Ideas for a bulkhead

Yesterday I mentioned about was to handle the bulkhead in the new dining area. I have pinned a few possible ideas in my Pinterest account.

One idea is to put architrave around it like this type of thing.


So we would have most of it as plaster and then add the architrave at the bottom and sides. That would certainly suit the rest of the house.

Or we could try something a little braver like a wooden beam to match the proposed wooden mantle above the fireplace.

Source.  How gorgeous is this kitchen!

Or we could try something a little more period style like this:

 

Then we could always just do it square set plaster but that doesn't appeal to my eye and looks too much like a display home. I'd prefer a more architectural element.

I'd love to here your comments on which you like the best.

Cheers,
Nat

Painting and wall removal

What a stunning day it was in Melbourne on Saturday. 27 degrees and sunny. Perfect weather to do some painting. We managed to off load Heidi to Dave's parents for the afternoon so we could get stuck into the painting of the west upper side. We did two coats of sealer and two coats of Solarguard in our wonderful Haymes Lion's Den yellow. Our green is called Haymes Winter Green and our white is Currier Creme.

First coat of yellow

Andrew helping

Got paint on his favourite hoodie.

Second coat going on

I went up and had a look tonight after it had all dried to see if we need to do a third coat. But we really don't. Look amazing just with those two. Phew!

Today, Dave had his first game of baseball in about 4 or 5 years. I didn't go to watch but instead stayed home with the 3 terror children. Thank goodness today is the last day of school holidays. I got bit bored so I pulled down the wall that had the doors in it. As Heidi was having her sleep, I had to do most of it with an allen key so not to wake her. Boy that was hard work!

But it feels bigger again after removing it.

It seems like we will be keeping  smaller bulkhead where that ceiling drops down and then going back up to the same height as the kitchen ceiling. I am just trying to decide how to design the bulk head. So many options.

Our big open space.

Oh and see our little old dining table has made a reappearance. It was up in the roof space for about 3 years. It is nice to have another option on where to eat meals.

Anyone else do any painting or ripping out walls on the weekend?

Cheers,
Nat

Heating and cooling part 2

When we went to the HIA Home Show, we collected a few business cards for heating and cooling companies. After getting a few quotes we decided to go with a company called ColdFlow.I talked about that here.

We are getting a Daiken reverse cycle split system with multiheads. We will have 4 new heads. One each in the upstairs boys bedrooms, one in the upstairs retreat and one downstairs in the new living area.

We already have one Daiken in the kitchen area so that will be enough I hope.

We paid the deposit this week and we just got a call to arrange a time for them to come and rough in the wires. So Saturday week they will come. David wanted it to be a weekend so that he could supervise the work and make sure they didn't do a bad job like he has seen in other jobs he has worked on.

They will look like this:

Source

I am now going to have to workout where the best spots in each room will be to mount them so they don't become and eyesore (not that they are super ugly at all).

This weekend we will be focusing on painting and trying to get the top level painted (if only it would all happen in one weekend!).

Cheers,
Nat