SSSSSSSSSPLASHback!!!

Oh wow...we have been waiting for this one for a while! (Mostly because of how expensive these things are!!) and spent ages choosing the colour, buying sample pots, painting the wall, looking at it in different light...going back to the drawing board...it was quite burdensome, as once it is in- it is in for good!
I had bought a red clock and really loved the tone (red with a slight blue base), so we were trying to find a paint to match, then BAM! Elias the kitchen guy turns up with sample glass, not having seen our clock, and it matched it perfectly!
As is every sub-clinical obsessive compulsives dream- I went shopping for home organisation items...ahhh...the joy off having everything in the right place :) This included a late night trip to ikea, big W, Target, Kmart, and many many Bunnings ventures! Now with our utensils on hooks, laundry cloths hung and handbags sorted I feel just about complete!
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Giving it the WOW factor

As soon as we'd moved our furniture in, the little cogs in my head were turning as to how much money I could possibly blow decking the house out with art, vases, throw rugs, cushions, in every little corner...this idea was quickly quashed by John, who gave me a budget of $100 and said 'go for your life'! Disappointing :) I think this was the day when I realised how truly "Gen Y" I am! Haha :)
Anyways, on my tight budget I went out looking for bargains to fill the gaps in an empty house...trying to become a home!

The first step was to buy bathmats, matching towels and hand towels (I justfied this to John by calling them 'necessities').


I then purchased toilet paper and brush holders for all of the bathrooms. I could not believe how expensive these things were!! I think I spent around $300 just for these bathroom items, not excited about that! However, it does look amazing with everything colour coordinated and matching :)

Next we hung all of our art. Most of it we either already had, or I've painted so that wasn't an expensive venture. The pricey part is all the trips to bunnings for 3M hooks and felt feet for furniture! Rather than just hanging canvases, we decided to mix up our mediums. Michelle gave me a great idea for painting the instep in our niches.




And the finished product:


Next was the cushions, all along I've been planning this colour scheme for our bedroom. The feature wall and the painting are the same colour, as are the painting and the cushions- this was a hard task, believe me!



Oh- an unmade bed- how did that get in there? Haha :) This was for James, as he is already sick of seeing pictures that resemble display homes :)

Here are the cushions :)



This is the upstairs rumpus room:



Then John and I painted our media room, something else we have been planning all along. The colour is licorice. I was allowed to get all creative on the back wall ;-)



John's impressive effort was on our balcony deck. This is only the first stain, but its already looking great!



We still have lots to do, so stay tuned!!
Sariah :)

We're In!!!

We have moved in and it feels great! We moved in over the Easter weekend and we already feel at home, in fact we had to make several trips back to our old flat (obviously) and each time we were there it just didn’t feel like home! We are in with the beautiful smell of fresh paint and we have the fun task of arranging the furniture and hanging paintings and unpacking boxes......no really, it is great fun!

Here are a few pics of the handover.

Joe really didn't want to take this picture as he had just finished a hard days work but we had to get him in there.



Here's the hall way that Sariah is obsessed with running up and down......we've not quite been able to do that in our last couple of places.......



This is a great shot of me stamping my authority on this Kitchen......but as we all know this lasted about 2 seconds whilst the photo was taken and I was put back in my place....




Jared was a great help with the move..... and in photo bombing this one :)

This is one of Sariah's favourite parts.....Joe gave us our garage remotes and hers is hot pink

Her excitement for the pink remote was quickly crushed in recognising that we had already been sent our first bills to the house

So the move was all Thursday night with a heap of help from the men in the family, we went until about 11pm. Then it was up first thing Friday to do all the small bits and pieces and try and organise the home. Then we flew to Melbourne on Friday night to spend time with the family and to go to Erin and Nando's beautiful wedding. We then came home Sunday night and first thing Monday morning some great friends were around helping with the unpacking, lifting, sorting, floor protecering, flat pack assemblying and so on. Here's a pic of the crew...excluding Ant who was off hiding.


So we would now say that we are completely unpacked and settled. There's a list about a mile long of things to do but i'm told that will never get any shorter.

We are absolutely thrilled with the house and a huge thanks to joe for doing such a great job. He has put so much time and effort and it certainly has paid off.

Oh and James how's that for featuring??? 4 photos in one post! :)

Almost there.......

Here's a few updated pics from the last week.

We had our front door, a couple of internal doors and the stair rail french polished and it looks fantastic! The guy who did it has such great skill! I have been marvelling over it but Sariah doesn't see the workmanship of it...it's really not that easy!



Here's just a shot of the kitchen and dining, It's hard getting a picture of that room so you'll all just have to come and see it!
The waterproofing all got done this week so all that's left to be done in the bathrooms is to hang the mirrors and install the shower screens, it's apparently happening on Thursday


The wardrobes were put in this week, no doors on them yet but that will be done in the next couple of days.

So all we are really waiting on now is the gas to be connected and we can get in there! We'll be doing the big move this weekend :) We can't believe it's finally time! Sariah is already organising the house warmingS so we'll see you soon!

We have power!

Check out a couple of pics under lights!

Bath

Just a quick pic of the Bath......

The wardrobes are all going in right now, the plumbing is all connected and there isn't really much to go.

Not long now :)

More pics!

Our Kitchen now with benchtops....woohoo!!!


Our ensuit all tiled up and finished
The beautiful deck which I just whipped up on the weekend....still to be stained obviously.
Our carpeted floors :)
And the bench top again.....we love it!!!

The Kitchen arrives!

Today was definitely one of the most exciting deliveries! (The bathroom tiles and the floors were my next two favourites!!) Elias manufactured our kitchen off site, according to our specifications, and then began the installation today. From the pictures you will be able to see this is done in pieces, e.g. the polyurethane cupboards and draws come separate from the stone bench top. We decided to go for 'alpine white' 40ml waterfall bench, I cant wait till that is delivered! The gap in the island bench is for the dishwasher, and the kick board hasn't been placed on yet.
This picture is for James, as he said John doesn't feature enough in this blog :)
This is my beautiful 90mm oven, imagine the Masterchefing I will be doing in there!
Our pantry and laundry cupboards were also made by Elias which were installed today too...
In other news, Joe informed me we seem to have a spider issue in our area, probably due to all of the excavation that is going on around our block. This is very concerning for me, however, Joe said he has a pest guy who will soak the house in spray if needs be, so I am slightly comforted.
John's great idea this week was...why don't we get a pool? Initially I said flat out NO. Then he kept going on and on about how great the price is that he's gotten, and that it will increase our house value by $50,000...etc etc. And now I'm being worn down by his constant references to swimming and sun...so we are considering the option. The pool would be resin and not concrete/tiled. I'm not sure I know what resin actually is or looks/feels like, so we will go to the pool place on Saturday to check it out. If anyone happens to know about resin pools, please let me know!
Sariah :)

A few more Pics...i'll let them do the talking

Colours and Tiles

On the weekend we spent the day at the house trying to pick colours.

Why does choosing a white have to be so hard?!?!?!

We picked a few colours and Sariah painted them on big pieces of cardboard so that we could hold them up against different walls and see what they'd look like.
Turns out we picked the wrong white so it was off to Bunnings to see what else we could find. Needless to say I got completely well and truely over it by the end of the day but I do feel good with where we got with it all. Colours sorted! :)
The tilers were there all day Saturday and I must say the tiles are looking hot!! Here's just a snap of the feature wall in our ensuite. Kinda hard to see from the pics but it is looking great! Well done Sariah on the picks.
Fred the cleaner was also there on Saturday and it looks so beautiful now the scraps and dust are all gone. We've filled 2 full skips thus far, Joe has made sure the house has been clean through every step which we're very grateful for! Fred's back Tuesday to do a complete clean ready for the floor to be installed on Wednesday....so excited!!

A few quick pics

Hi All,

Things have been moving at a rate of knots this past week.

We have doors, window frames, STAIRS and tiling has begun....hooray!!!

We have walls!!!!

We've been a little slack in blogging lately.......by we I mean Sariah......j/k.

So much has happened!

We had a massive rain period here in Sydney for a few weeks which delayed everything for a little while. We literally needed one more day of sun to get the roof finished but it wasn't to be. So as soon as we had a dry patch the roof was finished and it looks hot!

Next came all of the roughing in for electrical and plumbing. Jared was kind enough to come and help me wire up the house with Cat 5E cable to network the whole house along with speaker cable in the roof for when we put some surround in.....one day.

I went and met with the kitchen dude aka Elias. He is a great guy and brilliant at what he does. We designed the whole kitchen, picked colours and we're getting Elias to quote on the glass splashback.

The gyprock came next, we can't believe how dramatic the change is! I went one afternoon and the entire downstairs walls were in and the upstairs roof was in....I couldn't believe it, there were about 10 Korean's running around the house and they were ripping along! They then piled into one van and took off......classic.

A few days later and the whole house is gyprocked and the cornices are half up. It really does look amazing now that rooms are really coming together. I think there's one or two days to go with the cornicing and then it's just flooring, kitchen, bathrooms and painting to go.

The first time we went to see the finished walls Sariah was so desperate to see upstairs so I boosted her up the 2.8 metres for her to have a look...she got absolutely covered in white dust, work clothes, face and hair all COVERED in dust....she's crazy....which I love!

Sariah and I have been stressing out about the colouring this past week. Every decision has been so easy thus far but this one was tough! We had a heap of help from Tamara and Caley on our best colouring options and we just finalised our decisions last night.....Sariah was right......again.......we're going dark timber floors with a heap of white everywhere else. You'll just have to wait and see!

Not long to go now, we're thinking a conservative 6 weeks but Joe is thinking it will be a bit quicker. Joe has continued to be fantastic, he's always just a phone call away and he has had all of the answers....definitely taken all the stress out!

Till next time....you stay classy!