Quick, cheap and hopefully better

Actually anything will be better than my current kitchen. I can't afford a new one for another year or more so this long weekend I'm painting the cupboards and playing with some ideas for that end wall. I've already switched out the lights for a couple of industrial shades and when it is all done I will definitely tidy those open shelves (I promise). I'd love new counter tops and dream of heading off to IKEA for a few lengths of their wooden work tops but not this weekend and not without a car (or a driver because believe it or not I can't drive). I now live a two and a half hour public transport trip from the big blue shed and I can't quite see me lugging counter tops home on the train. Solution for now until I can con someone into a trip to Logan is to paint the benches as well. Just after I took this photo I climbed up and scraped off the last of the wallpaper then started on the first coat on the cupboards. Painting isn't as fast as you first think it will be is it? And there are more cupboards on the other side. Thank goodness I have the whole long weekend to go. I'll be back tomorrow with more progress pics.

Stalking childhood celebrity

  

  

A murmur passed through the crowd at the opening night of the art exhibition. The rumor went that he once was someone famous. I couldn't pick it. He was wearing pants for one thing and I can't remember him EVER wearing pants. Just a tartan vest, yellow tie and straw boater. NEVER pants. I also remember him as much younger and more hair. Wasn't he always just 4 years old? He was ancient now! Still my source swore it was indeed he. I must not tell anyone. I must not reveal his face. Who was he you ask? Humphrey B Bear of course. An exclusive! I can reveal his true identity! But alas I won't. Some things should remain a secret. After all would you like to have your face splashed across a blog for all the world to see if your claim to fame was never ever wearing pants?

Time flies

I can't believe that it is 3 weeks since I updated this page. It's all the "exciting" stuff at the new old house at present. Prep work. Boring you would think but K and I are quite addicted to scraping back the layers of paint downstairs in the living and dining rooms. We are trying to get as much done before our painter starts at the beginning of March. Anything to keep costs down. The quote is interesting to say the least. Ouch! But he is good, very, very good.

    

  

So this is what we have been doing. Each day we peel away more paint to get back to the original walls. These two rooms are affected by damp. Didn't show up in two building inspections when we were first buying but I guess at that stage we were in a 10 year drought and it had all dried out. Now after almost 3 months of non stop rain it is very apparent. This is a major job to fix and something we don't have the budget for right now. For the moment we will be doing a cosmetic fix and painting the walls in these rooms ourselves. It is a waste of money to pay a master painter to do these rooms only to have to scrape away the plaster and fix the problem in a year or so. As K moves around a room he moves the furniture and sets up a "vignette" each time. For a blind guy I think he hasn't done too badly. I laughed out loud though when I saw the little oak ladder back chair hanging high up on the window. He says it's Shaker style! At least it is out of the way. Normal people would clear the room out. Not us. (Don't tell K that I posted a pic of him napping on the couch. He'd kill me for showing his chubby knees and yes the curtains are going!)

   

I've had to rethink painting these rooms white due to the discolouration problems. I'm now thinking of painting them in a lovely rich and dark flat as flat  Murowash paint. A colour from the Sibella Court range for Murobond. A really dark inky blue for the living room .... or a dark dark khaki green. Perhaps a deep dark oreo brown in the dining room which will have a tribal vibe. Maybe a custom mix. Need sample pots to patchwork across the walls to help me choose. The joys of renovating a new old house! I'm looking forward to the hand sanding next (not). Lead paint .... eeek. But I'm loving my 150 year old render!

I forgot to show you the rest of the house!

With all the comings and goings at the new old house I just realised that I never finished showing you the rest of the before videos.This is the master bedroom. A huge room with loads of potential. It's on the first floor at the back of the main house ... just across the hallway from the office. Big enough I think for a second bathroom to go in. No more long, long walks to the bathroom in the middle of the night! 

My plans for the bedroom include black walls and ethnic textiles, tulip tables for bedsides and funky 70s lights. I took these just after the wallpaper came off. Much better! Thinking of painting the lights but I'm waiting until the room is done before I commit to a colour.

  

Not sure if the curly cane headboard will work. Perhaps the one below (picked up ages ago and patiently waiting in the garage). A bit more asian influenced to balance out the vintage suzani I have for a bedspread. But seeing them together here I'm not so sure. Think I'll have to drag the headboard up and have a play.

I wish I hadn't started this! Now I'm thinking about using these fibreglass sidetables instead and putting the tulips either side of my new 50s silk sofa in the living room. Bugger! Knew this would happen ;)

Of course lots of artwork. I'd like a triptych for the wall above the bed and picked up a set of three brass frames in a thrift store a little while ago. Want to do an ink piece mimicking this except three not four.

Lázaro Rosa-Violán

Still deciding on a rug. The floors are lovely old cedar boards and look great bare. I might wait until the room is split for the bathroom and then see what I can find. Sheep skins might be fun for winter or a big flokati. If Mickey would just let me have this one. Might be just big enough for the foot of the bed but not the whole room.  Oh and my 40s plywood chairs... yes I can see those in the room too. Have to lug those upstairs too to play with!

That's it for this week. Hopefully this room will be painted in late February and then the fun begins. If you excuse me now I still have to put the last coat of paint on my office bookshelves so I can get my books up from the floor. Getting there!

Baby steps

It seems like nothing has been accomplished at the new old house. It has but it's boring stuff like cleaning and unpacking and sanding and gardening. The new painter starts in March (you have to wait for the best) so rooms are in limbo. We still have some of our favourite furniture pieces in storage and we are hoping to move them here soon. It has been raining cats and dogs for days and has only recently stopped in the last day or so. Scrub that! It has started again. (Which explains why the photos are a little dark and blurry ... that and I wasn't wearing my glasses.)

 

Kelvin was feeling left out of the house set up. "Drag that over here honey." "No put it back where it was." "I don't like that." "No there is nothing you can do to help. I'll have to do it." So on and so on. A small room at the rear of the house, the old stables, is his own personal space. The man cave. Somewhere to listen to his radio or his birds. Somewhere to relax or take Sunday afternoon naps. A place to have a drink with friends that drop by and b*tch about the wife. "She keeps moving the furniture round and round!"

Today we set up the man cave in its first incarnation. The room will be the last to be painted but Kelvin doesn't care. He told me he wanted a daybed, his leather chair and some storage. The couch is an old beaten up eBay find that I stripped and made the mattresses for. The leather chair is a thrift store find. The paintings are by Vincenzo Rizzo that have patiently waited for years for a home. There are 4 on one wall (you can only see three in the shot) and another behind the "buffet". Speaking of which, it's a student piece I bought from a final year exhibition when I was studying interior design many, many years ago. A vintage typewriter, a terrazzo lamp, artist's wooden model, bits and pieces that Kelvin chose and Gordon who still isn't a lamp. Cow hide on the floor and we are done. Still have to hang a blind on the window, hang a few more prints, maybe some logs for the little fireplace and perhaps a small rough hewn shelf as mantle. I need to find something to hide the power point and wiring right down the front of the chimney because moving it is way down the priorities list right now. Just noticed a whole heap of nails and hooks that need removing. There is a brass 5 arm octopus floor lamp still to come for behind the leather chair and the base of the bird cage needs some plants. Room done! Except it will probably change by next week :)