clever

After much success with our vertical herb garden we've expanded into vegetables.

Amazingly rewarding though truly a labour of love tackling the caterpillars and possums... and who knew that dogs loved strawberries? Audrey's been staking out the strawberry bed and making short work of the ripe ones before we get to them.

Self-sufficiency is probably a bit ambitious but home grown salads every night are definately worth it.

hmmm... perhaps it's time for chickens?

herb garden

'To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow' Audrey Hepburn

A busy, lovely, afternoon planting.

so lucky

'Your time as a caterpillar has expired. Your wings are ready.'

Enjoying the results of hard work. Feeling blessed.

good morning

Front door area finally painted. Beautiful porcelain bell from Girl & Graaf, outside MUCHroom hand made wall hooks from Workerman, inside MUUTO wall dots hooks, hall table made by The Lovely One - my favourite piece of furniture in the whole house, beads threaded by me.

new courtyard

I have been painting and planting more in the new courtyard. Silhouette and Elizabeth-Rose seem to be pleased with the result.

ding dong

Beautiful new door bell (left) from Girl & Graaf to hang outside the yellow door. Better still, it was accompanied by beautiful service, thank you for your care and thoughtfulness Lauren.

little things

Heaven is a clothes line. Today I finished painting and planting in the internal courtyard that sits between the old and the new house. So after two years without it, I hooked up the old clothes line. Air dried sheets in the sun today... feeling happy and thankful for the little things in life.

returning to normal

'Do more of what makes you happy.'

A busy month has passed. I'm still completing lots of house pieces... painting the old bathroom, finishing off incomplete bits of flooring, touch up painting, toilet rolls and towel rails, plus need to overhaul the old laundry... all the bits that will go on for some months yet I suspect... but also reclaiming a bit of normal. 

The last month included two new additions to the family for Babe 2's recent birthday - Guinea pigs (Pip and Miss Daisy), getting back to yoga a few mornings a week before work (my old bones need it), entertaining family and friends in our lovely space (joy), reading (I really missed reading through the build) and even a little bit of painting. 

It's good. Getting back into the world is good.

splashbacked

My first tiling attempt complete. Kitchen splashback with offset  100x600mm matt white tiles. Happy.

painting

Apologies for the absence, but it's been a good absence... after a much needed summer break and respite from endless renovating... I've been back in the thick of it and any spare time between work for me is painting again. We had left much of the interior timber work unfilled and unpainted so it's a big job.

However, this week I'm turning my attention to tiling the kitchen splashback. I've never tiled before so I'll fill you in on progress. Slightly scared.

Coffee. My best friend again.

did we really live like this?

'The one charm of the past is that it is the past.' Oscar Wilde

I'm not sure if I was just too busy building the new extension, or if I was just fixated on the vision, the hope of future beauty not to really feel the chaos.

These pictures were taken along the journey, we all ate, lived, played in one room (top right), we had to cross that little bridge over rubble to get to the bathroom for a while (bottom right), the hall came down around us whilst we all slept in the room to the right of the front door (middle right), and the old playroom became a tool shed right next to the kitchen (top left). I can honestly say that I don't know how we did it... I can proudly say that no one even seemed to really complain... and I can very, very happily say that I'm so pleased it's over.

keeping the doctor away

We have our first apple! My father gave the tree to my daughters about 5 years ago and this week we picked apples from it for the first time. In truth they've budded before but the possums always beat us to it. Happy girls today.

Also a pic from the backyard of the extension and pool - you can see the terracotta roof of the original cottage popping up behind - the house. A rather sadly neglected garden in the foreground but it knows I'm coming back soon. Bit more painting and then back to garden duties.

addicted to chocolate

One set of hooks from Margarita at Chocolate Creative (dresses below) just wasn't enough so I've added a new set in the outdoor room by the pool (towels above).

Hopefully everyone else (i.e. small people) will also find them irresistible and choose to hang their wet towels on them... rather than in a puddle on the floor.

Always beautiful Margarita, thank you... again.

a long eighteen months

The dining room... hard to do a 'before and after' when the 'before' was a rocky slope and falling down fence, so I thought it might be better to show you the journey. It may not make much sense but gives you a sense of what we did. (The little grey house that you can see being dismantled was my old Studio).

This is the kitchen, living, dining extension that we linked up with the old cottage (you can see the stairs that go down to form the link in the plasterboard pic).

Definately plastering and sanding those high ceilings and laying that timber floor were some of the lowest moments for me... and my poor hands. However the result is so lovely to live in that we forget the pain.

more old house

Downstairs is taking shape. Beautiful wall hooks in yellow and grey from Chocolate Creative, Bridesmaid dress was my mum's and Christening dress is The Lovely One's great, great grandmother's. Memento watch from my big sister last year to remember the search for the pale oak floor.

dinner

'Do more of what makes you happy.'

We bought this table about 9 years ago. It was made with reclaimed timber but had been painted with bright orange estapol. It entertained many an event at our old place on the back verandah. I think it was dirt cheap because it takes a couple of weight lifters to move it anywhere and I suspect they were happy to see it leave.

Of course we didn't have anywhere to put it in the old cottage, nor did the garden have any undercover space, so it has been left rather neglected in the garden for the last 5 years.

This week The Lovely One downed tools and did more of what makes him happy, furniture restoration. Many hours of cleaning and sanding and a few coats of beeswax later and it's now starting a new life as our beautiful dining room table. Thank you, thank you ... always.

New pebbles print on wall behind. 

splish splash

Girls bathroom is heavenly. After five years with four of us sharing the original squidgy bathroom we have now converted the old kitchen into a great big bathroom with enough room to actually have more than one person brush their teeth at a time. Penny round tiles on the wall above the big Kaldewei steel bath (one of the few splurges we made and just delicious to soak in) and two vanities have made it complete. Happy, happy.

old school

I love the summer holidays and I'm starting to feel sad that we've only got a week left until school returns. I have loved quiet mornings, no school lunches and activity and homework free afternoons. Girls have relaxed into the long summer days and this week they put away all things digital and made paper boats to race in the pool and discovered my old cuisenaire rods to create gorgeous pictures and enormous towers. 

Return to school also means a return to the tools and house renovation for me. I'm going to try and finish things in the first 6 months of the year... we'll see... I'll keep you posted on the progress. 

an interesting plainness

'An interesting plainness is the most difficult and precious thing to achieve' Mies Van Der Rohe

I wrote this quote on the first page of my renovation notebook and it was this quote that I referred to the most throughout the whole project. It was a guiding light. I am not sure that we were always able to achieve an interesting plainness - and we're still on the journey - but here are some moments along the way.

(SECOND TOP RIGHT Blue print is Pool Shadows 2 Mrs Eliot Books; MIDDLE IMAGE ABOVE BLACKBOARD wall of images includes some family photos, many of my own prints, photo by Colin Blakely The Suspension of Physics Necessary for All Athletic Endeavors and watercolour/drawing by Julie Morstad - this image no longer available but there are other lovely ones on her site, Henri Matisse Femme print bought from the Matisse Museum in Nice, southern France when I travelled there with my sister... seems like a lifetime ago... still one of my favourite prints; MOST OTHER ELEMENTS in these images are discussed previously on this blog.)

keep going

This sentiment is where we're at this week. Don't give up, just keep going.

The Lovely One is being master carpenter on weekends and evenings and I just seem to endlessly paint whenever I have a moment. It's school holidays so there are a whole new set of demands. Keep going, keep going.