More plastering

This week Dave got the plaster ready for the guys to come on Saturday (was meant to be Thursday but we weren't ready yet).

 It looked nice a tidy. The calm before the storm perhaps.

 

Here are the guys in action. Looks great now. 

Cheers,
Nat

Finding my style

I have always enjoyed styling houses. When I was in my teens I used to love changing up the look of my bedroom. I remember going through a terracotta/Mexican stage, a Japanese stage and an apricot stage.

I remember loving looking in to Nanna's pantry where all her cans were so neatly stacked all around the walls of the pantry and her linen closet with neatly stacked piles of towels and facewashers. I also loved to rearrange all Mum's bookcases and shelves and also loved organising her cupboards and pantry. I just used to use any pieces that we already had in the house to create the look I was going for and I think I did a pretty good job.

As I got older and started looking into buying my own house with my husband, I loved nothing more than to browse for hours in new build display homes. My Mum used to come along too and we would ooo and aah over the big new clean houses with gorgeous new furniture and fixtures. I always thought that I wanted one of these pretty new houses. I was (and am still) a bit scared about old houses because I always think there is a chance they could be haunted.

However, as I have matured and been through one and now two house renovations, I have changed my opinion.

Now when I go into newly built houses of friends, I am not excited. I see, the same walls and same floors and nothing I haven't seen a million times before. I don't know if it is because I am married to a carpenter or what, but I have a whole new appreciation for detail. It is the workmanship and bespoke features that really speak to me these days. I notice if the skirtings are not joined correctly and if the plaster has bumps in it. I love anything that is built-in like bookcases, seating and ledges.

That said, I am still scared of some old houses and would never buy one that "felt" weird when I walked in. But most of the time, once they have been renovated, that feeling goes.

As for the style that I want to achieve with our extension... well that too has evolved. In the first renovation it was about keeping the period feel but in a modern way. Now it is not so much about the period (but I still want to match the corince etc) details but it is more of a transitional design. To me that means classic design that has been brought into the today. Other hints that I like to throw in here and there include, minimalist, coastal, hampton / lakehouse.

I just adore Hamptons style but I also love touches of other designs too. I also love anything with nature and texture like decorating with shells, stones and branches. I don't like too much colour but an coming around to more coastal colours like blue and navy. I used to hate blue but I think that stemmed from the 90's style of blue and yellow/terracotta. Remember that combination?

I wonder how my style will change in the next 20 years.

Anybody else had a big shift in style over the years?

Cheers,
Nat

Queen Birthday long weekend workings

 Dear blog,

It has been many days since we last spoke and I am sorry. I have not forgotten about you, but rather have been drowning in laundry that seems to take over my evenings when I would normally do some blogging. However, here I am and this is what is happening at This Little Yellow House. (Do you think I need a new name for this blog now that it ain't little anymore? Let me know what you think.)

So, back to the blackbutt flooring in the new living room. It is finished now and looks stunning and so worth the extra cost to get that true timber look. But here is Dave doing some work on it. This is the small sections that will be under the built in seats.

Side under the window

Floorboards under the kitchen side.

I just love the combination of the red bricks and the bluestone hearth. Such a classic look.

This is the polish bluestone hearth.

 The last part was to finish the step and gee it looks eve better in real life.

 

On Saturday, my focus was to get the staircase handrail finished. I gave it another sand with a 240 grit sandpaper then another two coats of stain and varnish. So now they look like this and will be nice and smooth to keep any little fingerprints at bay.

Once that was completed, it was time for me to start with the painting of the rest. I taped off the floor around the big posts and got started. I used the Zinnser Primmer and sealer to paint the pine so they don't bleed through.

 Then after it looked like this.

 

Later that afternoon I got stuck into the steps and now they look like this.

 

Meanwhile, upstairs, Dave was busy finishing off the straps/cornice for the ceiling. We are just using pine as it will all be painted white.

The pine strapping around the edges of the ceiling.

More strapping

 Today, Dave started getting the downstairs ready for stopping up the plaster. This involved building a small wall for the other side of where the inbuilt seating will go for the dining room. Yep we are having inbuilt seating in the dinning and living rooms.

 

 As he was doing that, I jumped out the window and painted the west side of the house. This was in bad need of an undercoat before the real wet winter weather set in.

 While we were working on that side of the house, we took a moment to move the Optus cable to it's new position. You can see it here, the black cable. Then we moved all the modem and phone to this new spot and made it much tidier.

 This is where it used to be in big mess. How embarrassing!

 And for a few last photos, here is the fire in action with the hearth in place.

 And here is the new pendant light doing it's work. I love how this area is beginning to look now.

Well that ended up being a pretty long post but I feel like we did get a fair bit done this week. I even went carpet shopping with Mum which was cool.

Til next time.
Cheers,
Nat