Update and new chair

LOL! Whenever I'm having house hunting stress I find the easiest way to relieve it is to buy a chair. Here's my latest chair :) Got it on eBay from the bestest eBayer in Bris Vegas, the lovely Ms Katherine from The Old Boathouse. It is apparently an old ferry driver's chair. (I said ferry not fairy.) Brisbane is a river city. These days sleek catamarans slide up and down the river but once little wooden boats chugged up and down and across the muddy brown waters. And the drivers or should I say captains perched on little wooden seats in their little wooden ferries. Strip, sand, danish oil and I have a fab industrial look chair for my house. Oh and speaking of houses I have two to inspect this Saturday and I'm pretty sure we'll be signing a contract on one. (Jinxed myself now!) Both from the middle of the 19th century, both brick, one a lot more expensive than the other. We'll see. We'll see. Wish me luck!

... before and now after ...

Just a quick visit to say hi ...

 

... and share a few pictures of Mickey on the sofa. It's a little chilly here today and the "dog that must be obeyed "(he may be a service dog but it's Kelvin and I who do the serving when he's off duty) decided the flokati draped sofa was the perfect spot to spend the afternoon. Clever dog! I was thinking the same thing. Except he won't budge. On the house front I have my eye on 2 or 3 houses but must wait for a few more weeks. I want Kelvin settled in his new job and loving it before I buy a house in another town. Until then he can commute. That will be my cross to bear when we buy up there. At least I can do my blogging on the trips.  That's all for now. I'm off to push Mickey off that spot!

 

House update and what I bought instead

   

If you read my real estate stalking post today you will realise that we almost bought a house. Almost but didn't. There were termite problems and the sellers would not negotiate on price to take this into account. We happily walked away. Not such bad news as Kelvin has been offered his dream job ... in the next town about an hour away. He starts in a month. Now the search has to move to the other side of the city so that travel for him each day won't be so arduous. For those of you in Brisbane that means Sherwood, Chelmer, Graceville, Corinda area ... yes the "next town" is Ipswich. I was born in Ipswich and escaped when I was 18. That's 30 years ago. I know the city has grown and improved so much over that time but we are not quite ready to move back there. For one thing I work right in the centre of Brisbane and I'd be the one travelling!! The houses are lovely up there and very cheap compared to Brisbane. We could certainly get more bang for our buck and we're not ruling it out completely but .... I love Brisbane. So the house hunt goes on just in a different area. Not many bargains on that side of town :( At least Kelvin is getting substantially more money and will be so much happier in his new position.

What does a girl do when she can't settle on a house she has signed a contract on? She hits eBay and buys more "stuff". First a gentleman's wardrobe. (70s I think. It has trouser hangers inside.) My dip and strip man won't touch it. Too fragile so I won't sand it back, too much work. I'll either give it a light going over with fine sandpaper, steel wool and oil or maybe paint it when I know exactly where it is going in the new still to be found house. We think it will be a TV cupboard. (Photos are the seller's from eBay. These have gone to our storage shed seeing that we don't have a house :P)

The second purchase was this pair of swinging doors. Same seller, different houses. We believe there were more panels at one stage (imagine a wall of them). Thinking shutters or just leaning either side of a door. Love the carving. These will be painted as well. Colour? Still to decide. I'm too lazy to strip them by hand :) Had lots of luck at the thrift stores this week. Mainly fabric and West German and Israeli pottery and there was the huge twice yearly book fest where I picked up dozens of vintage penguin and pelican books but no photos yet. Maybe next week.

Gordon

Say hi to the newest member of our family. His name is Gordon. He's 95cm tall, armless, fibreglass and just a little unsettling when you first set eyes on him. Actually it 's his eyes that freak me out the most but I love him still. I'm thinking drill a hole in his head, feed up some wiring through a hole in his foot (already there so I will only have to inflict pain on him once), a heavy base with pole to fit into the other foot where his old stand used to attach ... following me? ... and a lamp fitting on top of his head. Wack on a shade and we are ready to go. Maybe a dimmer switch. He's my next project. Okay I'm as weird as Gordon but you can't accuse me of being boring. I showed Kim before I bid on him and I can't print what she said ;P I imagine him sitting on this beautiful old rustic 16 drawer buffet I have with a large ornate mirror, an abstract painting leaning against it and some of my large WG pots as a counterbalance. Thanks to Katherine from The Old Boathouse for listing him on eBay! (The photos are hers. Think of them as befores.) Stay tune tomorrow I'll show you my other eBay and thrift shop finds.

1940s plywood chairs

    

The contract on the house fell over due to a very rusty, rotten roof. We had suspicions when we noticed that they had spray painted an old corrugated iron roof. What were they hiding? A rotten, leaking roof. Thankfully our builder inspected on a rainy day! On we go with search. To take my mind off things I have been working on some 1940s plywood chairs. Won them on eBay for pittance because they were in such a bad state. I was looking for something with a slight industrial look and these were perfect. After gluing, sanding and applying danish oil (they were SOOOOOOO dry they soaked up the oil before I could rub it in) it was time to recover the seat pads. I still have some vintage bus roll fabric left and convinced myself to use half a metre. I think they look great. What I really love is that you can read their hard life in their finish. Tough old chairs that have survived so much. I know exactly where these will go in my new home ... when I get a new home. For now they will live in the storage shed.

  

Here's what they looked like on eBay. I won two and then ended up buying 2 more from the seller. Hi Pete! The others are finished but I'm waiting to decide what fabric to use on their seats. I'm so strict with what I use my remaining bus roll fabric on as my stocks are getting low. I've also included a couple of shots of the work in progress. Time for the next project I think!