave / grill + trim kit for the new kitchen.
Bought a Smeg convection / microwave / grill combi oven for the laundry / kitchenette downstairs.
A very 'spensive month! 




MARCH:
Frustrated by our phantom tiler, David laid and grouted the marble floor in our main bedroom ensuite. 
Ditto, J's bathroom / powder room floor. 
The marble feature wall is complete and he has started on the white wall tiles.

Main bed ensuite floor complete, just needs cleaning. Powder Room floor and marble wall complete.
  Ordered the two custom floating vanities for these wet areas.
Appliances have been delivered and are sitting in my lounge room. Eeek!
Bought the Lido Teal Bucket Chair for J's bedroom when I saw it on sale at Freedom.
Sold the unwanted rangehood that came in the cooking package on Gumtree which means the big range was VERY reasonably priced! Yay!
Ordered a blind for the playroom glass door as I missed that when I did the windows.


David has started to tile the walls in the two bathrooms (matte, white rectified 600 x 300mm) and hopefully will get them finished over the Easter Break and then I'll have some pretty pics to share of two more finished rooms! Yippee!


Renovating? Building? Got some House Projects to complete?
Join in! #YOTH15

(also on instagram of course!) 


x KL

Thank you for stopping by my blog. 
You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

24.2.15

Solidifying the Kitchen Plan

 David was home yesterday having a rare days rest, as he is dying unwell with the 'man flu'. It gave us the opportunity to have a lengthy discussion about our kitchen plans in an attempt to firm up the design. 
Which we did. Yay! 
This has meant a few tweaks to the last kitchen post and the ordering of a freestanding range.


The sink will now be sited in the island (I really wanted it on the rear wall) as the flow and function will be improved. Practicality took precedence over aesthetics!

This decision now being considered as definite, we started to seriously consider our cooking options, particularly in relation to that awful 'B' word; budget. We decided to leave the Miele wall mounted oven in the laundry / kitchenette as it will be practical there when entertaining on the lower level. 
The Barazza Abey Lab cooktop (which has been residing on the wish-list forever) has been permanently struck off. *sob. In it's place, we reasoned that for similar outlay, we can buy a 900mm Freestanding Range.


Say hello to our new baby. It hasn't got the one and a half ovens that I would have liked (had a St George one twenty years ago and loved it!) but it has a Tepenyaki plate to soothe the disappointment. It's made by Smeg, a brand I've had no personal experience with, but it looks good and was within budget...

One of the main reasons I was so enamoured with the LAB cooktop was because all components sat totally flush within the benchtop. David thinks he will be able to place the range lower than the benchtop height (planned to be higher than standard), to achieve the same or similar visual effect. Hooray!

my poor rendering of changes and decisions!
Another MAJOR conclusion to our day was to alter the proposed back bench surface material. We had stainless steel in our last house and never really considered anything else for here (we both LOVED it!) but, with the sink re-located, we can still have a seam free surface without custom Stainless steel. Black stone (Composite or Granite) will probably look better with the black joinery (laminate, veneer or two-pac?) and be kinder on the hip pocket. Decision made. Pinterest image of the look we're after below:


The microwave will now be located underbench. Probably on the left hand side of the rear run of joinery. I'm looking into the price of a small combi oven; convection / microwave / grill to augment the big range. It would probably get more use unless we were entertaining!


We did some research into the shallow pantry / office space door options too and after initially considering a sliding mechanism have decided on bi-fold doors for this. They look soooo much better closed and wont impede on the walkway as much as I feared. Mine will be handle-less though with a simple pull or shadow recess to open. Like these:




What isn't resolved in the pictures above is easy corner access so I will have a push-catch, secret panel to open the cupboard space in the corner. Look closely in the image below to see what I'm planning!

Kitchen designed by Minosa Design
Neat, eh? !

There's still two major quandaries.
What splashback material to choose and whether I'll stick to my guns about the dark finish.
EVERYONE is trying to talk me out of it, to go instead the safe white route!
Eeeek!

Stay tuned!


x KL

Thank you for stopping by my blog. 
 You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

24.1.15

kitchen thoughts

With the timber floor commitment made HERE, (delivery and installation still to be arranged) my thoughts are onto the next possible project... frustratingly, money for building supplies is not our enemy ATM, but time is. 
Paying someone else to do what David can, when time allows, is money ill spent. So, patience it is.

With this in mind, my thoughts have returned to the kitchen.
I nutted out the plan eons ago and the beautiful B, from B is Building a House, who has sadly evaporated from the blogosphere (please email sweetie if you're still reading!) generously drew some 3D plans to assist in visualisation.
 The design is mostly the same so now I'm on to tweaks and all important details!
These are my current thoughts....


 I am thinking about placing the cook top and sink in-line on the back wall and eliminating the microwave / oven stack. These can be located under counter instead.
I'm currently using an in-line arrangement in our temporary kitchen (the downstairs laundry) and it works well. I'll miss the convenience of a wall mounted oven but this will streamline the back wall. The prominent island will also become devoid of any dish cleaning clutter. The back wall will be topped in stainless steel (LOVED this in our last place) as a heavy duty and practical work surface. I like the idea of a thin edge profile.


I'd like the overhead cupboards to be constructed as long, low units that lift upwards as these images show. I like the horizontal line emphasised, tying into horizontal elements in the house facade.
 I don't want handles.


The Island, being free of the sink, would be a single, large serving area. I'm still holding onto the Cararra or Calacutta dream for this; 20 mm thick and flush with the cabinetry below. (Plain white Ceasarstone is the default option) As it will be 1200 deep, I can have cupboards or drawers on both sides. The outer side, visible from the dining room can be more decorative....maybe something like these:


Again, repeating the horizontal shadow line I 'm fond of.
On the right hand side will be the pantry and home office set up but shallower than originally planned. 450 mm should be adequate.
 I like the concepts in the images below but am not sure how to make the doors work ? Davey will not entertain the use of pocket door either!


Material wise, I would love the rear and right hand side joinery to be constructed with Matt lacquered, quarter sawn, black-stained oak al la my god; Mr Natale but am anticipating this to be out of our budget. Without finding a black-ish textured laminate that's similar, then 5% gloss Dulux Domino 2-pac  polyurethane it will be. The island and fridge joinery will be 5% gloss Dulux Natural White 2-pac too.


Counter tops: Stainless steel rear, Marble Island (fingers crossed)
Floors: Matt Oak.


Appliance wise, I'm in a quandary. I have already bought a sink, Miele dishwasher and oven and integrated Ilve range hood. The oven has been temporarily installed in the laundry but having looked at the price of my preferred cook top, (Barazza Lab, below left) I think I'll leave the oven downstairs and buy a 900 wide Ilve freestanding instead. ? We already have a fridge in situ, so a microwave is the only other appliance needed.


I've posted about the proposed kitchen quite a few times and it has morphed considerably. It can't be installed until the timber floor is laid (which we're waiting to do after the bathrooms and decks are tiled!) so we're still awhile off. I wonder how much of this post will change?
I think I'm starting to lock down all the details though in prep for a green light! Changes are easier done here than regrets when it's built!
 
x KL 

Thank you for stopping by my blog. 
You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

4.5.14

Playing Catch - up




 # 1. I purchased a double wash plane made from solid Ceasarstone! As an ex-display item it was a  $200 bargain (RR $6 000) too good to walk away from and one another house will benefit from!

# 2. Hello little fellow! This is an Southern Leaf Tail Gecko who has taken up residence in the garage!

# 3. Love these crisp black trimmed pillowcases! I bought them online from Harold's!

In house news, we have roofed two upstairs patio areas, the one off the dining room seen in image # 4. The tragedy of the missing palette of travertine (read the drama HERE) has been resolved, # 6. The stone supplier honouring the shortfall. Phew!

 An art project I started has hit a hick -up. #5. This is where it's at ATM. I'm not sure I like the severe contrast so am doing a smaller test canvas to see if I will paint over and start again or do a 'wash' over what I've done so far. Eeeek!

Easter has come and gone and J's return to school has coincided with an unseasonably late start to cooler autumn temperatures. # 7. A picture of J at 7:55 am, struggling to get out of bed on the first day back at school! 

# 8. I made a bird-cage cover with some gingham. It is really terribly pretty rough but does the job. Wine always assists in no-plan projects like these I feel...

# 9. The MKR series had us hooked and making our own pasta was something we wanted to try. Here's my shiny new toy; already transferred to a plastic storage container to keep all the 'bits' together. Wish me luck!

x KL

Thank you for stopping by my blog. You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

18.3.14

happenings



The blog world and pinterest seem full of images of both red velvet and rainbow cakes. I attempted my first rainbow concoction for Mum's birthday on Sunday. The outside was a bit ordinary but inside....Yay!!!! Happy Birthday Mum!

This is how we spent our Saturday....


...completing an eight hour marathon, painting sealer on all walls and ceilings in the final area to be finished upstairs; the lounge and hallway. It looks very 'white' and bland now. I'm reassured that my intended charcoal feature walls are going to break all that space up a bit!

The weather here has been so odd. As you can see from the pictures above, Saturday was gorgeously sunny, dark and stormy and back again. Sunday was the same. We headed to Sydney for Mum's birthday with the sun shining and temperatures of 30 degrees.


When the storm above hit, the temperature plummeted to 17 degrees and we were stuck, stationary in a traffic pile-up on the M1 for two hours! By the time we got to Mum's, the weather was pleasant enough to eat outside again. It felt very Melbournian!


Ordered my final P.C's for the main bedroom ensuite yesterday. A Caroma Cube wall hung pan and three individual, heated towel rails by Kado. Bought the kitchen sink too, this under mounted Franke double bowl one pictured above. The luck of the Irish was with me as I got the sink for a tenth of it's retail price as it was an ex-display model.

There are only a few very big-ticket items still on the list now.
Carpet. Timber flooring. Rendering and the pool. Oh, and landscaping, driveway and two kitchen's worth of joinery.... and handrails! Eeeeek!

At least were making some forward progress!

 HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY 
for yesterday too!

x KL

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