Home libraries

March 6, 2015March 9, 2015 | Jessica

I have, it might be admitted, a small fetish for books. When I say small, I need to confess that we currently have 9 bookcases in the house and most of those are double-stacked. All the bookcases are the usual 1.8m x 1m size, and we also have 1 large Ikea bookcase. There are also books on the floor. I mention this because recently I’ve been hanging out at Pinterest again and I’ve been looking at other people’s home libraries. When I say looking at I mean slavering over. Here are a couple of libraries I particularly like. It might be that I like the views. Or perhaps the Eames chair that keeps popping up. Or the desks. Or the window seats.

But here’s a thing. I’m not very interested in curated bookshelves, you know, the ones that hold shells and corals and art glass alongside an artfully placed architectural book and 3 Frankie magazines. Meh. Put the art glass on a proper shelf and get thee some actual books, heathens.

And don’t get me started on organising books by COLOUR. How old are you anyway? 4? Are you in Kindergarten?! There’s a lovely old system for book organising. It’s called the Dewey decimal system. Use it.

The other thing I am liking less and less are those shots of ye olde quaint book store, crammed darkly with musty books I will never read, with overflowing cases and tomes piled high next to not-very-comfortable-looking vintage armchairs, moodily lit interiors with no natural light. I’m telling you, people, I’m too fricking blind to read those books in that appalling cave-lit interior. I need to see the sun when I read. Plus, finding a particular book in this hoarder-disorder’s haven must be a bitch.

And those 2-storey libraries with no ladder? That’s called WALL ART. No one’s gonna risk life and limb to climb that wall just to reread Pride and Prejudice, folks. Let’s not conflate gorgeous architectural feature with accessible reading matter.

Finally, I realise I couldn’t care less about most people’s libraries, because I don’t want to read THEIR books. I want to read mine. So, for those who give a shit, here is my preferred reading matter. Be warned, it’s a listicle.

Books by women, all nationalities

Books by award winners (but not the really worthy or obtuse ones because life’s too short)

Sci-fi books by people like Ursula Le Guin and Iain M Banks although I confess to also owning a reasonable amount of space opera

Australian crime fiction; other crime fiction, usually by women writers

Australian literature, all authors, eras and styles

Academic books about my academic interests

Funny books about grammar and weasel words, dictionaries and thesauruses

Singing text books, scores and song albums (by far the biggest selection in my library)

Biographies and autobiographical books

Feminist tracts (well ok, maybe just a few because they’re hard going at times)

Recipe books but only the really pretty ones or the really well worn Australian Women’s Weekly ones

Beautiful coffee table books

Poetry and plays

And last and least, airport novels, doorstoppers and bodice rippers that I can discard or give away or leave in airports – although I find it hard to discard!

I have a few other book collections, including my very favourite childhood books from A.A. Milne etc., some favourites from my children’s childhood, some old craft books and handyman books, lonely planet guide books, plus funny quote and joke books that DH likes to collect. Plus some sadly useless garden books (because I have black thumbs – it’s a miracle my children and my pets survived to adulthood).

I do not believe for one minute anyone is remotely interested in my book collections, nor am I interested in military books, anything about cars or fashion. I quite like architecture but not enough to buy books on the stuff and I actively dislike stupid writers. So there goes Jackie Collins and fifty shades of stupid fan fic nonsense.

So Carrie Bradshaw-like, I ask the question: is coveting beautiful libraries on Pinterest mere admiration of their architectural features, or is it for the knowledge those libraries represent?

Or is there a third option? Perhaps this: that a well curated library space enables meaningful learning to take place in a hospitable environment, purpose-built to enhance the value of these collections of words, thoughts, and ideas. And, as every philosopher ever said: “the soul of a home is contained in its library”. Maybe its intellect, too.

Whatever the reason, I know I want and need a library. If nothing more than to get the fricking books off the floor.

Hating the waiting!

February 12, 2015 | Jessica

DH hates the way our house doesn’t work. He wants to come home and put his feet up and suck down a beer on the back deck, proudly surveying our patch of paradise and admiring our pretty little cottage, all decked out in a fresh coat of paint, and garnished with a pretty, easy-care garden.

We don’t have a back deck. But my architect who is coming over this afternoon has some ideas about that.

The long times between decisions feels like this process is taking forever. Not a bad plan when we don’t have enough funds for all the jobs we want to do round the house.

But we’re both quietly screaming with frustration. We’ve been here more than three years now, and neither of us are coping with the Hades summer conditions or the insects or the traffic noise. DH wants the house to look good on the outside while I want the inside to be more functional.

While we get a good amount of breeze through cross drafts we can’t really manage the heat or noise pollution. We have no sound privacy and noise comes up through the floor. Our West Wing is mostly unliveable. It needs gutting, rewiring, insulation and reorganising. DH and I have no ensuite or wardrobes and crap window furnishings in our bedroom. Our single family bathroom is unfit for use due to black mould. Our plumbing needs a complete refit due to leaking pipes and we need a new electrical board and new fittings.

Our daughter’s room is too small in the long term and our kitchen is tragic. Pretty but tragic.

We can’t do anything about the garden until the building plans are finalised. So every few weeks DH gets out there with whipper snippers and the lawn mower and attempts to beat the weeds into submission, while the diggingest dog puts ankle-breaking holes in strategic spots.

Our entryway is too small, the back stairs are on their last legs and there is no ceiling insulation in the verandahs.

Argh!

But as I explained to DH, my income has been bound by PhD studies, with little chance to improve my position until it was finished. Now that it is done, we have a much better chance of improving the house because the dissertation is out of the way. I can work more hours. Also, it’s the last year of 2 lots of school fees. Phew!

But the waiting….. Ugh.

Sourcing the architect

February 9, 2015February 13, 2015 | Jessica

I always knew it would come to this. In the end, given my preference for using Dylan McPherson’s company to build our home, we’re going with an architect who has worked with him before and who trusts Dylan’s excellent product. This architect was coincidentally a sound engineer in a former life so knows and gets musicians and understands my need for a sound proofed room that still resonates on the inside.

He’s not afraid to put together some new ideas for us too, seeing as I want a complete renovation plan prior to building the first stage. There is (as he put it) so much potential for our house, and if we plan carefully we should have a wonderful end result.

His fees are reasonable and he works by the hour. This is good for us as once those plans are in place he can step back and our designer Lisa can step in as liaison between the relevant parties.

This whole process is very crazy but not as far as I can tell unusual. And renovating our home is STILL preferable financially to buying elsewhere. Sigh.

In other news the new art is now in the house and for Xmas my mum gave me a rather gorgeous oil painting by Toni Bucknell of a studio I have always liked. I was surprised when she asked what I wanted from her house, but it appears she’s divesting herself of some stuff. When I said I liked that picture she thought for a moment and then said: yes. None of the other siblings wanted it. It’s not worth much I think but I love it as a reminder of my childhood. So it’s in our kitchen, bright and cheerful and we’re nearly done with all my own paintings (done in high school!). The last remaining similarly cheerful print of a kitchen table is about to go to another happier place in the undercroft.

The plans, the plans!

December 4, 2014 | Jessica

Waiting, waiting. In the meantime, I’ve changed the appearance of the blog for funsies. I’ve come up with some lovely plans, courtesy of my designer, who has shown all sorts of good ideas. Not sure we can afford a single one, but here’s hoping.

Here are some plans I’ve recently played with. The first highlights upstairs and the second downstairs. DH and I desperately want a back deck and extension to our home as we currently have nothing there. I also want a separate studio (with toilet) for my students. The next thing is garage, extra bedroom and bathroom and laundry. And as I mentioned in a previous post, our garden is an interesting jungle design at present and I want to create a back yard oasis – but not until the builders have finished with it first. As our house sits on an 810sqm block, we really don’t have too many limits in the first 20 metres – it’s only the back half of the block that easements are our pest. Our designer talked about going downstairs which works for us, but as we also want to extend the back, it makes sense to me to discuss and plan the next phase before launching headlong into the first phase. But we also need to finalise plans for the front so that when we go to council it’s all there ready to go.

Bought new art. Whoops.

November 30, 2014 | Jessica

Now that I’ve been introduced to Charleston’s Art Auctions I’ve realised this is a very dangerous game. Need to stop going to art auctions now. So on Sunday we went in with a strict budget and I’m happy to say didn’t go over the budget. I’m not sure we needed even more art when we have a fridge on its last legs and and a cooktop that is not only tilted but 2 of the 4 heating elements don’t work. And a bathroom that is so diabolical that even the professional cleaner couldn’t get rid of the black mold in the shower recess. (We’ve retired the cleaner and the grocery deliveries because I don’t have an income for 4 months. Therefore, I have lots of time for cleaning and grocery shopping. Apparently.)

So here are our lovely new paintings. Not expensive, but I rather like the cheerful red and orange one called My Country by Nellie Marks Nakamarra. Every time I go into the kitchen there it is, all bright and present. It’s delicious and a great blast of cheer in that rather dark room. I’m not sure about the Patricia Kamara Bush Medicine blue one. We’ve bought it for DH’s office but I’m not sure it will work there, and it’s quite strong in our blue-themed bedroom. Nevertheless, it will look great over the bed if it doesn’t suit the office. The great thing about buying art is that if you don’t like it or it doesn’t suit purpose you can sell it again. Huzzah!

Buying at auction is great because there is no gallery fee, which is normally 100% mark up or more. These works are each valued at triple their auction price. Auctions don’t really reflect the value of these types of pieces, even at resale. Nevertheless they’re beautiful and dynamic and add colour and vibrancy to our home. There were some truly beautiful large-scale works by prize-winning artists, that went for a steal, which we sadly cannot afford and also can’t hang due to lack of wall. There were a couple of really gorgeous works I particularly coveted but hey. There’ll be other opportunities in future.

Back from NYC and raring to go

November 27, 2014 | Jessica

I’ve had a lovely first-ever trip to NYC and second trip to Seattle and now I’m ready to get started on the renovations. That is, once the plans are planned and drawn up etc. This could take a while.

In the meantime, there’s a Charleston’s art auction on Sunday featuring Aboriginal art. Both DH and I love Aboriginal art and we’ve begun collecting paintings. We already have 3 pieces – a stunning one by Napangardi (1st painting below) is hanging in DH’s office, another by Poly Ngala (7th painting below) is resting uneasily in the kitchen (needs pure white walls to be really awesome), a beautiful work by Pultara (3rd work below) is in our loungeroom. DH organized a purchase by the uni of a stunning work by Ronnie Tjampitjinpa (6th work below) that hangs in his office – and we’re looking to add pieces to our collection. Quite by chance I looked up the website for information about their next auction and it’s this weekend.

GSPDfepqie*&$*^pqnaehiu!!!!!

We can’t really afford new art right now but the prices are so reasonable and the art so lovely it would be a crying shame not to attend. A crying shame. I’m sure I can find a spare wall somewhere. The down side to this type of art is that it needs strong white walls to truly pop. At the moment some of our walls are a pale fawn colour (Dulux 1/4 strength Dune) and fawn is really only good for whimsical art a la vintage French style. We will need to repaint the entire interior of our home. I don’t see a problem with this.

Below are some images of the pieces we like by some artists whose work we have already purchased:

I’m in a world of desire here. As I said to DH, this is both good and bad news. Mind you, I’d rather buy art than a new wardrobe any day.

We’re renovating!!!

November 11, 2014 | Jessica

My designer reported last week that a “pool” house at the bottom of the garden was not possible given the stupid amounts of fees that would be required to relax easement coverage. While we were all disappointed, she visited today and came up with something even better: we’re going under!!

Our house sits on a sloping block and the bottom section of the house (the garage) is legal height. The builder has a brother who owns an earth moving business – it seems we will be able to excavate under the house another three metres or so and put in a double garage, bedroom, bathroom and laundry, linked by a staircase in the little anteroom off the kitchen. The earth moving won’t have to go in more than 3m x 10m by about .6 metres deep, so it’s totally doable, once we replace the posts with a steel H beam. Huzzah!!!!! This is what I had ALWAYS wanted to do, but I thought it would cost more than the figures being bandied about at present. This is due to the great floods of water running through the house, which will require rather a lot of hard landscaping work. I think we will end up with a cost of about $120,000 for all the plans we have but we can cover that with all sorts of spare credit cards if need be. Our bills aren’t going up and DH’s income is set to rise in the next 12 months or so. With any luck so will mine! We won’t be able to build all the lovely jubbly cabinetry I want for a little while, I imagine. But once we’ve got the changes to the house done and informed the bank of the upgrades, we should get some more money to finish the remainder, as presumably the house will go up in value.

Not only that, the designer recommended we build a studio with a skillion roof off the eastern side at the front of the block, where the current skillion entryway is now. If we offset it and don’t go to the boundary – in other words following all regulations – we can fit a 3.5 metre x 6m addition alongside the current house – perfect for the studio and away from the main house, with an entryway at the front. We place lovely new (but old style) stairs to the front of the house, thus giving us a proper four bedroom house with a front verandah, separate studio entry and double garage. I cannot tell you how excited we are. Very excited. OMGOMGOMG. AAARRRRGGGHH!!!!

And now I want to draw it.

Darn the bank – I want my renovation!!

September 11, 2014 | Jessica

I’m planning a return to the stage with a friend who’s writing a seminar on happiness, which amongst other things suggests that happiness is not something that can be attained through the pursuit of it, and that having stuff won’t make us happy. This is so true, however, I’m pretty sure that I’ll be a lot more cheerful when the bank gives us money to do much needed renovations to the house!

At present we’re aching for lots of things, such as wardrobes. Or a quiet teaching space. Or a parental retreat. Or painting the exterior, getting a new fridge and oven (aka kitchen); or even getting more storage and an upstairs laundry. These things, I’m pretty sure, won’t make me happy, but I’ll no doubt feel I can entertain again once I can cook on a better stove.

So, a few weeks ago we went to the bank to enquire about extending our mortgage, given that interest rates have dropped and we won’t be over extending ourselves. Computer said, well, ok, just not very much. Not enough to do the “you-beaut” extension, just a little teensy-weensy pretend renovation. We’re going to have to do this $20,000 at a time, clearly. I wanted $120,000 but they said, no, you can only have $80,000. Thanks. Thanks so much. What can you do with $80,000 when we clearly need a new teaching room (multi-purpose room), bathrooms and a parental retreat with storage?

Well. No new bathrooms this year, and certainly no new storage yet. But perhaps we can repair and paint the exterior, replace the old rattly louvres at the front of the house with new double-glazed casement windows, rejig some of the interior doors into our bedroom, and build a new teaching room down the bottom of the garden (also known as the pool room/teenage retreat) that will house all the books, my studio equipment, and the sofa bed for guests. Once most of the bookcases are out of the way, then we can plan proper storage for the remaining things. Like the pantry. Or some wardrobes for me and the DH.

Here are some images of back-yard rooms that I rather covet. The one below is too small for my needs but I like the colours and the cute verandah:

This one below has a nice set of doors but I hate the natural wood look. Who am I, a lumberjack? I do love natural wood but not all over the house, thanks.

The following is just plain cute with a hideaway look:

In the end, though, I covet and clearly need a room that is large enough to teach in but small enough not to overwhelm the back garden. I had drawn up some plans which are super simple but my mum reminded me that I would need to think about where to place the sofa bed if I covered the entire length of the back wall in bookcases. In other words, which wall would need to be free for this sort of stuff? (Personally, could not care less about housing people – I just want all the books in one place!). So the plans below are still in concept phase 1. I’m still waiting to hear from my designer and the bank. Once these two missing pieces of the puzzle are in place then it’s all systems go!

I have some room design preferences in addition to a simple kitchenette and teensy bathroom. The first is cathedral ceilings with white-painted beams and timber tongue-and-groove-style ceiling cladding. I’ve always loved this look but it needs to be carefully done so it doesn’t end up looking cheap. The second is painted wooden cladding on the exterior – I’ve been told that treated pine planks are fit for purpose and not too expensive. The third is a clerestory window in the gable of the roof. Not sure on cost for that. Then add a covered verandah and an extended deck surround for entertaining. Then paint the interior white, with LED down-lights and VJ walls (not a fan of plaster any more, having lived in houses with VJ walls for 8 years). Then decorate in an industrial-country style. I found a good quality vinyl flooring that looks like timber but is soft underfoot and doesn’t have that hollow clicking sound when you walk on it. Not as gorgeous as true timber flooring but a lot better than click-timber floors. Which I hate. I also hate tiles in living areas, so none of that either. Which leaves me with either carpet (no – not in this climate, also it’s too deadening re sound) or vinyl. I also love polished concrete, but computer says don’t be silly. Multifold doors for outdoor-indoor living, and Bob’s-your-uncle. Add some very basic landscaping (trees and lawn, path and lighting) and we’re done all bar the furnishings.

Pinterest addiction (affliction?!) and the perfect master bedroom

June 11, 2014 | Jessica

I’ve become a little bit addicted to Pinterest. Pinterest is for people like me who have house-porn fetishes. I’ve discovered my style is an amalgam of Hamptons, warm, cozy British library, industrial vintage, French city elegance, collector’s corner and a touch of Scandi cool for DH’s study. I love colour but love muted neutrals too. I hate hate hate slick Italian moderne, glamorous shiny, or “easy care modern living”. Give me visual delight and clutter any day, as long as the floor and surfaces are clean and furniture is not too close to move the vacuum around. I’m suspicious of fads, even when I love them, such as those tall glass cake covers/stuffed animal protectors, because I think they may fall out of fashion pretty quickly, and then what do you do with a big glass thingy? I also love Steampunk style, which is a dense visual display of 19th century rusting industrial design such as watches and cameras and old implements and clothing and a big whack of neo-gothic romance. It’s too busy to have in the house but I can see that hanging paintings via gallery walls (aka salon style) might be good for the style. And the occasional occasional table.

I’ve been browsing Pinterest to help plan my dream spaces. It’s like working with mood boards and magazines except online. Totally addictive. I’ve found lots of interiors I love, particularly kitchens and laundries and bathrooms (because none of ours are any good), but rather fewer master bedrooms. Perhaps that’s because I have such a strong design sense for this space already. Our bedroom is perilously close to being “perfect” in my eyes. The room is a reasonable 3.6 metres by 4.2 metres, and we have a large “sunroom” to the left which we use as a sitting room when the children aren’t here. We don’t have a WIR or ensuite yet. That is a sad, sad story for another day.

The walls are a peaceful sand with white ceilings and our bed linen is Florence Broadhurst Egrets in a striking blue and red pattern which both DH and I loved on first sight:

The nude drawing above the bed I bought from an artist friend, and I’ve started collecting blue and white Chinese-style pots to put on the mahogany chest of drawers because they look lovely against dark wood. I’d like to create a gallery wall but DH is a little bit overwhelmed by home clutter at times so I might have to leave the gallery wall for the powder room (aka the dunny). We have a suitable wall space next to my side of the bed, but given the amount of stuff in the room already I think DH would go crazy! Plus my side of the bed is a bit squeezy. I might have trouble getting past the hangings.

At present there are two separate sets of French doors on opposite walls, plus a big window on the third wall, plus a nursery door on the fourth and final wall. We have a queen-sized tassie-oak 1920s-style bed, 2 restored 1920s vintage bedside tables, 2 large vintage chests of drawers, a vintage wooden chest, a vintage chair in navy velvet (I’ve wanted to get this chair re-covered for 20 years, now I don’t have to because now it’s back in fashion!), and a lovely blue-covered antique corner chair my mother restored. It’s awfully busy, plus there’s a laundry basket in the corner. If we keep the room as our bedroom we’d like to remove one of the French doors (saving and restoring it for the back rooms) so that we have a better use of space and more room around the bed. We’d then put in plantation shutters on the window as it cuts noise and would remove the visual clutter of the curtains which are currently in for privacy, because they’re sure as hell no good for anything else!

Because we are so pressed for storage we’re using the space under the bed for shoes. 2 old under-bed drawers on castors have been loaded up with shoes to try and declutter the room, given that we don’t own a wardrobe or linen closet or WIR or pantry or ANYTHING.

There are a couple of other things I’d like to get for the bedroom, including replacing the lovely but small bedside lamps with Chinoiserie blue lamps (the girls can each have one of the old ones, which are still in fashion but NQR for the space, and we’ll replace the shades with colours in their preference) and perhaps an old gilt mirror. DH says to me that for anything I buy one thing the same size has to go. I am not amused, but I can see why he would say that. I was raised by a hoarding mother who collects things. Lots of things. Lovely vintage things. Lots of lovely vintage things that need restoring. Luckily, I’ve been the recipient of some of those lovely things. Mostly restored. Some not.

The house that Jess built.

My Queenslander Cottage

Author: Jessica