the white choice

"The first of all single colours is white ... We shall set down white for the representative of light, without which no color can be seen; yellow for the earth; green for water; blue for air; red for fire; and black for total darkness." Leonardo Da Vinci

At long last we are putting white paint on the walls... the days of decorating have finally arrived and just in time for my sanity.

It has been lovely talking through the subtleties of white with the Babes. When we were down to the final 3 white swatches on the walls Babe 2 pointed to one and immediately decided "Not that one. It looks like it's been dropped in a muddy puddle and then rinsed off" - so it was out with the grey-white, she was right.

Babe 1 pointed to the yellow-white swatch and decided "Not that one". When I asked why she replied, in that 9-going-on-10-you-have-no-idea-mum-tone "It's called Princess Bling". I still forget that overnight all things princess have gone out of style. It was obviously no reflection on the quality of the colour though as I suspect had I changed the name to One Direction Denim it would have won hands down.

postcript... I have gone with Resene Alabaster - a bit Nordic snowy landscape, a bit art gallery white - and I love it. Just love it.

light at the end of the tunnel

It's been night and day renovating these past weeks. Plastering, painting, tiling and preparing the floors for the engineered boards. We're at that point in Grand Designs when Kevin McCloud ponders "I just can't believe that they're going to get it done on time and on budget"... and the truth is, neither can we!

The Lovely One has been doing 16 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday and I work the 5 hours that the Babes are at school and then try for a 7.30-10.30pm session after they go to bed. My sweet mum has offered her services as labourer - sweeping and cleaning everything a couple of times a week (and a clean building site is so much better for our sanity... she seems to sneak in a bit of time in the laundry as well which is also so, so helpful, and of course it means the girls have clean school uniforms).

Other than the food parcels - which mum, my sister and mother in law have all delivered - we're eating pretty badly and the old house is actually now disgusting it's so dusty and full of boxes and fixtures that keep being delivered but can't yet be fitted, so they sit in the living room in more boxes.

However... we're hoping to finish Stage One (kitchen, living, dining) in 4 weeks and we can endure the mess until then. The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be shining brightly enough now that it can blur out the chaos in it's glare.

just plain busy

Flat out now. Any time spent not working or child minding is spent building. The Lovely One is putting up the Gyprock sheets and I'm following close behind plastering - and like most things in a renovation - it's taking longer than we hoped. We're trying to finish the kitchen/living/dining by July 1 (the start of the next school holidays) and leaving everything else to the latter 6 months of the year.

We're both very focussed and when we're in the thick of it we still seem to be able to laugh about it all... so I think we're still on track. However I am constantly reminded that a self-build is never as romantic as you think it will be. Just have to keep the overall vision and then do the hard work, it's all just hard work in the end.

prints charming workshops at koskela

I did a screen printing course with the gorgeous girls at Prints Charming about 3 years ago and have never looked back - I've been addicted ever since. They're now running workshops at Koskela in Sydney throughout June.

If you're interested in paper cut screen printing, embroidery or kids classes, you can email Koskela at info@koskela.com.au or Prints Charming at info@printscharming.com.au for more info on dates and times. Their classes are incredibly popular... so hurry!

crossing the ocean

'You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.' Christopher Columbus

I think for the first time I can see the new shore! This weekend we started plaster-boarding the walls - and now we can see some of the walls in place for the first time.

Survival through this journey has meant I've needed to be incredibly detail and task focussed, because if I ever looked too closely at the big picture I became entirely overwhelmed and quickly got back to 'one step at a time' mode. So it's been a big leap for me to finally step back and take it all in - to really see just what a big project it has been for a tight-budget mostly DIY - and I feel really, really amazed, really surprised, really happy and really quite courageous.

poppies to remember

... just how fortunate we are.

cellar door awards

Our very special friends Pete and Hannah Logan's Cellar Door has been nominated as one of four finalists in the very prestigious 2012 Gourmet Traveller Awards. If you'd like to lend your support you can add your Vote Here or find out more about delicious Logan wines at their website. Good luck lovelies, we have our fingers and toes crossed.

drawstring purse

Simple and lovely. See how to create these sweet little purses over at Between the Lines.

unexpected surprises

There is much of the renovation journey that can be predicted. I have imagined this extension for several years so much of it is about realising the vision of the spaces, the structure, the furnishings, the light. There is also much about renovating that is unpredictable and annoying, like rock where you want to excavate and sand where you want to lay a concrete slab, dodgy steel frames that and need to be constantly worked around, rain and more rain slowing the whole process down.

...and then there are the unexpected surprises...

more timber floors

A few friends have asked me to expand on the finding a timber floor adventure so some thoughts follow...

I have already waxed lyrical about Tongue n Groove - Sydney in a previous post, however another discovery is a  beautiful supplier in Melbourne - Royal Oak Floors by Harper & Sandilands (pic above). I particularly love their smoked floors and they have gorgeous stair nosing (if stair nosings are your thing?!).

Another incredibly helpful supplier is Havwoods, they have a comprehensive website and can deliver direct. They have a huge range from pale to dark and their Europlank collection is a more affordable option.

Of course already familiar to most is Porter's Paints who also have a range of wide boards in lots of new colours from white, through natural and grey to black. Always beautiful.