Sunday Build Update

The floor is finally finished two and a half weeks after my initial floor post! So I now have decided to start a regular Sunday post for a while giving build and then interior design updates for the week. I was hoping to start it last Sunday but there was nothing much to report on, we had some delays (the office didn't order enough flooring).

My Dad and the kids admiring the view

Well now the floor is done, we have cleaned up to a certain extent so we can use the space, as we were told this week the next trade, the plasterer won't be here until after Easter, so a bit of a wait. The furniture in the pictures below is temporary and that awful board next to the sliding doors is meant to be a pane of glass (yes they didn't put it in, good one Stegbar!).

The other change this week is we have cut a hole in the wall above the kitchen sink to open it up and create a servery of sort, as on the other side of the wall is the dining area. Updating the rest of the kitchen is going to be a few years off (would love a white one with Jarrah bench tops) but this makes a huge difference as it is.

Now you see it.................

Now you don't..........................

And from the dining side.................

Looking back on the kitchen and door to hall.................

Well we are getting there but can't wait for the plasterer to finish so we can start to paint and decorate properly. As we can't paint inside this week or over Easter the focus will be on the weatherboard.

Hope you had a great weekend.

Time tricks

It was the first day of my daughters first ever school holidays today and I took her into the City to my office where we met my parents, who then looked after her for the day. Having her on the train with me and then showing her around, it suddenly hit me that time has really flown, where did the school term go and more importantly where did the last five years go? Slow down time!

On the other hand time as far as the build goes has slowed right down. In this case I want it to be the end of June and all over.

Those that read my blog regularly are probably thinking but it was going so fast, so what happened? Knock through that's what. I have been told by many once they knock through and are inside everything slows down and that is so right. They knocked through almost two weeks ago and since then there has been no obvious changes. They started the floor but haven't come back to finish it. I am told this will happen tomorrow but I will believe when I see it.

On top of which there is probably going to be at least a week and maybe two between the carpenters coming tomorrow and the plasterer starting! So speed up time!

Do you change colour with the season?

Well now in April, day light savings has ended, leaves are starting to change colour and fall, frost has appeared on a couple of mornings and Winter fashion is in the shops, we are well and truly into Autumn.

Our canadian Maple the centre of our garden.

With this in mind when I saw a gorgeous red coat for my daughter the other day I snapped it up as we have already had cold days. This got me thinking that as far as fashion goes I make a shift in colours for the season but should I do the same in the house?

I often see in magazines the promotion of splashes of cool blues and green for Summer and then a change to the warmer orange or red cushions and throws for Winter.

Our house with mainly white walls (except for the new blue hallway) decorated with pictures in black frames, wooden floorboards and wood or white furniture really does provide that great neutral palette to change the accent colours for the season but I never really have.

This is probably because blue is my favourite colour with red being a close second, so I have both around the house all year around, so I suppose I naturally cover the seasonal colour spectrum. And I must admit, though I have these colours in my house all the time I am constantly moving things around to give different effects no matter what the season.

How would you be on a lifestyle reality show?

Have you ever watched lifestyle reality shows and thought ‘I can’t believe they are getting so upset when they have a camera on them’? Well I have but now due to recent experience I am wondering if I would be the same.

This morning with the mad rush of getting ready for work (which my little boy was trying to stop me from doing by clinging to me), getting the kids ready for school and Kinda and then having the builders and washing machine repair man all rock up at the same time asking questions, I was getting a little frazzled to say the least.

So what did I do but start to raise my voice at Hubby as he headed out the door to deal with the builders ‘I need to get to work, I am already late and if I don’t leave soon don’t know how I can leave work early to pick up the kids this afternoon.’

Well the level of my voice stopped Hubby in his tracks as he tried to get me to quieten down with an embarrassed ‘ the builders can hear you, tone it down.’

Of course this made it worse and I yelled ‘I don’t care!’ and then proceeded to burst into tears.

This resulted in a quick response from my daughter saying ‘Daddy, Mummy is upset’ and she came over to give me a cuddle while my little boy started kissing my face. So sweet and just what I needed. They very quickly had calmed me down and made me smile.

Would all these reactions of changed with a camera in my face, now not so sure. Renovating or building a house is very emotional.

PS I forgot to say a big thank you to Jane at Life on Baby Planet for helping me spruce up my header.

Break through!

It has been a hectic week, we have had knock through and so now lots of mess and nights where we haven't been able to use the kitchen. Thankfully we have some wonderful close friends that have had us over for dinner this week.

On top of which we have had to use others washing machines as ours has decided to die on us right in the middle of everything else going on!

This is the kitchen island bench covered in orange plastic......

To the left of the ladder is the entrance to the new hall which will go to two bedrooms, family bathroom and laundry.

This is all why I haven't posted for a week as there has been many a night where we haven't got into our house until after 8pm then it is the rush for the kids bed time routine and cleaning up what we can before we collapse ourselves.

Start of our new floorboards, hopefully to be completed tomorrow.......

More photos of our existing kitchen (currently not my taste at all) soon as a bit of a surprise later in the week.

Hope you have all had a great weekend.

Earth Hour - a candlelit evening

For Earth Hour last night we decided to make an event of it, had friends over for dinner and had an evening by candle light. Made for some interesting photo effects.

Earth Hour is a fantastic idea for getting people to think about the environment and this year they are calling on people to go beyond the hour.

This we are trying to do with our day to day in our household making sure things are turned off at the switch and only heating rooms when required. We are also looking at sustainability with our build - double glazed windows, rain water tank and solar panels to name a few.

Hope you having a good weekend, our kids really enjoyed the candle light last night.

A rude awakening - a build story

7.15 this morning and there was a loud knock at the door, which I stumbled to answer with wet hair and in my slippers (oh and a dress thankfully!) to find a fit looking guy at the door announcing he was there to put on our new roof. This I was very excited about but couldn't seem to muster much enthusiasm for the poor guy when I was still half asleep (not helped by being up with my little boy from 4-5 earlier in the morning) and hadn't yet had that vital cup of coffee. So I am thinking I looked a little stunned, especially when he told me they would be done by lunch time. In my sleep induced brain I thought, well that is impressive for one or two guys!

New sliding doors - French doors you can see are been taken out along with that wall next week

Well with coffee finally in hand and sitting in between my two kids on the sofa, looking through our new sliding doors (put in yesterday) my five year old daughter quickly established for me there were six guys walking around on the roof frame (glad she is more with it then me in the morning) and then proceeded to tell me and Hubby (who had just come out to the kitchen to get the kids breakfast) she wants to put on roofs when she grows up so she can climb like that! While my little boy runs off to get his Bob the Builder tool set so he can maybe help (this is a regular occurrence at the moment, so cute).

Following this we continued to get ready for work and the kids ready for school and kinder hearing thumping overhead, which is a little disconcerting. Not quite as bad as the walls shaking a few days ago though. And I am sort of getting used to having builders around just outside the French doors at the end of the kitchen so they can see the morning scramble and chaos in our house. Still for some reason feel like I need to tidy up so they don't think we are too piggish with dishes everywhere (hard to do on mornings like today when we were running late and sleep deprived).

Anyway I am now getting prepared for the invasion to enter a whole new level next week when they are planning on knocking through into the kitchen / family area and knocking out our existing laundry. This is exciting and I am glad they are moving quickly but a little freaked at the fact that this weekend we need to clean out our kitchen and laundry and be prepared to live in the front of the house for a while. Yikes!

So now home from work and sure enough they have finished the roof.