Dare I begin to plan the garden?

All pictures from...Secret gardens of Sydney

Tradesmen are working on our house again today. It really gives me hope that one day our house will be finished and we will be living in our 'dream home' YAY!!!! So.....dare I even think about our landscaping and all the wonderful ideas I have? In our contract, our lovely builder is doing basic landscaping, what this means I am not too sure but we will talk about it together and work out something. What I need is a small front garden, side courtyard and back garden that backs out onto the park (on show to people walking by) My garden will be all Australian Natives except maybe for one or two feature plantings. I love water features and feature sculptures or urns. At least with gardens you can let them evolve and often the climate and soil conditions dictates what grows best.

I love the way they have made the bowl a focal point and also the thick plantings on the side of the courtyard.

White pebbles and copper tone pots...really nice!

Another feature for a courtyard...something for me to think about!

I love the lighting at night and the orange walls.

The long planter box is exactly what I would like for my courtyard. Extra seating for when I have all my friends over!

Mrs B

Starting to get there......

My study with the 'random' green doors hehe We didn't ask for these doors to be painted green but they are...lucky we love them so they are staying.

Our half finished Kitchen. I took this photo to show you what I mean by the overheads. The window dictates the height of the cabinets and already it had been lowered from where originally it was placed. The bench on the left has another white box on the end so at the moment it looks lop sided. The picture doesn't really do it justice to how nice it all looks in the space...doesn't matter hehe this is a house build blog not a 'Home Beautiful' spread! Pantry is to the left as well as fridge.

Walnut cupboards in the Laundry...I think I like them but once again, I am seeing things half finished!

Our Walnut theatre system. The colour of the wood grain I wasn't sure about last night. I need to be patient and wait till the carpets are in and my furniture that I have bought for this room. A very productive day, thank goodness as it was over 40 degrees and we still had the guys at the house.

Thankyou to all our tradesmen.....every single one has been lovely and polite.

Mrs B

Reflections...

Just some (honest) rambling thoughts on a hot day to share.....

Has anybody out there ever doubted theme selves during their house build? I am not exactly having a panic attack and really this should be such a happy day, but I am starting to doubt my selections that I made for my house. A wonderful surprise today...some of my cabinetry was in for the kitchens and bathrooms: the beautiful walnut cabinets as well as my feature overhead cabinets in the kitchen. I don't know if I like the particular walnut veneer I picked and worst still, the overheads cabinets are too high and I will not easily be able to reach all my stuff. I also have doubts about my tiles, balcony glass, garage door, lights placed wrongly.....all my fault and I don't know why I am being so picky! Maybe I should have just played it safe, but I think I am seeing things half finished therefore only focus what hasn't been done. I know I should be grateful that every day we have tradies working on our house but when you are already 4 months over the due date, it doesn't put you in a good frame of mind.
The kitchen already looks stunning and is taking shape exactly the way I envisioned. I am concerned however, that the cabinets are too high, but I suppose I will deal with this issue if needed. Question...Is it okay to have just a little step to use if needed to reach objects in the back corner of overheads? The problem started with the kitchen window as this dictated how high the overheads would be....I must get a photo so you can see what I mean. Anyway...I hope all my selections work together but gosh it is hard work when you try and be different when using splashes of colour...I can understand why homeowners go for safe colours and not bright green doors like what I did LOL
Mrs B

Balcony and Garage Door

Our balconies front and back have now been installed...Yippeeeeee! Actually, when I think about it, any work that gets done we are excited about as it brings us closer to moving in. I love my garage door colour now, it changes colour with the sun. You can also see the balcony glass that has just been installed.

The long strip that goes across the glass is actually a sandblasted effect to give the house an interesting feature.

This picture is of a Liquid Limestone driveway. I love both the look and pattern and I would like it for my driveway. The problem is I don't think it a common product used in Victoria and have no idea how much it costs or if my builder will do it. We are supposed to have aggregate concrete but I'm not too keen on the rough texture. More pictures to come of the back balcony...

Mrs B

My Shopping Splurge...

Bed Linen from HomeRepublic

Recent puchase...Bed linen for my 14 year old son. I just realised that all the bedding are based on the same colours...Oh Well! When they get older, the boys can pick what they want as long as it is not black.

Sheridan bedlinen

I had just a small shopping expedition today...well not really, a really big one as you can see from my pictures! I managed to get 50% off all these beautiful Sheridan bedlinen for my 10 and 2 year old boys. I went a bit overboard as I bought everything...Donas, sheets, shams, quilts, blankets, animal cushions etc The picture above is for my 10 year old, at first I was concerned he may be too old for it but when we showed him the picture he loved it! His pillows that we bought go with it perfectly so I am very happy his room is coming together.

Sheridan...Dinosaur Range

The dinosaur bedding is for my baby. I even bought the little green dinosaur in the picture. Very happy today, slowly I am getting things for my house...after 16 months of enduring this house build, I need something to cheer me up.

Mrs B

Kitchens...

I spent a good 10 months on thinking, planning and agonising about my kitchen. I didn't have a kitchen designer so most of the design came from me. the pictures in this post represent all the elements that will be in my kitchen and bar area up on the second floor. I love .... horizontal handles, red glass, red glossy cabinets, white kitchens, clean lines, white granite tops and walnut wood. Combine all this and you have my kitchen and bar! Oh...I also forgot to mention that I love butlers pantry's so I have a small one but without a sink (the sink story I will tell you another time...I had to compromise with Mr B) So....I hope you enjoy my random pictures of kitchens!

Please note...When I saved these pictures, I didn't keep a record of the sites they were from. My apologies...

I love the skinny overhead cupboard, I am having one similar but going across the whole kitchen.



This is such a beautiful kitchen...very clean lines and I like the colour of the splash back.

One of my favourite houses. The floor boards are wide plank oak...I wanted this flooring so bad but was going to cost me a small fortune...oh well, my blackbutt floors will look just as beautiful.

I like the way the architect has combined the white gloss cupboards with the wood. Another element I am having in my kitchen.

The island bench is similar to mine.

A picture of Bianco Romano! very difficult to get it in Australia. I searched for over a year for the perfect white granite and I saw it at a Melbourne Home Show event. Cost us a fortune but I didn't care...this colour was exactly what I had been searching for. This stone is for my kitchen.

Henna Red on Starfire Glass

I have picked this colour for my splashback. Love it so much!

Mrs B

Wish I was a child again....

Pottery Barn Dr Seuss Bedlinen

I really am a big kid at heart. I loved the characters from Dr Seuss books and my father used to read me the books every night. This bed linen is just the nicest I have seen for a little boy or girl. I really have got to have it now and are working out how to get it to Australia. Oh why don't we have a Pottery Barn store here!

Mrs B

Cushions and doors

here is a selection of cushions that my boys have chosen for their beds/rooms. I love the colours and the fact they look quite trendy. We also looked for Doona covers together but they didn't like anything at this stage.

This picture is for Michelle...all my doors are up and what a statement they make! I'm sure we will get many interesting opinions/comments when people visit our house but who cares, dare to be different I say!

Last picture is of my new garage door. I think I like it...looks much browner than when I picked it from a sample a few centimeters big! I need to 'build a bridge' and start to love it because it was a special colour order. Sometimes you get caught up with small details that you need to see the whole house not just a small aspect!

Mrs B

Green doors....

Room colour scheme

I like this colour board, some of the colours I am using for my babies room. The blues/aquas, yellow, green and reds.

Skonaham

A nice bedroom for a teenager (still thinking about ideas for my 14 year old)

Not sure whether dark blue and white would compliment the green doors. Maybe I have to have the right shade of blue for it to work

Sheridan bed Linen

I saw this bedlinen at Myers yesterday and initially I had dismissed it but some of the colours caught my eye. It had all the colours in the colour board (pic above) I don't want the red sheets pillows etc but the yellow sheets are really pretty. I could fold the doona at the foot of his sleigh bed and show off the pretty yellow sheets and a blanket on top...just like in my favourite inspirational picture. What do people think...Will this pretty doona set look nice with the green doors?

Wardrobe Doors

Time to give an update on the progress of my build. Still slow but the good news is, still moving along. This makes us very happy. There is nothing worst than turning up to your build site week after week and no progress. I think we are into our 15th month...3 months over our due completion date. Its amazing how some houses can be built so quickly and easily and others like ours that seem to take forever. My heart goes out to all bloggers out there who are currently building or waiting to build and are experiencing difficulties and frustrations like we are. I know many people are also paying rent on top of a mortgage with slow builds. Others like Stormygirl, haven't even got a starting date even though her land was ready to build on several months ago.

A few friends have commented to us that we are 'too nice' therefore our builder puts us last on his important list of houses to be completed. I am beginning to think they are right. Maybe if we had of yelled, harassed, insisted, argued etc during the build, it may of been finished? That may of been true but sometimes the bigger picture is so much more important. Our builder has done so much extra for us without charging that perhaps he may not of been inclined to do so if we had of played hard ball.

I hate confrontations and still believe you can put your point across without all the dramas. I would definitely be terrible at running a business! Anyway, the doors have been hung and slowly, slowly we are getting there. I cannot see the finish line yet but that's Ok. As long as I am stilled thrilled with the quality of the work then I can be patient for a little longer.

Now let me tell you the kitchen story....l think I will leave that for another post LOL!!!

Mrs B

For Stormy

Now you may ask what is a girls bed doing in my blog when I have boys...As I tried to explain to Mr B and the other older boys that just because it has pink bed linen on it, doesn't make it a girls bed LOL Stormy asked me for a picture of the Sleigh Bed I won on ebay so here it is! I love it and it will look just perfect in my little babies room for the next few years...I will show you another picture with blue bedlinen on it in a few months time!

Mrs B

My Inspiration

Picture from Gardenweb...Zipdee's Room

This is it! I have found the colour inspiration for my babies room. Everything about this picture I love. The bedspreads, the turquoise cushions, green sheets and of course the wonderful bookshelf filled with all the complimentary colours...red, orange. blue, green etc The pretty bedroom has been designed for 3 girls but the colours are just perfect for a baby boy, well I think so anyway hehe My latest news is that I bought a beautiful cream sleigh bed for my little boy. All my ideas are slowly coming together...I have always wanted a contemporary nursery that can grow with a child. Now I am on the look out for bed linen to put on his bed, nothing babyish but more like the bedding in the picture above.

Mrs B

Chairs and chidren's rooms...

This picture is so gorgeous I just had to show it again! Notice the cute little rocking chair, well I have found one (replica) at a store called Matt Blatt (Abbotsford) also an online store. As soon as I saw the little rocking chair, I knew it would be perfect for my babies room. It was also very comfortable which was really number priority.

Eames RAR Rocker

Ovalia Egg Chair

So, here we are in the store and I told my other two boys to pick their chairs for their rooms...I wanted them to have some ownership in decorating their rooms. Note to self...never let a 10 and 14 years old boys have any say in any decorating decisions This is what they selected...an egg chair! Where on earth is this going to fit in their rooms. What made it worst that Mr B also liked it and told the boys these were the chairs from Men In Black.

Can someone please help me here!

Picture from Ohdeedoh

I just love the vibrancy of this room. I like the white furniture with the aqua colour accessories.

Bedding from Design Public

This is what I imagine for my oldest son. Sophisticated but still fun and colourful. I like the blue and green together as this is the two colour combinations in his room.

Mrs B

Our Farm House

This is my father's farm and the view is from the balcony of a small kit home we built a three years ago. The trees you see here are a few hundred years old, the whole area has a lot of aboriginal and gold mining history attached to it. The land is littered with old gold mines that have long since been flooded by water but the old stone fences still exist from early settler days.

Another view from the balcony, sometimes the horses and cattle come right up to our back porch.

This is a picture of our little kit Home we built through Swenrick Homes. Still needs to be finished off by Mr B but I think it will be one of those ongoing projects hehe

The inside, one big room, 4 bedrooms and a bathroom with a separate toilet. The floors Mr B laid himself and he also did the tiling in the wet areas. When you buy a kit home, often you can select what stage you want the building company to be responsible for. We got everything done except for flooring, painting, heating/cooling and the veranda.

This is the kitchen and even though it is laminex, I love the different colours I selected and the tiles, they were from Roger Sellers (Richmond) definitely money worth spending.

Main room, the wood heater is a must in the country as it heats up the whole house. I also love my chandelier that I picked. As the ceiling is a cathedral style, the lighting suits it perfectly. Actually, it was the ceiling that sold us the house, gives the room such a feeling of spaciousness. The blue couches I know don't really fit into my colour scheme hehe but they are the most comfortable you will ever sit in. Comfort before beauty in this case (also bought them off my friend for an excellent price so who cares if they don't really suit a country interior)

Looking back into the kitchen....

Our pretty guestroom ...

Our bedroom...

Bathroom...

There is still so much work to do , particularly on the outside. Unfortunately, because we have cattle who are not house trained, any plant, tree we have tried to grow has been eaten by them...grrrrrr. They walk through fences! When I go up next time, I will take pictures of the creek and other interesting buildings around the area that date back to the mid 1800's

Mrs B