Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Painted & Window Hoods

It's been a busy couple of weeks with the prepping and painting of the house exterior . Our builder advised that the sooner we get a first coat on the weatherboard the better so it doesn't dry out and split.

'A' has been all over it. Gap filling the board joins and nail indents, sanding and cutting in and then finally whacking on the first coat. We used these paddle sponge things to apply the paint. Much easier on the wrist than an oversized brush.

We did the external of the house in the same colour scheme for inside all those years ago. White Watsonia trim and Whisper White for the main - black trim. Whisper White is a great colour (in my opinion) for VJ and weatherboard. Because it's not a glaring white, it manages to hide dust outside and seems to absorb the floorboard colour inside as opposed to reflect it. Whether that makes sense to anyone other than me, i do not know ...
And the window hoods are up. The builder replicated the originals on the top level of the house. Unfortunately, we can no longer get our hands on the smaller guttering which this style of home used for hoods originally. We'll need to replace all hood guttering on the house with the general size of today. I find it surprising, given how many colonials and queenslanders we have in Qld, that no one does a smaller guttering any longer?


In garden news. We have a passionfruit vine that absolutely loves where it's been planted. It continues to creep along the fenceline. It's looks great and produces to!

On Sunday, I repotted a bunch of plants and added some top soil to the front garden in preparation for Spring. The man at Bunnings said end of August early September is the best time for us to prune here in Qld. I'm pleased to see the Christmas tree below flowering, as are the local birds.
These are the bathroom tiles below
And, in breaking news, my vanity double sink may be too large for the space. Dammit! Plumber comes later in week to talk it all through, Fingers crossed.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Horse Head Lamp x 2!

Yesterday was a good day for a few reasons:
  • The weather was stunning
  • I've finally located some of the internal doors for downstairs - it's been 2 months in the making. The Brisbane Demolition yards must be so sick of seeing me slinking around the glass door section, and;
  • I came across two stunning horse head lamps
They need new shades plus a bit of a polish and dust off. I love the clear acrylic on the base and the gold detailing that holds the shade.


The owner of the market was not there, but i'm going to call him to see where these came from. They're pretty big. Maybe 50cm high to the head plus the lamp.

I'm very excited to figure where these two will go. Keep them together or split them? I threw a spare black shade on it last night, much better, but I'd prefer one slightly stouter. As in wider and shorter and a little lower and closer to the head with gold lining.
The only negative is that they don't face one another. They are the same, not a mirror image which i didn't notice when I bought (it wouldn't have made a difference anyway).

Here's a shot of one of the doors i've located. This is for a bedroom.

I had all three ready to go when I bought the dutch door in May.  'A' wouldn't allow me to have the frames made to suit their size, he wanted to keep a more universal standard opening... good for the builders and future owners who may not like the doors I choose, not good for me and the doors I want.

All three doors for both bedrooms and bathroom will be this style. Obscure glass at the top and closed in at the bottom. I need as much light in the hallway as possible. Dark hallways on the bottom floor of houses are creepy. The more natural light the better.