How great are these hanging planters from ezibuy. I love the globe shaped one and can see a cluster of 2 or 3 hanging in our new home. Good thing they have a sweet discount when you buy 2!
Progress
This is just a quicky... check this out!!!!
Woooahhhhh! I love seeing things like that! And it makes me feel like we've done loads.
Standing in the kitchen/dining area looking out... Can't wait to get the soffits on those eaves out front. It's going to look pretty exceptional.
I love the western and eastern sides of the house... Above is looking towards our master bedroom and the end of hallway window. The soffit will carry along the roofline which is going to look pretty cool.
This weekend is a big one with loads of planting on the western mound. Can't wait to show you all a before and after of that one.
Windows
It's been very slow going lately.... So slow that I lost all motivation to fill any of you in with what is slowly happening. A few of you have been asking so I guess it's time to do a post that isn't all sunshine and lollipops.....
These windows..... We just can not catch a break. They have really held up progress, nothing has gone off without a hitch. So I will give you a quick run down.....it's a bullet point kind of fill in, full sentences will use too much energy on something that had already been the biggest energy sucker yet.
- 4 weeks ago we were ready for the windows. Some of the windows arrive, with unwanted vision rails...as you know. They are sent back.
- 2 weeks after that some more windows arrive which all have to be sent back because they arrive looking like this.
- They return the bulk of the repaired windows over the last week. Excluding the sliding part of the kitchen window, which was dropped on it's way out to us. (Beginning to feel like our windows are actually starring in their very own slapstick comedy)
- Realise that the other part of the kitchen window has been made to slide the wrong way anyway... Has to be sent back.
- Site glazers come out to place the glass in all large windows. I take the day off to clean all the birds nests and poop off the newly polished concrete floor that was supposed to be in a weathertight house. We figure we'll just board the kitchen window up to finally make us weather and bird proof.
- Except.... The have completely forgotten to order one of the large raking triangle windows and the large window above the front door.
Thought I'd show you just some of the poop. Haha, you're welcome. So, yep this was all through the house. It was no small job.
We're now looking at having it finished by the end of this week....fingers are crossed, breath is definitely not held.
It has been a bit of a Window nightmare.... I'm sure at the end of all of this we will look back and laugh....haha... Nope, too soon.
It's a funny thing this disappointment because I genuinely want things to go right for not only our own experience but because I like that I have been able to confidently recommend people and businesses from experience to those of you who are also about to build. I have to say, it's not been a great experience because nothing has gone smoothly and the initial stress of having a 30-something-thousand dollar purchase arrive looking second hand was not a nice one.
Two things though,
- I'm proud to say I haven't cried since the vision rails (yep, still embarrassed about that)
- As unfortunate as the experience has been, at least Vistalite haven't backed out on us once. They have had many screw ups but they are fronting up to all of them. And the windows we finally have in, we love!
In conclusion. We love the windows we have, we haven't loved the constant problems. To clarify, we are not paying for any of these problems to be rectified. Vistalite has taken care of everything.... That's not to say we haven't lost money with the 5 week drag on to get the windows in. This will definitely be one invoice that will hurt as we pay but I'm sure when we are sitting in our home and looking out those windows....all will be forgotten.
Roomie Light
Tina Stephens, our light at the end of the tunnel, our glimmer of hope, when we were scratching our heads...she knew just watt to do. Ohhh! I have so many more puns to make you cringe and make my Father in law clap proudly! But I'll leave it for now....
Tina, is the Creative Director of Roomie, an online professional interior decorating service which has a little something for everyone and in my case, I was drowning when it came to lighting!!!
People say good lighting can make or break a home and when it came to flicking the switch (ok that is the last pun, I promise) on a lighting plan, we were failing miserably. I had a good idea of the aesthetic I was after but placement and clever thinking of 'where and why' was lost on me. Perhaps a downside to doing the build yourself is that you only have room for so many things in your brain. They say you have to build your dream house three times before you get it right....and here we are going for a hole in one. So with that being said, I knew I had to relinquish control of some areas and I KNEW lighting would be it. Now, some of you may be reading this and saying "oh no, Katrina! Don't you realise you can get free lighting plans from chain lighting stores" and I would answer.... Yes, yes I do.... And I did, and they were just never right. If lighting is as important as people say it is then I wanted someone to do it that REALLY got what I was trying to achieve with the style of our home, someone on my wavelength. I didn't want to be limited to what a lighting store had imported this year......plus if I had to look at one more "trendy" light fitting I was going to scream.
Enter Roomie Light....
I gave Tina a very small amount of info to get her started....I wanted a mixture of industrial lighting from Icotraders and natural textured shades to soften it slightly, as few down lights as possible and I also let her know that we weren't big on a LOT of light. Guy is forever turning off lights and switching on lamps.... so with that being said, she wove her magic and presented us with the most comprehensive and well thought out plan, budget and spec sheet than I could have ever hoped for. Seriously, blown away.
This is a compilation of ideas Tina put together that were based on the very brief brief. Clever isn't she...... Just you wait.
Meet our lighting plan.... (I hope it's clear enough for you) Each little code matches a light fitting that is on the spec sheet. It was so much fun referencing back and forth and getting a good clear vision of what the room will look like. Tina has made the most of our high ceilings by using up lights in certain areas that will wash light up and across the ceilings in the living room. We will have a few pendant lights in the same area which will be on a different switch. I love that idea, a light room without the harshness of downlights highlighting every single downy eyebrow hair that hasn't been touched in 4months. Curse you non-dimmable downlights and your unforgiving shadows. I am so happy with the plan and could finally breathe out a solid exhale when it came to the lighting. Tina definitely got me, offered fantastic advice and is just really easy to talk to.
To give you an idea of what the product and budget sheet looked like you can check out their Room Service page which offers you a break down of what you get... Look for "shop and budget" down the bottom, you'll see what I mean by well thought out and comprehensive. Roomie light is yet to be officially launched, roll on November. But that won't stop Tina from jumping on a lighting project for you now. Just email her through the Roomie website.
Speaking of Room service.... Obviously lighting isn't the only trick up their sleeve. They have great interior design packages for those of you who need a little inspiration and ahem designer discounts....errrrm bonus! Whether it's just a bit of a kick start and some great ideas of what and where to shop or an all out room makeover that would make your friends think you should be on the The Block next year because you have mad skills. Roomie can and will hook you up. Click here for packages and pricing.
So there you go, my little lighting secret...You don't need to thank me, sharing is caring.
Thank you Tina!
Builders block
Oh hey, it's been a while. Things have felt incredibly slow going lately. Most of the work we're doing has no visual impact....super frustrating and not very blog worthy. BUT we did get our concrete floors polished over the weekend!!!! So exciting! Our fantastic neighbour Chris Hendricks from Not Just Coatings did it for us and we are seriously so lucky that he lives next door otherwise we may not have found him!!! He is a proper perfectionist and 'hard worker' doesn't even scratch the surface of his commitment to his work and doing a great job! The concrete looks exactly as we'd hoped. Super natural with just a little aggregate showing in some areas and we actually couldn't be happier!
I tried my best to get some good photos but it turns out photographing concrete and getting it to live up to its 'in real life' potential is a little difficult.
There we go, one is in the sun....the other is not. Oh and I forgot to mention, they're not even done yet! This is only stage one, we have to cover the floor with boards to protect them until we're pretty much done with everything and then they're taken off and have two more polishing grits and a sealant buffed in..... Or something like that.
This weekend marked our first weekend spent staying over in the shed so we could rise nice and early to start work....which also meant Guy could get early morning and dusk surf sessions in and I could sneak away to the brick mill for some vintage goods foraging....Living the dream.
Oh and we threw a BBQ for some of our closest neighbours who have made an effort to visit, help, give and be awesomely neighbourly in general. It was a super fun night and it turns out when we are all together....the drinks flow like a raging river. I had the hugest hangover on Monday, I was thanking my lucky stars it was my day off and I was thinking of my fellow neighbours who weren't quite so lucky while I ate hot chips for breakfast...living the dream? Not so much. All I can say is that the lane would have been harbouring a few sore heads on Monday and it was the Nurse's fault. Welcome to the neighborhood. Eek!!!
In other news, more dramz with the windows but I'll get to that another time. Ugh.
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