Views from Inside

Well, the camera has been doing overtime! While it does feel a little weird taking photos of what is now our home - rather than a work in progress - here are some shots of inside.

As an unconfident sewer, I have to point out the homemade turquoise velvet cushion - one of four I'm proud to say! The fabric was bought on a whim on a visit to Auckland last hols and it perfectly matches, as I had hoped, the rug.

Entrance to the living space and kitchen, capturing the view of the trees.

View from the deck through to the kitchen and dining space - plus an amazing floral creation of sunflowers and cabbages a friend made for me.

Kitchen/living wall niche painted in Resene Triple Masala.

The bathroom off the living room.

The wallpaper is from Laura Ashley if anyone's interested, bought on sale at an amazing $48 a roll which is a bargain in wallpaper-world!

Front door and stairwell detail. Finally the glass balustrades are in and are the correct measurements!

Am loving the sandstone wall but it does seem to attract the huntsmen! Although we have had two in the dishwasher so maybe there's just something about the house. Whatever it is, I'll have to warn our English visitors who are arriving in two weeks!

Until next time ...

Jx

Four days to go!

I've been really slack with my blogging, I know, I'm sorry. And some of the tradies have been really slack on site, too! The painters have been sacked and replaced by a new team and the pool man has been fired for not turning up. The painting is only half done, there is no carpet, no wallpaper, no study joinery.

We move in on Thursday and this is what it looks like ...

The carpet is being laid on Wednesday and the stair balustrades are going in Thursday morning. Talk about tight! But at least the front door's in.

And we have an entrance.

We have kitchen benchtops, a gas hob and a new fence behind.



We have some lovely bathroom tiling.

Master bath

Girl's bathroom

We have a louvred privacy screen on the deck.

A partially formed barbecue area off the deck.

And a fence-less back yard which better be fenced when we move otherwise Ruby will be roaming!

And at least they're trying to look after the floors ...

No matter if the paint's still tacky I can't wait to move in!

P.S Tomorrow I'll show you two pendants I've just picked up which are yet to be hung ... Jx

Look, no scaffolding (and more)!

I can't believe what a difference scaffolding makes! Apart from being able to see the house better, without it the rooms are a million times lighter.

Nor can I believe what a difference a kitchen makes, and a wardrobe or two!

It's really beginning to look like a proper house now.

There's even door handles.

You can see a bit of the timber flooring.

And this is what it'll be like with its China Oil, semi-gloss coating.

The countdown is on!

Kookaburras, joinery, sandstone and baths

I have a confession to make: I haven't posted all week because I didn't want to moan. It's been quite worrying the amount that has to be done prior to September 10 and it seemed as if none of it would ever happen. But I'm now pleased to say that after my visit to the house this morning, I don't have to do any moaning! Yay! Because lots has been happening and is scheduled to happen every day from here on in.

The sun was shining, it was a balmy 24 degrees and even the kookaburras were happy!

First up, pretty much all of the joinery has arrived on site.

The girls' bedroom joinery was being put in.

The sandstone is coming along at a cracking pace - it's like a jigsaw putting it together.

The back garden has turned into sandstone city.

The bath in the master bedroom ensuite has gone in and the plumbing begun.

The bathroom tiling will start next week, then the interior painting will begin and the wallpapering. The appliances and lights are ready to come on site as soon as they're given the green light and finally, the rest of the gutter corners have arrived which means the scaffolding can be taken down so the landscaping can begin.
 
It now really does feels that a home is being formed and that very soon we might be in it!
   

Goodness knows who decided to take these off and wander bare foot around a building site - unless he had something more fashionable to change into. But I like their look of laissez-faire, don't you?


So, it's adieu from me and the lone work boots lying casually on the 'lawn' by the pool.
 

Have a great weekend!

Secondhand plates and cake!

I've got these secondhand  plates, see.

Which my daughter reminded me I had when she made a delicious chocolate cake the other day and used one of the plates to serve up a slice.




It was very yummy (the cake that is).

But the thing is, I used to have these plates on a wall when we had a villa but for the past few years they've been in a cupboard. They looked good in an old house but soon we'll be in a new modern house and they just won't go.

Do I keep them just for cake?

(By they way, if you want the cake recipe go to Dachshunds Daisies and Design, my daughter's new blog!)

Building Progress

There's been a lot going on at the building site and I finally feel like a proper house is taking shape slowly but surely which is exciting. I took a stack of photos when I went down on Friday to share with you ...

The big news is that the final window we were waiting on has gone in: the kitchen splashback! It is made from reinforced glass as the cooktop will be under it and when the joinery is in the frame will be invisible.

The rumpus room exposed bricks (from the original house) have been cleaned up and are ready to be coated in a special sealer and the cupboards either side are being built.

The downstairs rooms have been gyprocked such as seen here in one of the girls' bedrooms.

These are two views of the entrance way (above and below - timber stairs to come) and I am just envisaging the ostrich feather pendant light I've bought hanging above (which thankfully got through customs without too much of a hitch - although I do wonder what I was thinking when I ordered it direct as Australian customs officials do not like to see the words 'feather' in a shipment! But that's another story ...)

The electrician is nearly finished wiring the place and there are wires for Africa everywhere!

The garage is well underway and the roof is now on.

There are all sorts of other bits and bobs happening and plenty of decisions to be made ie heights of light switches, placement of heated towel rails, curtaining/blind specifics, confirmation of all light fittings, bathroom tiles, pool tiles, fencing issues, plant decisions ... the list goes on!

All I can say is rock on September 10 which is the date we've been told we can move in. What's more, we've now also been given a letter to vacate from our landlord, which means we'll have to be in whether it's finished or not!

A Dutch Kitchen

I can't decide if I like this kitchen or not.

I've always loved the idea of a clutter-free, minimalist, all-white kitchen (although how one can maintain this with kids, I don't know??) but this one -  a newly renovated apartment in Amsterdam by Hofman Dujardin Architects - seems a little too stark for my liking.

Yet I love that the large central island is the kitchen, plus the amazing floor-to-ceiling windows, the comfy looking dining chairs, colourful table centrepiece and the timber floors.

Images via The Contemporist

But I'm not sure about the light. It's as if some weird spider-like alien is about to land.

What do you think?

Much ado about the splashback

If you have been following this blog for a while, you will know I had my heart set on a clear glass splashback in the kitchen right from the start. It was established that, providing we changed the current view from its lofty position (ie rickety old fence and a motley collection of neighbourly plants), it could be a great feature and would work well. You can see its long rectangular frame here, behind which we plan to have a row of bamboo planted on the ground floor below that will provide a vibrant splash of greenery and a nicer view.

The architect then suggested the splashback also act as a sliding window (to match other sliding windows in the house) and to have no joins and no visible framing. We said "sure". The builder was visibly excited about this design feature and was determined we - ie he, the architect, engineer and glass contractor - could do it.

Except only last week, we found out the engineering logistics required to make this happen. With such a long, big piece of glass it obviously needed to function safely and also be able to slide into the wall cavity and not affect the toilet window at the other end of the same wall.

Listening to them discuss the ins and outs and potential difficulties, we began to wonder if it needed to open at all. I mean, half the living area completely opens up anyway, so it's not like we need the ventilation.

Cue email to architect, saying: let's save some time and money and ditch the fully openable splashback and concentrate on something else - like sorting out the feature niches I'd like in the dining space or how we're going to move the tree ferns for a second time!