My DIY tea box

For the longest time I have wanted a tea box. One like this:

It bugged me have so many boxes in the pantry, with all the different teas when I knew there was an alternative. I once bought one for my Mum and secretly wanted to keep it for myself.

 

Today it dawned on me! I had a little wooden box that one of Heidi's toys came in that I had been keeping any using in various places. At one stage it was a remote control holder for the TV remotes, and most recently it held Hubby's drill bits.

 

I cleaned it out and reached for my Sharpie pen. This is what it looks like now.

 

I cut out the tea name and blue tacked them on.

You don't want to look too close as it is freehand, but has character.

My DIY Tea Box

 

It is sitting under my coffee and sugar on the kitchen bench now for easy access. Hopefully it encourages us to drink more herbal tea.

 

 

Cheers,



Living room mood boards

Today I have been playing around with mood boards for the living room. I tried the free program Polyvore.com. It is good but you have to use the sponsored products based in the US. But this is what I came up with.

Living room mood board from Polyvore.

Then I just did on in MS Word with mostly Australian sourced products.

Living room mood board with local products

See that awesome painting above? My brilliant artist sister in law painted that. She does awesome work. Check it out here. Out of our modest budget but I can dream huh.

The couch is from Pottery Barn in Sydney as is the coffee table. The cushion is from Freedom Furiture. I would use my existing jute rug from Ikea. The fan is like the one we have in our bedroom; it is from Early Settler.

It is actually harder that I thought to make these things. Obviously I don't have that eye for interior design. I just know what I like.

Cheers,

Some wall bracing and window swapping

This weekend we did a few more things. Pretty boring thing but in the long run they will make the house look better. Like planning back the stud walls so they are all flush for the weatherboards to go on. Then some bracing ply sheet were nailed up to keep the walls square.

East wall with ply bracing

On the west side we started to frame up the small wall next to the red brick wall. This is where a small window will go. We are actually taking the windows out from above our bed and moving them here.

North/East wall framing

The other main thing was to take out the other bathroom window and replace it with the other bathroom window that actually opens.

Window gone

Window swapped

I might see if I can sell the window we took out on our local buy swap and sell to make some extra cash. Seems a shame to just scrap it as it is perfectly ok.

I even got to use the dropsaw to cut some noggins, for the first time!! That was fun.

I didn't do much else to help but I did sand and paint the window. Here's the proof.

Sanding the window with my little helpers

Dusty job!

Cheers,





We once were windows

We lost a window yesterday. There was no way he could be saved so had to go. He will be sadly missed. We will miss your heat source in Winter. We will miss the extra light you gave. We will miss the fresh air you gave so generously to the bathroom.

Yep, the north facing bathroom window was removed and boarded up. This is the wall that will be against the new living area, so the bathroom will just have one side east facing window now. Currently that window doesn't open, so we will eventually switch it with the one we just pulled out.



Great ventilation



From the outside where the new living room wall will be framed up.

Framing up the window

All boarded up

This is the other window that will now provide all our light

From the outside

The window

This is the rest of the framing as it currently stands

From the other angle

The house is such a mess at the moment and it is driving me a bit nuts but I am trying to cull our stuff so we have more room inside. So nice to have action though. We will get there.

Cheers,

A slow weekend

We had the day off yesterday. Decided to go to the Flemington market and Yarraville Festival instead of renovating. It was bliss!

But here is what the walls look like now. Actually there is more done than this but need to take a photo of it properly.

 

He has also been working on linking the old roof line to the new section which is going well but is fiddley and isn't worth showing pictures of.

 

Cheers,

 

 



 

Some houses in the neighbourhood

Our neighbourhood has never been one of the standout areas in Melbourne. It was always the place for the wharfies to live and the lower class used to cause a bit of trouble in the place. Therefore it was pretty affordable for us when we were looking to buy a house.

But these days it is a different story. Because of it's proximity to the city it has become a mecca for the white collar folk who work in the city and don't want to travel but still own a house. So house prices have really taken off. People are spending money on old houses and doing great extensions and renovations. So I love to take walks and see who is doing what and the great ideas people have for their houses.

I have just snapped a few photos of places the I regularly go past to show you some that have gabbed my attention.

This double fronted weatherboard in West Footscray always makes me smile. It is always so neat and tidy. I love the double front doors and the quirky letterbox with the smiley face.

The colours in this Yarraville Single Fronted home are very complimentary and professional.

Now this double storey doubled fronted house in Kingsville has always been a favourite of ours. I used to be the colour of the fence you can still see, but recently was painted this brave green and it has a navy blue and white trim.

This is my favourite home in the area. Not only is it close to Cruikshank park but it has gorgeous architectural features. I love the mix between the brick and weatherboards and the chunky framed windows. LOVE IT!

 So, that is just a few of my favs. I had more but my camera somehow corrupted them so they can wait until another day.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Cheers,

The first stud wall

Check it out peeps!

We have a wall.

Sorry about the darkness but it was only just finished now at 9:10pm. Daylight savings is fading and our work time is contracting. At least it is still nice and warm at that time of night.

So that first gap is where the existing bifold doors will be moved to and the other side hasn't been framed totally because we need to decide on the window to go there. We will have to get some quotes.

Also trying to decide whether or not to put extra windows above the bifolds. I am thinking it might be a bit of a tight squeeze as Dave said we can't do one long window because it will sag. Boo :(

Anyway, just thought I better blog about this happy step.

Cheers,

 

Organising with Martha

Martha Stewart that is!

Officeworks stocks a range of stationary products by the one and only Martha Stewart. I LOVE Martha Stewart and often find myself watching her videos or reading her blog. So I was thrilled to find her products stocked locally in Australia. I just had to get me some so went shopping with little miss while the boys were at school today.

Granted, the little box on the top left isn't from her range but I needed it for an idea I had.

I also got these two storage boxes for $12.77 each to hold the kids school artwork and other papers.

I used the label plate to pretty up my letterholder that I talked about here. And now it looks a bit more finished off. But I really should print out some labels for it.

Then I used that little box to store our random business cards that are scattered in different place around the house. Also, there was enough room in the back of it to put our random earplugs and small cables that were previously making the a mess of the basket on the shoe cabinet.

I used the Martha Stewart blackboard labels to stick on the art boxes for the kids.

Lately, the folder is stuck on the wall near hubby's temporary work bench to keep the plans. Which I couldn't even find at the time to stick in there to take the picture. So now I just have to make sure he remembers to put them back there so we don't keep losing them.

I also made a pit stop at Bunnings to get a key cut for the side gate (for my newly labelled key cabinet) but also had to collect some samples of paint colours and charts. Just something for me to think about for down the track.

Happy Tuesday everyone,

 







Floor and wall, sneak peak.

Wow! The weather in Melbourne this weekend has not been reno friendly that is for sure. Stinking hot at 40 degrees ad probably even hotter out on site with the heat off the paver and flooring. However we did get some wok done and it is still going on as I type at 8pm on Sunday night in 36 degree heat. At least the sun has gone down now.

Yesterday we laid as much of the yellow tongue flooring as we could. We couldn't do it all because we had to leave room for the steel guy to put in some extra steel stuff near the existing house walls. But this is how much we got down. And it ain't coming up anymore.

I even had a turn on the nail gun believe it or not.

So this is a sneak peak of the start of our first bit of timber wall.

 

 

Tomorrow, my baby boy starts school so I better go pack a lunchbox for him. My baby is growing up so I am feeling a little nostalgic tonight. Hope I don't cry at drop off tomorrow and even more importantly I hope he doesn't. Be brave little man!

 

Cheers,