Let there be landscaping!

The yard looks so totally amazing. You may remember that it is a difficult block to work with, and while we changed what we were going to do with it, it looks a million bucks. Somehow the yard looks bigger now than it did before we whacked a huge extension on the back of the house!

Turfed and with the start of a hedge

We ended up managing to make the yard just two tiers instead of three, a much more user friendly space. There are sunken garden beds along the back and the new fence, and garden beds that are just about level with the turf on the remaining side. We opted for simpler (and much cheaper) treated pine sleepers for all the retaining walls and the stairs going from the top tier to the lower tier.

The pond had to be moved to the top of the yard as the whole bottom corner had rock just below the surface, but on the upside it will be easily accessible from the deck. At the moment the fibreglass shell is just sitting in its hole, in the next week or two I would really like to get it set up.

We have planted along the new fence line, we chose lili pili to make a nice, even screening hedge. You can see the tops of the little saplings just poking up. I took this photo about a week ago and it is amazing how much they have grown since then! It was a total mission planting 21 shrubs that size so we are going to get tube stock for the back fence line. We haven't yet decided what we want to do along the other side.

I really can't wait until the yard is all finished and we can adopt some doggies! With the wedding fast approaching we haven't been able to spend much time out there getting it organised, and while the rain has been great for the turf, it has been less than ideal for getting any real yard work done.

Bowl me over.

Nothing beats a bargain, that's my motto! When I saw this gorgeous bowl on the sale shelf at Freedom I couldn't resist, especially because we're going with greens and blues in the new kitchen.

Big green bowl from Freedom

It's going to be a fabulous salad bowl, I can tell! It is a big, solid ceramic piece with an interesting set of rhythmic lines etched around the inside. The lovely green glaze pools in the grooves adding to the tonal variation and depth of the piece. All in all, an amazing find for a mere thirteen dollars!

Phase 'Paint the bedroom' complete!

I mentioned the other week that we were busy painting, well it is finally done; we have finished the master bedroom, the wardrobe and the ensuite! Well, unless you count all the really tricky bits that we are going to pay someone to paint later. But I'm not counting those.

Bedroom painted

We are going to slowly transfer our 'base of operations' to the second story over the course of this week. We helped a friend move house for most of the weekend, so we're not really in the mood for any more moving! Doing it bit by bit seems more appealing, especially as it means that I can organise things as we go.

For the record, the colour above the picture rail is Dulux Bilby, the bottom colour is Dulux Silver Thaw, and the trim is Dulux Whisper White. The ceiling is plain old ceiling white, what else? There are clearly a few finishing touches to go but it is totally habitable. Exciting!

Old bathroom, new hallway.

You may remember our unintentional open air bathroom that happened when we started the process of joining the extension to the existing house. Well, it is no more! The new ensuite is just about done apart from a little bit of painting, so we have been able to move out ablutions upstairs allowing for the builders to knock out the old bathroom.

New hallway

How good does the new hallway look? It is so huge and open, the crazy high ceilings look beautiful. The floor has been installed there too, we're just waiting for the plasterboard to be done so the floor and stairs can all be polished. In the meantime, we need to try and minimise dirt being squished in to the timber so there are sheets and blankets all over the place. Coming along!

Epic bedroom painting.

We need to get the bedroom painted by Thursday morning because at 7am our curtains are arriving! So exciting. We are almost at the stage where we can move in to the new master bedroom. We have already moved our stuff to the master ensuite and are using it as the old bathroom is well and truly gone, so switching to the bedroom will make life much easier.

And so it begins

We decided to put a picture rail in the bedroom as the ceilings are so damn high that it looked a little bit funny without them. It has also given us the funky opportunity to do some crazy things with the paint choices without trapping us into something that will be too difficult to decorate. What I mean by that is we have managed to stay neutral, different, and interesting without sacrificing the ability to change up the decor easily.

I had wanted to wallpaper in the bedroom, but once you choose a wallpaper it locks you in to decorating to go with it. So we have been creative enough with our paint to keep my wild side happy, but neutral enough that I can change the room without having to fiddle with the walls. We grabbed some sample pots to coordinate with the curtain fabric we chose and went nuts. 

It is way more convenient to be able to match your walls to your curtains as opposed to the other way around! We ended up loving the colour up the top (Bilby by Dulux) and are going to paint that above the picture rail and chose the darker colour (Silver Thaw by Dulux) for below it. They are quite dark, but it is a huge room so the darker colours will only serve to make it feel cozy. There are a few frenzied evenings of painting ahead, wish us luck!

Dippy for dip glaze.

As you may know I already have a fairly extensive Japanese dip glazed mug collection. It's actually getting a little out of hand; I may have to 'rationalise' my collection sometime soon. That, or start having 40 people over for coffee at a time to justify it.

Dip glazed coffee set

I came across this coffee set at Balmain Road Antiques a little while ago and had to have it. Michael talked me out of it at the time because I really do already have enough mugs (and coffee sets, but that's another story). I went back a couple of weeks later with my mum and not only was it still there but it was on sale at half price!

Well, that did it! I had to have it, didn't I? Clearly it was meant to be. It is just so gorgeous with some amazing colours and tones, and such a funky retro relief pattern. Plus, it's green and I'm going with greens and blues for the new kitchen so... (can you see me justifying? I'm good at that!). I might have to sacrifice one of my other coffee sets, but that's okay because this one is just so cool!

Don't get eaten by sharks!

Things have been a bit hectic around here with work starting up again for the new year, the renovations in full swing, and the wedding approaching really soon. It's starting to feel like every time I cross something off the ToDo list that 50 more things pop up in its place!

Don't get eaten by sharks

We have finally reached the stage where the existing house and the extensions are joined and the old bathroom has made a complete conversion to being a hallway. For a couple of days there was no floor in between the two halves and the builders drew a picture of a little man falling into oblivion to remind us about the hole. Of course, I had to take my Sharpie collection to it and turn it into a man being eaten by a crazy shark. Worth a giggle!

Visiting Polkadot Bride.

Today I am guest posting over at Polkadot Bride with a DIY felt ring cushion tutorial that is super cute and surprisingly easy! It's just a little bit of the crazy amount of wedding crafting I've been up to lately.

See you over at Polkadot Bride!