Moved. Unpacking. Drainer.

Oh my gosh....if no-one has told you yet, I'm going to tell you.

Moving is a drainer.

Note to self - Next time invest in a removalist. My sanity will thank me for it.

Anyway, on a more positive note, we have finished painting the architraves in thelounge, entrance and master bedroom. Small victory!

Also have moved in all the furniture.Took me (with the assistance of friends) a few days to get the placing right. Needed to fit 2 sets of sofas and a daybed/bench thing. I think I'm happy with the current layout....I think?!

So here is our progress......

The lounge

The bottles of wine won't fit in the bar. Anyone up for a drink?

♥ B.

Lonely Planet

Hi everyone!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend so far. I've been doing much of the same, painting and getting ready to move our stuff out of storage and actually move in. Will show you updates soon.

Dropped by a garage (yard) sale today and found this lovely Lonely Planet "The Asia Book". In pretty good nick except for the christmas message scrawled on the front page. Unwanted gift? I think so.

Anywho - other than looking great on my non-existent bookcase, I thought it would come in handy as we are set for an Asian holiday next year! My sister is getting married overseas and decided that whilst we're out of the country we may as well go on the Asian holiday we planned before I got knocked up! Rewind - Ok have been to USA and the following year went on a Europe trip and was planning an Asia trip the year after. Never happenned as it turned out I fell pregnant during our Euro trip! hehehe how life works :)

Below is the book and our destinations:

*this pic won't save the right way...ggrrr*

Excited? Hell yeah!

♥ B.

Thrifting @ Savers

Not sure where you are in the world but Spring has definitely hit Melbourne!

Went to the local Savers the other day, you know just browsing...not expecting (more like I can't AFFORD) to buy anything. So what happens? I find "things"....

1. Jewellry stand (?)

Ok I'm pretty sure this is a jewellery stand for necklaces perhaps? Anyone have one of these at home? Scored this for $5. Did I need it? Probably not.

2. Wall mounted cube

I picked this up while browsing and thought it would look great in my son's room. I knew it was a wall cube of some type due to the screw allowance. My son can use it to park his little matchbox cars - he has 1 car at the moment but that collection will grow!

I did some research and it is a Copco Wall Mount Spice Rack designed by Lubge - Randel circa 1970's. Originally had spice bottles in the cubes but obviously the one I bought is only the wall mount, but for $5.99 why not? I think this is my first true retro item BOOYAH!

3. Dress

Last item was a dress with a striped top and tulle skirt. It's currently in the wash but will take some pics when I come to wear it. Dress $8.99

Thanks for reading my rant ;)

♥ B.

Progress - Timber floors

Hope you're enjoying your Sunday night!

So been busy with the renovations as per usual. Still living at the parentals while the floors are being done. Been confirmed that they are Tassie Oak - yay! I don't really know if thats good or not but yay!

Anywho - here is the flooring in the process of being sanded.

Can't wait for the finish!

♥ B.

Renovation Road Block - Peeling Paint

Ugh. I hate painting, especially when you have to do it again.

Dad put the first coat of paint on the trims the other day while we were at work. Checked it out that night and I noticed that the paint was running. I thought it was strange that Dad had done an amateur-ish job as he has lots of experience painting.

I rubbed my finger over the paint and it just started to peel  and peel and peel some more. Curse!
I knew this was going to be another big job - I felt it in my bones.

Safety mask and glasses on with a scraper in one hand and a sander in the other - I scraped and sanded.

Since all windows and frames have been primed I was devastated to think I have to sand all of them back, wash and re-prime. Off I went running my fingernail accross each trim. To my surprise only half of the trimmings needed to be re-done. The other half stayed on and is ready for the first coat.

Got me confused. So where to get answers? Where else but Google! So according to forums, paint sites and Wikipedia there are really 2 reasons why paint would peel - moisture and poor preparation. I think it's the second one. We musn't have wiped the trims down properly with sugar soap. SHIT.

Lesson learned!

My poor Dad - I had to explain to him that it wasn't his painting skills that was the issue - it was my (lack of)cleaning skills.

On a more positive note, our tiles are getting layed. Thanks to hubby, brother in law and soon to be brother in law. Hopefully should be finished by tomorrow...hopefully.

Kitchen

Laundry

We decided to get a pro to sand and varnish the timber floors. Lucky we know someone and he has given us mates rates.Awesome.

♥ B.



TnT - Mirror mirror on the wall

Hey hey!

Just a quick post on my opshop find yesterday.

I was indecisive whether to hit the opshops. Mum was in my ear saying "you come back with so much trash rararara...'. So just to get her a little bit more worked up I went hehehehe

Visited Vinnies...nothing.

Next was BlueLight opshop....nothing.

Then Salvos...score! I spotted a gilded mirror a few weeks ago and went back a week later and couldn't find it anywhere. Obviously been sold. Mind you I left it initially because it had a price tag of $44.99 - frugal me walked away.

Anywho - walked in yesterday and there it was sitting in the front display *Happy dance*. The opshop angels must have been shining their lights upon me because it was 50% off *Body roll*! So got it for $22.50.

 B.A.R.G.A.I.N.

Like or Lurve? I lurrrve....

♥ B.

T&T - Chalkboard Love

A little bit about me....I love second hand shopping! No let me rephrase - I'm addicted.

I love going through junk, whether it be at a second hand store, flea market, eBay or Gumtree. It's a combination of 1. up/recycling 2. reducing my contribution to land fill and 3. I'm frugal.

There is no other high than finding an item and squealling in excitement under your breath so no one thinks your crazy, paying for the item, walking away calling your hubby/girlfriend/sister/mum "omg! guess what I just freaking bought ......"

Well I had one of those moments recently when I found this small chalkboard at the local opshop. It's brand new still in its package.

It has beautiful bird and branch pattern on the top and the chalkboard at the bottom.

I have plans for this possibly in the bedroom or entrance...once we move in....if ever (damn renos) *shakes fist in the air*

♥ B.

Timberrrrrr....

The last two weekends have been tiresome yet extremely productive. So as I mentioned last post we painted and are continuing to paint. The walls are done and so is the ceiling in the entrance and lounge. May I just say that painting the ceiling is annoying (understatement) especially when I am "vertically challenged".

The boys have given up the paint brush and have left it to us girls. We are currently in the position to apply our first coat to our trimmings. I chose to paint the trimmings white - but because our walls are already white - my uncle suggested to go another colour or at least another shade of white?! So this is where my creative juices begin to get challenged...white or off white?? hahahaha ..... not sure yet so watch this space.

Primer

More painting

Anywho, we've also started to remove the carpet. I feel rather guilty removing this as it is in excellent condition and looks quality. But I cannot and I repeat CANNOT  stand the thought of how much dust accumulates and the amount of time wasted in vacuuming. However, we will be keeping the carpet in the step down lounge because  1. hubby wants to and 2. it's on a concrete slab. Everywhere else got cut up and rolled out. And underneath emerged beautiful timber hardwood floors. I love timber floors and these are your old school, you can sand me me a thousand times thick - sort of wood. Not sure what type of timber but I don't care.

In the kitchen

In the BIR

Dining area

Lounge



Did I mention there was carpet in the ensuite? And yes there was some funky smell going on. Ripped that out as well and looking at tiling that baby up. Hopefully since the carpet has been removed, some of that funkiness will also go away.

Ensuite carpet removed

EWWW!



The laundry had 1970's brown tiles on the floor. I did consider replacing this but then thought about the process and decided we'll do it later, maybe in a few years maybe never. The brother in law comes by to give us a hand and also decides he doesn't like the tiles. He says it would be easy and will take him 10 minutes (note: works as a tiler) and begins to chip away at the tiles. Ummm okay then I  guess we'll update now?!

My ex retro laundry tiles

So many of our family and friends have come to give us a hand in the process so far. At one point we had ten people in the house doing whatever they can, painting, rolling up the carpet, removing staples or nails from the floor, cleaning. So blessed we have the best family and friends ever !

Have to go and peruse different shades of white before I konk out.

♥ B.





Paint & Life

Wallpaper successfully removed. Washed down walls with sugar soap. Choose a paint color - Antique White.

Finally some progress.

Had a rough start to painting last weekend. I had a little too much bubbly at our EOFY do and was a little unwell the follwing day...you know what I mean?

Anywho - got cracking with the "reno crew" (family) and .....painted. There's not really much to it. First we cut in the walls with the undercoat and the boys got the rollers and (body) rolled! hhahahahaha *body roll*
I am immature at times.

We did two coats of the undercoat where we removed the wallpaper but didn't bother with the walls already painted white. Once the undercoat dried, cut in walls with top coat and painted. We are almost done with the walls, I only need to put on another coat in the ensuite and sunroom and we are finished! Then possibly only need to touch up parts of the ceiling.

Did I mention that I also want to paint the skirtings which are currently brown? There is a primer which apparently goes straight onto the timber without needing to sand - I'm think its called Zinsser or Zinzzer or Zinnesser? Ok will provide correct details in future post. We started in one bedroom and will probably try and get some more rooms done over the weekend.

In a nutshell - painting walls was B.O.R.I.NG. and takes a lot of patience. But on the upside you get to think about life, the hangover and how you're to old for that ish!

Dulux - Antique White

Living room

Kitchen

Bedroom

Primer

♥ B.



P.S. A warm hello to my first official follower Zelicious!

Wallpaper

One of the few updates I wanted to do before we moved in was to remove the wallpaper and paint the house. I've read and been told that removing wallpaper required patience.Ha! Total understatement.

We started in one of the bedrooms - came off pretty easily. I thought piece of cake - those DIY forums have got it ALL wrong.

WRONG! I was purely mistaken. The ease we had in the first bedroom did not pass onto the rest of the house. Moved on into the hallway, getting a little harder to peel and remove the glue. Moved onto the entry and then the lounge. Three days later - and lots of help from family - we got it done....I think.

We worked from 7am to 11pm for two days and 9am to 6pm the other. Lots of elbow grease involved but we should be ready to paint.

One of the wallpaper patterns

And another.



So the work begins...

Hallway

Glue residue

Family working @ 11.30pm

Fix me up!

The boys and their toys.

I'm just glad it's over.

♥ B.

The beginning..

We finally settled on our new home today! YAY!

So it's not exactly new - approximately 44 years - but like good wine, it gets better with age.We were lucky to have met the previous owners who have been there all 44 years! The property is in pretty good condition but it somewhat looks dated. There is carpet EVERY-WHERE and wallpaper as far as the eye can see. BUT it feels homey and warm!

So here is the beginning of our new adventures at number 10.....



Home.



♥ B.