Spring (well Autumn) cleaned the shed

31-3-13

Firstly, look at the date of today. It is a palindrome. Cool huh :)

Secondly, HAPPY EASTER!!!  My children had a great easter egg hunt this morning and loved the footprints that the Bunny left behind. Now I am full of chocolate and am chillin' on the couch.

I spent the best part of the day doing what my Husband should have done long ago. Cleaning out the disgusting shed. I really wish I had taken a before photo. You couldn't even get in the door it was so full of useless things he rufued to throw away. Well I had no such issue turing his treasure into trash :)

I was in my element. I freed up so much space by throwing out the rubbish, condensing the contents and organising the space. There was a place for fasteners, saftey gear, tools, painting, garden, electrical and plumbing. I am contemplating whether or not I should make up some labels and somehow pretty it all up with nicer boxes etc.
Maybe like this:



Pretty peg board, painted navy:



I wonder if Hubby would like these to pretty it up:


 I will take a photo later and show you what I have done.

I am happy with my work today. I feel more prepared to renovate.

Cleaning out the pantry

30-3-2013

So today the boys went to the footy so it was just me and my 14 month old baby girl home alone. Yay! Girl time and home time. I actually love spending quiet time at home just pottering around making it pretty. Today I really had to tackle the pantry. It was a big mess and I didn't know what I even had in there.

Before:

I cleaned the shelves as I went as they were pretty sticky and crumby.

After:

It is still pretty full but at least now I can see things at the back.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday so another task is to clean up the back yard for the Easter bunny to come  :)

Splashback

27 -3- 13

So we will be waiting for a few months yet before we can even dig the soil for the extension.In the meantime I have given Hubby a side project. In our plans we have a new window to go over our kitchen sink to add extra light to the dark kitchen. But we would need to put in a lentle so a big job. But I just saw a picture where the splashback was three smaller windows. I thought we could do that in between the studs without having to do any alteration to the wall therefore no permit required

Just like this one below.


We probably wont get very big windows that is the problem. We will take a weatherboard off the outside and see what widths we have then decide if it wil look any good.

Great tip about using black in a room

Does anyone follow the Georgica Pond blog? She is in Sydney I think.
Anyway today she is showing how you should always use a bit of black in a room to add some depth and styling.
Check it out.
http://georgicapond.blogspot.com.au/
Eg

versus this with no black.

Great tip huh!!

Easter is nearly here

24-3-13

This time next week it will be easter sunday. I will probably be pigging out on chocolate and hot cross buns. My crafty project for this week is not home based but to make my sons Easter bonnet for his school parade on Thursday. I have been looking on Pinterest and getting some good ideas.

Not a lot going on apart from that. Still no word back from the draftsman. We did chat with ou neighbours yesterday. We discussed their plans and our plans and we are both happy with what each other is doing.

Please mr draftsman call my husband this week to sort out these drawing issues. It would be great to have them finalised before easter.

My cute Crate and Barrel basket

20-3-13

I wanted a basket to hide away the wallets, coins, receipts etc that Hubby normally dumps on the kitchen bench. I had the prefect spot for it now on top of my new show cabinet in the hallway.
I originally got one from Crate and Barrell that I liked but it didn't look right on the console. So I took it back and they were super happy for me to swap it for this flatter tray-like basket.

And the best bit was this one was only $5!!! I paid $12.95 for the first one. Win :)

Our drawings are done!!

19-3-13

We just got the email with our new drawings. I can see a mistake already. He hasn't put the laundry door in. The windows upstairs aren't as I had hoped either.  I wonder why.

Here they are.

Our house in a movie

15-3-13

Oh and I forgot to add that there is a chance that our house could be used for filming a scene or two in a tele-movie that is being made in Melbourne. The location manager is coming out to check out the house on Wednesday morning.

EXCITING!!!!

They wanted a house with a warehouse at the back so thought ours might work. Fingers crossed it will and we get paid for it.

21-3-13

Grrr.. they guy never called us back. Very dissappointed  :(

Letter holder

15-3-13

I started to tidy up the outside of my messy kitchen fridge yesterday. I get so sick of looking at all the ugly magnets and bills and rubbish that gets stuck on there. I just need to find another place to keep all that stuff. I have seen a 3 teired letter holder in a shop across the road from work for about $8. It is raw wood so I could easily paint it up white and put some labels on each slot. It could sit on the thin strip of wall next to the fridge.

I think I might walk over at lunchtime today and buy one and paint it up on the weekend.

Kind like this I guess.


So here it is in it's raw state.

It took one coat of enamel undercoat and 2 coats of white gloss enamel.

I printed out some little labels on the label maker at work but silly me forgot to print "Bills" so did "Mail" and "Letters" which is basically the same thing twice. Der!!



And here it the fridge looking tidier.

It is anazing how much less stressed I feel with a tidy fridge. :)

My shoe cabinet

11-3-78

So today is my birthday!! Happy Birthday me :)

I went to Ikea and some some nice things for inspiration.

I was getting idea for our walk in robe.

And some ideas for cabinetry around our TV in the new living area.

Wouldn't mind replacing our steel sink with something like this. We don't have a big area to put the sink.

I could change the cover on our white jennylund chair to this. It is the same as the new bar stool covers.

Thought these shelves were nice.

Some nice elements in this kitchen/dining.

And this is my new shoe cabinet. I LOVE IT!!!

I also got new covers for my Hendriskal stools. They have a stripe in them and really give the rooms some texture and cosiness. Should have done it sooner.

Still waiting for our drawings to come back from the drasftman. Hurry up!

Birthday trip to Ikea sans kids

So for my birthday, Hubby is letting me loose at Ikea. I have some birthday money to spend so it will be such a nice treat.I think I will get the Hemnes show cabinet for our hallway. The 4 door one:

Also need these new covers for our dirty stools.

And need another one of these if they have any left.

Many other things I'd like too like these hooks:

Hopefully I don't come home with an empty bank account.

Can't wait!!!! Bring on Monday.

The kitchen cabinets

8-3-13

So today at a stationary shop at Highpoint I found some gorgeous wrapping paper that I thought I would use for the back wall of my glass kitchen cabinets to give the place some spice. It was $2.50 a meter and I got 3 meters hoping it would be enough and it should be. I have just started cutting it ut now. Very exciting.

Here is the paper.

Here is the before shot:

Here is the progress:

And after shots:

My problem now is that it doesn't match the tiles s I may have to get new tiles.



Reminder list

I just need to start a list of ideas that I have for the extension and thought if I out it on here then I wont lose it :)

- Built in safe
- Move current bathroom door with frosted glass to the new laundry door.
- Fire alarms
- Fire escape ladder

Moving the kids furniture around

6-2-13

I was sick of the kids no being able to hang their bags on their hooks properly so I moved the drawers out from under them. Now we turned their beds into bunks we have more floor space so can take them away.
Before:

After:

I also found this great picture of a staircase with a carpet runner in a magazine last night. I want ours to look just like this. The carpet means less stomping noise from the kids, softer landings when they fall and less damage to the wood treads.

Big ideas, small time and money

4-2-13

Somedays I wish I could just stay home and "play" with all the tasks I'd love to do but never have the time or money. Maybe when all 3 kids are al school and if I stay working 3 days a week I may actually have time to do some of these little projects.

I will write here dream list and will add to it and cross out any that get done along the way:

- Paint the garden bench
- Paint the front door green or indian red
- Get a new front door handle and knocker.
- Line the back of the kitchen cupboards with a pretty wallpaper or contact

- Organise the bathroom cabinets nicely
- Decorate the chest of drawers in our bedroom
- Hang pendant lights above the kitchen bench
- Get new kitchen cabinet handles

That is about all for now. I will think of more things I am sure.

I tried to decorate the tv cabinet in the lounge room yesterday. It just doesn't look right though. I also need to hide the cords of the TV but no point doing that if we are just going to have to move the TV eventually anyway. Mind you that could be a good six months away yet. Til then, I will keep dreaming.  :)