I'm Dreamin' About ...

... Books!

And wondering if we have enough book shelving in the new house. We've got built-in shelving planned for the study but that's it and our current old bookcase is now unusable thanks to the chewed sides as decorated by our dog!!

Here's what I like ...

Both images from the one apartment via Trendland.

And here's a cute idea for recyling vintage books to make your own shelving ...

Image via Belle Maison

P.S Am currently reading 'Noah's Compass' by Anne Tyler and can't put it down! Highly recommend it for those looking for a good read.

Guess what this is?

I bet no one guessed a bank! Right?

Emmanuelle Moureaux Architecture has pulled off (I reckon) a unique and fun take on what they call a 'rainbow mille-feuille' design for the exterior of the Shimura Branch of the Sugamo Shinkin Bank in Tokyo, Japan.

How cool is it?

They describe it as: 'A rainbow-like stack of colored layers, peeking out from the façade to welcome visitors. Reflected onto the white surface, these colors leave a faint trace over it, creating a warm, gentle feeling. At night, the colored layers are faintly illuminated. The illumination varies according to the season and time of day, conjuring up myriad landscapes'.

Even the inside is different with the ceiling adorned in dandelion puff motifs made to look like they float and drift through the air.

I think I'd bank here if I lived in Tokyo!

Images via The Contemporist

A window here, a garage there ...

 Windowless kitchen window viewed from deck.

A window here, a window there ... I wish there were windows everywhere!

 View from eastern side of deck through to the entrance way.

Okay, so that was a poor attempt at a rhyme but it is, oh, so true.

 

 Front entrance

However, glass did arrive on site on Friday and it has started to go in today and the window company assured us that by this Friday it will all be in. Crack open the bubbly but don't crack the glass!

Other news: the garage is going up.

 

And the Lilly pillys are going in along the boundary fence by the pool.

Interior designers, sofas, rugs and windows

Mystic Collection rug from De Poortere

Hello, everyone! I'm back! Had a rather longer hiatus than I'd intended mainly because of over-commitments and increasingly frustrating delays with the house which was making me feel less than inspired.

Update: still not all the windows have been put in! Can you believe it? How a company can be in such disarray for windows sizes to be continually wrong and for them to be unable to meet any deadlines that are put to them is unfathomable. But only in the building trade, I guess. As I have already mentioned, all we need now is Kevin McCloud (Grand Designs) to do a close-up to camera.

Nonetheless, I have been plodding on with interior stuff which is a little tricky when you have less than a 'done' house to work with. For instance, how to chose curtains/blinds when you have no windows? My solution: enlist the help of an interior designer. My friend Rachel of Olsen ID has been a godsend. She has taken away the gumpf cluttering my mind and turned it into something amazing. Well, that's what it looks like in mini samples on the floor - a mood board of sorts (sorry, no photos). She has managed to cut the wood from the trees, the daisies from the meadow, the birds from the bees ... what? Nevermind, you get my drift.

Having decided to upgrade our sofa, the mere fact of finding a new one became a bigger and ever more confusing job than we had ever expected. It seemed the pressure to find the 'right' one in the 'right' fabric that was going to suit our still incomplete living space that would last indefinitely proved all too much. And then hubby and I had to agree! Oh, hail, the interior designer. Thankfully, Rachel knew what I liked (the colour teal, primarily), where I was coming from (traditional contemporary, or something like that) and was able to pluck out suitable fabrics, wallpapers, paint colours and even a new twist to the underside of the kitchen island bench that all coordinated perfectly.

We managed to decide on the main fabric for the sofa (Westbury textiles, Lugano, colour Rye, if anyone is interested which sort of feels like velvet but sort of looks like linen - trust me, it works) but have yet to decide on the cushion fabric. Yet what I do have my heart set on is an amazing turquoise rug (something I never thought I'd have and neither did hubby who did require some convincing!) that is made from old bits of Turkish rugs and dyed the one colour. It looks like an antique sea (it's the one above and you can check it out and others in other colours here).

Tomorrow, I will be going back on site to see if maybe, just maybe, all the windows are in. And hopefully, I'll have some good news and some more pictures.

Until later ...
Jx

Tree House

I took my interior design friend, Rachel, to the house the other day and her first comment on being in the living space was that it was like being in a tree house.

I'd never thought of that before but I guess it kind of is - with it being high up, the views of the trees - and then when the timber flooring goes in it really will be.

Then the next day I was there, we had a visitor who clearly thought the same thing ...

They might be cheeky and loud and swoop to pinch your picnic food, but I love kookaburras!

I hope you all have a lovely Easter and I'll see you back here next week.

Jx

News & Views from the House

Well, I seem unable to find time to blog these days - ironically work on the house is becoming more time-consuming and then there's my work, a writing course I'm doing and the girls on school holidays.

Don't bring out the violins because it is all self-induced. I just need to say no occasionally but that's another story.

On this story, we are making progress but not as quickly as we'd like because there have been some dramas with the glass for the windows with it not fitting the frames when it arruives on site! I feel like we're on a series of the television program Grand Designs - although, thankfully, we don't have host Kevin McCloud doing a close-up to camera on whether or not we'll finish on time and on budget!

The plan, as I mentioned in a previous post, was to have lock-up by Easter but that's now not possible. The guys are working as hard as they can to fit the windows and then do the cladding at the same time and also prepare the area and foundations for the garage (which will now be done all in timber rather than brick which is easier, quicker and saves money - hooray!).

Anyhow, here's a few pictures ...

Weatherboard cladding going up around the front bedroom (below) and the study above. It will be painted Dulux Natural White and should look pretty good methinks.

Close-up of the cladding.

One of the girl's bedroom windows - sans glass.

Woodchips in the bedroom and purple converse feet (my daughter's).

The last of the original bricks being stored in the guest bedroom which were to go on the garage but will now be used in the landscaping.

The garage foundations and site being prepared.

A pier for the garage. Alice and the Mad Hatter may be down there ... who knows?

Good byeeee!

More building progress ...

Just realised I floated a way for longer than I intended!

But I'm back and pleased to report some more progress on the house.

The site office has been removed from the back garden

and set up in the TV room (through the door) and dining space (seen here)

Ceiling insulation has been installed (and, no, I didn't just take a photo of used tinfoil!)

The electrical stuff has been roughed out or in or up or whatever the expression is, I always forget!

Study

The plumber has been in

Guest bedroom ceiling

Styligh green buckets have been left lying around

Master bedroom

Hugh the Digger has been preparing the site for the garage

And the water pipe is slowly disappearing under layers of cement and brick.

This will one day be a garden

It is certainly still hard to imagine how this mountain of brick, cement, rubble and mud will ever be transformed into a home and that one day we will be living there but technically it's only four months away!

Watch this space next week when the windows will be going in and the cladding going on!