A roasty-toasty addition to our backyard! Fire pit funtimes, just in time for winter . . .
*Note to self: Buy more marshmallows!
Author: Max
Warmth
After spending our first winter in our new home without any heating (apart from electric bar heaters we dragged from room to room) and then our second winter with heating only in the lounge and dining room at the front of the house . . . We decided to install a second split system in the kitchen. This new heater/aircon services not only the kitchen, but also the two guest bedrooms, bathroom and master bedroom at the rear of the house.
Much warmth, very YAY!
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Our avocado pit plants and herbs are much happier with the warmer climate in the kitchen!
If you are interested in the delicious sourdough book, you can buy it here!
GRAPE GROWIN’
When we purchased our home, the east facing wall featured a delightfully hideous awning and two conifer trees . . . See Below!
Not quite Max or my taste!
Though, look how lush the lawn looked! (The past month of no rain has sucked our lawn dry!)
Our shade solution!
Ornamental grapes + trellis = SHADE!
Max and I designed and constructed the trellis and planted two ornamental grape plants. It’s not perfect and a wee bit wonky, but we love it! Hopefully in 18 months we will have full, leafy coverage and be able to benefit from the shade protection and lovely greenery!
I still need to paint the timber and plant a few ground coverage plants, but for now we are both very happy with the results.
* The grape on the left has already grown up to the timber beam! Grow my precious, GROW!
KITCHEN CHIC . . .
As Max and I are still on a mission to eradicate ALL ugly red bricks from this house, we recently finished painting the brick pillar/under-bench wall in the kitchen!
We still need to change the splashback tiles, kitchen bench top and paint the rest of the walls in the kitchen . . . But the red brick is GONE!
It wouldn’t really feel like home without some of our favourite appliances: Kitchenaid Toaster, Kitchenaid Stand Mixer, Kitchenaid Kettle (ours is black, sensing a theme with brand loyalty!), Breville Grinder & Breville Infuser Espresso machine because coffee is life!
See below for before and afters.
BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER:
Though our renovation progress is slow and not much has changed over the past few months, we are enjoying the journey and it is very rewarding seeing our visions come to life.
Something from nothing . . .
Last Saturday, Max was at work and I was bored . . . So I decided to change around our bedroom and install a hanging curtain/bead head/room divider/thingy!
I have had the idea in my mind since we first moved in, but wasn’t sure of how to execute it or if it would even work! On Saturday I realised, I actually had all the items I needed – without having to go purchase anything! WIN!
– The curtains were left over from our wedding (Used in the Timbertop Chapel).
– The dowel rod was left over from the construction of the clothing racks.
– The hooks were recycled from another project.
Our bed was facing out across our backyard, looking out over our neighbour Ken’s garden. Which was lovely, but not very private. It also meant there was restricted space on either side of the bed due to the fireplace and door out to the backyard.
I spun the bed sideways to look out the left window, into our garden, therefore maximising the width of the room and using the hanging curtain/bedhead to hide the gas fireplace (no longer working) and create a divider from our “wardrobe.”
See below images for the new layout!
Release the inner ART-ist!
I did it! I bit the bullet and got all artyfarty!!
In doing so, I got paint on my hands, legs, hair, floor of the garage . . . But most of all on the canvas! The last canvas I painted was well over 8 years ago, so it felt good to be back at it.
See below images of it hanging in our lounge room!
Max and I are planning on making a black frame to go around it. We have purchased the timber, but now to find time to construct it!
Friday D.I.Y Day
Today I made two A frame open clothes racks for Max and I.
Until we build the walk in robe/ensuite in the bedroom we are converting to the master bedroom, this is our semi-permanent solution!
I had seen a few different clothes racks similar to this and liked the simplicity of the design. I priced up a few and figured they looked easy enough to build, so why pay retail when I could probably make them myself! The cheapest I could find online was $79.95 each, plus $15.00 shipping = $174.90 total . . .
I made the two clothing racks for $90.00 including the drill bit!
I used our Makita Drill, a Stanley Tape Measure, a 20mm Wood Drill Bit and a trusty Saw!
#happylifetradiewife
A LITTLE BIT MORE D.I.Y
Last Saturday, Max and I decided to make a stretched canvas – for an artwork, to go in our living/lounge area . . . Remember the gigantic white brick wall . . . Yep, to hang on that wall!
As it is such a vast area, I was struggling to find blank canvases big enough and even though we have been looking for artwork for 12 months, we hadn’t found anything we loved within our price range. (Giant artworks cost giant amounts of cashola!)
So, looks like I’m going to have to get creative and come up with something to paint on our newly stretched, primed 1100mm x 2400mm canvas . . . Ideas welcome!
Let there be light!
There are so many random lighting fixtures in this house… In the most random of places! We are slowly getting around to changing them all, but it is quite the process as the wiring is as random as the fixtures!
It has left us scratching our heads more than once, with many phone calls to and visits from my dad to try to make sense of it!
We can finally display our new-ish artwork (a wedding present!) bathed in light, rather than being in constant shadow! Whoooo!
At last count there were eighteen different, unique, non-matchy, original 80’s lighting fixtures in this house!
EIGHTEEN!!
Seven of those were in the same room – Yep, SEVEN different, ugly lights in the lounge room! We have reduced that to a respectable three aesthetically-matchy fixtures!
ALL HOMES NEED SOME FUN!
A month or so before the wedding, back in May/June I undertook the task of converting one of the walls in our kitchen into a GIANT BLACKBOARD! I know right, who doesn’t want a giant black – ever – changing – canvas in their house . . . Fun for EVERYONE!
It came in handy in July, on the morning of the wedding! (You know, just in case I had forgotten what day it was!)
Bedroom #1 – Almost done . . . !
Last week I finished painting the ceiling in bedroom #1, installed a new ceiling light, installed new coat hooks and hung new curtains . . . We chose new carpet and had someone come to do a measure and quote.
Hopefully within the next few weeks I will complete the transformation of bedroom #2, in time for the installation of the new carpet!
Check out the before and after transformation images below:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Once the carpet is installed, two bedrooms will be done. I can’t wait!