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!

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.