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

Small Update...

Side shot of my house with incomplete colour.

17 days to go before we move in. Do I think we are going to make it? No, simply because my builder will not rush any job and accept poor quality work. For example...the kitchen guys was there again (for about the 8th time) and he said he has taken away all my top panels. Apparently my builder didn't like the paint finish so he has told them to do it again. We still have all the plumbing to do which includes fireplaces, air conditioning etc, concreting and landscaping. But the biggest annoyance during this whole build is the half finish render on the outside. I told my supervisor this and he said it is always done last so it is not ruined by other work. I understand this but gees the house looks so incomplete, that's why I haven't taken any outside shots for my blog.

So what has been happening this week....The lights and we have so many of them. When our architect designed the house 2 years ago, I said to him that one of the features I would like are lights that can be set to create different moods in the house. In saying this, we have not got any fancy technology like a C-Bus system as this type of thing is just not in our budget. By lights I mean downlights and LED wall lights, set on different controls so that we can easily change the lighting in our house. We have these really nice wall niches at the entrance of our home and yesterday we saw them lit up for the first time. I nearly fainted at how nice they looked and the WOW factor they gave.

Also, I have been researching on how to take good interior shots. The fantastic group on my house forum have given me some great advise as well (not that I understand any of the technical jargon hehe) but I think its time to learn how to use my camera properly and stop being lazy! So hopefully the following pictures haven't got this sickly grey tinge like in the previous house shots.

Mrs B

Update on House Build

Its been a few days since I have updated my blog...I actually had nothing to write about as no one has been working on the house.....I had another one of my meltdowns again and ended up in bed with a migraine. Well its official, you know its only 20 days before we move in, big countdown as I have set the 31st of March as my handover date. I sent my builder an email 4 days ago asking for a definite date so we will see a what happens.

So what has been happening. Most of the lights have been installed which is very exciting as one of the features of our house is the mood lighting. We actually saw the lights on today as the electrician was doing his final check...still a few hours of work left but I am rapt. We have gone crazy over the amount of lights that we have but never will even a quarter be on at the same time. The wall lights that you see in the photo are LED's and are designed to stay on a great lengths of time and use very little power. My feature chandelier in the bedroom looks just perfect and of course the photos do not do it justice. I really must learn how to take good interior design shots when the time comes...If anybody has any tips for taking house shots I am all ears!

So, here are a few random light shots not very inspiring but for the next few weeks this will still be a house build blog.


The lights on the bottom part of the wall are the LED's. They actually are blue when lit up. These will mainly be on at night for the kids if they wake up.

My beautiful contemporary chandelier. It is just perfect for the room and hung at the right height. Of course all the crystals are safely tucked away until we move in. If you look closely, you will also see some small light fittings beside the window. We had no idea they were here until the builder asked us to pick the fitting for them. They are actually lights that shine upwards. I will not get any bedside lamps until I can see the whole room set up.

This photo is taken from the lounge room upstairs. Imagine our bed underneath the window with the chandelier over it.

This 'interesting picture' (not!) is actually how they do our floating glass mirror with the lights behind it.That long white thing is the light, we have one on both side. It is going to be tiled around the edges.

Kitchen cupboard detailing. Starting to look really nice now but still not 100% completed

Mrs B

Window Shopping

Yesterday was a bit like a roller coaster... I met my supervisor at the house and he told me another four weeks. Excuse me, but hasn't he read that I am moving in 20 days, after all, its on my blog therefore official?



Anyway, all was not lost as I had planned a shopping trip to a new homewares store that promised all these wonderful, unique handcrafted goodies. A Big thank you to

Lee from Glimpse of Style

who put me onto this shop in Fitzroy. Every week she does this wonderful Monday Shop post where she does a write up about small design/homewares shops around Melbourne. Lee is a wealth of information about where to shop. So.... off I trot, still angry and annoyed, to a wonderful store called Southwood Home. Even standing outside the window, I loved the whole concept of the store even before I took a step into the shop. All products are handmade by local artists therefore it is more pricey than your cheap imports in chain shops. Anyway, to see all the pictures of whats there, go over and visit Lee's blog. I have included a few other pictures on my blog as well.



See that red painting in the corner..it is stunning in real life. The whole shop is just styled so beautifully.






The cushions remind me very much of what you can buy on Etsy, very unique. This is an older picture but I like it because that handcrafted bed is very similar to mine...it gives me good ideas on how to style my own bed.

All their bowls are hand made, they felt so nice to touch.....

The tree blanket I feel in Love with! I am going to get one but will wait until I have set up my bed. It comes in 5 different colours. I noticed they had a few vintage pieces mixed in, the lamp bases are old, painted over but its the shades that give it that WOW factor.

Just some more amazing cushions and the lamp shades are a must as well. I could easily spend soooooo much money in this shop. I think just one piece at a time!

Mrs B

25 days to go...

My heading today is 25 days to go... It is when we are moving into our new home. That will bring us up to the 31st of March. Our builder promised us before Christmas, promised us February and promised us March for sure...can you see a pattern here? We have given notice to our landlord and have to move out on this date, give a day or two. How exciting is that! Now we just have to focus on getting a house built to move into. So the countdown is now on.

David Schefer ...(picture from Patrica Gray)

Now, back to decorating the house! One problem area of the house is my staircase. Would you believe I haven't one photo to show you as it looks very incomplete. When I designed the staircase, I told the staircase guy that safety was number 1 priority. We have two very solid landings, one up top and one half way up. There is no spiral in the treads for a very good reason. Anybody that has lived in a house with a dangerous staircase will know what I'm talking about. The first day we moved into our rental, my baby followed me up the stairs while I was trying to get a mattress up and without me even realising he was there, he came to the spiral bit and fell on his head backwards and tumbled right down to the bottom. He wasn't hurt thank god but his fall was solely attributed to the design of the staircase, the fact it had no landing and it was very steep. Also, my elderly father visits us all the time and the thought of him climbing stairs sends me into a cold sweat...my dad has also had many terrible falls that has resulted him ending up in hospital.




So, what does this mean when it comes to designing a staircase for my own home. It is solid with a handrail, no open treads, no fancy curves and very plain. I suppose it was one part of the house where I was not prepared to spend the extra 5-20k in making it a feature. My task now is how to give it that wow factor! I was reading Patricia's Gray post on her favourite staircases and thinking to myself how plain mine looks until I came across this picture (above)




It wasn't the staircase I looked at but it was that blind half way up. Perfect, this will also work in my house as I also have a long window that has obscure glass on the top landing. I am going to find a striking pattern to use as a blind for the focal point of my staircase. For once I am glad that I haven't ordered the blinds yet. Will keep you posted about this window.

Today I bought this beautiful, contemporary chandelier for my bedroom (not this exact one but very similar) The shop I bought it from also does custom made ottomans. Perfect! as I am having ottomans as my bedside tables for the bedroom. It is slowly coming together but that purchase can wait till I move in I think!

Graham and Brown wallpaper

More wallpaper samples for my Butlers Pantry and Study area. Love both patterns. This weekend I am going to order the samples so I am very interested to see what they look like in real life.

Graham and Brown

I can see this red pattern in the Butlers Pantry...compliments the red splashback. Just ideas at the moment..

Mrs B