Home and away with Oprah...

I know, odd post title isn't it…. Especially when you consider its about neither the TV show nor the woman per se - but while we're on that...  I will (as usual) take you down a little side road :)  I find it fascinating that the Queen of TV induces such strong reactions in people. It's really quite amazing to behold.  Grown women cry and squeal in her presence (and at her presents!!  Hee hee) where as others cringe and spew forth a mountain of verbal disdain.  How can one woman be responsible for such strong and varied reactions?

I myself am a bit of a fence sitter when it comes to Oprah.  If the show is interesting enough, I'll watch it… but without a hot topic to hold my interest, I'm not really into watching the show just to see her.  Last year I bought a book called Living Oprah by Robyn Okrant … it’s a book about one woman's decision to accept Oprah's challenge to 'Live your best life' by pledging to do everything Oprah tells her (viewers) to do for a whole year!  I thought it sounded like a really intriguing experiment (especially because I know from experience that Oprah is always saying things like "you've got to try this" and "every woman needs a pair of these pants"!)  I wasn't expecting a lot, not being a die hard Oprah fan, but just thought it would be an interesting way to pass a few hours.  But actually, I was very pleasantly surprised!  I won't go into it too much (I'll let you read it if you're interested and form your own opinion) but I thought it was great - really easy to read and quite funny in parts.  I have since lent it to a friend of mine who is most definitely not an Oprah fan, and she also was surprised by how much she liked it - neither of us wanted the book to end!  Well, enough of the side road, time to get back on the highway :)

This post is actually really about Oprah's homes.  Some time ago, I saw a rerun of an old Oprah show with Nate Berkus and decided to go scouring her website for little tidbits of inspiration (since the only copy of the single Nate Berkus book that my library had has seemingly gone missing... if only they'd buy more!)  In the process, I somehow managed to subscribe myself to her emails about money and home.  Most of the time I don't read or click on the links from those emails (especially the money ones - way too depressing, that Suze Ormond has impossible standards in my opinion!), but in my recent week of quarantine, when Alex was momentarily engaged by Ratatouille (the movie, not the food!), I saw this...

I can't recall where, but I have seen photos of Oprah's Hawaii 'farmhouse' before and just about died of envy, so of course I clicked the link that said The perfect 21st-century Hawaiian farmhouse and the very first image I saw - well I swear it took my breath away.  I would do anything to visit this house.... (although I'm not really sure why there is a horse there... does he look out of place, or is it just me?)

Now myself, I barely need to look further - the above image is enough to sustain me for some time (isn't it just absolutely divine?) - well until I open my eyes and take in my own cluttered and half finished surrounds, at which point deep depression sets in - but its a nice bit of escapism, even if its only fleeting! :)  Moving onto some other photos from the article, the one thing that stands out with this (peeking over your shoulder through all the photos) is the view, it looks incredible.  And what better way to take it in than from the terrace off the master bedroom?  OK you can't actually see the view well in these photos... but I just loved these shots, so here they are!  The view out onto the terrace from Oprah's master bedroom

And then the terrace off the master bedroom itself

If this were her one house to get away from it all, I could grant her that - but this is just one of her many abodes... oh to have a choice!  Although if it were me, I don't think I'd ever leave this one!  But the other one that really caught my eye (and again, I've seen it before, although I can't quite recall where) is the 'Teahouse' which is located in Montecito, California...  I don't really think I could be in a place like this (I am just terrified of bees!) but it is very pretty

Apparently the Teahouse is where Oprah goes to restore her soul - no meetings, no music, just peace and quiet.  Sounds pretty good to me, and well, she's a very busy woman, even busier than me!  (Joke, people)...  So I get that she needs some rest and relaxation away from the world :)

The next house I took a look at is her Santa Barbara Guesthouse... and I have to say it didn't inspire the same emotion that the others did (for me anyway)...  Have a look at the article and tell me what you think, but it feels a bit too rich and overdone for me.  Still, it would be a boring world if we all liked the same thing!  Here are a couple of photos from this house that spoke to me....

And a couple that didn't (or had nasty things to say...)

I would appreciate your feedback here - does anyone like this study?  The whole curtains, wallpaper, lounge theme feels really overwhelming to me...  Am I alone?  With the curtains closed, that room would just be really full on!

Well, I'm told there are other houses (of course there are) owned by Ms Winfrey, and I'll probably catch up with those ones sooner or later, but I hope you've enjoyed these ones for now.

By the way, if you're a sucker for virtually touring houses (celebrity or no) then you really really need to check out the Hooked on Houses blog...  It is the most amazing blog.  Really.  Julie (blogger extraordinaire) frequently puts together such a plethora of photos and amazing houses to look at, I should only view it for short periods to avoid sensory overload (notice I said 'should'.... I don't actually practice what I preach because lets face it, how can you stop when it's sooooo much fun to look at?!)  Anyway, do yourself a favour, you won't regret it!  The very first post I read was about a house (that looked like something out of 'Hoarders') that had been staged to sell - absolutely incredible, check it out!  And while you're at it, have a look at these houses from Nancy Meyers' movies - I am going to do my own post about her one day because her movies are especially dear to my heart...  I loved her movies so much before I ever realised why... but that is a story for another day!

Thanks and bye for now :)

Remember me...?

Well I can't believe my last post was February and it is now April... OMG where did that month and a half go?  Heaps has been happening though....  This will be a very wordy post indeed (and sorry, not much in the way of photos)...  But at least relatives who follow the blog will be happy to catch up on the news!

As I mentioned in my last post (which seems like a former lifetime now!) we have had lots of interstate visitors, a steady stream pretty much since Christmas.  We LOVE having visitors, it's always so nice to spend time with our friends and family who live so far away, and Alex particularly gets soooo excited :)  At Christmas we had my Mum here, and we've since had the pleasure of entertaining my buddy Suz (who I've been friends with since I was 8!), Boofy's Dad and Stepmum, my Dad and Stepmum and one of my Sistas (aka sisters in law), 'Aunty Shez'.  My other Sista 'Aunty Dini' is due to arrive with my beautiful niece and God-daughter Ella Rose on my birthday in May - I can't wait and am counting down the days (49 days to go - woohoo)!!  Its a shame my bro Michael can't make it as well, but he has just got a new job (well done Mick!!! xxxx)

So in addition to being busy with visitors, we have had a bit of drama.  My good friends Julie and Tony decided that we needed a child free weekend to reconnect and chill out, so they offered to have Alex for the weekend (they have 4 year old twins who are Alex's besties, so there was much excitement!)  We were stoked and so grateful - living so far away from our families means we rarely get a break - we were really looking forward to it!  They are mostly in the same boat, so understand what we're dealing with - although theirs is two-fold, having twins!

On the Friday afternoon of the child free weekend, I arrived home from work and was flipping through the archive of recorded TV shows I never get around to actually watching, when I got a frantic phone call from Boofy - he'd been in a car accident.  He told me he'd lost concentration for a second and the big meaty 4wd ute (complete with dirty big towbar) in front of him came to a halt.... sadly he did not!  The towbar in question went straight through Boofy's grille and radiator....  He was in shock and not thinking clearly - the ute driver had no damage so he said no harm done for him and Boofy told him no worries mate, off you go... without getting any details (not even plates)...  Oh well, lesson for next time, should it ever happen again (hopefully not).

So on my way to pick up Boofy, I called our mechanic who recommended a towing company.  Long story slightly-less-long, we got the car towed, called the insurance people, and towing company later got the car to a repairer.  The repairer did a quote for the damage which came in at $3373... with mostly second hand parts!!!  Uh oh... this car is 15 years old, its just a little Corolla hatchback, and is insured for market value....  Anyway an assessor came out 6 days later (still very busy from all the flooding around here) - I told him it was worth so much more to us alive than dead (its a great little car, low kms, reliable, really good nic), pointed out all the car's good points, and BEGGED him not to write it off....  He sat on it for 2 days (he needed to do some research) then called me back and said he was going to authorise repairs - yippee!!! 

In the end, we ended up having to hire a car for nearly 3 weeks (cursing myself for not taking out the hire car option on my insurance now - will be rectifying that very soon!), so with the excess and hire car ended up nearly $2,000 out of pocket, but it was worth it, we got the car back all shiny and new :)  It really is a great little car.

With our car dramas behind us, we set off for a week's holiday in Noosaville on the Sunshine Coast (which we'd been planning for some time).  I had the Friday off work and we were due to leave Saturday, so I spent all day Friday packing, and we put Alex to bed early with strict instructions to have a really big sleep!  We also went to bed early but at about 10pm Alex woke screaming that his mouth was sore - he would not be consoled.  It took a long time of laying with him and asking him to point to where it hurt, etc before I realised it was actually his throat that was sore... and his temperature was rising rapidly.  Straight away we recognised these symptoms - tonsillitis :(  We dosed him up on panadol and nurofen to get his temp under control, shifted him to our bed, and put on a Winnie the Pooh dvd to calm him down and shift the focus (he was hysterical - and having had tonsillitis myself, I know exactly how painful it is, so can't say I blamed him).  Boofy went to sleep in the spare room so at least one of us would be well rested enough to drive the next morning, and I spent the whole night awake with a whimpering little boy sleeping fitfully next to me....  poor little man :(

In the morning, we were due to pick up my Mum (known to most as Mimi since the grandkids came along!) in Brisbane, an hour from here, at 9.35....  so we got up early, loaded the car, and got ourselves to our local Dr's surgery right on opening to beg them to fit Alex in with a Dr asap (I've done a lot of begging lately haven't I?)  Fortunately the Dr's first patient was not there yet so he slotted us in.  He confirmed our suspicions, although he did say the tonsillitis was in the early stages.  We whipped from there straight to the pharmacy for his antibiotics, and hit the (very wet) road.  We arrived with time to spare to collect Mimi from the airport, and then drove through heavy rain most of the way to the (allegedly) Sunny Coast!  Not a great start to the holiday!  Oh well, fortunately things did get better :)  We got the penicillin into Alex early so luckily he did not have a really bad dose of tonsillitis and was full of beans two days later :)

We stayed in a small holiday resort called Noosa Riviera - it was a lovely complex with tropical gardens, and really well situated (park next door, very close to Noosaville shops and restaurants, and very close to the river for Boofy to fish), with only 12 apartments in the block.

(Image from www.noosariviera.com.au)

We stayed in apartment 12 which is a penthouse and was great.

(Images from www.noosariviera.com.au)

It had 2 separate lounge areas and a private rooftop terrace with a corner spa bath (great late afternoon with a glass of wine, and a fantastic way to give Alex an open-air bath without fuss or protest - once we were done with the jets of course!) 

(Image from www.noosariviera.com.au)

Other apartments in the resort looked like they had even nicer interiors (such as number 8 below)

(Image from www.noosariviera.com.au)

But we chose apartment 12 as it was the only one with two seperate living areas (each with its own TV, and when you've got a Boofy like mine who loves footy and doesn't have pay TV at home, but you're staying in a resort that does - this is a must!).  Plus it had the rooftop terrace with spa bath :)

My mum gave us a break overnight for the duration - the original plan was for Mimi to have her own room, but Boofy was quite sick with what we thought was a flu and very bad asthma, so he had his own room to minimise infecting anyone else - and Mimi and Alex shared (which Alex thought was the best arrangement ever... not so sure Mimi entirely shared his enthusiasm, although she obliged without protest, actually I think it was her idea).  Boofy was pretty miserable and had two Drs visits in our week away, but he did manage to get out and fish a couple of days, so it wasn't all bad.

All in all we had a lovely time - we visited the Noosa Marina markets on the Sunday, it was incredibly humid, but very nice.  My good friend Katja, her hubby Adrian and little boy Cooper live in Gympie which is about an hour from where we stayed.  I haven't seen them in ages, so Katja and Cooper paid us a visit at the resort and we had a lovely morning catching up on Monday, it was great!  (And she brought us an awesome organic pumpkin she grew in her yard - thanks Katja, it was delicious! xx) 

The next day we went on the Noosa ferry which was really nice - its a 45 minute round trip so perfect amount of time for a 3 year old attention span, and the skipper, Johnno, was very entertaining.  Mum and I went to Eumundi Markets on the Wednesday, which I still maintain are the BEST markets anywhere... and they didn't disappoint :)  Late afternoon we took Alex to the 'beach' (on the river) and he had a ball swimming and running up and down - the resort also supply sand toys, so he built some sand castles (briefly... in between running up and down the beach like a maniac!)  We followed with fish and chips for dinner.  On Thursday (the day before we left) Tim was feeling really sick, so Mum and I took Alex to The Ginger Factory while he rested.  It was a really nice morning, we went on the Overboard boat ride, and because it was mid week and there was nobody else on it, the lady let us ride twice :)  We also went on the train ride... a little bit lame, and very smelly in parts (a kind of swampy, septic, ginger smell... not pleasant) but Alex got a kick out of it, so that was the main thing.  I was a little disappointed also that when we went to shop for souvenirs, many of the honey and ginger products were actually made in other parts of Australia, some even in NZ!  But I think the highlight of the day was probably this incredible coin operated digger we found while waiting for the train.... Unfortunately Mimi hasn't been able to download her photos (as she has one of him sitting on it), but it was a digger that he sat on with a big sand pit in front of it, and Alex got to operate the controls to dig, pick up the sand, move it and dump it somwhere else (or in the same spot!)  From a kid's perspective it would be enormous (as a real one would be for an adult) and he absolutely loved it.  We've all been through shopping centres and seen those crappy $2 rides for kids, but this is one I was actually happy to put my money into!  Alex had 3 goes (all the $2 coins we had on us!) and he left it kicking and screaming... can't say I blame him, it was heaps of fun!!!

I think the absolute highlight of our holiday, though, was the dinner we had on our last night at Trio's On The River at Noosa Marina.  We have been there before (with my good friends Nat & Steve and their boy Ollie - Alex was about 15 months old and Ollie was about 11 months old) and absolutely loved it, so we were pretty keen to return.  Not only that, being situated right on the Marina, it has a spectacular outlook.

(Image from www.noosaguide.com.au)

We arrived very early, around 5pm, so we could eat early and get our rambunctious 3 year old out before most of the other diners arrived!  As it turns out we were the first ones there (not surprising at 5pm!)  Our waiter, Johnny, was really lovely.  He seated us right next to a little balcony which was over the water, and opened up the big doors for us so we could catch the breeze and Alex could look down at the water.  He also brought out some crayons so Alex could draw on the paper that was covering the tablecloth, and we thought that was really special, but it was just the beginning......  Shortly after that, Johnny arrived with a fishing rod and some bait....  He baited the hook, threw out the line and put the rod in the rod holder on the pylon - I cannot tell you the intense excitement that Alex was experiencing, he was just LOVING it!!  Literally about 2 minutes later the line was bent over and Alex 'helped' Boofy reel in a catfish!  He was just bursting out of his skin with excitement by this stage.... so cute :)  They threw back the catfish and re-baited the hook to cast it out again - 2 minutes later, another catfish.  This time the chef claimed it for his crab pot, so that one didn't get the Rex Hunt treatment!  We didn't immediately re-bait the hook this time (in a vain attempt to get Alex to eat is dinner, lol).  In the end, he ended up eating his nuggets over by the fishing rod, it was the only way he was going to eat them, he just couldn't bear to be away from it.  So the hook was re-baited again... and a short time later that line was bent over once more... this time a little sting ray!  The line needed to be cut, and that was the last catch for the evening, but what a great experience for Alex!  (Although I did comment to Johnny that fishing would be ruined for him forever, as he'd probably never again have so many exciting catches in such quick succession!  Lol).  In between we met David, the owner, who told Alex he would do a magic trick for him...  sure enough a little while later David appeared with little lights on his thumbs, he 'put' them in his mouth, pulled them out of Alex's ears, then his own ears... well you get the picture!  Alex loved it... When we asked Johnny for the bill, Alex was very disappointed he had to leave our table, so Johnny took Alex with him, he sat on the counter while Johnny prepared our bill and 'helped' him welcome some other customers (who recognised Johnny, so I'm assuming they were regulars).  Alex was so excited on the ride home, when he wasn't talking about the fish he caught, or his friend Johnny, he was babbling excitedly about David who "put candles in my ears!"  It took ages for him to wind down, but he was so happy, he'd had such a great night - what a tremendous dining experience for a little boy!  I can't imagine anywhere else going to this amount of trouble - ordinarily our dining experience consists of shovelling food into our mouths at Fasta Pasta so we can get a fidgety, whining Alex out the door as quickly as possible....  we were therefore very worried about how he would behave in an upscale restaurant (the likes of which we had barely attempted since we had Alex!), and we were so pleasantly surprised.... well, I'm gushing aren't I.... but I can't help it... because there was another major highlight... THE FOOD!!!!

That's right, in between all this excitement was of course our meals....  I'm going to make your mouth water here...  For entrees, Tim had five spice pork belly (I tried a bit and it was very good), Mum had sesame crusted seared atlantic salmon which was cut very finely (almost like sashimi, it was only just seared on the outside so was mostly raw) and I had duck spring rolls which were absolutely divine, I don't eat a lot of duck but the last time I had duck that was even comparable was at the Spirit House in Yandina (also on the Sunshine Coast) when I did a cooking course there (again with my good mate Nat... it was wonderful by the way - if you've ever wondered, DO IT!)  For mains Tim had peppered eye fillet cooked in congac and cream, Mum had Moreton Bay bugs and I had red emporer in a coriander and cashew crust on stir fried Asian noodles and julienned vegetables with a tom yum broth.....  All of us left so full and just RAVING about our food... every single morsel we put in our mouths was totally delicious (sorry to the guys at Trio's, my descriptions might not be entirely accurate... I can't recall all the finer details!! But if you'd care to remind me, I'll gladly include the menu descriptions in the post for accuracy... and the rest of you, don't dismiss my credibility either, I know my food and this was utterly fabulous!)  Anyway, sufficed to say, the food was out of this world, the best meal I think I've had in years - and couple this with the excellent service we received, and the attention they paid Alex... well this could be the best dining experience I've ever had - it was a really magical night...  Just perfect! :)

Well in the words of our frightening fearless leader, 'moving forward'.... our holiday came to a close, so we loaded up the car and headed for home.  My Aunty Lynda, her husband Brett and twin 18 year old girls live in Brisbane, so we stopped at their place on the way home to enjoy a beautiful lunch of salad, fresh prawns, sourdough bread and a few crisp glasses of Sauv Blanc under the Bali hut out the back looking over water.  I have always loved their house - it is as beautiful and welcoming as its occupants, and has a wonderful outlook and very cosy, comfortable feel, even though its a quite grand house... and on a beautiful sunny day like that, you wouldn't want to be anywhere else.  We hadn't caught up in a while, so it was lovely to see them and sit down and talk face to face - only one of my cousins, Gabi, was home and it was great to see her (I can't believe they're all grown up... I remember when they were babies!!)  Alex loved her too, but sadly we missed Daina (who was at Uni) :(  Nevertheless it was a really nice close to our holiday :)

Well the next few posts will be in quick succession... as I've finally had a bit of time on my laptop to get it all down!  Hopefully I'll be able to keep up a semi-regular pace once I get back into it ;)

Bye for now :)

PS - One more tiny bit of news...  a strange thing happened while we were on holidays...  I went from Mummy to Mum...  Daddy also went to Dad, and Mimi went to Mim....  we still call each other Mummy Daddy and Mimi but something in my little boy decided it was time to move to the next phase (dragging 'Mum' kicking and screaming, lol....).  I have tried to resurrect Mummy, and he does say it occasionally (usually when he's very tired or wants something REALLY bad!) but for the most part I am now Mum.... it seems its time for me to get with the program.... build a bridge and get over it Mum(my)! xx

Totally floored...

Did you think I'd chucked it in?  Surprise, I'm back!  Excuse my long absence, we've had back to back weekends of interstate visitors, which has been awesome, but means if I want to give them my undivided attention (which I do), then blogging or completing blog-worthy projects has to wait - fine with me :)  So anyways, I've enjoyed my time with our visitors immensely, but now its back to business!  Today I'm all about floors!! 

When we moved into our house, we had a mish-mash of flooring and bare concrete…  The lounge room (as I've shown before) looked like this (in all its filthy blue, ripped and snagged glory - with added bits of bare concrete for good measure).  You can also see on the right hand side the step up from the lounge into the dining room…. You guessed it!  Bare concrete :)  Really, this is a terribly flattering photo for something that was so ugly in person!

The majority of the rest of the house was tiled (including the bedrooms) in the sort of pale terracotta type colour tiles you can see in the picture below.  We don't love the colour, it doesn't really match our colour choices for walls or furniture, so we set about exploring options to cover it.  Also to contend with was a crazy teal green type tile with a lovely bare concrete strip where the front door used to be….  Sideline:  originally our lounge room was a double garage.  The previous owners turned it into a lounge room and moved the front door from next to the dining room, out to the lounge room - garage conversions seem to be very popular in Queensland, especially the area where we live - they're everywhere!  What was left behind was a patched up wall inside (outside was probably patched also, which is presumably why the previous owners rendered the front of the house, although why they didn't continue the render around the sides and back is beyond me… but a story for another day!) and this lovely patch of tiles where the entrance used to be (on the right in the photo below).  I think the concrete strip indicates that there was once a wall there also :)

In the kitchen we had a very large patch in the corner where there was once a doorway into the laundry/garage - you can't see the floor in this photo, but basically that curved line on the ceiling indicates where the doorway used to be, so picture that on the floor with bare concrete from there back.  The area under the fridge and freezer was also bare concrete.

Now you have the full before picture in your mind, lets move on!  (I must also apologise in advance for the quality of the photos that will follow... still saving for the digital SLR!)  With the colour scheme that was there, the house really had a late 80's early 90's feel about it, so I immediately set about exploring flooring options that would really bring our house into this century.  We liked the idea of a hard floor all the way through (as opposed to carpet which holds a lot of dust).  We looked at retiling the whole house… Pretty darn expensive (even if we tiled over the top of the existing ones - because apparently we could since our house is on a slab, but I have seen tile on tile 10 years later and although there are success stories, there are also definite failures - too scary!!)  I decided to head up to our mate Harvey Norman and see what they had hanging around in our price range….  I wasn't exactly sure what our price range was yet, but I knew it had to be cheap!  I looked at all the cheap laminate flooring options… nope, didn't like them.  And then this flooring started to call me from across the room….  Krrrriiisssppyyy….. Krrrriiisssppyyy..!!! 

Image from http://www.ekowood.com/

Isn't it lovely?  It's Ekowood 'Fine Winter'.  As I stood in the shop gazing at it, I was already picturing myself gliding across it from my bedroom into the kitchen to make my morning pot of tea and pouring it into my Royal Doulton cups… light streaming in airy white curtains, sitting gently on a big, soft sofa, surrounded by my tasteful modern decor (cue sound of needle being ripped across the record!  Anyone who knows me well knows that I don't glide, and I don't sit gently! Lol)  OK did I mention that I wasn't sure what my budget was yet?  Well at this point I also wasn't sure what my square meterage was either, so I grabbed a brochure from the salesman who very helpfully informed me that it was on sale at the moment (yippee!!!!  Must be fate!) and hightailed it home to get busy with the measuring tape! 

The next half hour was spent measuring, measuring, measuring… then calculating…. subtract the 5… carry the 8….. add the underlay…. and…. WHOA NELLY!  $14,000 to cover our floors in this wonderful timber?  Seriously?  I didn't recall the salesman mentioning it was made of 18 carat gold, so I did all my sums again…. And yes, it was right - and I hadn't even added the cost of labour or the edging stuff (sorry I don't recall what its called… I was too traumatised!)  Did I say fate?  I meant total and crushing disappointment :'(   I didn't know what my flooring budget was yet, but I was almost 100% sure that this would blow it significantly! 

Back to the drawing board….  And this time let's start with the budget!  Boofy and I put our heads together and figured out that we weren't going to get our dream flooring, or anything even close.... so if we could make the most of what we had rather than changing all the flooring, we would have more money to spend on other things and perhaps do a few projects that we weren't originally going to get to (like the retaining wall for the vegie patch, or extending the shade structure out the front).   So we decided that the cheapest option would be to live with our pale terracotta colour tile throughout the house and fill in all the bare cement areas, redo the area that was currently teal green, and tile the lounge room in the same tile.  But when we went to the cupboard garage, the cupboard garage was bare!  (So to speak).  We had a grand total of 4 spare tiles in the garage… I'm all about making things go further, but it definitely wasn't going to do it I'm afraid!

We picked up our friend Terry the tile and carried him all over the Gold Coast… and I mean everywhere!  If there was a person with a tile to sell, he got an introduction to Terry!  We heard the same thing over and over again from every new place - each person dated the tile bang on (around 15 years old) and said it was a generic import and we had about as much chance of finding another one as June Dally-Watkins has of shaping Julia Gillard into a well spoken lady!  But still we persevered, just in case there was some hoarder with a big pile of this tile sitting in a storage container somewhere (you never know, right?)  At this point, our enthusiasm waning, we conceded it would be best to carpet the lounge room (big bang, less bucks) so that at least we would be looking for a smaller amount, should we miraculously find some more of Terry's clan!  So as you know, we carpeted the lounge room in a cheap sisal (with a carpet square rug in front of the lounge) to get us through the next couple of 'crazy little boy in the house' years!  So to re-cap, the lounge room went from this:

To this:

Much better, right?  You can't see the whole room in this shot, but the carpet actually goes all the way to the four corners of the room - hooray!  But shame about the rest of the house.. it was still looking like some sort of odd patchwork quilt!

In between all of this, we contracted Kitchen Connection to redo our kitchen.  They moved walls and put cabinetry in different places, which covered some of the bare cement, but left gaping holes in other areas… sigh... so we were back to square one on the tiling front.  In the end, we decided we just couldn't keep up the search for Terry's family forever (especially when it seemed so fruitless)...  Terry was devastated, but reluctantly understood.  We found a tile that was a bit darker and decided we'd fill in the gaps and cover the new darker tiled areas (in the kitchen and the old entryway) with rugs of some sort.

We got ourselves a tiler - an agreeable, talented and professional young man called Ryan - who we were told specialised in small jobs, which was perfect for us.  We spoke to him about our whopping big gaps and he agreed to fill them in with our chosen tile.  I also procured a stone border tile to go on that bare concrete step between the lounge and the dining room, and decided since we were left with an odd gap underneath the dining room side of the bench, we should put it in there too (rather than cutting up our darker tile and putting a line down there - the white border tile looked more deliberate I thought).

So we arranged a time with Ryan to do all the tiling…. and he did.  And then it was done…  And it wasn't anything against Ryan, but we were underwhelmed with the result (not the tiling result, which was fantastic, but the overall look)….  Especially in the kitchen... so I promptly threw a big jute rug over the top and that was that.  I know you can see what's coming, can't you - we'd just paid all this money for a brand new kitchen, and then we put a mismatched checker board floor of crazy tiles down and covered it with a jute rug… hello!!!  I loved the way the jute rug looked with the kitchen mind you, but mismatched tiles poking out the sides?  Not a good look…..  Its hard to see in this photo, but if you look closely you'll see that the tiles poking out of the left hand side are much lighter than the ones poking out of the right hand side.

Meanwhile though, I was loving my new border step…. Awesome! 

And I think the border tile along the bench was the perfect solution also:

After a few weeks of mentally kicking myself for my stupidity (because its not as though several people hadn't suggested this to me!  But did I listen?  Nooooo.....), I called Ryan back and asked if I could pay him for another whole day or two to rip up all the tiles in the kitchen and lay a completely different tile.  And if he could get any of the existing (older) tiles up intact, then replace the dark ones in the old entryway - even better!  Again he agreed to do his best (I told you he was agreeable!)  I went shopping for tiles again.  I bought a tile that had the same sort of pattern/texture on it as our existing tiles, but a totally different colour more in keeping with the kitchen, and a different size (so lining up wasn't an issue).  I wasn't 100% but Boofy liked them, so we were also systems go.  I also bought more of the white stone border tile to put across the entry to the kitchen to separate old and new.

So Ryan came back again to rip up his previous handy work and lay my boxes and boxes of  new inconvenience tiles!  And a wonderful thing happened….  I was out of the house with Alex (I can't deal with tile dust and figured it wasn't good for Alex either) when Boofy called to tell me that Ryan had managed to get about 20 of our existing tiles up from the kitchen completely intact!  And he would be happy to rip up his previous handywork in the old entry way and re-lay them there so that all of the floor (with the exception of the kitchen of course) would now be the same tile, with no need for oddly placed rugs!!  Hooray for Ryan!!!  (By the way, if you're local and you want Ryan's number, leave me a comment and I'll get it to you!  He really is very, very good!  How many tilers do you know that would try really hard to get tiles up intact?  Not many I'm waging...)

When Ryan had worked his magic (for the 2nd time) on our floors, this is what we ended up with.  An entry way with no clue that there was ever anything other than these tiles there:

And a completely retiled kitchen that now worked in well with our new cabinetry:

But stepping into the confessional here... I won't lie...  I kind of think the tile in the kitchen is more like something my Mum might choose (case in point - she absolutely loves it!! Lol) but even though I would have loved to go way more adventurous in there, we had to make it work with what we already had, so I think we did pretty well under the circumstances....  But it does annoy me....  A tiny little bit....  Don't tell Boofy, but there is every chance he may come home one day and find the jute rug back in the kitchen (it did look good there after all!)  but at least the tiles that poke out the sides will be nice and uniform!  Bwahahahahaha!!!

Bye for now :)

pimp my lounge...

Our lounge room was one of the first rooms to be made over when we moved in.  I've mentioned my bro, Mick, before and some work he's done around our house.  To put it in context, what actually happened was this.  My brother Michael is reeeaaaallly good at all that handy hands on stuff (that I suck at, and
Boofy wasn't great at at the time, but is getting better at by the day)...  When we moved in here, we had neither the time nor the expertise to change the things we wanted to change, and it was going to cost us a lot of money to hire all the different tradies that would need to complete all the different jobs (not to mention the amount of time coordinating them all, taking time off work to be here when they came, and then crying in frustration when they didn't turn up at said time!)  Mick was between jobs at the time, so we offered to pay his flights and pay him a wage to come up here (from Sydney) to do whatever he could get done in the almost-three-weeks that he stayed.  What Mick got done in that time was amazing, and if you continue to follow this blog you'll see heaps of his handywork!  So when I say Mick did this or Mick did that, you know the story behind it now :)

Well, back to the lounge.  So when the house was on the market, the lounge room looked like this:

Its hard to see all the details.... so let me fill you in.  This actually used to be a double garage....  The front door was originally located in our (now) dining room, but more on that later.  So the carpet was an old, cheap, stained synthetic loop style carpet complete with staples on the edges to cut your feet and did not cover the whole floor.  That little decorative patch of yellow near the front door is actually bare cement painted with paving paint - and in front of the window it was just bare cement, full stop.  The step up into the next room?  You got it, bare cement!  There was no trim around the windows, missing bits of skirting and cornices and a huge bare gyprock wall (not show in photo), not to mention all that patching and plastering we needed to cover, and the dreaded pale aqua paint that is all through this house!

So, firstly Mick set to work.  He put the trim around the windows, put on the required skirting and cornices and primed all that trim and the bare gyprock to within an inch of its life!  It sounds simple but there was soooo much to do in this room, it was a big job.  So after that Boofy got to getting some colour on those walls - half Dulux Self Destruct.  Truth be told, we went crazy and bought enough to paint the entire house in that colour (because we liked it) but I actually think its a bit warm... sssshhh, don't tell Boofy!  If I could do it again, I think I'd go with something that was a bit more gray.... something with green undertones rather than yellow.  However, my hubby has worked super hard on the paint job, and I'm very grateful, so I'm keeping my mouth shut and living with what we have! :)

After the painting was done, we looked into flooring.  It was going to cost us a fortune to tile or put down floor boards (my personal preference) so in the end we went for carpet (Boofy's personal preference - he likes a carpeted lounge) which was less than half the price of the other two options.  We opted for something hard wearing, good with stains and on special!  We figured Alex is still pretty young, so it will probably get a bit trashed and that's okay.  For the price we paid, we're fully prepared to replace it in 5 years when Alex is (hopefully) a little more careful!

We got our lounge on ebay a while back, when we were still living in our old place, and it fit perfectly in here.  Only problem for us was we have great expanses of wall to fill... it was going to cost us a fortune!  That's when I lucked out and found this bamboo screen in Vast Interior which would fill about 3.5 metres of wall for only $140!  Sold!  Check it out, it looks great with the lounge:

What to do on the other 7 or so metres of bare wall?  Fortunately I work for a large company which has its own intranet, complete with a Buy Swap and Sell section...  with thousands of employees someone is always selling something useful.  And that is where I picked up this cabinet, which I absolutely love, for a total bargain.  The photo doesn't do it justice and doesn't really convey the sheer size of the thing - its enormous and so heavy!  Its very useful too, all our DVDs are in the drawers.  Its the perfect size to line them, spine up, so we can see what they are at a glance. 

The metal tree on top was given to me by my Dad and Stepmum for Christmas (thanks Dad & Heather!) - it was something I spied when I last visited them in Melbourne, and Heather remembered :)  Come to think of it, the wooden discs on the right hand side were the same thing, I spied them in Melbourne and again Heather remembered!  Isn't that sweet?  And the candles on the left were bought by me in the same shop in Melbourne last time I was there....  (sidenote:  Dad and Heather live in this arty little suburb outside of Melbourne called Warrandyte.  City dwellers flock there on weekends to picnic by the Yarra, enjoy the great shops and cafes, and go the the awesome markets.  Its a really leafy beautiful little part of the world, and is .quite close to the Yarra Valley which is very handy!  I can't recall the name of  the particular shop that my metal art, candlesticks and wooden discs came from but hopefully Heather will fill me in and I can update this post - its an awesome shop.  It is so cheap, its really incredible!  If you're out that way and share my passion for homewares, you must check it out!)

Anyway, here is the cabinet!  (Ignore the green kiddies chairs I happened to have stacked in the corner when I took the photo!)

So everything was in.... but it was all looking very, well, beige!  It was wonderful over Christmas when everything was decorated, but now that its all put away, I was feeling a little depressed.  (Does anyone else get like that?  Like things are drab and boring once the Chrissy decs are all gone?  I get sad every year...)  Anyways, I'm not huge on colour, but I'm having a bit of a love affair with green and turquoise at the moment, and I found these cushions that were perfect!  The blue swirl one behind is from Far Pavilions and the colourful one in front is by Kas (I bought them from Samsara).  Aren't they gorgeous?
























I was then lucky enough to find the same ones in a big floor cushion, which brightens up the bay window a bit, and is perfect since Alex likes to sit there and watch the world go by sometimes (or wait for visitors if he knows they're coming!)

I then put some candlesticks on one side table and a mirror photo frame with some capiz lotus flowers on the other side table.  For my big cabinet, I got these great glass candleholders, I put pebbles in the bottom and then just popped some tealights in them.  And a couple of fake Ikea plants for colour (I know, I'm a shocker... I never thought I'd have fake plants but I'm just in love with these ones, they just add some nice green and they're so cute... you will see them scattered around the house in many photos, lol!)  So now the cabinet looks like this - much better with a little bit of colour (photo doesn't really do it justice - I love my current camera but it is getting on and getting a bit outdated, we're saving for a digital SLR!)

And now the lounge area looks like this... heaps better with the colour in the cushions to cool it down a bit.

There are other things in the room that aren't in the photos, so you can't really see the whole thing (like the front door, my nanna's little old table and the tv cabinet) but one of these days I well get around to doing a video house tour so you can see it all and get more of an idea of the size of this room (its a huge room - the lounge itself is 4 metres wide so gives you an idea). 

Bye for now :)