Hiya. Because I’ve not already spent enough this year, I thought I’d add to my spendy dramas with a personal plan and domain name. I’m all paid up and my new address is now brisvegashome.com . How ’bout that! Cool! WordPress webpages are basically free: $60 per year + $25 for domain name, and much easier to use than formerly, thank you WordPress for your upgraded and much easier to use interface…
This image I took about a month ago and in the meantime the plants have gone wild! I’ll give them a water today but really the litmus test I use is: if I see the Peace Lily wilting I know it’s time for to water the plants. I’m so happy with the new things we added this week: the new espresso machine, the new solar (hello air-conditioning going on at 10am because it’s worth it), the new gorgeous stained glass windows.
What do you think of this colourway below? I’m thinking I love the crisp white and navy but I think it needs a contrast colour in grey. The window rose is a good spot to add some light grey for a contrast, and we’ll be repainting the window hoods because they ugly, but where else?
Decisions, decisions. The battens under the house will be extended to ground level – we’re building a storage area under there that we’ve already prepped with lights and electrical points. So the downstairs battens, and banister palings, rails and posts will all be white. The trim of most of the house will be navy, as will the decking. The siding will be white. I prefer white window and door trim but I dunno. Do we go with a navy window hood, or grey? (Not white, as the roof is already steel coloured corrugated metal). And do we go with white concrete pillars or navy? Navy hides grot, but white is crisp. Perhaps that’s where we go grey? So many ideas! I can sort of imagine our house with basically this scheme but in white and navy, but I have yet to sort out the grey tone.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Today’s events on the eve of Summer Solstice include installing solar panels on the roof (saving the planet, not our wallets!) and 2 beautiful stained glass windows to match our rose by the front door.
I’m stoked.
Rose window, probably created in the 1920s.One of 2 new stained glass windows, replacing the old clear windows and giving us some much needed privacy from our lovely neighbours (they really ARE lovely, but we don’t need to see their TV from our dining room window!). Here they are in situ. Just gorgeous. Made by Michael, @theglassmandala
I love how the artist Michael has made this new creation look old, by the use of some old stained glass he has retrieved over the years. This has been a VERY expensive month, but as I’ve said to hubby more than once: we can afford it right now – we may not have the chance in future. Let’s show some largesse and help the economy back on its feet. I think hubby and I are the actual main people helping the economy back on its feet 😉 ! Here’s basically a long, long list of how much we’ve bought over the last 3 months.
We have just installed a billion lights, new fans, and electrical power-points to the house at enormous cost. I organised a locksmith to install a bunch of new locks for the house as it felt rather easy to access and even though I work from home, I often don’t go downstairs and there are a number of windows allowing easy egress from the garden – new keyed locks on them all, now! Of other electrical things we’ve also bought a new coffee espressso machine – a low cost version to take the pain off the one we’ve been using, because the one we use has been slowly dying and has already been serviced once (this will be our fourth in 14 years). We bought a new smallish fridge just before we bought our new house as our other one died right before our selling campaign!!! and we weren’t able to check the size, and subsequently have had to buy yet ANOTHER small fridge to fit the overflow – ugh. We bought a stick vacuum cleaner for upstairs – not that great, truthfully, but I can’t be bothered lugging old Henry up the stairs more than once a month so small mercies I guess… and we’ve bought various small devices to support our extravagant lifestyle. First world problems indeed.
A couple of days ago I bought outright a new iPhone – 12 Pro Max – my 8+ was great but just starting to stutter a bit, and I’ll gift that to mum as she has my old 7+ and needs an upgrade. I told her today and she was super happy! Seriously, she can afford to buy new but just hasn’t, and complains about my old phone ALL THE TIME. Last week I bought a portable air-conditioner – noisy but good for my hot box of a study while we wait for more split-system air-conditioning stock to come in in February – we can then move it to the downstairs bedroom for when visitors stay. We’ve spent at least $500 at Bunnings hardware on itsy bitsy stuff, and triple that on clothes since September. I rarely buy very expensive clothes (high street only) and I try to buy made-in-Australia, but the truth is SE Qld is very hard on clothes – one spends most of the day sweating and so the garments are frequently washed (not by me, gosh I’m lucky). And I really needed, reeeeaaaallly neeeeeded 2 new pairs of Birkenstocks (classic version) because I wear them for about 10 months a year and I’ve been without for a year now and it’s slowly killing me!
The chickens are the most expensive chickens in the world – we have just bought them a new coop and run to stop Randy the Rapey Bush Turkey from getting to them. Seriously, it would be cheaper not to own chickens and just buy eggs every now and then, but in truth I’d love more chickens: I just love the silly creatures. We also spend a stupid amount of money on the dogs, on their snacks, and beds, and grooming. More expensive than children but at least they don’t talk back! 😉
We’re keen art lovers and have just dropped a serious bundle on some very lovely pieces for the few remaining rooms that have empty walls – hubby said it was for Xmas so I said yes, and then he said he wanted to give me “something extra on the day”. GAH. We buy only Australian art, so our collection now includes David Bromley, Matthew Johnson, Charles Blackman, Ray Crooke, Davida Allen, Yvonne Mills-Stanley, Toni Bucknell, Susan Romyn, Constantin Popov, Sokquon Tran, Ben Lucas and works by indigenous artists Gloria Petyarre, Lily Kelly Napangardi, Polly Ngala, Evelyn Pultara, Betty Mbitjana, Nellie Marks Nakamarra, Patricia Kamara, Rosemary Pitjara, and Jeannie Mills Pwerle. We literally have no room for more stuff, so the collectible house-and-scenery images we buy when we travel have been relegated to corners and bookshelves.
Today we have had solar installed – with micro inverters so that any clouding on one part of the array doesn’t affect the other part. It’s the more expensive option but worth it! The installer has already connected it to the mains so our old rotary electrical reader is actually now turning backwards – we’re feeding straight into the grid, no throttling until the power company comes (probably in mid January) to install the new digital meter. Heheheh. I’m thrilled that we can finally stop adding to the earth’s woes, even just a little bit.
And of course there’s all the stuff we bought for the new loungeroom – cushions, couches, coffee tables, credenzas and carpet. For the back deck: new couch and lots of new plants, and some lovely festoon lights we installed ourselves. It’s so pretty there now. But I think I’m finally done.
So I’m pretty happy that we’ve supported local and international business this month – in truth, we made some money on the sale of our home, enough to buy all these things that we love and use regularly, and the spending will have to stop soonish as I want to plan our next holiday! I think we will probably get a new hifi system for the lounge room for our birthdays. I want one with bluetooth but no Alexa or anything that listens in to my conversations. I’m old fashioned that way.
In the new year we will be doing a bunch of small but necessary house upgrades: new front and side fences, a spiffy new paint job, some carpentry for a storage unit and some gates for the stairs so that the dogs don’t go careening around the yard looking for people to bark at. We’ve lived here now for 3 months and we’ve worked out what works and what doesn’t – and it’s better than we thought, but there is a long term plan to move and improve the kitchen, add an ensuite and family bathroom upstairs, and extend the deck. Oh! and install a pool. Really neeeeeeed a pool.
Finally: Xmas. This year has been a big one as we had two children graduate from uni and so we wanted to give them a bit extra, and my son and his wife are saving for a house, and I’m doing a big gift for him instead of lots of small Xmas and birthday gifts. In the end, though, as my mother says: it’s only money. And that is the truth. Oh! And we’ve put a little aside for the charities we support. They need our help more than ever this year. If you’re interested: The Smith Family, International Women’s Development Agency, The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Red Cross, and probably Bush Heritage.
So if I don’t post again, have a wonderful Xmas and safe and careful New Year. Wear a mask, wash your hands and let’s beat this insidious disease.
Right. I’m definitely putting off doing any work at the moment by posting another blog, this time about our lovely new snug. In truth it’s not that different from when the furniture was in our old house, but it’s no longer a thoroughfare and we have built in bookcases! I’ve had a ball dressing them and making the room look as lush and warm as possible. The couch is from Freedom; the lounge chairs from Camp Hill Antique Centre (one of the vendors there who specialises in Mid century Modern styles) and the cushions mostly from West Elm; the Noguchi style Coffee table is from Matt Blatt; the TV is an LED Sony 55″. The TV console is from Vast (no longer trading). We have Apple TV for all our streaming options which includes STAN (an Australian streaming service), Netflix and Amazon Prime. I’m not ready to book Disney – maybe never, and Binge (Foxtel lite) is on my radar but we don’t watch enough TV to make it worth the extra cost. In total our streaming services cost less than $AU40 which is pretty good, and I have a free subscription to Apple Music for the year bundled with my phone service. We bought a fantastic Bose Soundbar and I think I’ll buy one for upstairs too; they’re terrific. We didn’t need the subwoofer as we just don’t watch TV that loud, nor am I interested in loud music.
The artwork was nearly all sourced in Australia, including Constantine Popov and indigenous artists Nellie Marks Nakamarra, Gloria Petyarre and Evelyn Pultara. There’s also a 500 year old music manuscript on vellum from a Spanish monastery and a lovely little Cossack image – red and black – by a local Brisbane artist (lost her details, sorry!) All trinkets were sourced from around the world. One of the things we used to do before COVID-19 hit (BC to you!), was travel. We would buy simple little sketches or woodcuts or etchings of the cities and places we visited, and I would also buy some pottery/ ceramics or craftwork from artists who live there. Some ceramics and art works would have long standing origins in that region, or the artist would be a permanent resident. I love ceramics and art, and these, after my family and animals, are some of my favourite things. Most other trinkets were bought from Waverley Antiques in Melbourne, Empire Revival in Paddington (Brisbane) or CHAC in Camp Hill. So no more talk: here are some photos of the space!
I didn’t realise it has been 6 weeks since my last blog post (this sounds like a Catholic confession ;)) and the last thing I posted had me all excited about fabrics. Well, good folks of the interwebs, I’ve gone and spent a small fortune buying lovely things for the new home and I can happily say it’s been totally worth it!
To start with, we’ve upgraded all the electricals. We’re not yet finished but we’re replacing all the metal, rusting ceiling fans, and adding power points, and sensor lights for outside, and changing out almost all of the old, not very attractive pendant lights. We’re halfway there. We’re adding 2 new split air conditioners and I’ve decided we’re going Solar. Finally! We also upgraded the locks and added keyed locks to all the accessible windows, and we’re doing some landscaping and general maintenance. We’re not ready to paint the exterior even though the colours are super drab (greige and dark green, y’all. SO tired), and there’s plenty more to keep us busy. But I guess you want to know about the cutest new room in the house, right?
Lemme get right to it. No, it’s not the snug: even though it’s our very favourite evening room and so cool and lovely to be in at night. Drum roll…. it’s our new green room! And here we are:
Remember my mood board? Lots of pretty greens and palm trees etc. Well, it’s now done. We still have one or two more pieces of furniture to add – nothing big; just a couple of ottomans/ footstools and a side table or two, maybe one more artwork, but essentially we are finito bar the shouting. Pick your favourite image from the MANY MANY ones below:
I love everything about this room except that the cream carpet needed ANOTHER carpet over it to protect it from the dogs. Pesky dirty animals. Speaking of which: introducing Poppy (black) and Dougal (blonde).
I’m not sold on the placement of any of the objects on the little table: they’re just place holders for a better arrangement. Maybe a flower arrangement even. I’m also trying to pull some of the colours out of the lovely little Davida Allen painting above. I love her work but many do not. This one’s a sweet little serene number called Floating in the Mangroves. I’ve got some of my Majolica ware on the wall now and we recently bought a few new art works to complement the room. There’s a lovely little Australia Hermannsberg one next to the mirror, and I’m not quite finished dressing one of the walls. Most of the other walls are complete, but I might even add an antique mirror to the mix.
So there’s not much else to say except to name and shame the vendors. Carpet, couches and curtains by Pottery Barn. 1 of 2 coffee tables and the dark green lamp by West Elm. Palm cushions and parrot cushion by Rice Furniture. Olive cushions by Bed Bath n Table. Olive and white cushions by Coastal Cushion Company. Pale green lamp from One World Interiors. Antiques and vintage items from various vendors in Brisbane and elsewhere and my mum. Ormolu side table from Jubilee Antiques. Knick knacks all thrifted, many (most?!) from Camp Hill Antique Centre. Artwork from Lethbridge Gallery and David Bromley. Plants from a bunch of places around Brissie such as Ross Evans etc.
You’d think I could get my act together to start planning our new garden shed/ storage boxes, wouldn’t you? Instead, I have spent a rather enjoyable hour looking for fabrics, and I’ve found this terrific online shop called Spoonflower that prints your selected design onto a choice of fabric, including Belgian linen (my favourite linen, although I’m also partial to French). So before I drop $$$ on a fabric I might hate, I think I’ll get a few samples made in a fat quarter (typical width for a sample) and then select the one I prefer. That also gives me lots of lovely cushion textiles to have made into cushions after I’ve selected the one I prefer. I’m interested in a range of green quatrefoil and lattice style images for my curtains, but I want them to be super subtle. I love this design by mrsmberry but it’s probably best for cushions:
Here are a few more by some super talented designers including mistiina
I’m loving that I can find a design that already exists, and have it made to my specs. The above one has all the subtle feels that I want for my curtains, although I might yet go unpatterned plain ivory/natural linen, because I need to be able to change out the look if I want. At any rate, I’ve been sucked into an interior design wormhole, and I like it!
And of course, this is for my green room. Living!!
Finally I am delighted to announce that: yes, we’re moving! Our house sold well (considering the impact of COVID-19 on house prices in our area) and we’re moving to a new part of town for us, one that I suspect I may never leave!
Here’s our new home:
Cute, huh! BTW, this is a screen shot of the house that I took from the real estate web site we found it on. I cannot wait to change those colours to something a little less drab. The paint job is in very good condition though so it might stay for a couple of years.
Here’s the floorplan. On the left is the downstairs (in QLD houses are often built under, so living quarters and the kitchen are on the top floor), and the right is the main living area and bedrooms:
I know there are four bedrooms when there are only 2 of us. But I use my study every day, and hubby needs a study too. So we’re making the first 2 upstairs bedrooms our studies, and the fourth bedroom downstairs is definitely our dumping room for the time being as we sort through our outdoor stuff. In our old house we had a great breezeway under the house, all 140sqm of it, in which we stored all the gardening equipment and spare items. In this house we don’t have that so we are making plans for a garden shed and workshop, to sit at the bottom of the driveway. It’s currently a turn-out for the under-house parking but, you guessed it, we’re not parking under the house! (except perhaps during hailstorms…)
We’d like to renovate this house (well der!) and the section under the deck and master bedroom is perfect for a new rumpus room (hubby calls it the pool room but I think he means the room with the grand piano ;)). We’ll take apart the old deck eventually and put in a new kitchen and deck that extends to the end of the master bedroom, and underneath we’ll lay some new concrete and enclose the space. We’re on 810sqm of land which is great for this part of town, and I don’t want to impact on the generous yard with more house, so we’re keeping our ideas modest (and in truth we won’t be able to afford much more than what we’re planning). We’ll upgrade the bathrooms and give the master bedroom an ensuite and walk-in-robe, by moving the kitchen to the new construction, and making it a galley kitchen, as seen below:
Soz about my terrible drawing – I did it on my computer that doubles as a tablet and my drawing is super shaky. We’ll add a small family bathroom upstairs where the kitchen currently sits.
So I’m a little concerned about the generally poor placement of the laundry – at the moment the downstairs bathroom is connected to the bedroom and I don’t love this – if we want to add a family room area I don’t want to add yet another bathroom. I think what I’ll do over time is to reduce the size of the bathroom to make it a family bathroom (not an ensuite), and then put a door in the ensuing corridor to the outside. At the moment the laundry door faces the hall to the rumpus and I don’t love the position, and I think if we rethink the laundry layout then we might get better flow. I’m loving playing with these ideas – it will be two years before we can pay for most of the new stuff so we will live with what we have in the meantime, and just do small things. I think the current rumpus will make a great 5th bedroom if we decide to add a downstairs family room at the rear, which will add great resale value to the home.
Do you have some great ideas to make this house even more amazing? I’d love to hear.
In the meantime, here are some interior shots of before. That is: before we moved in! 🙂
So I can’t really say anything about selling our house at the moment, nor can I say anything about any other purchases we may have made, because it’s not over until it’s unconditional, but I’ve been having a lovely time curating my “Green Room” lounge room, for the future. I’ve posted ideas previously to my Insta site @brisvegashome about this, and thought I’d share a larger post.
So we own this beautiful, delicate etching by renowned Australian artist Charles Blackman:
I love the colours in the work. This was not hugely expensive: there are 89 more just like it! Look at the gorgeous greens – I can see three or four in the work, and it’s so close to being a banana leaf/tropical style that I thought this would make a grand statement in the room and provide the basis for our new lounge room colourway.
So imagine this room, if you will, as being the raw canvas for the new green design.
It’s a lovely room with plenty of sweet character already.
Now imagine this floorplan which includes the dining room. 5 by 5.2 metres (16ft by 17ft) is a lovely size, large but not enormous, and well large enough for the two of us + friends. In this plan, featuring white walls and honey-wood floors there might be 2 large lounges – 2.5 metre oatmeal coloured casual Hamptons-inspired ones, with feather and down cushions etc sitting opposite each other such as this rather scrummy Monterey version from Plush:
There might be a large neutral rug:
Then imagine a couple of easy chairs in green such as these beauties:
I prefer a solid colour block for all my large furnishings – I don’t love chintz style or heavily floral furniture. Soft furnishings such as cushions etc are a different story though:
Match these with a beautiful throw rug and some gorgeous lamps and we’re set!
It’s then just a matter of fitting our old furniture around the new, including our glass coffee table, some mid-century side tables and some antique brown furniture that I can’t seem to get rid of (ok, ok, I like these pieces!). I don’t know about you, but I really hate a curated room with all new furniture. One challenge with a green room is to not go overboard on the one colour. It’s important to layer colour and texture, and play with different shades of green, but also keep it real with some colours across the colour wheel such as yellows, blues or peaches and pinks. I have a bunch of lovely old plates and some plants that will go in this room and the dining room, including my gorgeous majolica plates:
And of course we have a bunch of fabulous artwork that will adorn some walls in addition to the Blackman. I think I’ll keep the curtains very light and bright: just some sweet cream curtains from IKEA or something:
These are actually expensive Belgian Linen Curtains from Pottery Barn but you get my drift…
Maybe an ottoman or two:
And perhaps to keep it real maybe this side table with some of the things on it:
We have many of these tables, and there is plenty of space to put them in the mythical room you saw.
Put all these images together and you get this:
Here are some other great green inspo ideas I completely nicked from other sources that I can’t name because I did it all in a frenzy – I was so excited!
I really like the bronze and brushed gold of the above image, plus the pretty peach counterpoints – see how mixing up the colours loosens the green? And there are many different types of green here too: from lime and grass green to forest green to aqua. It all works beautifully. Also, the bottom image is the closest to what I imagine our green room to be. Just take away the gorgeous wall paper and add a beige carpet and this is a lovely casual spot to hang out in. Notice that I’ve excluded the TV from all the discussions about furniture? That’s because I don’t want it in the main lounge room. If you’re like me and you rarely watch TV for anything more than noise value, renovation shows or movies, then moving the TV to another room in the house – perhaps a games room, or rumpus – takes its inclusion down a notch.
Oh! And if anyone is wondering how I will fit all the things in the room, take a look at my totally for reals pretend placement image that I’ve totally measured and everything (NOT!):
I’ve flung some pretend furniture against the walls but in truth I can’t imagine at this point what will go where. Maybe a bookcase or two (we have 9 free standing ones that all need homes), and lots of side tables. I even have an old round side table which would work well in this space:
And with some more decor this room could look fabulous. Not too overdone, mind…!
We may or may not have just signed a contract with our real estate agents to sell our home. Not sure what we’ll get for her, but the photos are looking pretty awesome and I’ve finally painted most of the woodwork. It took me FOREVER to do and my poor dodgy upper back is really feeling the pinch.
We had some professional shots taken and I’m pretty pleased with most of them, although there were a few in which seriously some of the crap could have been moved out of shot. I’ve seriously been feeling rather overwhelmed this week and the house cleaners didn’t do a very thorough job, so I was left trying to complete all the cleaning and clearing. Not very happy Jan.
Here are the new images of the house; I hope you enjoy them! And no, we’ve not bought another house yet…
The Rona has been playing havoc with our lives, at least for everyone who isn’t me. As a work from home self-employed academic and author, it makes little to no difference to my day, and it has been quite nice not to go out at night – and I usually have to force myself to go to the shops in normal climes. So here I am, trying to think of ways to keep busy now that my teaching has finished for the semester and I’m at home with the doggoes.
2018 and 19 was pretty good for us, renovation-wise. We installed a new front porch and gorgeous yellow door with pretty side lights, we installed an automatic garage door and gate, and did some painting on the exterior – just the face to the side fences. As you can see, Harry’s home looks so cute now! With all the original gables intact it looks a lot like a modern Hamptons-style house. It’s not: it’s a classic Ashgrovian Queenslander, built about 100 years ago, with the entryway originally at the side (still there). The gable on the right we estimate was added in the 50s, and thank goodness the gable design was continued because there are lots of similar extensions we’ve seen with a flat or gently sloping roof, and they don’t provide enough head height to be legal bedrooms.
The fence we installed 8 years ago is starting to lean and we’re thinking of replacing it with a more sturdy stone and aluminium style. The stone will sit along the base of the fence (in truth it will probably be bessa brick – cinderblock – with a stone face) and the aluminium pickets and posts will look pretty much like what’s already on the fence but without the need to paint it every three years. I really like the look of this new home and fence that is near our place:
Our entryway is sweet but it has a rather ugly concrete plinth that I’d like to cover in square grey cobblestones – we have lots of garden planning to do even though I said a few years ago the front is done. It is not, but we’re waiting either for fortunes to change or to finish our long-awaited extension.
Inside we’ve done a lot of work, although it doesn’t really seem like much now that 2 years has passed. We installed an upstairs laundry – given our laundry was under the house, all dusty and horrible, this has been an absolute blessing. Hubby has taken over the washing, I think because he just enjoys doing it so much that it’s all mostly dirt free! I added a touch of colourful tile bling for fun, and I feel like this can do double duty as a drinks section. It’s an open laundry that leads to the bathroom and 4th bedroom, so I wanted it to look swanky. And yes, it always looks this clean as there are only 2 of us. 😉
We switched around the bathroom and a bedroom, and we now have a fully working 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom home. Our family bathroom – in a country Art Deco style – is the cutest thing ever (I swear I had better staged photos than these):
This bathroom is lovely and light filled (not that my phone can cope with all the light – it tends to underexpose the natural light in this room!). There are a couple of things I would have changed if the products had been available: I would have put in a different vanity, and stained the shelves a lighter colour. The vanity I bought was the only one at the time available with a wooden top, and I’m not in love with the heaviness of it. Last year, long after we had installed this piece, I found a different supplier of vanities that had a brand that would have looked much nicer, but I don’t care enough to swap it out (plus, it’s expensive to do this and those tiles are in short supply!).
The last room to be completed was the small guest bedroom (it easily fits a double bed but not much storage) and I swear I’ll hang the last painting over the bed very soon:
Unfortunately this room gets SUPER hot in summer. I’m not quite ready to install the side shades due to the wishing and hoping renovations, as I want a striped navy/white electric retractable awning series covering all windows on the western side, and this area is not yet at the Definitely Done stage to do that.
In all the other spaces we’ve just been painting or finishing off some long overdue maintenance:
My study desk is not affixed to anything, so that we can repurpose the room into a bedroom down the track for selling purposes. It’s not ideal as the desk is a little too high: it rests on the bookcases which sit just above the ideal height for a short-legged-person’s desk. And with all of those screens (yes, I use them ALL) I can’t get a standing desk just yet. Another thing that needs some work.
In the new entryway we swapped out a cute vintage 30s yellow glass shade for a bright white 20s vintage shade: it works better with all the bright white and colours, and that sweet abstract painting and the chair are now in my home office – I’ve put plants where the chair used to be. I have a thing for aqua and teal right now, and my study is a riot of blues and whites and wood. I dare not show you the “storage” area behind the photo as it’s a bit of a disaster! There are 2 bookcases and a cello and a covered keyboard and lots of books and supplies for work; they all need proper storage. I have dreams of building in a decent storage and shelving unit but we keep putting it off, due to the aforementioned wishing and hoping renovations.
The spare bedroom has of March this year become quite an important study for hubby – he, like most of the world, has had to work from home. Luckily, his industry enabled him to do that (we’re both academics). I’ve based the styling around the Gillie and Mark painting we bought a few years ago – these colours are very “in” right now, and they’re nice and masculine, perfect for hubby’s home office.
That rather scrummy leather chair from West Elm was never intended to be sat in 8 hours a day! It’s not very comfortable for long haul work weeks, but it looks good!
The master suite looks the same as it ever did: the ceiling needs a paint but other than that there’s not much to report, except I’ve gone mad for deep blues and soft greens in this room: warm dark blues in winter, and their lighter companions in summer. I’m not yet ready to abandon these colours and I’m not overly fond of the new terracottas and pinks and peaches that have flooded my instagram of late: when you live in terrible heat and humidity 80% of the year, you need some cooling vibes to bathe in at night!
The lounge room has had a bit of a makeover – we bought some vintage mid century chairs in a bright orange and they just look fabulous. Our red room is now a jewel of rich colours:
We’ve changed out the gorgeous Nellie Marks painting over the couch for a commissioned Bromley: Nellie has taken pride of place in the entry, except of course now I have to rethink the rug colour: SIGH.
And our kitchen is the same as it ever was: people seem to like its slightly industrial Melbourne vibe but I’m just getting really annoyed with it now: the oven cavity traps the heat, there’s no extractor fan so all the open shelves and their contents get greasy, there’s no natural light and it’s a tiny, tiny space to try and work in. But we recently replaced the old ceiling light with these new industrial/country lamps and it all seems to work really well! You can see how much stuff we have to store on the shelves: there’s no storage in this house!
As you can see from the photos: I’m no minimalist. I wish I knew how to pare my world back just a bit, but every time I do, my eye gets distressed and I have to decorate more richly than my hubby or even I would prefer. The worst part of being a maximalist is the dusting, of course….;)
So why has it taken me two years to post? Well, I’d begun a heap of posts, but somehow I just got sidetracked with work. I’ve taken lots of photos of the renovations as they happened but once they’re finished it’s a bit of a chore to upload “in the moment” shots long after the fact. Also, I’m writing this on my computer rather than my phone, for what I hope are obvious reasons, and I’d forgotten my log in and password, and then I have to SEND my phone photos to myself and… and… and… you get the drift. Also at about the same time I discovered Instagram. And suddenly the blog seemed all a bit too hard.
But I’ve done myself a solid, found my password and username, and here I am. Because, in truth, I really want one of two things: either we sell Harry’s Money Pit and move to a house that’s already completed, one that’s a bit better organised, with 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a workshop, a landscaped garden and pool, or we try and complete the renovations here. I’ve already talked about how I’d like a new family room and kitchen and back deck, but in order to make this house a viable selling proposition down the track, I need to think about adding a bedroom, rumpus, bathroom and workshop downstairs, to make this house a truly 5-bedroom home. And even though it’s June here right now and nice and cool, I really would love a lap pool for when it gets hot here, which is September to April. It might just be better to sell and buy fresh. We have a healthy savings balance now, and the bank would probably lend us quite a bit of money, but I can’t imagine how much all of that would cost, and I’m scared to ask!
So now that I’ve no more excuses, I’ll be posting more regularly in the blog, so that you can see my world and how we live in it, and I’ll update you on my house plans as they happen.
The house that Jess built. 