Something new from something old

The builders have just left.  Off to finish another job.  In their wake, piles of dust, timber offcuts and buckets pasted with the remains of grout and plaster lie scattered all over the kitchen and back porch.  The kitchen floor is crusted with muddy sawdust footprints.  The table is completely filled with piles of pots, crockery and appliances. And the fridge sits untidily in the middle of the room, with a hastily scribbled invoice for a rather large amount from the builder stuck on the door.  And I'm so happy I could cry.

The kitchen is almost finished.

There is a photo shoot in this kitchen on Saturday. Early Saturday.  I'm excited to meet IRL a dear old blogging friend.  But there is lots to do before then.  Like a giant jigsaw puzzle, I've got to arrange all this stuff onto new shelves, paint the timber work and wait for the floor tiles to dry before we can finally put the fridge in its new home.

For now, I'll turn my back on the rubble and admire the hallway with it's new coat rack those builders installed for me.  I found this old blackwood mantle piece at my favourite local salvage store.  Circa 1880 they told me. It's rather large and I love to imagine what grand Georgian mansion it might have been rescued from.  A song for $50. The hooks I bought off ebay.  Those lovely builders measured the hooks, screwed them in place then installed the whole piece onto the lathe and plaster wall. No easy feat, it's rather heavy. Then I polished it with beeswax.  And put some of my favourite things on the shelf.  Practical and beautiful. I love it.

Now, time to turn around and face the kitchen.

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12 comments good things, home, renovation

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Steam punk kitchen...

The kitchen's looking a little steam punk here today with copper pipes, brass fittings and gauges cluttering up the space.  We're on the home stretch now. I think we can light the oven tonight.

Meanwhile, the table is covered with the creative mess of sickly peeps making paper dolls :: pencils, sharpenings, tracing paper and scissors.

It feels truly autumnal today, cold and rainy, with a chill inside caused by the wide open doors to allow the plumbers' lengths of hoses, pipes and lagging to flow out the kitchen.

Hugo is home sick with a cold, but we have the fire on, apple sauce simmering, (from our own apples!) and our tomatoes ripening on the window sill.  A perfect day to light the Rayburn. Yes, all is well here in the steam punk kitchen.

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5 comments Kitchen, rayburn, renovation, woodstove, yikes

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White on White

After the great bedroom swap of December, we moved into the kids old room, which has a wonderful big window and built in cupboards. Trouble was, I hadn't got around to clearing out the clutter from our now lost study so we were sleeping in half bedroom half office.   The walls, painted a greeny icy blue, were cruddy and marked with little and not so little kid scribbles, beeswax sculptures and glitter glue.  Not the calm and soothing sanctuary of my dreams.

Yesterday, I had ten kid free hours, the perfect time to tackle painting the room and clearing out the mess.  Our whole house is pretty much painted Antique White USA, which is lovely when it's freshly painted but I'm finding that it tends to look too yellow after a time, so I went for a brighter white.  Dulux White on White.  I love it.  It's my new favourite white.  The only trouble was I couldn't reach the top of the walls so I had to leave it blue.  I don't mind it but I don't think the Mister does.

I will wait a few days before a hand some pictures, but for now I'm loving the clean white clutter free space.  We bought the old ladder years ago from a country fair in NSW somewhere.  We were living in a modern studio apartment in Sydney's Chippendale, it only just fit through the door and our friends thought we were nuts.  After carting it around for years, I think it's finally found a home.  A place to hang my new Cabbages and Roses coat, that I just can't wait to wear once the weather turns cooler.

Next week, we have some final renovations of the kitchen kind.  I can't wait to show you.

Right now...
Loving this space...via 
Can't wait for my copy of this to arrive...
Excited to be meeting this lovely lady soon...
Scared but hopeful by this talk

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6 comments home, renovation

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Almost ready

A few precious moments with the camera today, snapping scenes from around here as we prepare for our holiday.  Elsa's room is finally finished, the Rayburn has arrived, although not ready to use yet. Taking  a moment to notice, the calm, and the excitement, amongst the hurly burly of the season.

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7 comments elsa, rayburn, renovation, woodstove

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Before

This is Elsa's new room. I can't wait to see it painted. 

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5 comments home, renovation

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Ready and waiting

It's a bit like preparing for a baby a friend said. Months and months of waiting and exciting anticipation.  Getting ready for the arrival by preparing the hearth (just as you would a nursery) walls are painted and tiled, floor reinforced and tiled, window installed and finished. All the paraphernalia, flue, tank and radiators are here and waiting.  Two weeks over due.  Any day my baby is due.  Any day.

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8 comments huge, Kitchen, rayburn, renovation

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The pantry

There's been sick peeps around these parts.  Up all hours, lots of washing, squeezing juices and making soup.  But I'm not getting sick. Not me. Too busy thanks.

Around all the nursing, we're fiddling around with the kitchen trying to prepare for the big arrival. For a long time now we've been on a mission.  One to find the perfect pantry cupboard.  We've hunted and scoured for such a long time.  We like those old pine dressers, you know, the farmhouse type ones.  But they just don't hold enough stuff.   Book shelves, stainless steel racks, we've thought about of all types of storage solutions but we were prepared to wait until we found just the right piece.

However, as we ripped out the last of our existing built-in cupboards to make way for the hearth, things started to get desperate.  Nothing like having your pantry stacked in boxes on the floor to take the joy out of cooking.  Perhaps we were going to have to get something custom made. Like, right now.

When suddenly, there it was.  A giant blue vision at the local second hand store.  It was massive, it was loaded with shelves.  And it was perfect.

I love that it came from an old girl guides hall.  It has £ 8-0-0 written in yellow handwriting on the side and is 235 centimetres tall.  And now it lives with us.

Of course, there isn't quite enough room to fit all of our things. But really, can you ever have a big enough pantry?   I'm just so happy we found it, that it just fits under our ceiling, and that it's painted the most lovely shade of blue. And that it has found a home here with us.

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18 comments Kitchen, renovation

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Rad rads

"There's a whole stack of cast iron radiators out the very back of the salvage yard"....music to my ears dear reader, music to my ears.  I love that my builder knows every nook and cranny of every salvage yard around.  

It took a few weeks to find the time to head out over the bridge to search for these rads. And on Saturday, despite pouring rain, I was determined to go see these cast iron beauties. 

"Only the ones without legs are for sale" said the store man gruffly as he led me outside, briskly walking past three huge lumber sheds and into the far back corner that bordered a busy highway.  In the rain and mud, thankful I had the sense to wear gumboots, I climbed through the overgrown blackberry and there they were.  Three pallets stacked up with gorgeous old cast iron radiators.  In desperate need of some love.

Of the fifteen or so radiators, they all had legs except three.  Two of those were broken, which left only one worth buying.  A big heavy eight bar monster. Painted gold. We cut back the blackberry and the forklift was driven up to carry the beast to the car.  It is super heavy.   

To be honest, I have no idea if it will work.  Seems a more common practice in the UK and North America to restore these old radiators.  But I'm up for challenge and will give it a go. Next step is to get it tested, sandblasted, painted and buy some new feet for it.  A pretty easy process I've discovered after a few night's google research.  Once it's painted AWUSA it will look smashing, at a fraction of the cost of a new one.  We'll hook it up to the oven, which also heats water, and by next winter our house will be toasty warm.

One rad down, four more to go. 

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8 comments renovation

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Eight houses

Eight houses in four years I counted yesterday.  That's how often we moved house before we finally found our little farmhouse in the Huon Valley.  That's a lot of boxes to pack when you're pregnant or carrying a little one on your hip. Or both.

Whilst moving every six months can be a real chore, it does mean you are constantly editing your belongings. And after almost five years in our little house, the lack of editing was made glaringly obvious this week when the contents of the pantry were stacked all over the kitchen.   The floor to ceiling built-in cupboards were ripped out and they housed not only our bulky pantry items but the high shelves had become a bit of dumping ground for the stuff we no longer use.  Conveniently hidden out of sight and out of mind.

Now that those cupboards are gone, we've limited storage space, so yep, it is time to say goodbye to those sipper cups and edit everything down to the bare essentials.   Sadly, this also means the end of my op shopping for china and linen habit.  There's just no room.  I had to take it all back, some with the op shop price tags still attached.

With four big boxes safely delivered back to the oppie, we now have a little more breathing space.  It feels quite liberating really.  The dodgey floor has been fixed up ready for tiling, the old hot water tank will go and a new one installed in the roof.   The new reclaimed window (above) will be installed once the rain clears later in the week.  Then we can enjoy a new clutter free and light kitchen. It will be like a new house, with the bonus of not having to actually to move yet again.

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2 comments Kitchen, renovation

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Almost there

I'm so very happy with the kitchen so far. Just some grouting to do and then we are there. Almost.

Here is a tiny pretty bit. The rest is bedlam.

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9 comments home, Kitchen, renovation

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Hidden treasure

Oh boy, we are in the thick of it now. Today the kitchen sink was ripped out along with the last of the cabinetry and now the space is stripped to its bare bones. Butt naked except for a designer Italian piece in the corner. There is no going back now.

As Hugo was helping he pulled up a loose floor board that revealed a cavity under the house. Sadly there was no long forgotten treasure underneath, so we decided to leave a keepsake of our own.

On a piece of paper, written in purple pencil::

My name is Elsa and I'm 8 years old. I like cooking and drawing and sport! I live in this house with my dog Mabel and 5 chooks and my brother Hugo who is four and my mum and dad. We are fixing the kitchen. I own a restaurant*

This note, along with a few seashells, were put in a jar, carefully placed under the floorboards before Hugo hammered the board back into place. A coat of pavement paint to match the rest of the floor finished off the job.

A little message from Elsa, that perhaps someone will find in the future, when the next kitchen is installed. A hidden treasure.

* Elsa explained that when someone found this note in the future, she'd be a grown up and she would have her own restaurant by then. Sweet words.

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3 comments elsa, good things, renovation

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A shift in focus

It sounds pretty lame to admit defeat by a power point. But that's the sorry truth. Everything was going to perfectly to plan in the kitchen makeover stakes. And if I hadn't been so smug, I would have been prepared for hiccups.

You see, we had the sparkie take care of all things electrical so we could proceed without risk of electrocution. But on pulling out the remaining kitchen unit we found a forgotten powerpoint. Not on the wall but on the back cabinetry. That we're trying to pull out. Until that's gone we can't finish the tiling and install the sink.

And trying to get a sparkie out for one power point is nigh on impossible. So I've hit the wall, so to speak. Most renovators will grit their teeth and get on with it. But I dear reader, have lost my enthusiasm and can't see the finish line. So while my new kitchen sink languishes in transport somewhere, I've naturally turned my attention outside. It is spring after all.

chooks enjoying their last forage

We've had a fencing expert come and build a fancy new fence around my vegetable garden. I'm very excited. It's not possum proof. But once the gate is in, it will be rabbit, chicken and most importantly, Mabel proof. I'm sorry to say that it's my very own pets, the dog and the chooks that do the most damage to the garden. Mabel in particular loves to rip small fruit trees out entirely and carry them off for a good chew. A sign of bored dog perhaps? She buries bones in the beds or just gives them a good dig. Well, not any more my little fury friend.

Although this space looks a bit barren, it is early spring. Come summer this space will be lush and green with hopefully some fruit. There are raspberry canes, eleven apple trees, one quince, one cherry and one myer lemon. I have one bed growing garlic, one growing asparagus and one with rhubarb. The remaining three I've plans for cucumbers, potatoes and tomatoes this summer.

Curiously enough by fencing in the garden, I now have more space and will be able start new beds around the perimeter and will plant flowers to attract bug eating insects. I'm thinking lavender, cosmos, zinnias, hollyhocks and of course sunflowers to name a few.

To me, this is so much more exciting to be out here in the gorgeous spring weather, dreaming, weeding and digging. And forgetting all about that cursed bloody powerpoint. For now.

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3 comments chooks, garden, home, mabel, renovation

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Adieu...

...adieu, to you and you and you.

Sparkie is here today. He's going to connect the cooker. And remove these lights. Someone loved these faux Edwardian lights and must have spent a fortune installing them. But they're not for me.

I'm always nervous changing the bulbs with those glass shades, I never can manage to put them back properly and have already smashed a few. I haven't even attempted to change the globes in the children's room. It's so high and I can imagine the shade falling off and smashing onto their beds. Probably while they're asleep. Suffice to say their room has been light by lamps for a while now.

So today we'll be saying goodbye to these phoney antiques. Hopefully I can get a few dollars for them at the local second hand store.

To replace them I have some Tords tucked away, this gorgeous bernabeifreeman that I have been saving for years and a couple of old industrial shades :: I love the way Lyn Gardener uses them at her white farmhouse.

hello

Renovation check list

Kitchen door sealed and wall tiled - tick

Cooker bought and installed - tick

Sink ordered - tick

Lights replaced - tick

To do

Order taps

Call plumber

Finish tiling.

Almost there. We're almost cooking with gas.

*update, can you believe the local second hand store didn't want them!  So it's not just me, they are officially ugly.  I begged him to take them for free....which he did reluctantly....

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4 comments home, renovation

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Rare and special

There was acrylic paints, xacto knife, cardboard and blankets everywhere today. Despite today's wild weather leaving us mostly housebound, we managed quite a lot.

The house is a shambles and nothing can be done about it mid kitchen reno. So we went with the flow and had some fun. Clearing surfaces as we went.

There was piano, a puppet show with tigers fighting over castles and a special delivery. And while I admired the knobs of the delivered shiny new machine (oh how lovely!) the children built a house with the massive box.

The house, for some reason, is actually full of cardboard boxes. So inspired by Joel, we made paper clip puppets.

Beans bubbled in the oven (whose days are numbered) and there was plenty of tea and toast. I love those days when we can just hang out at home. Seems crazy, but they are all so rare and all so special.

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6 comments holiday, home, playtime, renovation

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The kitchen

Remember we ripped out half our kitchen a while back? Well there's been not much progress since. We still have no new kitchen and have been cooking in half a kitchen with a plug in hot plate for too long now. But gentle reader, I tell you we're close to finishing the finish line. So, so close.

I'm putting out in the blogosphere that the kitchen shall be ready in six weeks. Yes it will. We're putting it together on a wing and a prayer. Here's the plan.

I absolutely love this kitchen, from here. But the oven, butler sink and cabinetry are a snip out of our budget. What I will take is the layout of a kitchen running along one wall, the subway tiles with charcoal grout and the white painted floor (that we have already!)

Oh the apple of my eye. After much research, deliberation and shopping around, we've almost settled on one of these lovely Ilve cookers.

Unfitted stainless steel benches and shelves from here. We like the commercial benches, not only because they're cheaper than a flat-pak from the local hardware, but also in our eyes they look better and last far longer. And even I can put them together. (pic)

We'll be getting these hospital taps from here, I like the institutional stylin' and again so very durable.

This week the builder is coming to seal up an exterior door so we will have the wall ready to go. The sparky has already been to move some switches. Once the oven arrives, we'll call in the gas fitter. Then we can rip out what's left of the old kitchen and install the new sink. Hopefully (ahem) a small job for the plumber. Easy peasy. Then it's simply tile the back wall. Not sure if I'll do that myself. My neighbour J has just tiled two bathrooms and said she'd so me how. I'll give it a go.

Oh a new kitchen. Can't wait. And then yes, we'll be cookin' with the proverbial gas. Hooray!

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16 comments good things, home, renovation

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Knock knock

I have been wanting to paint the front door for ages but I thought I'd wait for the entire house to be repainted. A white house thank you. With a red front door. Or maybe a blue one, or green, or perhaps dark charcoal? Oh, too many choices.

I'm not sure when the house will get its lick of white paint. But enough was enough. The fake tan brown door had to go. In the spirit of thriftiness and making do, I remembered a bag of milk paint I bought a few years back with good intentions to paint some baby furniture. Done. The decision made for me.

This gorgeous paint comes as a powder that you mix with water. Made from milk by products, it creates a lovely chalky finish and is non toxic. BUT, is it suitable for north facing exterior doors? Err no. No matter, the brown has gone, it looks good for now and it will be interesting to see how it weathers.

Thanks to Mabel, who bless her, patiently waited for liver treats while I took this shot.

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15 comments home, renovation

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