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!

 

Ensuite tiling......forever

I stand by it, I stand firmly by my decision to cover all 4 walls with 15cm square tiles. It may have taken a VERY long time, my Dad got it started and then Guy took over and then I did the grouting... yes, it was somewhat of a relay because I'm sure it would have broken the Man or Woman who attempted it on their own.

But like I said, I stand by it because I absolutely love it. When my sister walked in for the first time she said "I think this is my favourite room in the house" I could have hugged her....maybe I did?

I'm so looking forward to showing you the end result....actually I'm so excited to see it myself... ha! Eventually we will have the wooden slats on the shower floor, where the lads are standing. We'll have the glass screen up and the old $10 mirror I found on trademe.

Speaking of the shower glass....I ended up finding a company in Timaru who we are going through because it was HALF the price of the Christchurch company that got back to us and that is including frieght. Christchurch Glass didn't even return my phone calls, they clearly didn't need our business, I felt like a crazy desperate stalker, the amount of messages I left....please call me back, we're in need of some shower screens....pllllllease. Nothing. What the?!

That is something we have learnt from this experince, you just HAVE to shop around, I know it takes time and is super draining but it will do the opposite to your pockets....not drain them I mean.

Another thing we found out is that grout sealing is the worst job ever. Avoid it, pretend you have a stomach ache and go to bed and read Homestyle while your Husband finishes it. Just saying.

DIY turned wood pendant light.... without the turning

 

 

 

We had been looking for bedside lights for a long time, I would find something, stare at it for a while and then decide it wasnt quite right. I love our white bedroom but the thing I love about white is all the warming up you can do with fittings and furniture. I needed the warmth of wood.

 

I found a light I loved from Citta design, it really is so gorgeous....the wood and copper one?! But they weren't coming in until August and this "build your own home from scratch' project is hogging all my patience. So it was back to the drawing board, I youtubed lots of wood DIY's, mainly Canadian men with very Canadian accents, checkered shirts and serious wood working skills. I could do the checkered shirts, I would even give the accent a go but the skills....nope. I just needed the turning part done for me and then I could totally take it from there. I needed to come up with a DIY, a shortcut to perfect Canadian wood working. I think that's how my brain got me started, I was looking at this sweet wooden bowl, gifted to us from an Aunt and Uncle from....you guessed it, Canada. A wooden bowl, wood that has been perfectly carved and turned...ummmm. And then a trip to Briscoes sealed it....and then their 60% off all ECOLOGY wooden bowls made me fist pump in delight.... It was SO on.

I wanna be all cool and a bit "oh yeh, they worked out alright" about them, except I just think these lights are freaking awesome and I'm so stoked with them!!! So instead I'm doing that 'I have something on my shoulder, I'm gonna brush it off' dance in the most gangsta style I can muster.

So here we go, here's how we did it (I have left out most of the trial and error parts that lead us to the final result, I have also left out the exact amount of pilsner consumed and the Husband and Wife DIY 'just do it my way' battles, you're welcome)

 

 

 

 

 

1 x 25cm ECOLOGY bowl These are 60% off at the moment. go, go, go!

1 x 15cm Freedom serving bowl ECOLOGY also do a similar size bowl which is $10 cheaper but I think the colour difference and the fact you can see the layering in the Freedom bowl are little details that make the light.

Coloured cord (whatever length amount you require)

ceramic light socket - sorry, no link for these but any electrical store will have them. You need to use one of these and not a cheapy plastic one as you will screw this directly onto the bowl. They're only a few dollars I think?

We bought our wall brackets from Bunnings in a 2 pack for $10

Brass nut on top from Bunnings too, purely decoration.

Some screws and a drill

Ruler

Pencil

Strong adhesive

Enamel paint (our colour is resene alabaster)

 

Right, I would start by painting the inside of your big bowl with 2 coats of enamel. I did this at the end, which was not as ideal.

Once that's dry....

Find the centre of your bowls base, mark them and drill a hole large enough for the light cord to pass through easily

Attach your ceramic light socket to the cord. We did this ourselves but I'm not suggesting everyone does and I am not going to run you through how to be an electrician because neither of us are one of those, in fact when deciding which colour would be the positive/negative between the blue and the brown we decided 'poo is brown and poo is a bit of a negative so brown is negative' say no more, you are not taking advice from us when it comes to wiring.

 

 

 

 

 

Thread your cable through your drilled hole and then screw the light socket up onto the bowl.

 

 

 

 

Now tie a knot about 8cm up from where the cable is coming out of the big bowl, then continue to thread it through the small bowl. when you hold onto the top of the cord and hang your pendant, your small bowl should be resting on the knot with a 1-2cm gap between the two bowls. This is to take the pressure off the wiring when hanging.

Spread your super strong glue around the top rim of your small bowl and then press firmly down, wipe away any glue that squishes out and let this cure overnight, we originally thought to screw this down but with the curve of the bowl its hard not to split it, so the glue seemed the better option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thread your decorative brass nut (if you so desire) over the cable so it sits on top of the small bowl

Either attach a plug or connect to your wiring and you are all done!

Look what you did you clever thing, you made a cool light, brush your shoulders, you are a light gangsta now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope this very casual 'how to' is clear enough, feel free to ask me anything if it doesn't make sense.

If you do give this a go, I would love to see your finished result, if you instagram it, go ahead and tag me.

 

Good luck, have fun and may the sprirt skills of a checkerd shirt Canadian be with you.

 

 

 

 

Baby steppin'

 

 

This is the fun part about living in the house.... I'm there all the time when I'm not working, so on my day off it means I'm in the right place to get stuff done! Today I had a little list.

 

1. Paint scullery walls with blackboard paint... Tick
2. Create a little living zone in the dining area.... Tick
3. Get Guy to put the handles on the kitchen (ok so maybe that shouldn't have been on MY list, but it was still a task).... Tick
4. Do the washing.... Tick
5. Do dinner.... Tick

Sorry the last ones were boring and not blog worthy but they were there and in the spirit of authenticity I decided they should stay.... And it allowed me to say tick two more times.

 

I decided to paint blackboard paint halfway up the scullery walls to save money on tiling and because I think it's a pretty functional room to keep your shopping list... Right next to the pantry, so I can just snap a photo of it before heading to the shops and I shall never forget that we were out of coffee again (because you always remember as you turn into your street, and you know you ain't turning back) which means Guy will have to wake naturally and slowly... Eek.

 

 

 

I measured it 1500mm up from floor level with a bunch of little dots and used a level to draw a line (connect the dots), then I taped along my line and rolled it. You definitely get a better finish when you roll blackboard paint btw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now is for a little trick that maybe everyone knew but me. Once the paint is dry, hold a piece of chalk on its side and cover the whole area in chalk. You then use a dry cloth and give it a good rub, doing this will stop those first things you decide to draw from staining your blackboard FOREVER!! Hooray.

Oh and I bought a stencil a little while ago that I used for behind the sink, wanted something reasonably good looking seeing as I won't be drawing behind the tap when it goes in.

 

Ok this kitchen photo is SO BLURRY but I had to show you the handles on the kitchen! Hooray! We love them. They're a gorgeous matte black and well, it's just so damn good to have handles! It took a long time to find these handles, I wanted something we could centre to keep it looking nice and clean, those cupboards either side of the oven have pull out drawers for pots etc, I just wanted the cupboard face for the look of the kitchen. And the dishwasher is integrated along there somewhere too. Can't wait to finish this room. Woohoo, getting closer.

 

 

 

 

(Sorry for the even grainier than usual iPhone photos, night time shooting is not my phones strong suit)

 

And last but not least our little chill out zone..... Ahhhhhhhh, relllllaaaaax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The week that was, then wasn't, then was again.

 

 

 

 

What a week! We've moved in! We are half living the dream and half glamping but it's an experience that is so welcome. We feel like different people having our own space, our own home. It's been a few years.

It's a funny thing pouring your heart and soul, sweat and tears into a project like this. I mean, we have been living and breathing it, we've both felt CONSUMED by it and worry a little that it's all we talk about...we're the crazy house people, it's all we've got and watch out when we're let off the tools for a weekend event...have people started avoiding us at weddings? If not, maybe they should... "The crazy house people are having a rare social escape, hide that bottle of red, don't even ask them about the windows, clear the dance floor, they don't get out much". Cue the drunken robot, lots of spinning each other around... God forbid there be any twerking but hey, I can't be sure... they didn't hide the red in time.

I'm not saying that because we've moved halfway in the craziness is over, there is still a LOT to do but we have our OWN home to rest our bodies and minds in. Surely that will make a big difference... Right? Right?! Ha... You can smell the desperation.

So back to this first week, it's actually been a bit of a roller coaster...not all angel harps and fluffy ducks... No matter what my instagram looks like. Time for a reality check?

 

 

 

 

The week we bought our section, we had just completely fallen in love. The picturesque little lane with a small bunch of houses down it, lots of trees, open spaces, the most beautiful (in my opinion) beach and river down the road, a rambling old historic building around the corner packed with thrifty treasures and lovely folk who wave when they drive past. Then the day before we put the offer in, I returned to sit in the paddock that would one day be our home. The easterly wind was cold and hitting the side of my face like little tiny fairies throwing spears (can you imagine it, hilarious!), the sky was grey and miserable and there it was, there was no escaping it, the noise of the busy road a mere 150 metres away seemed deafening. How dare you interrupt my serenity, what the hell! Everything else was perfect. Nooooo!

 

 

 

 

I went home pretty glum and feeling sick about the fact I'd have to tell Guy that I just wasn't sure and maybe we should pull pin. I started to tell him all about how gutted I was and we chatted about it for a long while. "We have a pretty long checklist and this place ticks all the boxes, apart from this one thing, which actually is a half ticked box because you liked the fact it was close to the main road because it made you feel safe" he was right. I went back the next day. I sat in the paddock, birds were chirping the sun was shining the grass felt all lush and delicious between my grass picking fingers....I wandered down to the brick mill for a forage around the emporium and I did VERY well that day, thrifty treasures aplenty. I went to the beach, had a few deep breaths, went back to the section....yes, I could faintly hear the hum of cars passing by but no way near as bad as the day before (the wind has a lot to answer for) and I decided that it was for us. I imagined Guy being able to get up at heinously early hours and go for a surf 2km down the road. He would love it. He deserves it. What's the problem with the occasional swoosh of a car or truck being carried by the wind, so then it began. The hard slog of turning this paddock into a property. Hundreds of trees, building the pump shed and the 4 bay shed, digging our driveways, building fences, building a house.

 

 

 

 

Imagine that day when we got to move into our bedroom, we'd made a long and torturous Saturday drive home after our friends' amazing wedding down South (imagine the hangovers after a rare social escape) We got home at 10pm. Fell into bed and then drove out to Waikuku Sunday morn' to start work on the house by 8:30-9 the next morning. We finished at 10pm that night. But we didn't mind, Monday was moving day.

We moved some basics in, I instagramed it. Everyone was amazingly kind, we were on cloud nine.

Then we got into our bed in our room with double thickness walls and double glazing and we could hear it.... The noise of the busy road a mere 150 metres away was deafening. We barely slept, I may have cried in the morning, even Guy (the man that can always see the silver lining) was noticeably glum. We were gutted.... Was it a deal breaker, have we worked our freakin butts off for nothing. The next night, we went to bed, and we could barely hear it (the wind had changed, it has a lot to answer for) I downloaded a sleep noise app and we went to sleep listening to the crashing waves... We slept pretty well. The next day was an absolute stunner, Guy went for his morning surf, I got up and made my smoothie and when he got back we had a coffee and walked around in the morning light and talked about the decking and outdoor living. We felt a lot better. That day I instagramed a pic of our makeshift kitchen/dining room. And again you were all SO kind. You pointed out that view that I first fell in love with and you lifted us up! Last night we barely needed the sleep app, we slept well. Really well. I woke feeling absolutely stoked, I went for a walk on the beach with Jed while Guy surfed. I saved a baby crab! no big deal?... Well, I bet it was for him. And when we got back to the house the easterly had picked up and the sound of the road was kinda loud but we will get used to it. We can't have it all for the budget we've done this on. We get the beach, the river, the view, the space, the dream house. So stop being a dick. And deal with it.... They say the hum of traffic becomes as soothing as the ocean eventually and hey by the time our trees grow and start doing their job filtering wind and sound, it won't even be an issue. I put this intense reaction down to the amount of invested emotion into this project. We feel everything a bit harder than usual.

 

 

 

 

Have you lived near a humming road, did you mind it?! Did you get used to it, imagining you were one of the LOST characters sleeping on an island and listening to the endless waves? Tell me you did.... Or didn't, I can handle it.

Anyway, if you are an instagram friend. Thanks, seriously. Being from New Zealand where anything too emotive is probably a little weird and putting yourself out there is just not what we do... "You've never actually met some of these people, isn't that kinda strange" well no, I really treasure you all. You are uplifting little notifications (just kidding, I know you're real people) and we always appreciate your comments and general niceness. Yes, I am feeling slightly soppy and and that may be because I'm on wine #2 but I mean it. On this first (totally raging) Friday night in our house, we feel happy, we hear only quiet and I thought I may as well spend a good sized part of it with you. Thanks for keeping us company on this journey.

 

K x

 

Lining at the end of the tunnel

 

 

 

 

 

Yes that is gib board on our walls and, Yes, that is a chair in our house. I know it's a little premature for chair placements but I couldn't help myself...that's one of my favourite spots in the house so I had to put something there. It's actually come in very handy for some good honest sitting, looking, picturing what will go where and occasionally just watching Guy or Dad work.

I must say though, I actually have become quite handy with a gib screw gun thingy unless it's an awkward corner where I can't put my full weight behind it (I really need to work on these noodle arms)....nothing a little encouragement with a screwdriver won't fix though. I do still have my own special words for some tools, which amuses Guy and Dad but I generally know what they're talking about whenever I need to pass them something. So, the skills are definitely coming along.

 

Guy's skills on the other hand have gone next level... So proud of what he can do and love seeing how much he enjoys building our home, it's such an experience we will never forget.... And we owe so much to my Dad who has put in just as much time as we have. Even when we are away for a wedding and we say.... Make sure you take the weekend off as well...you can guarantee he won't.

 

Hmmmm Do you sense a little nostalgia from me...a little 'oh, what a journey it's been!' kind of emotion...Well, you'd be right...because we just this morning got the big tick from the council to get onto the plastering and painting stage!! I can hardly believe we're here and I'm just soooo excited!

 

We put in a big pre inspection effort last night until 10pm, this area was a highlight for me...the fire zone. Before

 

 

 

 

 

And After!

It was so great to see it all lined.....and Guy and Dad were very gracious when I said..."Wooow! I love it.......actuuually I think the face wall above the fire needs to be around 800mm lower so it lines up with the top of the glass" They decided it wouldn't take much to add an extra 800mm and said "Righto PM (project manager/mistress/monster)" and then I could breathe again with the promise my lines are going to line up soon.

 

 

 

I'm loving the grooved ply ceilings, which we will be painting white... I love white, and white the house will be. I'm counting on the texture changes like this one to give the house the interest that a lot of people use colour for. White textures.... that's where I'm at.

I'm also slightly inspired by this pile of gib against the living room wall. I think a wall mural may be on my list of things to do now....

 

 

 

 

 

Half of the kitchen is in... Which blew my mind. Handles need to go on, bench needs to be fitted, Island put together, island bench made.... But ya know, we're getting there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not least.... Our bedroom!! The plan was to waterfall the ply right down the back of the wall. That WAS the plan until the boys discovered that due to basic mathematics the lines wouldn't line up seeing as the ceiling is on a 15° slope. Naturally, I was slightly devastated... My exciting feature scrapped due to Maths?! Maths! The Maths I said I would never use again when I left school because I would buy a calculator...damn! get outta here 'basic mathematics', quite honestly I have never liked you, you've always been a little mean.

 

But after I had my grand idea deflated I decided the way to get around it was to take the gooved wall to the top of the windows and just create one giant headboard type feature.

 

I think it's a win (Guy is almost on board) and like my Dad said...

 

"it won't be everyone's cup of tea"

But that brings me to my next thought....I've decided that I'm not phased if every persons cup of tea and wine biscuit crumbs aren't at our house.

We're building this home for us and our cups of tea to sit in. And when people visit and don't like something I'm guessing we won't know anyway, I assume, in the spirit of good manners that they would wait until they are sitting around with their own yummy cups of tea in their own beautiful homes to talk about what they would have done differently...right?

Unless you're Kevin McCloud, then you can and will say whatever you want to whoever you want. Because you're Kevin McCloud and that's your job.

 

Hooray for progress...and an update!!! And to all my Instgram friends, thanks so much for the constant encouragement. You're all incredible!

K x

 

365°

 

 

I've been meaning to post this for a while now....most of you probably follow my instagram feed and you see the top two images all the time!

But this is the thing about instagram, it's for pretty photo's right? Like when I try and cook that perfect fillet of fish that's lying delicately over the creamy risotto, exactly like the Pinterest photo, but instead it looks like scrambled fish and lumpy rice....that will not go on instagram.... But a perfectly ripe just opened avocado. Snap, filter, go!

Well I guess I kind of do that with our house too, not to fool you, but because who really photographs the not-as-good bits?! Well, I have because I want you to see them.

 

We bought the section as a flat empty 2.5 acre paddock, which means there is a fair amount of work that needs to go into landscaping it. At the moment we can see right over to our neighbours shed and our other neighbours yard where he keeps all his business vehicles and toys (he is a VERY handy man to know!!)

 

 

On the western (shed) side we've already planted a whole row of trees and created and planted a mound directly in front of it to give us privacy from our neighbours (who we love but I'm sure they don't want to see us doing the forgetful nudie dash from shower to towel cupboard). Some of the trees are already taller than the fence!! Unreal and pretty exciting! Soon we won't even know that each other are there...and then we'll probably miss our ride on mower waves and chats.

On the Eastern side, you can see the line of trees that our very thoughtful neighbours have already planted....that's a lot of money right there and it's not going to benefit them in anyway.... I mean, Their trucks didn't need privacy. So it was very kind of them to get them in the ground and get them growing. We have plenty more to do on that eastern side...landscape either side of the driveway and then do some kind of hedging closer to our house to help with the easterly wind.

Actually that's a really good tip if you're in the design stage....make sure you spend time on the section and figure out what your prevailing winds are etc... Then create sheltered zones around the house. We have one beside the living room out the front of our ensuite window and another on the south western side outside what we now refer to as 'the den' it's where our computers will be and a loungey reading zone that leads out to a deck. It's a great end of the day spot.

 

 

Camping on the land last summer is also what prompted us to extend the eaves of the house on the North side outside of the living room.... If we hadn't of, the sun would just pooooour in there all day in the summer and make living in the living room, a sweaty and uncomfortable business, and that's no way to live.

 

 

So there you go.... The other bits that you don't see as much because they don't inspire me to snap away (yet). It's a good reminder for myself and I'm sure many others from my generation.... Things can't always be perfect from the beginning, we need to work towards it! I look forward to showing you another 4 photos in the future with a bunch of bushy happy trees.