Category: Our First Home

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!

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!

 

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!)

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!

 

 

I have spent the last few weeks playing with paint chips, carpet samples, lighting and fixtures! I am in the process of renovating the two guest rooms on the south side of the house.

The rooms do not get any direct sunlight and they were very dark and gloomy. Max and I chose to paint the timber wall panelling the same colour as the brick wall in the lounge room, to brighten them up!

See below for pictures:

BEFORE

DURING

Bedroom #1 is almost finished! All that is left is for me to paint the ceiling and have the carpet installed.

Max and I recently undertook the tedious task of removing all the ugly retro tiles from the guest master ensuite . . . Not a fun task I can assure you! It was loud, dusty and took forever. Not to mention the pain! Crouching down, hunched over for any period of time is uncomfortable, but dong it for hours at a time is literally back breaking work!

First, we need some tools! We used an Ox Brick Bolster/Chisel, a Claw Hammer, a sledge hammer & some medical scrubs Max got for his 21st birthday!

We successfully removed all the tiles from the bathroom floor and walls including the shower base and walls. Now all that is left to remove is the old loo, sinks and cabinets! Then the fun of putting it all back together begins!

I am hoping to have a go at tiling the bathroom floor, walls and shower myself . . . Wish me luck!  >.<

Back at the beginning of August, Mansfield froze through the first of the 3 super dooper freezing cold snaps we experienced this winter! The surrounding mountains were blessed with a dumping of snow and blizzard type conditions and fabulous skiing/snowboarding conditions! YAY!

Not so yay, is living in a draughty, old and super dooper cold house! I finally succumbed to the numbness in my hands and we lit our first fire in our home!

It . Was . AMAZING!

Max and I are hoping to put a fireplace insert into the old brick chimney, before next winter, to assist with the heat retention, functionality and overall performance of the fireplace. But for now, it is fabulous to sit down with a glass of red and be mesmerised by the flames . . .

Sorry for my absence in posting any renovation updates recently . . . We have had a brief break after the wedding, but I am back and well and truely into the swing of things!

A few weeks before the wedding we completed a little side project in the lounge/dining room. There is a weird space on the left of the fireplace with a 35cm step down from the dining space to the lounge room (no steps, just one BIG step) . . . I have rather long legs and the step up is awkward for me! Also if you stepped backwards without looking the drop down would be quite painful! So, we decided to put in a hand railing and tensioned wires to make it a safer and also to define the spaces from dining and lounge.

I assisted in making a custom fit tubular steel hand railing, to accommodate insulated concealed wiring, running from the wall hung TV cabinet (also a custom made piece designed and made by Max and I) above the fireplace, to the powerpoint on the opposite wall. It works perfectly in hiding the wiring and also looks great as a room dividing safety barrier! We are thrilled with how it has turned out.

See below for some images:

BEFORE

 

AFTER

For our family and friends that have visited our new home over the past 8 months, you may remember the vast, towering 4 meter high red brick wall in our lounge room . . .

Well . . . Max and I, with the assistance of my Dad, Mum and Brother undertook the daunting task of painting it over the Queens Birthday long weekend. One coat took two days!! It is now up to me to finish the final coat and to say good riddance to the ugly red brick!

Light, Bright and “Snowy Mountain Half Matte” White!

One coat down, one to go!

When Max and I purchased this, our first home, we did so knowing that the main source of heating was underfloor. Which has 30+ year old technology and would cost an absolute fortune to run!

We had been relying on a $20 Target (tarjaaay) electric heater, dragging it from room to room to keep ourselves warm! But….. We now have a fancy new split system air-con/heater in our lounge room! YAY! Warmth at the touch of a button!

See below for before and after photos of our lounge room transformation. Still a lot to do, but it is getting there!

BEFORE:

 

DURING:

Installation of the new split system!

 

AFTER:

We have painted the brick white and will be painting the large expanse of brick to the left, white as well. The last of the brick painting!!!

Once the painting is finished and the flooring replaced, this room will be complete!