Wednesday 28 November 2012

Ceramic Stools

Ceramic stools, anyone else have trouble finding these under a $100? I have seen some recently on Ebay starting at $50 which for me is the cheapest I have seen them but they are located in Melbourne.

Anyone know of any in the Brisbane or even Gold Coast area selling for a decent price? I have looked on and off but not too seriously. I have even thought what a great idea to import them as they cost literally nothing but where would I store a thousand or so stools? Haha. Really I need to be saved before I become desperate and spend a stupid amount of money on one.

We are heading back to Brisbane this weekend to pick up an ebay purchase and would love to bring one of these back.

Here are some pics for anyone unsure of what I am talking about.



 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Kitchen Island Pendants

After looking and looking for lighting to go above our island bench I decided to go back to one of my original choices. If I were in America I would have had just as much trouble because I wouldn't have been able to narrow it down to just one choice. But I live in a little regional city that while has a lot of the major stores it is really lacking in the homeware area...and it's pricey too. We live near Brisbane but I don't go over enough to know where the best little homeware stores are and often when we head over it is usually a mad dash to do what we need to do and it leaves little time to do the type of shopping I want to.

Some of my favourites.

By Lamps Plus - I love the shape of this one

Home Decoraors Collection - This is of course similar
to the one used in the Mel's (Georgica Pond) gorgeous perfect kitchen

West Elm

I really considered this one as this is available
at various places in Australia but decided the conical
shape wasn't quite right


I checked back over my favourite pics and one type of light kept popping up. It has been done in so many kitchens on Houzz but I think they give just the right type of look for my kitchen and they were the right price (on sale) so that won me over as well. Bit scary buying stuff that you have only seen over the internet in pictures but we think the size should be okay.

We bought three of the Schots Parisian Pendant lights in the brushed nickel but I think the Chrome would have been nice too.

Schots Parisian Pendant







Out of box shot
Linda Mcdougald Design - I hope they look a little like this, wish I had the kitchen coming too.




I am so excited about them and can't wait to see them put up. For an ordinary everyday suburban mum it is surreal to think I get a little slice of America in my project house to make it a little bit special.

 My lovely hard working husband organised to have these sent from Melbourne through a courier through his work. This is the second time he has organised special lighting for the house, the other one I will do another post on as it is my most favourite thing of all for this new house, although there has been some dramas about the size of it.

Tash





Tuesday 20 November 2012

Windows Doors and Solar

We have had our front door and windows installed and it really looks like a pretty cottage from the front now. Our sitting and rumpus room windows have not been fitted in yet due to the adjustment to frame not being correct. I am loving the front windows they are my favourite thing.

The two whirly birds and the solar panels and solar hot water have all been installed. I kinda thought that the whirly birds looked really daggy up there on the roof but I don't notice them now, yes I know they're not there too look good.

The front door fits in really well with the look that I was going for while still being a modern pivot door. I couldn't find a pic of this door anywhere on the internet and it didn't cost anything extra to switch to this style from the standard style door. I would love to paint it a blueish colour like Melinda from Georgica Pond but piked out at our colour selection appointment.

On the weekend we went out and swept and tidied up the site and my husband noticed that a pipe out the front was leaking, on closer inspection it had been broken and taped back up. We let the ss know and the plumber fixed it up.

We are having a private inspector out today to have a look but I am leaving that stuff to hubby to worry about. He had a panicked moment thinking that they had put the solar right where the flue for the gas heater is to come out but it is all fine.

Also have changed my floor tile in the wet areas, not the laundry though. I just wasn't feeling the love for the dark grey and if you'll remember it was not my first choice. So after searching around Brisbane we found a tile I am happier with and a size that can go in the shower. It now fits in closer to my inspiration pics and is totally impractical, haha. The dark grey will stay in the laundry.

Front windows - They are white but covered by black plastic

Garage parapet

Beautiful rafter tails

Our front door - will be painted not stained - 1200 wide

Side view of front porch

French door in main bedroom

Bifolds looking out to outdoor room off the dining area

Bifolds off family room - will deck or concrete this area

Looking out one of the pretty front bedroom windows

Standing in entrance looking back to front door

Solar and hot water panels and two whirly birds
Looking up at the 25 degree pitch roof

Gas fireplace spot in family room

Surfmist roof


Saturday 17 November 2012

Graduation Day and Formal

My 18 year old daughter has finally graduated from highschool. Our day started with dropping her off for breakfast at 7.30 at the school then a mad dash to buy shoes and a shirt for my husband (we like to leave things to the last minute) then back to school for last roll call where she recieved a vase with all of the graduating girls names on it.

It was a long day but it is something nice to look back on for her. I am relieved it is over and I now only have the house to worry about organising for a bit.

Here are some home grown non professional shots.



Us - My heels killed all night!

Off to schoolies to today, I have been telling her she needed to go all year but
she didn't want to then she changed her mind at the eleventh hour.

Thursday 15 November 2012

A Quick Rundown

Okay so silly me lost her cord that connects camera to computer when somebody pointed out to me that my computer might have an SD card slot (clueless I am). So here is a long overdue update.

So since my last post we had just started our frames and it was speeding along but all up it took about a week maybe to really finish everything off. We had been checking it as it went along and we knew that the windows in the sitting and rumpus room were sitting too low to the ground but after checking the plan they were correct as shown on plan but we had upgraded them to be longer so wanted them placed higher on the wall to match the height of the bifold. Something we missed when signing off on the plan but it was no problem to have them adjusted.

My husband had also noticed that something was not right about our entrance way but was not sure, as the frames progressed it became clear that they had given us 2.7m in the entrance the same as the rest of the ceilings but we had upgraded to allow for 3m. He gave a call to our SS late that afternoon and by the next day he had called back to say that the frame supplier had made a mistake and were making new trusses asap. I have been criticised for demanding they tear down perfectly good roof trusses but let me make it clear that conversation did not occur, there were no demands of any sort my husband left a message and by the time our SS got back to us it was being rectified, this was between our builder and their supplier. All up it delayed us about a week and we are very happy with how it was handled and how it now looks. Enough justifying, after all we did actually pay for it.

So frames are complete, our surfmist roof is on with most of the gutters as we have half round gutters only out the front and they are waiting on a bracket. Rafter tails to the front are also on.
We are further ahead than just this but I'll leave that to my next post.

Okay now to catch up on some pics.

Trusses started

Frame complete with preparation for roof started

Slighly blurry pic of the back of the house

Rafter tails at front only completed with removed trusses on ground

Roof on

Entrance

3m ceiling

Wednesday 7 November 2012

MIA






Hi everyone, Sorry for my lack of posts recently, I don't take too well to nasty comments lol. It kinda took the excitement and fun out of sharing my build here and on H1. I have no issue with differing points of view but these were over the top rude and nasty. I won't go into specifics about what was said, it's all for public viewing on my H1 thread but it certainly was a totally unexpected point of view. I didn't think that something just written down by someone could knock your confidence even though I know what was written to be untrue.

Anyway a few things have happened since I last posted but probably not what you would expect!

Pics and post tomorrow and I will let those of you not following me on H1 in on what has been happening with my build. I need to get my mojo together again for this house!

Tash xx