The shmeg

We had high hopes for our under bench fridge, in my dreams it was a black smeg bar fridge, everytime I would go to fetch a beer we would share a moment, he would gently hum as if to say "thanks for choosing me" and I would sigh and say "thanks for being you". But I was immediately torn from my sweet fridge dream when I saw what he would cost me! More than my first car! Not that that would be hard...but still, that's besides the point. I couldn't, nay, I WOULDN'T pay that much for a cold box. (Ok to be honest it's pretty much "I couldn't", we totally do not have dispensable fridge monies lying around) so we started looking for alternatives and found a pretty cool retro smeg-looking fridge called a Husky, we saw it at Harvey Norman on some super special for around $600, but at the time we had just bought a washer and dryer and we had the money spending shakes already, so we left it behind.

Since that day, there have been many more days when I have said "let's go get that fridge" and there have been days when Guy has agreed.... And on those kinda days, you've never seen a girl get ready and in the car so quick, because an extra minute covering that chin zit could cost you a change of mind, you must move swiftly, Taylor Swiftly. Alas, when we would get to the store, it was never on special ever again. It was either $999 or $749 and that may not seem like a big deal if your name is not Mr and Mrs Nurse but we have a mental road block when it comes to paying any more than what we have seen it for in the past. The Husky was a goner...... erm, Literally, it has now been discontinued apparently, Ha!

So we were back at our empty hole under the island bench. What would become of it? All it did at the moment was house Jed's water bowl and give him and excuse for lurking in the kitchen "who me? No, no I'm not waiting for scraps to fall to the floor, I was thirsty, so thirsty, just looking for my water bowl, oh I found it, lap lap lap *side eye* lap lap". I was desperate to fill the void and get a fridge... Then I came across a dusty old Kelvinator in the shed, no one is 100% sure where it came from, an orphan fridge. So I decided to give it the Annie treatment and show it that tomorrow was only a day away and it was going to be spruced up and loved by our family and it's forever home. If I couldn't have a Smeg fridge because my wallets weren't deep enough/are fake pockets that are sewn shut then I would freaking well make my own smeg.... And we will call it the SHMEG because smeg shmeg, our beers will be just as cold.

 

 

Blah blah blah, geez I go on. Here's what I did.

 

 

Find suitable hole under bench.

 

 

 

Find dusty kelvinator in a shed and give it a good clean

 

 

 

Meet your new best friend, I LOVE this stuff and have gone through bottles of it, it sticks to any metal with crazy intensity and dries a really great matte black. You can also get a top coat in this range in a matte black but the primer gives such a great finish! Tip, etching primer that is brushed over top of etching primer.....removes etching primer. Moral of that story, stick to these spray cans and not the little pottle of paint.... Learned during the painting of our flashings. I sprayed two coats on the kelv.

 

 

 

Buy stick on letters, I couldn't find any brass letters that went beyond A B C so I settled with these red reflective jobs for $2 each and I gave them a coat of etching primer before spraying them with

 

 

 

 

I would have used a specific brass coloured spray but Christmas had stolen all the bottles so I went with gold. It's important to spray them with the etching primer first, the normal paints just won't stick. I gave them one coat of primer and 3 coats of gold. Remember to leave the adhesive on the back until you've sprayed and dried them all (bit of a no brained but you never know, too much eggnog or something like that)

 

 

 

 

 

This is what it looked like at first, I got a little over eager and got straight into the sticking. After a few hours of looking at it and thinking "something's not right...and I don't mean the h", I realised the letters were too close is just before we sat down for dinner I ripped them off and did it again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tadaaaaaaa! We love him. He keeps our beers cold and our hearts warm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* by the way if you just have an ugly fridge that could benefit from a splash of matte black without the lettering, that spray is seriously so good.

I bought everything from Mitre 10 Mega, aka the place that absorbs allllll the monies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's all coming along, promise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fireplace, finally finished and undercoated!

 

 

 

Time to start dreaming of a deck for summer.....

 

Life, oh life, oh liiiiiiife

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw this quote today and thought nothing could be more true. There are always things in life we wish would happen for us but it just seems to take it's sweet time. In all honesty for us, after almost 11 years together, it's tiny people that are half him and half me (maybe three quarters him, ha!). For others, maybe it's a home, a husband, a wife, a promotion, a lotto win or maybe just your hope that your monthly hormonal zit scar will one day fade. I'm all about the trusting!

Happy Tuesday! :-)

 

 

Did someone say montage?!?

 

Throughout the build I've made little flipagrams out of our progress photos, it always gives us a boost to see it happening so fast....as opposed to the day by day drag it can sometimes feel like. But today, I went next level, I compiled them from start to finish....epic piece of videography, it is not....but....Motivation-us Maximus it most certainly is. Hooray, we've come a long way baby

 

Friday Five

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll remember when I used to do a Friday Five. A selction of 5 songs for your weekend listening pleasure. Well spotify have made it way easier for me to do,  so I'm bringing it back like Georgie Pie. Happy Friday Friends!

Look at me!

 

 

 

 

 

So I'm pretty sure that this little collection of images makes me a legit blogger, right? Well, I'm saying it does. And I was hooting and fist pumping in delight when I started to figure it all out. I also threw my toys (aka a mandarin skin) a couple of times and decided to hide half of my cane chair because it was becoming the bane of my life. But.... I'm still counting it as a win.

 

I decided to have a go at being a real life blogger and do a moodboard when I realised that I was failing miserably in my quest for a rug for our living area. Nothing has been working, I thought my prayers were answered last week when Freedom got a large Melibu rug in store (which they have discontinued in that size) and I thought it was a sign...That we must be together. Alas, the online image tricked me into thinking it was a shag rug, upon inspection it was really, really not. The staff thought I was crazy a person, I had stalked them for a whole week waiting to hear it was ready to be picked up and when we got there it was a total 'No'...ew....people like me suck. But it has to be right, and it has to be soft, because I'm a floor sitter and our concrete floors are not made for sitting, they are made for dancing. Which is equally as important buy not my current priority.

The melibu rug (above) is more of a mat type rug, does that make sense? It's got that doormat kind of feel, great for heavier traffic areas I suppose. And in real life it's not white like this, more of a natural jute colour. The dangers of online imagery, what you see ain't always what you get... kind of how my skin looks all glowy with certain filters on instagram, but that doesn't really count because I already bagged myself a husband, so I'm not false advertising...he knows what real life looks like. Poor man.

 

 

So yea, back to the drawing board on operation 'find a damn rug!!!' I decided that layering may be my only option, and not a bad one. So I looked at the moroccan boxes rug from freedom, which is most definitely shag, baby.... And because they also discontinued the big one (seriously Freedom, size matters!) then I could layer it on top of their big madras rugs. So, I decided to give it all a go on my computer. And that is the very long story of how my moodboard came to exist and why I am, all of a sudden, a super cool and legit blogger....not my words, ok....they are my words, but when I said them...Guy agreed. Good man.

 

 

1. Satori lights 2. Art by Kai Samuel Davis, Clare Elsaesser, Elizabeth Mayville 3. Studio sofa 4. Akaroa table 5. Letliv pouf

 

The other items are things that are vintage or in the process of being made. Except that leather sofa was a pic I found online and was the closest to our actual couch that I came across because I couldn't photograph it with the right light to cut it out. Not quite the awesome blogger just yet then I suppose.

 

Think outside the big reflective box

This house building stuff can get expensive, it drains your pockets along with your energy (tiny violin) and there is always something cooler / would fit in that space perfectly / looks just like that one you saw on San Francisco Girl by bay's blog / waaaay out of your price range. Alas it is all just a part of life and sometimes you can buy a cheap knockoff which is what happens when life feels like giving you the big thumbs up (sorry design guru's out there who despise knockoffs, I'm just a tall girl with a small wallet, building a big house)

 

So, I have seen so many HUGE mirrors on Pinterest. Those really cool big ones that are just casually leaning up against the wall like "who me, I'm just chilling....the lady that owns this house bought me for a gazillion bucks so I'm set for life and I'm sending my tiny mirror babies to college".... You know the ones I'm talking about. Smug and gigantic.

Well I wanted one (of course I did) to go in our wardrobe and I do not have a gazillion bucks to spend! Not even close, in fact, not even 100. So I started thinking about how I could copy them without the price tag and then I thought about the big mirrors that are part of those sliding wardrobe doors in a lot of newish houses these days AND THEN I thought about how many newish houses were pulled to pieces after those heinous earthquakes of ours. I did a search on trademe and sure enough there were loads but I found a really big one for $50 and I hit the buy now so hard my index finger felt a little sore for about 5 minutes.

 

It was ugly.... And I didn't care. It was big and in this case. Size totally mattered.

 

I bought some black etching primer spray paint.... It sticks to anything, dries super quick and goes a great matte colour. I taped the mirror up, then went outside with a head torch and started spraying.

 

It looks awesome, sure... if you get real close you may notice it's 'wardrobe door' like frame but I don't mind. Most people when they're looking at a mirror are checking that their teeth are clean and their bums look not too small/not too big so I'm thinking no one else will notice and everyone will just assume it's the kind of mirror with trust fund babies. Result.

 

I'm also finding that whenever I finish a space I want to spoil it with gifts of cool stuff that I've been collecting (aka buying and hiding from Guy) and in my wardrobes case it got well and truly spoilt. I can't say these things will stay there forever because when I have an actual living area to deck out I may want to steal them back but for now..... They're all yours wardrobe.

 

 

 

 

The wardrobe got my favourite pouf ever that I found at LETLIV.... You can't really go past a tan moroccan pouf, all they're going to do is wear in and keep looking more and more awesome, which in turn will make you (pouf owner) look awesome. It's science.

The madras rug from freedom

My Clare Elsaesser prints, these may stay.....and I may just have to buy more. Oh darn.

A little vintage macrame and toolbox find + all of my hats

 

 

 

 

 

This wardrobe without all the cool poufs and prints was actually cheap as chips. A couple of pieces of driftwood and twine, the bottom piece a little shorter in length so there's room to hang the long dresses I never wear and a $50 giant mirror.

 

Next on the list are some cheap DIY plywood shelves..... We have a dresser with drawers in the bedroom for all the folded stuff so we don't need to worry about that and when we have more time and money we may change the driftwood to matte black metal piping but for now it's as good as gold.

 

Build progress according to my instagram feed

For those of you who rely on my updates here, not instagram. I'm sorry, blame instagram and all of its easy instantaneous-ness. You probably thought we had been slacking off. Quite the opposite though. So I'm going to drop a photo bomb. 3,2,1

 

Starting with the kitchen/dining

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living/fire zone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think we're going with this pattern for the fire predicament (last post)

 

 

 

Entrance...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that gets you pretty much up to date!!! Always apologizing for my hazy photos, and here goes again.... Sorry! Call it laziness but busy sounds waaaaay better. It's all iPhone and blogging apps around here.

 

Oh and I will post more often, hand on my heart. Pinky swear, yada yada yada. But really.

 

 

Fire predicament

 

 

 

 

 

 

Help!!!! Remember that giant feature of a fire place we have? Well it seems the council are having second thoughts about it and whether or not it actually complies to the code..... Cheers guys, awesome news. (I don't even care about sarcasm being the lowest form of wit, that's the only wit I've got right now and it's just gon' have to do) so we were given a few options to make it comply,

1. Raise the false ceiling behind the brick wall above the fire. No problem.... Just bang out a few bits of timber and Bob is the uncle you never had.
2. Have a shield made to protect the lowest part of the brick wall (closest to the fire) ummmm ok, not stoked you'll be able to see it, but ok....if it makes it all legit then I won't quit.
3. Create vents in the brick wall by leaving out at least a couple of bricks or using weep holes....screeeeech (record player needle sound effect) hold the phone!!! No way! Deals off compadre! You want me to put holes in the main feature of my room. Are you mental?

I am feeling a little gutted and I need to snap on out of it, because it is just a wall.

BUT, it's a wall that I had looking a certain way in my head long before this house was even drawn on paper. So I just desperately want it to be right. So.....from where I stand, these are our options.

 

Taking a few bricks out and covering the holes with white vents of some sort. Interesting that I have included this as an option, seeing as in my head....it really isn't.

 

The next option are the weep holes. Do you know what they are? No? Neither did I. They are this...

 

 

So, they're still not great. Especially seeing as there will need to be many of them. But Then I started thinking about Bri Emery's studio. It's gorgeous and there is a giant brick wall painted white but there are a cluster of bricks were the mortar has fallen out. As soon as I saw it I loved it and asked Miss Bri of Designlovefest if it was done purposefully or if it was a 'happy accident', it was the latter and I thought to myself, age and wear for the win, it looks great!

So what if we did that by actually cutting all the way through on some bricks to make vents, and we could make a bit of a feature out of it?! Our wall will eventually be all bricked and all white, so, pretty similar to this wall. Here are some pics from Designlovefest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big plus about this is that I don't think they will compete too much with whatever art I choose to hang on that wall.

 

Last option.

 

 

I do away with art and try and make some kind of feature out of the venting. Not too sure about this but......

 

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts. Drop in your 2 cents, help a sister out.

 

 

 

 

 

What a weekend

 

 

Last weekend was HUGE, we ticked so much off our ridiculously long to do list and it felt goooooood.

Let's start with the floating fire plinth (plinth? That's what we're calling it, we could be wrong) Guy and Dad poured it a few weeks back and we had it sitting in the middle of the room with all the framing and braces attached to it while it cured. Well it was well and truly cured by last weekend and it was time to reveal it in all it's floating glory.

 

 

 

 

Going

 

 

Going

 

 

 

 

Gone.....apart from the plastic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guy had the job off grinding and polishing it, then I had the job of having an asthma attack from all the dust.....ok, a little dramatic...it was a wheezy cough....

 

 

I got all the kitchen/dining nail holes filled, my Father in law sanded them all and then I started painting all the grooves ready for the roller.

 

 

 

 

Dad got the chimney all ready for the cap to go on and with a bit of muscle we got it up on the roof

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day, we hired a wet saw and finally after months of sitting there, this pile of bricks I scored for $21 were turned into tiles/slips. It was a BIG job and poor Guy was at it allllll day long. Constantly bent over, constantly wet and very cold. I felt kinda bad being all warm inside painting....not bad enough to stop him though. He got all of them done, I carted them all around to the front of the house, then Dad started putting them up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took this photo this morning. We have done all the bricks behind where the fire will sit because it would be a little hard to do it after it's in. I absolutely love them and although Guy and Dad think it would be a shame to paint them white (as was always the plan) I'm sticking to my guns. We are putting a black woodburner on top of the plinth, and we all know they aren't the MOST beautiful of things, but they are the most efficient and as much as I tend to focus on the design, I don't want to be impractical.

But if we left those bricks natural it would immediately look like instant 80's decor with a logburner in front of them.....a wall by itself, awesome, id keep them.... But I'm just not ready to go full design circle to the years of my birth. I have a few ideas floating round, originally I thought we would do it all white and then I thought to let the fire 'sink in' and not be such a feature I would paint a darker colour behind it..... Still not sure, so I will do it one step at a time....

Here are some of my pins I used for inspiration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above house is utter perfection in my eyes, right down to the cute little dog in the corner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly, I love this half painted wall. Hmmmm so many ideas to play with!