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.

influence

When I was pregnant with Babe 1, one of the first things I made was a big Marimekko Unikko canvas in red and pink to hang on the wall of her new nursery. As we've moved homes it's been the one constant in their bedrooms.

A month or so ago I realised that the fond sentimentality it held for me was not shared by Babe 1 when I found it had been taken off the wall and replaced with yet more Justin Bieber magazine clippings and her new One Direction poster (to go with all the other One Direction posters). It was apparently taking up too much precious wall space.

The moment held a strange mix of feelings. On one hand I felt this kind of deep stabbing angst about her growing up and on the other a kind of deep stabbing love at watching her exert her individuality.

Which brought me to this week and the need to finalise feature wall colours for their bedrooms (yes, very excited that we're getting close to painting Stage 2!). Given that the rest of the house is all white and grey I felt it was important to let them express themselves in their rooms and if they wanted to have colour, then I wanted to embrace it. So what do you do when it comes to sitting with them and pouring over colour charts (which I admit is overwhelming for an adult let alone a small person) and they both start selecting all the colours for the tops of their lists that I would put at the bottom of mine! I'm talking real crimsons and bright turquoise blues, maybe a candy pink or two thrown in. It was such a quandry. Let them exert independence and individuality whilst also getting my own way?!@!#!

In the end it was a really fun hour or so and I prompted and prodded so that we happily found a middle  ground and I tried to ensure they felt they'd come to the final decision themselves. The colours are of course brighter than I would have liked but they love their choices and it's brought on a whole new level of excitement for them which is so gorgeous to watch.

In short, Babe 1 has chosen a kind of cornflower blue - not quite purple, not quite blue for the wall which we'll match with grey linen curtains, maybe a grey rug and some pinks in the linen (a big change from her original electric turquoise).

Babe 2 had her heart set on stripes so we've found a sunny yellow for the wall to match a multicoloured striped IKEA rug with grey linen curtains (a better solution than the suggested yellow, purple, orange and pink stripes on the wall).

I promise photos in a few weeks time... please, please let all this be nearly over in a few weeks time.

desperately seeking magic

'Those who don't believe in magic will never find it' Roald Dahl

I believe, I believe... but man it's testing every part of me at the moment. The internal walls in the old house look like this photo while we wait for the renderer. We're open to the elements in places again where the windows are being altered. There are huge holes in the floor where the walls were moved and even though the finished section offers some respite... it's rapidly filling up with building materials and fixtures that can't be left in the old house because they'll get trashed. The excitement of last week's wall relocations is fading as we face the hard slog ahead.

I hate to write these posts as it makes me feel ungrateful and frankly it's dull complaining because really we just have to get on with it... but I also feel they're sometimes necessary. I know friends reading this are going through the same thing and it's wrong to think it's always rosy or rewarding or satifying... because sometimes it's just plain miserable. But I believe, I believe... let's hope magic is hiding behind the next ceiling joist.

ross gardam oak light

Oh hello wonderful lights. Available in three finishes with black cord at Ross Gardam. Is August too early to send wishes to Santa?

prints charming at spotlight

The very lovely Cath and Kirsten of Prints Charming have just launched their new collection at Spotlight stores in Australia. You can read more about their new drill fabrics in their beautiful designs here.

timber wall hooks

Have just ordered 5 grey and 2 yellow wall hooks from the very clever Margarita at Chocolate Creative for the new hall in the old house. Looking forward to the little parcel in the mail.

pretty pegs

As the project nears the end... and money is so very, very tight, I will need to compromise on a 3 seater sofa and IKEA will do the trick.

Pretty Pegs provide an alternative to the big lumps of timber (that IKEA offer as legs) and replace them with Pretty Pegs. Yay, instant update.

touching base

It's been crazy and I can't believe how long it's been between posts, and just how much we've done. We worked like lunatics through June-July and finally moved into the completed section (new kitchen / dining / living / outdoor) at the end of July. The weather through that period was cold and miserable and at many points in the process we felt physically broken ... but just had to keep going and now it's all worth it.  It's absolutely beautiful and working so well. The Babes still keep saying "I love our new house" and we've even had a few lunches with friends and family to celebrate and enjoy the new space.

It's simple, un-precious, spacious and easy. We're within budget (maybe even a smidge under... but of course we're not finished yet) and feeling so happy with all the decisions along the way. "Beautiful on a budget" was our mantra and whilst it does look a little homemade in parts - we're hoping that it adds character (?!).

Still lots of little bits to finish from Stage 1 but we're cracking on with Stage 2 (as of last week). The old house now looks like demolition site, the old kitchen floor down to bare dirt and all the new openings cut through brick walls with new brick walls filling the old ones. All sleeping in one room with mattresses all over the floor, it's dusty and horrible and chaos again but I LOVE the reconfiguration. Making a central hall down the middle of the old cottage looks better than I even imagined, it's given our dinky little dark house a sense of grandeur (grandeur in a relative kind of way!) and the new bedrooms still feel generous in size. I didn't think I could be happy in so much dust... but maybe we're just getting used to it.

Time remains scarce so I won't wax lyrical about it all now but I promise, promise, promise to post some photos soon. Thank you lovely friends and sister overseas for your lovely emails of support and encouragement... and yes... photos when it's not so filthy and still resembling a storage unit!

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.