Lighting Bling!

The two lights above the kitchen bench need to be changed into something BLING!

When we first built (it has been over 2 years now, there were a few decorating decisions that just had to wait. The ceiling lights above the bench was one of them. i just couldn't focus on what lights we wanted so the decision got postponed until now. I want something that is unique, something that is the WOW factor...a bit of bling. It doesn't matter if it's modern or older style, as long as 'it works' overall.

Cape Cod Designs

I love this french light with a passion but would it work in a kitchen? I don't think the dimensions are big enough for my space but I can still sigh and look!

Bell Chain Pendant...Cape Cod Designs

Maybe something more like this? Modern style lighting is not working for me at the moment. Any comments about the lights above my kitchen bench will be greatly appreciated. Mrs B xxo

Pictures...slowly getting there

I thought I would quickly post some pictures of my house of how it looks at the moment. Still so many things to add...mainly the final touches. The brown lounge and rug are from our old house, they look OK for now I suppose. I still need so oversized art pieces, cushions, rugs, vases and all the other stuff that makes it into a warm, welcoming space. You will notice that our fireplaces are in...not without dramas either. The builders cut the holes too big so the plasterers still have to come back and patch up the gaps. At night we all 'retire' upstairs to watch TV or read a book. I think we are finally getting use to the space of our house.

Pictures...Lights, bathroom, kitchen and stairs

Here are some pictures that I took of my house. It is slowly coming together but so much work still to do. Lets see what happens this week.

Ensuite marble and basin

Ensuite...mirror still to be installed and taps of course.

Hallway with feature lighting

Feature lights...upstairs lounge room

Kitchen...still not finished!

View into kitchen and living area

Lounge room, you can see our chandelier hanging without the crystals...think we will wait until we move in.

Stairs and wall lights...this is the window I want to put a feature blind in. Make a real statement in the stair area.

Powder room with my white basin. We will be having a long vertical mirror here right up to the ceiling...something different.

I love my white marble, always wanted this look for as long as I can remember.

Laundry

The best till last...my feature wall niches at the entrance of the house. In real life they are just so beautiful.

Mrs B

Fires, Kitchen,Pantry, Study...Wallpaper!

High Alert

I haven't updated the progress on the house for a week I think...that's because there has been no progress! But...I am not dwelling on anything negative as it is a terrible waste of emotional energy and all I can think of are the people in Victoria who right at this minute are deciding to stay and fight potential fires or evacuate. Five million messages were sent by the Emergency services today on our phones warning of severe weather conditions and winds. Over 360 schools throughout our state have been closed so I just pray that all the children and elderly are taken to the evacuation centres. On the news they are telling people there will be no warning so leave before 12am tonight before the winds start. Already there have been out of control fires burning throughout Victoria so all emergency crews are on high alert...OMG I don't know what to say...people are fillings up their bath tubs, hoses inside, hoses outside but if there is a similar firestorm like we had 3 weeks ago there will be no warning. This is just unbelievable. I just hope that everybody in the fire danger areas (some are part of Metropolitan Melbourne) are safe. It is so upsetting....





I thought I would show pictures of my 90% completed kitchen...I love my kitchen so much, exactly how I imagined it to be. I designed every single aspect of it, right down to the very last detail. Any body that has ever designed their own kitchen will know how difficult to achieve that 'certain look'. I spent hours with two different cabinets makers (long story hehe) countless hours pouring over the most beautiful kitchen books so to say I am happy is a big thing for me. We are going for the Henna Red glass splash back with under cupboard lights shinning on it. I am sure it will evoke 'strong' reactions from visitors but at least we have a talking point, a bit like a controversal painting LOL

Opening of our pantry

In this picture, I wanted to show you where our pantry is situated...for a reason..

Wallpaper in the Butler's Pantry?

I was reading all my favourite blogs and came across this post by Anna from Toxteth. Anna also wants to do a wallpaper splash back for different parts of her kitchen and bathroom. I think this is a fabulous idea and had been thinking about it for quite a while. She has beautiful wallpaper samples from Porters Paints and I have seen most of the patterns as well. So...I was wondering if anybody would like to comment about what style or colour wallpaper would look nice in my pantry. I know a few wallpaper shops in Melbourne but I wanted to get an idea about colour. The wood in the pantry and study is walnut but dark (I cant for the life of me work out why I picked this colour, must of been in one of my vague, weird moods) but dark it is. I can imagine a blue colour but there is nothing blue in the house at all. This is going to be the fun part...what a funky pantry its going to be!

Wall of pantry

Study Desk

This is our study desk. I also want to put wallpaper her between the two work stations. I can see a modern look here as my boys will use this area a lot. On the opposite walls are the green doors so I need to make sure I link in the two colours. Ginger coloured carpet is on the ground.

Mrs B

Kitchen and Wardrobes

Here are the pictures of my half completed wardrobes. It is unbelievable how much cabinetry there is just for these 4 robes. The pictures are my kids robes, ours are put together but not in yet, really big job for the installer. Our builder was there with us and he couldn't get over how nice they looked in the house. It is going to take a while to get use to this as we have never had anything like this before.

The next few pictures are of my kitchen. Thank goodness John (my builder...I told him about my blog today but not the name and he reckons he will find it so lets see if he does LOL) quickly put my fears to rest about that draw, all it needs is to be adjusted and he told me just to wait until its all done!

This is my colour splash back, Mr B and John loved it! I don't know, so I have taken a picture with the colour I had selected, in real life has got that wow factor (good wow, bad wow) I don't know....What is everyones elses opinions. Sorry I didn't take a further back shot but there is cabinets and stuff everywhere...its like taking a picture of a messy house to show everyone! Also this is the top cabinet I was talking about but you cant see the gap below in the picture.

Now you can see the top panel is just a little too high.

The Bar! Well, I wasn't going to put this picture in as it is not completed but I wanted to show you the colour....no need to comment as I want to wait to see all the cabinets installed above it...white and silver. One thing about this house is that it is showing my personality hehe parts of it are very conservative but then there is this creative, outrageous, funky element that just hits you when you walk into some rooms. Enough rambling, must press the submit button before I change my mind!

Mrs B

Kitchen and wardrobe fitouts...the start

Back to blogging about my house! One exciting thing that has happened is the Bianco Romano stone is now safely on my kitchen bench, exactly how I imagined it to be. There was part of me that wanted to wait to show you my kitchen when it was all completed, pretty and clean but as I have said once before, this is not a 'home beautiful' magazine but a builders blog...the good, the bad and the ugly! I think its important to keep a record of how my house is built so if my kitchen looks half finished then that's the way it is LOL The problem with me, as you can tell from previous posts, is that I focus too much on the mess and aspects of my house that are only half completed. Anyway, beside that, I think my kitchen is coming along exactly how I imagined it to be. Stay tune for the glass coloured splash back! I am (well maybe) using a very deep red , colour. I still dont know if I made the right colour choice. Not too late to change it...what do people think????

A picture of the back bench...gees I love this granite (after the hassle and the expense I will allow myself the luxury of saying how nice it is LOL!) The hole is for the stove and underneath are for all the pot drawers.

This is a sneak preview for what has just been installed...my wardrobes fit out in some sort of oak colour. I had no idea what I selected as I had to pick 5 different colours in case it was out of stock. I still have not seen it yet as I had to work back late and Mr B took a few photos (he took 7 only tonight and he didn't think the cararra marble in the bathrooms were important enough to take pics off...we had 'quite' words about this misunderstanding hehe

This is part of my draw for my wardrobe, I couldnt get over how nice the wood looks like in the photo. I have no idea what it is that I selected but just another wonderful random moment in my housebuild...I never know what is going to be selected next for me!

Mrs B

Bianco Romano

Our beautiful bianco romano slabs are now at the stone masons being cut for our kitchen as I type this post. We went down to the factory to make sure they use the correct slab for the feature island bench. I have a feeling they are not the slabs we picked out 5 months ago from the marble place and of course I didn't take pictures did I! Doesn't matter, both slabs are stunning and the slab in the photos here will be for the island bench. I told the stone mason to try and not have much of the black stripe that you can see up top. Not that it will really matter as he practically has to use the whole slab for the bench and it is not in a feature section. I am so glad we went for granite and surprised that granite has fallen out of favour at the moment with most new house builds. I love the inconsistency, the colour and texture of the stone.

Here is our Carrara Marble being made for all our other bench tops. Very exciting to see all our house bits around the place.

Our big marble slab on the machine waiting to be cut.

Here is the machine where all the action takes place. I have learnt a lot about stone finishes in the last few days. We are having a mitre cut where you have the joint on the 90 degree. If that didn't make sense I apologise hehe because all the guys were talking to Mr B about it and my eyes started to glaze over LOL I just said I don't want to see joins and I wanted the edges to have a soft feel about them.

Oh...I almost forgot, we have another random addition to our house....according to our stone mason, our bar bench top is going to be Carrara Marble??? When I got home, I looked in all my notes to the builder and no where did I see I had that down hehe oh well, will look beautiful and is just another random moment in my house build. I have a great sense of humour so looks like we are having marble in the bar!

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