Saturday 26 October 2013

if you need me you can find me painting

A friend asked me what I was up to this weekend, and I replied painting. Then I realised that I cannot see a time in the next few years when that wont be on the cards.
Purple walls and ceilings-be gone!
Our immediate painting plans for the next year or so include 2 more sets of verandah railings and a set of exterior stairs, our the walls and ceilings of our purple lounge and dining rooms and probably the kitchen too, all the trim in those rooms and the exterior of our house (with at least some done by a painter).
Three verandahs worth of railings to become white, and repaint the house grey
(I should find a spare weekend to sew some new covers for this free furniture!)
So you'll find me in my sweaty paint splattered clothes and hat, with a paintbrush in hand or at the paint shop handing over money.
Hopefully I'll have some afters for you after the weekend!!I will finish these front railings (if the rain and wind stays away!!)

**My current negativity toward painting may be due to my hatred of painting verandah railings. Walls and trim and cutting in I don't mind, the railings are doing my head in... :)

Wednesday 23 October 2013

laundry inspiration

Now that our laundry update planning is definitely underway I've been looking at lots of lovely laundries, so I thought I would share some with you. There are a few kitchens-but just turn them into laundries in your mind. Here's a refresh of our current plans:

This first one is one of my favourites, and a similar layout to ours, but ours won't have windows. It feels so nice and bright and clean!
link
Another favourite, again with a similar layout. This one also has no natural light like ours. We wouldn't have a potting station at the end. Look at that amazing storage!!
Not sure of the link-it's a fake one from pinterest
I like the green flashback and the dark handles on the cupboards. All three of these so far have had similar cupboard doors. I like the mix of cupboards and shelves, but don't think I would want clear glass in the laundry.
link
Similar again, but silver pulls.

link
I'm seeing a theme here.... 
link
Another kitchen-so simple-very clean and fuss free. All just stainless steel, white and wood. It's a bit more modern.

link
Maybe an expedit on the opposite wall for some extra storage.


link

Have you seen any nice laundries? Which is your favourite? What would you incorporate if you could? 

Sunday 20 October 2013

what to do?

The exterior of our house is a mish-mash of paint colours. Blue, navy, white, cream and yellow. Plus our now sanded and oiled decks, and five wooden french doors. 
I've begun the big job of painting our verandah railing white (if this wind ever stops I may one day finish!), but we can't decide what to do with the doors. They were varnished, but it has mostly worn away.
Our options
a-sand and revarnish in a natural tone
b-sand and paint in white to match the windows and new railings

I'm planning on recovering the outdoor furniture in a white/natural colour. 

Please excuse the mostly old photos-I haven't taken many new ones, and our front verandah is currently a mess due to being mid paint!
Our nice new deck floors-they all look like this now!
The next photo shows the front verandah from the street-you can see how faded the left hand door is, compared to the open interior side. Would it be too much white? Or would it just make sense, and match the rest of the house?
The back verandah-one white door next to another set of doors 
Bottom verandah
Top verandah
 What do you think? Keep them wood, or paint them white?

Saturday 19 October 2013

laundry plans

After all of our work downstairs in the garage we've decided it's time to look at doing something to our laundry.
This is what we currently have to work with.
It does the job, but there are some pretty big flaws. 
-It lacks effective storage
-It has zero bench space
-It's open to the garage, meaning that it is impossible to keep clean-there is often sawdust, dirt, potting mix, glass clippings, leaves etc blowing into the laundry
-There is a lot of wasted space
There are a few problems to start off with. The washer and drier are on a fake dividing wall, behind the dividing wall? Nothing. It's just storage space (basically empty now apart from golf clubs and a bike). 


So, our plan is to build a wall between the garage and laundry area (where the step up in) to divide te two areas, and knock down that fake dividing wall to open up the space.
We will then have a galley style laundry, with everything along the existing exterior wall-we wont be moving plumbing, but we will be able to have the washer and sink up one end, with the dryer on the wall. Then will be a nice big bench, with lots of cupboards underneath, and a tall cupboard at the end for linen. We will have either open shelves, or cupboards, or a mix on the wall above the bench. L has been busy planning, and we have knocked up a bit of a sketch. Things might change a bit between now and then, but this will be our basic layout. 

Because it will be such a wide space, I think we will be able to have cubbies or shelves on the opposite wall for more storage-probably for beach gear and sports equipment.  I've been pinning like a crazy person! At the moment the surfboard racks will probably stay where they are, but in the future we may look to moving them, and putting in a fridge/freezer in there. 
Our plan is to go for a flatpack-probably Bunnings or Ikea, but we will figure all that stuff out over the coming few months. We will do most of it ourselves, with the help of a carpenter friend for the new wall, plus plumbers and electricians. It's exciting. It will also mean we will be getting rid of more of the lovely green paint, and getting some nice new flooring in there too! YAY!

Tuesday 15 October 2013

garage storage

We are really lucky to have a big garage, but it was one big mess. We had one set of shelves we bought from Bunnings, but they weren't organised, and everything else was on the floor. At times it was tricky to get the car in there, or get out of, and around the car. For awhile we actually gave up trying. I wish I was kidding. It totally stressed me out-even though it's a boy zone primarily, I hated knowing what it was like!

Well, that's all changed. L has DIYed three storage solutions that have made such a difference! We aren't quite done yet, and have some more big plans for down here (not these ones!) that I'll tell you about in the next post.

First was a surfboard rack. L got a length of wood, screwed some dowel into it, and covered the dowel with pipe insulation. There are eyelet hooks to link the jockey strap through.
A massive improvement on this... 
Where our camping and beach stuff
used to live
Next was some wall hooks for tools. Again, he screwed a long piece of wood into the wall (so the hook placement could be where we wanted, rather than in the studs). The hooks are from Bunnings. 


Next we will be put a work bench next to the door (where the lawnmower is) with a peg board on the wall behind for tools. We will probably look on Gumtree for some kitchen benches, so we can have cupboards underneath, or L might DIY something. 


I'll give you our shameful befores, so you can really see the difference. This was at it's worst, when we were midway through building our side fence. Sorry for the crappy iphone pictures. There was no car getting in there. 



But now-shelves! Made entirely by L, with my help to hold things steady. 
It has meant we can get almost everything up off the floor. They aren't properly organised yet, I want some more storage boxes so that everything has a place, and all the paint tools are together, all the sanding stuff is together etc. But we will get there. Not only do the shelves have all our DIY type stuff up there, they also contain our camping gear, our fold up chairs, L's fishing stuff, beach stuff-like cricket sets and umbrellas. 

Don't mind the empty paint tin drying out-the car still fit, and the tin has now
 been disposed of


It's made such a difference!

Sunday 13 October 2013

terranium

Hi guys,
I took a bit of a social media break. I was tired and run down after the wedding, and the crazy lead up, and just needed to simplify everything for a few weeks. I've literally not been sick for over 2 and a half years (one of the benefits of working in special ed-super strong immunity!) but I entirely lost my voice for a week! So lots of sleep, yoga, beach, walks, reading, outside time, Homeland and greens has hopefully put me back on track!

Now the wedding is over, we have a heap of house plans that are ready to go! The paintbrushes and the drill have been going overtime! You might have seen over on instagram that I've started the mammoth job of painting our verandah railings.  So time consuming and fiddly! I'll keep going when the wind dies down.

I've been a little in love with terrariums at the moments, so made one yesterday afternoon. It was super easy and quick.
I bought a glass container from a cheap-shop. This one actually had a lid originally.


I added rocks for drainage-I just used the white rocks we have on hand (we have trailer loads of them in all of our garden beds!), and potting mix. I visited a local market and picked up some cheap succulents. I tried to pick a few different colours, and leaf shapes, and heights. Some of the little pots I bought had some rocks on top, so I scattered them around the top of the terrarium too.


I'm not entirely happy with it, and may actually re-do it. I think I needed smaller rocks on the base, as the layers between the rock and the soil isn't as defined as I would like, but I might not too.


I ticked something off my pinterest to do list-yay!

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