Painting begins...

Hooray! Painting began on Christmas eve and now the painters are back straight after Christmas, thank you guys! The colour is Antique White USA and it is such a beautiful creamy white, exactly what I wanted. I can just imagine my house now....beautiful polished blackbutt flooring, crisp clean white walls, colourful art work splattered around the house, my new green couch with contrasting cushions and ottoman and my fireplaces in! After 15 months of this house build and still going I think I will allow myself the luxury of dreaming how my house is going to look...sigh

The photos are of the walls with just one coat of paint sprayed on. Not bad coverage I must admit. The painters will come back and paint the second coat.

Mrs B

Gift Giving....some thoughts

Just a few pictures of presents I have already received from my friends. The picture above is some beautiful hand cream...it will look so nice in my new bathroom
Picture below is one of two plates from the Villeroy and Boch... acapulco range. My friend thought she would start me off ...it is going to take me a while to collect all 6 plates and pasta bowls! I love the shape of these plates but haven't eaten off one yet....maybe Christmas day, everyone else at the table can have a boring white plate but I will have my special 'plate'...only joking!

I love Christmas! Its not always easy though...dealing with prickly relatives...but I love the whole ceremony of putting up the tree, writing Santa Claus lists (14 year old son still refers to Santa LOL) listening to Christmas carols, school holidays and of course presents!

On the subject of gift giving...I have found that many people find it very stressful and an unnecessary expense to do the whole Christmas thing....and that's OK! Sometimes I feel for them its only an obligation not a pleasure in both giving and receiving gifts. I love doing both and spend weeks thinking and planning the perfect present for my friends and family.

My beautiful Nanny was such a lovely person to buy for. The joy her face when each gift was opened was really her gift to me. It made me feel so special when she opened my gift because I knew she would love it no matter what is was. My Grandfather was a different story however...one year, he threw back the gift my poor brother had to give him on behalf of the family. Pop yelled at him "More socks! look at how many I have already got" then proceeded to grab my brother and took him into his bedroom to show him all the socks he had in his draw( nothing we gave him was ever good enough for him no matter how much it cost) I have come to terms over my Grandfathers attitude towards us but really, there was no excuse other than he was just a rude man and made Christmas for us uncomfortable.

So.......even though I sometimes struggled on Christmas day, I am always 'determined'(I say this because someone will go out of their way to be difficult) to be happy and create a wonderful experience for my own children. This year, my 2 older boys have gone out and bought presents for the family by themselves with their own money. We never expected them to do this but one day we saw 4 presents all wrapped up under the tree from my 14 year old son. To me that was the most beautiful gift I have ever received. There is something very special when your own child gives you a gift.

Mrs B

Window furnishings

Blinds....I met with the Luxaflex lady today and made my final selections for my window furnishings. Can I just say how happy I am! As you can see from the pictures, they are all the translucent materials, meaning you cannot see in but light still comes in (exactly what I wanted) For the main windows throughout the house I selected a really nice textured material from the 'Bamboo' range. Very natural, not plain and adds some interest to the windows. The only problem I had was how the curtain should roll up top. As some of my windows have winders, I may have to do the reverse roll. This may be the best option. I am having a stainless steel rod at the bottom of the binds which you can see in the picture above. I just hope they look nice when installed.

The pretty fabrics above are from the 'silk' range. For my powder room and changing room I am having romans in this fabric. I selected the first fabric but still really liked the one in the third picture. Opinions most welcomed as it hasn't been ordered yet. Both go with my tiles shown above.

So there you go. A very productive day...painting and blinds both sorted out. I often wonder if anybody is reading my blog but it doesn't really matter hehe You will notice that I have added two very well known blogs to my list. Very inspirational, filled with the prettiest pictures you could see.

Mrs B

Beginning to paint...

First picture is the entrance of my walk in shower. Walls have been grouted but not the floors in this bathroom. second picture is a glimpse of the boys bathroom. To me it looks so calm and serene.

As you can see, the painters have put strips of brown paper everywhere. These pictures you can see a nice wide hallway. On the right hand wall will be my children's art gallery. I have collected some beautiful artwork they have done at school and intend to hang their pictures in white frames.

Just came back from the house and was very happy to see two of the workers preparing the house to be painted. Plastic sheets cover all the windows and sheets of brown paper underneath all the architraves. The head painter was there and he told us it will be painted on Wednesday (Christmas eve) talking about leaving things to the last minute but as long as it is done I don't really mind. Hopefully I will be able to take some more pictures after it has been painted...it will look more like a home not a building site!

Mrs B

Are we going to get painted?

Its that time of year...Christmas. Good news for the majority of people but for someone like me trying to build a home, a very frustrating time. Last Christmas we had a frame but then there was a 2 month delay for all the steel work that needed to go in for structure support. Over the Christmas break, factories close down and the majority of tradies take their much earned annual holiday. So now, 3 days before Christmas I am left wondering if the painters are going to paint our house....I am meeting my curtain lady down at the house this morning so it will be interesting to see if the 'promised team of 10 painters' will be there preping and putting up the plastic around our window . At first I was horrified that the first coat was going to be sprayed on but our builder reassured as that techniques have changed and it gives the best finish possible. The second coat is rolled on which made me feel slightly better. I am going for a all white house just for now. I selected Antique White USA for my main flow colour. All trims and ceiling is the same but the doors are currently being sprayed in a gloss finish. They had to be taken away for this to be done.



As I will have a white house (never thought I would but it seems to suit a modern interior) I decided to go bold in other areas to give it that 'wow' factor. The wardrobe doors in my boys rooms are going to be green. My oldest son was adamant he didn't want a feature wall as he liked the idea of a white room. Surprisingly, he didn't mind the doors a different colour. Definitely not every one has warmed to the idea but does it really matter? Isn't a home meant to have the owners personality?

So the question is...Will my house be painted before Christmas?

The two pictures you see are my powder room. I will wait and see before I comment on the stone mosaics...sometimes, it is best to see everything in a room because at the moment I just focus on the mess and the fact is its not completed up top (ran out of tiles)

Its interesting starting a blog as just the little things give me such a thrill. I noticed that I have now 6 followers and am rather thrilled that people have an interest in my pictures and ramblings about my house. Thank you to my 3 new followers..Allan, Sophie and Gong 1959.

On another note, you may notice as you read my blog that sometimes my written desciption doesn't match the picture it is next to. I am still finding my way around here so for a while my blog entries may be in random order hehe

Mrs B

Tiles cont...

This is my powder room downstairs. This might sound strange, but when I saw it today, with the granite mosaics, I was slightly disappointed. I think because the upstairs bathrooms are so striking, that it may take a little while to get use to the more subdued colour tile downstairs.

This first picture is of our lounge room upstairs. An interesting note...when we were designing our house, our architect didn't want a veranda in front of these windows, he said it is better you have the view uninterrupted by columns etc. I love the fact all you can see is water, it looks like we are built right up to the waters edge.

Below are some more random pictures of the tiling. I love the green mosaics, not every bodies 'cup of tea' but you either like the look or not...

This picture is our balcony up top. I really like the tiles I picked and surprisingly enough, the easiest to select. We are having a clear glass balcony with a stainless steel handrail on top. To the side we have to have a frosted glass panel so we don't overlook our neighbours house. It will still look really nice and we both need our privacy so I am happy with this.

This is a picture of my walk in shower...green mosaic tiles still to go in. I just love the look of my main wall tiles and all the different shades of cream/beige/white.

Mrs B

Tiling pictures

This is our powder room and in real life the porcelain tiles are so nice. We have selected a granite mosaic that will be placed at eye level. The two steel bits poking out of the wall is for our hydronic towel heater.

The next pictures is of our laundry. I am just thrilled with how everything is working out. The cabinets you see are just the carcass...the cabinet maker hasn't installed the doors/panels etc. The top cabinets are an olive green and the bottom cabinets are American Walnut. Plenty of bench space and storage. I love the thin white tiles, at first I was skeptical but the tile shop owner said they look really nice when laid...I totally agree with him.

The tilers were there late last night. We didn't want to go in and disturb them so we will just have to wait till Monday to see what they have done. Going by the off cuts in the front yard, tiling upstairs has been completed but not the powder room. I am so excited to see how it all looks.

Now, back to photos....Yippeeee I am so glad I found the ones I took of the floors a few days ago, hidden behind another folder in my computer. So here they are, not the best quality but at least you get the idea of how they look. Hope you enjoy finally seeing some of my selections for my house!

Mrs B

There are no pictures! I don't know what happened but I managed to delete all the ones I took tonight between transferring them between folders. I will take some tomorrow and post them here.
Good news, we went by tonight and the tilers were still there. They had almost finished the walls of the ensuite. Can I just say once more, they look more stunning than I had hoped for. The guys (very nice to us and this has been the case for every tradesman that have worked on our house) told us they will finish tiling tomorrow and grout on Saturday. This seems to be a big shift in the progress of our house. Once the painting is done, I will see the home stretch. Another neighbour who started 4 months after us is moving in next week so we are the last family in our street that built this year to move in. It doesn't matter as long as I see progress. So fingers crossed that the painting is done this year.

Mrs B

Wallpaper and curtains

Even though it may be a modern home, I still am going to add some features that others may consider too old fashion for such a space. First of all wallpaper...a difficult product to find or at least the pattern/quality you are after. The photos below come from the Eijffinger range. I found a shop in Praham that is their stockists. Here are the patterns I am considering for my bedroom feature wall.

Curtains...I just love the very full, rich silk curtains like in the picture I have above. There is a very romantic side to me and I will eventually get some ceiling to floor drapes in the theatre room and my own bedroom. At this stage, I have got quotes for the duette range from Luxaflex which proved to be very expensive but I am going to have a mixture of roller blinds and duettes.

Tiles cont....

I'm back again and noticed that I haven't posted for quite a while. Also, very excited that I now have 3 followers of my blog Michelle, kexkez and Stormy.... hi girls!!! Still trying to find my way around the blog settings so hopefully I can add alot more interesting features to my page.
Back to my house...yesterday DH went by the house first time in a week. We are both very disheartened through lack of progress but as we have invested our life savings into this property, we still have to care, ring the builder to make sure he knows we still exist. I never thought building a house would be this difficult and frustrating. Anyway, a miracle did happen and the tilers finally showed up and managed to tile all the floors of the bathrooms, balcony and laundry. For the first time I did not even go and have a look which is really so unfair because I should be excited and thrilled but when you have suffered so much disappointment, it really becomes hard to be motivated enough to even care.
This morning I had to drop the grout colours off at the house and curiosity to hold of me so in I went to have a look. The laundry tiles floor and wall were just stunning...my laundry is coming together as I have spent a great deal of time and effort in both design and colours. Despite my initial negativity, I just loved it! So feeling a little better, I ventured to look at the powder room tiles, these beautiful rich caramel tiles, and I was blown away how much I loved them also. Finally, I could see my selections I had agonised over come together...lifted my spirit a bit. Went upstairs and the beautiful bathroom tiles had been laid on the floor...just exactly how I had imagined. The sun was streaming through the house, windows had been fixed (after 10 months) and the site cleaned. Made me feel a little bit better but we had been down this road before...some work to keep us happy then nothing for weeks, so it left me wondering when all the walls were going to be completed...this is a big job so I hope it gets done before Christmas. The house is suppose to be painted as well before the break but as usual, there will be the normal held up and we wont see any tradesman again till Feb next year.
I will take pictures of the house as it looks now tonight if there is anybody there to let us in. Before I go, it is also important to acknowledge that the quality of the work has never been in question, everything has been fantastic which I am always grateful for towards our builder. He is also a wonderful guy who we still get along really well with and the best part...he always answers his phone when we call him. There are many positives about the builder we chose it is just so unfortunate that we did not even get close to being in for Christmas. This alone has upset me greatly. On a final positive note, we will have a simply beautiful home once it is finished, that I have never doubted. I just cant wait to decorate it the way I have envisioned...after all, this is what my blog is suppose to be about.

Mrs B

The tiles look just beautiful...

Back to my tile disaster! I met the builder on site today to have a look at the tiles. The tilers were not there working on the house but we are used to that by now. I went to the ensuite to look at the tiles they had laid and much to my relief, they looked stunning! exactly how I had imagined them to be. Each tile is unique in colour and pattern, just the way I wanted it. My builder was relieved and so was I. I told him to hurry up and call the tilers back so they can start working on the house. I dont think we will see them again till next week now, as they have gone onto other jobs they have. Photos.....would you believe I took my camera and forgot to take a photo

Mrs B

Tiles...

I've been thinking what I should put in my blog about my house that is being built. To say that it has been the most stressful, exhilarating and disappointing part of my life would be an understatement. This blog is meant to be exactly what the heading is Decorating a Modern Home but the house is not built yet so I feel the need to share the journey where we are, right now. So what stage are we at.....

We are at the tiling stage. The tiles I have selected are imported from Italy and are just beautiful, or at least they were up to 5:00 this afternoon. We got a call from the builder who had ordered work to stop immediately on out tiling until I could come down and have a look at the main bathroom tiles. He told me that our tilers refused to lay the tiles until he came down and had a look at the batch that was delivered to the house. Every tile was a different colour and pattern. Our builder said it was so bad that the tilers didn't want to continue because they knew the owner would be very unhappy when they saw it. So, taking a deep breath, I told the builder I would meet him in the morning early to look how bad it looked. No big deal you may say, just pick another tile.....when you have been waiting 4 weeks for the tilers to actually lay your tiles then find out the ones you had ordered have to be returned is not a good thing. 14 months into a build, excruciatingly slow, we have almost given up hope. Mr B doesn't even want to go by the house any more....it will be built when it gets built.

Hopefully, I don't need to post on a negative note like this again because this is not what my blog is about. Here is a picture of some of my early tile selections that I have changed in the last few months....

Mrs B

Pictures that inspire me....

The first picture is of my house as it looks at the moment. It has been photoshoped by D@n on homeone my favourite building forum.

For the last 2 years I have been collecting pictures and devouring every home magazines that I can get my hands on. I have a very modern home but the challenge will be to furnish and decorate it. Here are just a few beautiful rooms that have inspired me.

Even though all these homes are contempoary, each room is decorated with some 'classic pieces'. I think the owners have created a home by personalising their rooms. I love the picture with the dark green walls and the antique furniture. Foe me it works but I dont know if I would be brave enough to use that colour in my bedroom.

What does everyone else think about my first 4 'inspiration' pictures?

Mrs B