Cobblestone Progress

It was a back breaking weekend around our hood. Laying Cobblestone tiles is much harder than I thought. They are SO heavy. I don’t think that many muscles in my body have ever been used at the one time. I have a whole new respect for the tiling trade. And let me say it here – I will never tile again.

A few befores prep stage ...

And finally they're stuck

Well... almost ...

As you can see, they need an enormous amount of grout which is to come ... but on the bright side of the exhaustion , it’s looking exactly as we’d hoped. This is a snapshot of them sealed. Nice and dark.

  

(Look at those ratty stairs. Another bloody weekend to waste right there.)

Slapping some sealant on prior to grouting will make it a whole lot easier for us to clean the excess grout off the stone. Once we have the grout in and set, we'll put a few more coats over the top of it all again. 

We have a whole lot of old wrought iron that's been sitting at the house for about  ….. 6 years. Maybe longer actually – I think we had it before we demolished the old shack and moved this one onto it.

We’re using it to enclose this area into a secure little patio/courtyard arrangement. I can’t wait for that to be done, so the tiling was the first step and the iron is the second.

Here’s to hoping she’s done and dusted by this time next week and I have some finished shots to share.

Meanwhile, there is a major shortage of attractive wall lights around. Any hot tips on where to find something Art Deco in a sconce/light?

Shades Of Autumn

Even though it’s still meant to be Autumn, it has been cold here in Brisbane. With the underneath of the house enclosed now, I had visions of warmth and cosiness on the top floor. No such luck.

I bought this last week and am most enamoured with it.  I was gazing at it for the longest time last night trying to work it out.

The men’s posture is tall and proud, dressed in white with a summer glow about them. Head high and kind of jovial looking. 

The women seem to be the opposite - posture meek, heads down, dressed in autumn tones. The colours are lovely.

I wonder where they are. My first thought was somewhere waiting for a boat. Not sure why. It’s always a good sign with art when you’re drawn into what it’s trying to say. What do you see? There's no marking so who painted it is a mystery.

Meanwhile, I was having lunch at a friends house Sunday and took some happy snaps. L lives in a townhouse in Bardon and has almost finished a mini reno. She’s redesigned the internal stairs, had new timber floors laid and the courtyard completely redone. It looks amazing.

I really love the tone of the floors - they even back the strength of the antiques and colour palette and the glass modernises it. And the handles on the cupboards whilst a small detail are super cool.

L lived in Honkers for years and years and has a strong appreciation for Asian antiques and styling. Works well because she's a red girl through and through. Many of these pieces have moved around the world with her and have a unique history.

These chairs are my 2^nd favourite piece that I drool over when visiting. They came out of China and were owned forever ago by a General. He’d had them custom made and faintly below you can see his name enscripted on the back of the chairs.

This chair IS my favourite. This is a Kone Chair by Roger McLay. It was in L's family home while she was growing up and she’s always adored it. Magnificent piece. A brilliant example of post war Australian design.

L then showed me this recent article out of the paper which has them all pictured in the City Hall. Her father was an architect so it’s no surprise he would appreciate such a fabulous piece. I wonder where they all went? Somebody tell me!

Coincidentally, the chairs pictured in the background are also items L grew up with in the family home. She’s having the suite of 6 restored at the moment. I cannot wait to see them in real life. She has no room for them ...

These stools are the most comfortable ever, they’re moulded plywood and ergonomically magical. I remember her looking for these 5 years ago. Took her ages to find and even longer until they arrived. They're from Cherner in the US. They have stunning pieces check them out here. The benchtop was Riverstone from Argentina. I didn't get a good pic but it is the nicest benchtop I've ever seen.

The outdoor courtyard is still a work in progress and is completely different to the indoors tone wise but is linked with the riverstone and a touch of red in the cushion accents. Being that she had to buy an enormous piece of stone 4 years ago (when she did the kitchen) she managed to work it in now as a feature in the wall.  

So private and fresh. Still some landscaping and hanging the curtain screening's to do. The lounge was a great purchase. You can move it around into various configurations, storage under the seats, the double can fold out to a bed and that coffee table turns into a dining table. You pull the 4 pieces up in front of you to dining height. Handy.

On a beautiful day in May, champers in hand with a soft breeze and birds chirping, it was a most relaxing atmosphere.

This painting was done by one of her sisters of the family home front door. Isn't it fabbo!

 

L's home is a great example of what my blog is about. Nostalgia and Now. Mixing your own history with how you live and what you love today. Sentimentality is what makes this eclectic mix work - in my opinion.

 

Now, we are embarking on a project at home with some tiling. So I may have something on the renovation to finally share.

Bringing the outdoors in

Renovations have come to a standstill. Lost steam really. We may get our mojo back in a couple of months but at the moment I’m just using all the nicely enclosed space as storage for 'stuff'.

We built in the side wall on the back verandah a few months ago which has been an absolute dream.  Previously it was just the regular ballustrade and we just had it framed up and used VJ boarding to keep a nice flow through from inside. 

I think a great sign  with some alterations/ additions is when people dont even notice. That's happened about 20 times. So it must suit the place which is good. All of our weathering is from the East. Now this space is far more useable.

I finally recovered my rattan lounge. Remember when I purchased it? Read about it here.

Flow through the lounge works. Morning and evening - rain, hail or shine we're there.

The coverings are a grey linen. A shade of grey I spent 12 months to find it. 12 months. Grey's hard. It's not classified as outdoor fabric but so far so good.  (Sorry about the severely over exposed picture, it was this or very dark.)

Eventually we'll add some white timber awnings but at the moment a bit of PVC will do the job.

This is the cushion eater.

I'm having some more throws made for this suite in very pale pink, green and a stripe that compliments the 40s lounge because 'someone' (who's no longer trusted to be alone in this area) likes to massacre plush things. 

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.

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.

Cladding Finite!

Makes such a difference to the house having it enclosed. The grass looks greener. I know that sounds weird, but it does and it's warmer upstairs.

 

The Dutch Door has been hung in the laundry.

I’ll paint it black - same as our guttering and will keep all the original hardware.

This week the boys will be back to make the window hoods and whatever other finishing touches they need to do to the exterior. 'A' has started puttying up the nails and is going to to the undercoat himself.

Building in underneath a house style that's traditionally is not two storey, has made us mindful of trying to maintain and uphold the original design. Being that we opted against casements for downstairs (this was a security choice), we ensured that the builders followed the vertical  line in the corners of the sunroom which (you can see below) to assist in tying the top and bottom floors.

We also chose to duplicate the small corner hopper windows in kosciusko glass on the bottom floor – this has made a brilliant impact on the front of the house. Being that we’re on a corner block, these additions have brought it all together quite nicely and maintained privacy into the front room from people entering the house via the steps.

Still a little way to go. Insullation, stairs, internal walls, plumbing, electrical, floors, painting.....

Getting Closer

It's nice when you see this blue stuff up around the house. That means the cladding is coming soon which means it's getting closer to stage 1 being finished.

This is one of the bedrooms. The doors have since been put in.

I wonder what it will all look like tonight? ....

Smaller than I expected ...

As I titled this post I tried to think of an instance where "smaller than I expected" was a positive. I've decided that that instance is strictly applicable to debt.

The builders are doing a nice neat job and spending quality time with the dog in smoko breaks. B is beside himself. Having so many people excited to pat, spend time and share their sandwiches is almost too much for his little frame to handle.

I, however, am dellusional.

With my head cocked and uttering the words 'gee, that bathroom's smaller than i expected...' I realised that every single picture i'd planted in my mind of each room is at least 1m wider than it actually is.

This is the bathroom framed up

And to think that the draftswoman initially had a bath, shower and long vanity crammed in there.

Ok, it's not that small, it's the same size as the bathroom upstairs but I did picture something wider. Black walls will now only be confined to the courtyard. Of course once the internal walls are in there I'll have a better idea, but looking at it from this angle it's pretty little.

Way back. I'd initially intended on a cobble stone tile for the floor but couldn't find it so then jumped over onto a slate, uneven type of arrangement. Guess what? The tile company we use had a delivery of the most attractive cobble stone tiles last week. So with this in mind, and the bathroom being a little smaller, I'm liking the idea of a more intimate space with a nice porous floor.

It's funny how you always end up coming back to your original idea. Could this mean that i've found a second instance of smaller than expected being a positive? ... I don't think so. I really did want a black bathroom.

Two weeks?

The builder's have moved in and it's well and truly happening. 

Windows and Doors will be delivered this week, so the lads will have everything they need.

This was the downstairs area Yesterday. The weekend was spent clearing out my hoarding and shoving it wherever space would permit. It's not huge, our house is quite narrow.

So the builders were thinking they’d do stage 1 in two weeks (that’s just cladding and framing).

They move quite  swiftly these builders.

Quickly though, I must mention a disappointing revelation of today. Turns out that our stumpers didn't line up the poles correctly 5 years ago. I'd noticed this recently but assumed it was intentional. Negative on the intentional. You can see on the left below how one side has a double thickness wall. This is exactly the kind of thing that p****s me right off. Firstly, because the stumpers are incompetent and secondly, because we never checked their work. 

Lesson: We're not in the 1940's anymore - meticulous is hard to come by. Not only do we now pay too much for someone to do something, we need to check what they've done as well.

Moving along before I jinx anything, I wonder what tomorrow will bring? Our builders are good. They're onto it and are totally flexible. We've changed this window, that door, this height - and that's just today, Day 1. Poor bastards. Now we have the option of recesses in the hallway wall due to the stumpers. I'm not a recess kinda gal, but being that the hallway is now narrower (which I do not dig), I may need to take them up on the offer. I have tonight to think about it.


So today, we have all the ant capping done, markings and almost one side of the house framed plus numerous alterations to placement of doors and sizes of rooms.
 2 weeks is looking possible. We’re not intending on anything fancy pants down there so everything should tick along nicely. This is the plus of having done upstairs first - rainy weather doesn't hinder building in underneath. 

Damn those stumpers.

Black Bathrooms

I like black. Since we renovated upstairs and I painted the bathroom cupboard black, I had visions of the downstairs bathroom being painted black - the visions are still there.

I googled images this morning in an effort to convince 'A' that a black bathroom is in fact for everyone ..... do you think this cuts the mustard? Because this is kind of how I want it all to roll out .... colour wise grey and black and stone.

Not every inch of the place'll be black. Just the main wall and shower unit.

A deep grey wall and black vanity & mirror is another option which I really like too.

Will I have the guts to do this or will I just fall back on grey and white? 
I know what A will say.

"Would you buy a house with a black bathroom.....?"