bits and bobs

I have come to the conclusion that my blog will never be regularly attended to. Thank you to my regular readers for your perseverance with me...

 I do like having a record of this house's progress though (albeit slow) and life in general (whizzing by), so here's an update...

Both the Main Bedroom En suite and Guest / J's bathroom upstairs have been waterproofed. After a council inspection next week we can organise the under-floor heating guys to do their bit!

No pretty pictures - sorry!

The dilemma regarding black walls - where? was resolved. I said 'there, there and there' and the stark white is history! If I win the Lottery I might add a bit of feature wallpaper!

TIP!  Use a tinted undercoat for dark coloured walls to ensure perfect depth of colour.

Painting the dining area end wall means that I'm also committed to my black kitchen! Eeeek!

My wee upstairs linen cupboard is complete and will adequately handle the overflow from the larger / main downstairs version!

I've also discovered Gumtree ... and have / am having great success; saying goodbye to furniture from previous homes. It's also an excellent way of helping those starting out with cheap goodies or freebies! And it's more simple to list than eBay!

Bye-Bye Bali Style...

 The Gumtree discovery was prompted by the return of one of our nest leavers (yay!) who was accompanied by a house worth of recently purchased appliances and furniture (um...not so yay). Some major culling was required!

All listed on Gumtree!

Fast forward to now, just three weeks later and a new work opportunity has seen her announce she's moving to Newcastle...never a dull day!

 Her 3-month old fridge is still for sale on Gumtree!  (RR$700 $500)

P.S: NOW SOLD

 The Scalamandre Leopardo Silk Velvet fabric I bought on eBay arrived but was not the correct length. Given its poisonous value, I was very grateful that the U.S. seller replaced it. Equally disappointing was the arrival our long awaited dining room lights which were damaged. It is at times like these that I really appreciate honest vendors and good customer service policies!

J is on school holiday but has the flu. Again. After he received the flu shot. Humph.

He slept till 1:45 today....I was tip-toeing in and checking on him like a new born babe!

At least I got time to finish and frame, a trio of little artworks for a friend's daughter. They should sit above her bed nicely!

 Hopefully J and I can have some holiday fun together tomorrow...

x KL

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

Desperately seeking answers....a colour quandry

 Today was spent doing more painting....and finally the last of the upstairs ceilings are finished. Phew!
I have been told by 'the boss' David, that I am NEVER to design a house with these style of ceilings again. LOL. ATM, I don't think I want to design a house again, EVER.

 The time to commit to the wall colour has now arrived.
They are currently undercoated in un-tinted white which is very cold and stark. I'll paint most of the walls in the same white I've chosen elsewhere in the house; Dulux Natural White (ceilings are 25% strength). I want to break up the cavernous open plan area upstairs by adding charcoal features (Dulux Domino) and also to tie with downstairs.
It's just the where to start / stop issue that's making me nervous!

 Feature walls look best when used to highlight a single wall with no openings and paint starts and stops in internal corners. I'm wanting the feature walls here to be dark to recede them and to delineate the hall as a separate entity to the large lounge room.
I'm happy that the contrast achieves this in the renderings above.

 I also want some WOW factor when looking up the stairwell from the entry, to the main living above, so had planned that shallow recess to be dark too...

See the little nib wall on the right, above. According to 'ideal plan' it should be white but does that look odd? Unbalanced? Help!

And is it too much ?

 I had envisaged the end wall (with the two windows) and seen below, to be charcoal too. Eeeek!
I am SO overcome with indecision!

Some more deets: The floors are to be a wide plank, light to mid toned oak. The kitchen charcoal with a white island. A large dark hued carpet square will be inserted into the lounge room where there will be white slip-covered sofas. All of those dark walls will have substantially sized artwork on them.

Here's a plan, the RED lines showing where I'm considering using the dark wall colour.

I would dearly like your input on this...and be forever grateful!
...if you've never commented before,
or do so regularly,  
PLEASE share your thoughts!

x KL 

Thank you for stopping by my blog. You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback! If you enjoy my ramblings, perhaps consider following by Email, Bloglovin' or Google+. Join this site via Google Friend's Connect so I can follow you too!

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

Thank you for stopping by my blog. You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback! If you enjoy my ramblings, perhaps consider following by Email, Bloglovin' or Google+. Join this site via Google Friend's Connect so I can follow you too!