Cover style

I have discovered over the past few weeks just how good magazine covers are for inspiration, you don't even need to look inside but of course most of the fun is flipping through the pages and reading about the homes featured.

Love the natural look with hints of blue and green...

Over the past few weeks I have have spent a lot of time in bed sick, firstly with a bad virus and then pneumonia, giving me plenty of time to look at magazines. Luckily for me I have two years worth of Home Beautiful and Real Living in my bookshelves, as family have kindly given me subscriptions to both for Christmas.

Oh and red and blue together against a white back drop (love the Christmas issues)......

We also have hit delays with the build, we are at fixing stage but now moving very slowly waiting for a tiler to come so others can finish off. I was warned this would happen, you think you are nearly there and then the last bit seems to take ages.

Got to love blue especially with white....

At least this has meant I haven't had to deal with tradies much while at home feeling rotten and I have been distracting myself with trying to figure out what style to go with in the new living space. These pictures will give you an idea of what I like, now just have to work out what elements to take from them.

And can't go past red, especially for Winter........

Chocolate cupcakes - healthy and easy version

Chocolate cupcakes, warm out of the oven so good with a cup of tea or coffee to warm you up. So good right now for the unusual really cold May weather Melbourne is experiencing .

The issue for our household is my little boy is allergic to eggs, the common ingredient in most cakes. So I was very happy when I found a recipe in the most recent edition of Better Homes and Gardens for a healthier version of chocolate cupcakes (well they say they are muffins but I think they are more like cupcakes) - instead of using egg you add mashed pumpkin. Sounds odd but delicious.

So how to make them? Simple, just buy a packet of chocolate cake mix and add to the mix two cups of mashed pumpkin and stir until smooth. Put the mixture into cupcake casings or a muffin tin and cook at 200 for 20 minutes.

The kids and hubby and I loved them. Plus it was a fun family activity making them. It will be even better when we get our kitchen and surrounding family space back! On this, the plasterer says he will be finished tomorrow so hope I have some images to share later this week.

To Move or not to move?

Is staying in the house while renovating a good idea or would it be better to move out?

Obviously in some cases there is no choice. On one side the renovation could be so extensive that you are forced to move out and on the other the budget might be so stretched that having to pay rent elsewhere is too difficult and there is no options for staying rent free with family or friends for a long period.

Building cubbies in kids bedroom as distraction

So what to do if you do have the choice? I got to thinking about this after reading an article earlier this week on Domain about a family that did stay in the house. The comments that followed were very interesting.

I then got asked by a neighbour on Friday about our decision to stay, especially when we have two young kids. In our case we have no parents here in Melbourne to stay with as some of my friends have done and we decided that the amount of rent we would have to pay to be in the neighbourhood and out of the house for at least six months was just a little too much.

And well it has been an experience and the week coming up is probably going to be one of the hardest. Thus far:

• We went without a shower in the house for nine weeks (we thought it would be three) while we converted the family bathroom to an ensuite.
• During this period hubby and I slept on a sofa bed in the lounge and the hallway between the bedrooms was out of bounds for the kids, which ended up meaning my daughter slept in the lounge with me (she got scared) and hubby slept in the bedroom with my son, not ideal.
• We now are living in the front of the house while we do our back extension, so all our furniture is squashed into two bedrooms, a lounge and the hall.
• The kitchen is being covered with plastic almost every day now, just a bit annoying.
  
• The mess is amazing inside the house and the mud outside and pile of builders waste in the back garden has made it out of bounds for the kids.
• And at times the tension is very high, the builders have heard me yell (well more to the point loose it) and seen me in my slippers and PJs at 7am.

Getting out as much as possible

The past week has been even harder with the plasterer here working not only in the back area but in the kids current bedroom and the weather has been freezing and wet so going to the park is not an option. This week the plasterer is sanding and ripping down and replacing old cornice in the kitchen so we have now been told to move everything out of the kitchen which we were just covering. (I think takeaway or visits to friends might be in order).

So as you can imagine the part of the house we are living in is getting more and more cluttered and I keep tripping over stuff. I hate clutter!

But by the end of this week things should improve dramatically, well that's what I keep telling myself.

And though it has been a nightmare at times I am glad I am here in my own house and seeing it all unfold around me. Would I do it again? Not sure ask me in another couple of months when it is all over.

So back to miving things around again. Hope you are having a good weekend.

A drive in the country for garden ideas

A jaunt to the country, well in this case the outer Melbourne area of Warrandyte, (so not really country but fresh air, orchards, rolling hills and a river) was great for inspiration, relaxation and just getting out of Melbourne a little.A visit to a local orchard and after seeing these fruit bins think we will be heading back soon to buy some fruit to use as herb and vegetable planter boxes.

Also love this setting and beautiful deciduous trees for Autumn colour...

And to add to this can't go past a visit to an Antique store, this one in the main street of Warrandyte even has a gorgeous rustic entrance.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Is that a room I see......

First paint coat on the extension

It has been a good three weeks since the last post and I haven't even had the chance to follow what is going on other blogs, so to that next.

So where have I been, well struggling with a bad back and frozen shoulder, both which are aggravated by being on the computer. For this reason I had to dedicate all my computer time to my paid work.

Surprisingly while I have been away not much obviously has happened in terms of the build until this week with the arrival of the plasterer, arriving three weeks after the carpenters / builders had finished what they could.

We in the mean time had started painting the external weatherboard an off white, our electrician did more work and insulation went in.


And then Tuesday the plasterer arrived. What a difference a bit of plasterboard makes, it is starting to look like actual rooms.....

Pity about the board still covering the missing pane of glass - come on Stegbar, what about some service!

Now I would put up pictures of the bedrooms and bathroom but seriously they just look like boxes at the moment.

So this week the plasterer will put in the cornices and finish off. I can't wait as we can then clean all the mess (something I am a little over) and use the space more again.

But tomorrow I am hopefully going to forget about the build for a day and spend it with my family. My daughter tells me she has some lovely surprises for me.

And to my Mum and all the other Mums out there hope you have a great mothers day tomorrow.

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!