Just a bit of painting

Another weekend bites the dust. Sadly we don't have too much to report. It really was a weekend of a lot of painting. And even that wasn't heaps.

Dave sanded some weatherboards outside which we drying out a bit in the weather. Then we did another sealer coat and a couple of top coats. Still not finished though.

Then inside, I painted the back of the shelves the same blue that I painted above the fireplace.

First coat of blue.

 And I did an undercoat and one top coat of the white on the VJ paneling,

 Dave did cut all the timber for the cleats to hold up the shelves, and I had a little helper with the painting of them. She was a sick girl this weekend with a bout of gastro but doesn't stop her from getting on with the work.

Hoping to get to work on the shelves this week. That will make it all look different again. I am so glad we ended up doing this ourselves because it would have cost a fortune to have made.

So that is about all for the moment.
Cheers,
Nat

My blue painted fireplace

I mentioned that I bought 3 different coloured paints on Friday. One was black to fill in the bit above the fire surround. And one of the others was blue. I used it above the fireplace.

 I have only done one coat of the blue so far so it is very patchy and I just sat a mirror that I took off of our dresser in the bedroom on top. It is getting closer to my mood board look now. Remember this?

The colour blue that I am using is a colourbond colour called deep ocean.

 

I will do another coat tonight after the kids are in bed but I could wait to show you the progress.

Cheers,

Nat

Building the bespoke blackbutt built-ins

 How was that title for alliteration!

I really suck at post titles don't I. Oh well, I never did star in English class.

So another weekend has past and I think I missed it. Can we start it again?

Not much got done. Basically we only had two half days of work because Saturday we ventured to Pottery Barn (God I love that place) and this morning Dave had a job at another house to do. So we really didn't get much crossed off the to do list.

I painted the space above the fireplace black. It is a satin finish and looks great.

Dave spent his time working on the TV unit. He finished the blackbutt top...

 

He added a blackbutt edging around the front to make it look pretty and finished.

 Also, added pine strapping to cover the joins in the base cabinets.

 It extends into the nook around the corner where we will put a bar fridge. I am loving that idea. The drinks will be in arms reach of the TV.

Apart from that, I did more painting on the staircase and am getting closer to finishing the undercoat. I discovered the speed of a roller for this job, but about 2 hours too late.

Cheers,

Nat

Choosing blinds

Today I got my first look at blinds and curtains. Man this is tougher than it looks.

I picked some nice fabrics and held them up.

This one I liked for curtains in the living room. If we get curtains.

 

And this grey stripe for romans upstairs. 

 

 

The cheaper option is to get these honeycomb blinds. But they just look to modern and wrong style for our place.

The quote came in tonight and was way more than we were hoping. But it is just my first quote so we will see what the others come in at. I do love the fabrics though.

Cheers,
Nat

Moving into the new bedrooms

 It was a very exciting weekend for me and the kids. It was moving day!

Now that the upstairs rooms were carpeted, we could finally set up the rooms and move the boys in. The only thing missing was the blinds, but that was nothing a few 3M hooks and sheets and blankets couldn't fix for the short term.

Here is the kids retreat:

 Sammy's green bedroom:

 Andrew's blue bedroom (minus the yet to be finished wardrobe):

 

I spray painted the drawer pulls on the chest of drawers with oil rubbed bronze. They used to have space themed handpainted pictures that were too babyish for him now.

 This room gets so much afternoon sun.

 I brought up their old pennants to stick on their doors.

My awesome son, decided that he wanted a bedside table as he had never had one before. So he built one all by himself and painted it green. This kid is six mind you! How cool is it though!!! Excuse the second hand lamp from our bedroom. He will be getting a new one with a pull cord like his big brother eventually, when I get back to Ikea. I did put a spare carpet square under it in case it was still wet.

 He had a ball finding spaces for all of his Dad's old Star Wars toys.

 

Dave spent the weekend working on the drawers under the TV cabinet. This is how far he got at the end of the weekend. It is going to look so good!

On Wednesday I have a lady coming to quote and give ideas for blinds and curtains. That is a bit worrying. I am scared how much they will cost. I have heard bad things and keep wondering how I could do it cheaper myself.

Cheers,
Nat

Carpet reveal day

So at 7am this morning (30mins early), the carpet arrived. When I saw it on the back of his ute I was praying he didn't want me to help him carry it in.

 So here is the before shot (sorry it is bad but my camera is out of action and the phone zooms in too much).

 Underlay going down.

 Carpet going down.

 Finished product.

You can see the join here. I hope it disappears as it gets walked on.

 Close up shot. It is sooo super soft. I love it.

The kids are over the moon. They have been jumping around and playing like kids possessed. This have needed a space like this for years and now finally it is here.

Woo hoo!!
Cheers,
Nat

Installing our air con

Firstly, who watched The Block tonight?
That snuck up on me but very happy to have it back again. I think there is actually be some different styles this season which will be nice.

So, this week we have the reverse cycle air conditioners installed. The pipes were run 11 months ago in October last year. So it has been a drawn out process.

In the blue bedroom

In the green bedroom

In the kids retreat

The only thing I am mad about is they were unable to centre the system in the living room, which has totally ruined my curtain plan. Look how off centre it is.

My off centre living room air con

 I did mention that I painted the mantle in undercoat and it now looks like this.

Undercoated mantle

We did get the the plasterer back to plaster the tricky bit behind the stair railings. He did a good job and I managed to sand it back pretty well. So now we need to paint it.

This weekend was happily interrupted by Father's Day. So very little got done. But we did HAVE to get some things done in preparation for the carpet going down on Wednesday. So we needed to start building the built in wardrobe for Andrew's room. Dave built a base and but skirting on which I filled and painted up.

Base for wardrobe

 Then Dave installed the door stop and the magnets for Sam's bedroom wardrobe, which I, again, filled and pained up.

The other door handle finally arrived and yes it was the correct colour this time. Phew! I was going to be spewing if they sent the wrong colour again. So Dave installed them on Friday night and they looked perfect!

New door hardware

Oil rubbed bronze knobs for wardrobe.

I am super excited to see the carpet down this week and we can then start to move some things up. I vacuumed and scrapped all the glue and paint lumps off the floor and Dave added and punch some bad and missing nails in the floor. So it is all set. Woo hoo!

Here is to a good week ahead.

Cheers,

Nat

$$$ Houses in our neighbourhood

There is something crazy going on around our area at the moment.

Houses are selling over $1 million.

Take a look at these:

West Footscray
Sold in March for $1,020,000


West Footscray
Sold in July $1,010,000


Kingsville
Sold in Nov 2014 $1.062,000


Kingsville
Sold in June 2014 $1,050,000


Yarraville
Sold in August $1,055,000











At the moment there is a house close to us with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (so same that ours will be), double storey and it is advertised at $950,000. In this area they normally will sell for 10% more than advertised, so it would be sold for more than $1 million. Here it is:


We went through it and it was lovely but I think I will be nicer once it is all finished.

I can't wait to get ours appraised. Not that we will sell it but would be amazing to think that our once tiny old stinky house could be worth $1 million.

Have a nice weekend!
Nat