The Boys Den

Apart from my new kitchen the boys room is my favourite room in the house. I don't know why....

Maybe it's the funky new lego storage sourced by my lovely friend Vic. You are too kind!

Or the $10 Vinnies desk (which I have seen in a sydney auction house for $320....ouch!). 

The colourful array of favourite books seem to match their hand made quilts perfectly. 

The bubble gum machine came from the husbands previous life and is filled with marbles that were gifted to the boys. 

Let's not forget the bed, one of my biggest furniture splurges to date, I still can't believe I managed to convince the husband that quality really does outweigh the expensive price tag. 

The addition of a fabulous new light fitting is all it needs and we are done.............for now anyway. 

What's your favourite room in the house?

On the wall

Linking up with Punky and Me at her weekly meme My Place and Yours, the theme is "on the wall"

There is always lots going on on walls in my house.   My plate wall is definitely my fave thing at the moment and it's ever evolving.  I'm sure you would agree, a trip to the op shop is not complete with out a scurry through the crockery section.

The boys room

My dining room

My sewing room

Painting the New Year away

So, you would think one should start the new year with relaxation, quality time with kids and some precious family holiday moments...but no! what did the husband and I decide to do come this new year?......Paint ceilings that's what. We have had an exhausting 4 days without children to restore and paint 4 pressed metal ceilings in our old home. 


Each morning I was finding more and more paint lying on the floor in the boys room, the ceilings were a little worse for wear and needed some urgent attention.

We found lots of these, those of you with boys will recognise them as magnetix. A favourite pastime of the boys when they were supposed to be sleeping. Magic! they stick to the ceiling.  

We stripped for six hours and decided we only had 5 days not 5 weeks. So we peeled back only the bad bits.

Each ceiling has it's own unique pattern and they are just beautiful.

It's been exhausting but rewarding and well worth the $1000's of dollars we have saved, my only gripe would be this little paint sperm found on my blind a little too late to wipe off (it wasn't me). I guess we'll have to live with him.

On another note, what I should be saying is Happy New Year and telling you of my resolutions, something along the lines of spend more quality time with the kids, go to bed earlier and make the most of each morning, drink less wine and exercise more, sew more and perhaps even make a little money given that I will have 3 child free days this year and lastly s-l-o-w down..........well these are my resolutions and I hope to stick to them.

The other thing I must say is a huge thank you to YOU........... all my lovely readers and followers, your thoughts and comments really do mean so much to me and I hope to blog a whole lot more this year too.

Tomorrow we are off to meet the kids in Wagga and spend some time swimming, BBQing with special friends and some quality family time just hanging and keeping things slow and simple.

Out with the old

In January this year Paul and I embarked on some pretty major renos for our lovely old house. 

Ceilings were pulled down......

nb. hubby's arms are really not that brown, there was 110 years of dust that came down not to mention an old, dead, squashed rat among other things....eeew!

Bats were laid, Gyprock was installed...

Note to self: never do this again, it was just plain stressful getting these massive sheets above your head and onto the ceiling without snapping them. We did hire a great hoisting device and the help of our friendly neighbour but at times I wished we had got the professionals in. Having said that, we are really happy with the end result. 

L.E.D down lights were installed. 

By July this year we found a kitchen designer who I won't name because I would not use them again but that's a whole other story.

 We were thrilled with the design and it was time to start the demolition and get the floors ready. Secretly I think this was Paul's favourite part. For weeks he nagged me to let him take the sink away, but I feared being without one for too long so I kept saying "just a bit longer, just a bit longer"

 As the old fire place was knocked out I couldn't help but think of all the meals that were created here back in the early 1900's. We had taken the old pot belly stove out years ago to make room for shelving but the big brick chimney was still there. See the charred wall in the background.

The old floor was ripped up and sold on ebay for a grand price of $50.

The old back door was bricked in not once but twice by Mr perfectionist Paul. The first one had a slight bow effect, not good when you need to line cupboards up against it. 

Then a door way was cut into the old window.

At this point new floors had been laid by professionals. We used spotted gum and I'm so happy with it.

The long awaited kitchen goes in.

 I won't sugar coat it and I wont pretend it was easy washing up in the bath tub for 3 months. We had more problems than you would ever believe...seriously! all of which were from the kitchen company and suppliers. 

BUT.............. the outcome has been well worth the sweat, occaisonal tears and way too much swearing. 

In with the new.........

Needless to say I am one very lucky and very happy chappy.


ps. Now i'm hoping it will make me a better cook.

$5 lightshade

A little while ago I found this rather tacky light shade in Vinnies for $5. The old dear who sold it to me was admiring it telling me how lovely it was with all the lace and trims. I just smiled and agreed, I didn't want to tell her I was planning to rip the dusty, musty peach fabric off it as soon as I got home.

I may spray paint it aqua or yellow and add a larger bulb but at the moment I think it looks just fine. 

Hope you have all had a happy week end, we certainly have. 

Plate wall revealed

Those of you who follow my flea market finds will know that I have had a plate wall on the agenda for quite some time, well it's not yet finished but is up and running at least.  I plan to add a few and swap a few around but for now I'm quite taken with my little collection of plates. 

I must also apologise for my bloggy absence, what a shocker I'm having, can't seem to find my crafty and blogging mojo............it's creeping back slowly so watch this space.

Stepping up

Last school holidays my older two did an afternoon mosaic workshop turning an old grey paver into a beautiful work of art. 

Two very colourful stepping stones were laid yesterday while doing the gardening and enjoying the Sydney sunshine. Now I'm off to the hardware store to get another one for Rosa. I have all my old mosaic tiles and grout tucked away in the shed. This week we will create a girly one to add to the boys.

Top - Harvey's snake, Bottom - Charlie's dog.

Hopefully you've had some sunshine and creativity in your part of the world this week end. 

Progress

It's been measured and ordered, I'll be counting the weeks until our new kitchen is in.

There is a lot of floor work to be done before I get too excited. Yes I have lost my sink and have become accustomed to washing up in the bathtub. Yes I've been staring at a dirt floor for the best part of a week and yes our house smells like a musty, damp garden....but it will all be worth it come mid September.

And I can't say my makeshift kitchen is all that bad.................yes that is an installed dishwasher in the corner with the pipe out the window.....yes I have a handy husband who tries ever so hard to make my life easier.