Bathrooms in evolution, and the smallest bath known to man

It is amazing how quickly things are happening now. It seems likely that we will be moving back into our old girl in about a month, in time for Christmas. Every day when I visit there have been lots of changes. The big outstanding jobs are finalising all the wiring and electrical connections, and polishing the floors. In the past week the bathrooms have been the main focus.

We chose all the tiles and fittings so long ago that it is interesting to see all of our choices come to life.

We had a fairly traditional bathroom in the house - clawfoot bath in heritage green, pedestal basin and traditional mosaic style flooring, with lots of traditional brass bathroom fittings. We wanted to be a bit more modern with this renovation, but I really wanted to keep our clawfoot bath for the new main bathroom.

the old bath in the bathroom looking a bit unloved - this is day 3 of the renovation

and all the fittings and plumbing had been ripped out. The bath was waiting to

be collected to be resurfaced

by the next day this was all that was left of our bathroom

I took my time in deciding exactly which shade of white we should paint the outside of the bath. Seems ridiculous I know, but anyone who has repainted or renovated will know that "white" is no longer just "white". Hmmmm. It turns out that my indecision was a good thing. When we actually measured the dimensions of the spot for the bath in the new bathroom, we realised that it was too big. To say that was a tense day would be an understatement.

By this stage the house had been raised, the external frame was up along with the initial plumbing. It would have been very hard to accommodate the bath and also have a shower and toilet.......

For a while we thought we would have to install the smallest bath known to man:

This photo does not adequately convey just how tiny this bath was. I think the length was around 1 metre. It would have been useful to bathe our pampered Dalmatian pooch, but would not be useful for much else.

Luckily our builder was able to source a genuine clawfoot bath that will fit and is marginally bigger than the one pictured above. It will still look small. But it's all relative....

So our much loved original clawfoot bath remains heritage green, while we decide what to do with it.

The bathrooms have otherwise been progressing without incident. I know it is ridiculous but I love the soft close toilet seats we have chosen. I found myself today just lifting the seat up and down to watch the smooth motion of the toilet seat. The plumber was showing the man of the house the toilets today and said "Mate, all the women love these". I hate it when I am a stereotype :)

new powder room - yes, with soft close toilet seat

vanity in the hall - awaiting doors and drawer fronts

tiling on the floor and the shower walls

in the ensuite

vanity in the ensuite again awaiting drawer fronts

We chose the light fittings this weekend - I think they will go in this week - and we are waiting for the mirrors to go in.

a blank canvas

It's funny how once you have improved one area of your house, the other deficiencies become glaringly obvious. The driveway is almost finished, and of course now all we can see is the daunting job we have ahead of us to land scape the garden and also finish the area around the pool. We will be doing most of this ourselves.

I am still re-living my recent time in Europe. I grew up with a different set of plants and vegetation over there - geraniums, rhododendrons, roses and camelias, lush green lawns, and bluebells signalling the first few days in spring after the long Scottish winter. On our recent trip I noticed how much care goes into gardens and shop fronts in Germany:

a village bank with a lovely display of

geraniums

a front garden with autumn display of blooms and small

pumpkins ahead of Halloween

a shop front with the ubiquitous geraniums

I will post some photos here of the "before" landscaping shots. I suspect it will be some time before there are any "after" shots :(

Not only is this a big job, but it's hard to know where to start and what to plant. I love formal hedges which I think reflects the gardens back in the UK - most of those plants are not as suited to the Brisbane climate.

view from the street down the driveway - I am picturing

a hedge along the left hand border along the fence.

Maybe gardenias.

the front of the house - I think a lilly pilly hedge here

would look good

the driveway and path up to side entrance/office.

No ideas for this area yet.

back garden

another view of the back garden

The lovely thing about this time of year in Brisbane is the sudden explosion of all the Jacaranda trees with their unique flowers. I associate them with the onset of summer, but for many of my colleagues they tell me it reminds them of being at University and last minute study for the end of year exams. Either way they are beautiful and sadly all too fleeting.

♥ the heart of the home ♥

I think most renovators have one particular area of their home that is most meaningful for them. For us it is the kitchen - we spend a lot of time there, cooking and just hanging out. The man of the house and I both love cooking. Our previous kitchen was tiny with minimal bench space and almost non existent storage space - but we loved it. It opened onto our verandah via bi-fold doors, opening up the space, letting the outside in, and ensuring that you always had company in the kitchen while cooking. Given the Queensland climate, most of our meals were eaten on a table just outside of the kitchen on the deck.

We wanted to incorporate some of the features that we loved about the old kitchen, while giving ourselves more space and modernising the look. This new kitchen is in a completely new space in the house which gave us a bit of freedom, but we also didn't want it to be too big. Of course budget came into it as well.

We were able to retain the idea of the bi-fold doors. The actual footprint of the kitchen is not large, but we will usually have these doors open when we are at home to open up the space.

the future kitchen space viewed from the "new" verandah,

with the space for the bi-fold doors

bi-fold doors completed and seen from inside

the house

bi-fold doors open and the kitchen starting to take shape

It was at this stage that we left to go overseas - not without some trepidation as there would be some major changes while we were away, and for a control freak planner like me this was challenging...... however we needn't have worried as it is all taking shape beautifully:

the bi-fold doors are to the right of this picture.

the benchtop is still to be installed.

We have lots more bench space and an island bench which was high on our wish list - it will be great to have some stools there and to be able to eat/chat/supervise homework/drink wine :-). The lovely Queenslander we are renting at the moment has a similar set up and we spend a lot of time there.

We decided on Corian as a benchtop rather than Caesarstone - Caesarstone is beautiful but I was worried when I heard that it is harder to fix if it chips - knowing that we have an exuberant boy in the house I wanted something more durable. We have chosen a greyish colour called Lava Rock and the cabinets are painted in Dulux Lexicon.

Rather than a large freestanding oven we chose a Neff wall oven - there are only three of us and since space was at a premium and we didn't feel we needed more oven space. The pantry is huge with shelves and drawers - I didn't take a photo of it but will post one soon.

So much has changed in the rest of the house since we were away - it makes it all much more real and our target of being back in the house before Christmas seems possible. Can't wait for the festive season to start entertaining :-)

autumn

We have just returned from three weeks in Europe to visit family.

I had forgotten how much I love autumn - not a season we see much of here in Brisbane - there is of course a welcomed drop in the temperature and the humidity of summer, but none of the things that I associated with autumn as I was growing up: the rustling of leaves underfoot, the crisp coldness of the early morning air, the leaves and foliage changing colour, gathering conkers, and the roast chestnuts for sale. I loved it all.

We spent most of our time in southern Germany, and also some time in Spain. Probably because we are renovating I noticed a lot about the architecture over there, and also how house/garden proud people are. Once I have sorted out my photos I will post some on here but in the meantime these are a few from my phone taken in Munich.

the back deck in my Mum's house

another view of the deck

trees changing colour in Munich at a fair we went to

more trees......

We got back yesterday and went round to have a look at the house this afternoon.

Lots of changes - kitchen almost in, tiling starting in the bathrooms. I will update soon.

i ♥ WAC

It has been a lot of fun looking for new furniture to fill all of the space that

we will have once the house is finished. One of the wonderful discoveries that

I have made is the Wooloongabba Antique Centre. Lots of unique stores with

vintage treasures. I am always delighted when I find a home for something

there, and love the idea that in some way I am recycling rather than

buying something flatpacked that will only last a few years.

It has become my new favourite place to browse and pretend to be cool :)

i admired this for a few weeks and when

i finally returned to buy it, it had gone

an old bench that will find a new home

on our verandah

vintage Casala chairs - in need of sanding

and repainting - but they will be

great around an outdoor table

all the greys and whites of the rainbow

Choosing the external paint colours is one of those things that you should take some time over.

It is an expensive exercise and if you don't like the end result you will have to live with it for a long time.

There are many houses I have admired over the years in our suburb - I have photographed a few below but on a cloudy day so none of them look as lovely as they do in real life:

Some of the features that they all have are neutral colours and symmetry. I wanted to retain the symmetry in our house by maintaining the verandah on three sides. I also predictably wanted to keep the house white, but when it was painted as part of the "first" renovation the trimmings (gutters and verandah balustrades) were a dark heritage green. I wanted to update this colour scheme a little by having grey tones.

Again I had good intentions but quickly became overwhelmed by the enormity of choice available. In the end I selected four colours, painted them on a large piece of timber and decided that they looked fine. The exterior painting is still a work in progress but it's almost finished.

We ended up choosing Lexicon Quarter for the windows and verandah railings, Lexicon for the exterior walls, Simone Weil for some of the battens, and Leadman for the gutters and balustrades. All are Dulux colours.

windows and French doors downstairs still to be painted

the largest room in the house

We always loved the gracious Colonial style Queenslanders with their beautiful stairs and symmetry. If possible we wanted to hide our garage away and not have a car port that dominated the front of the house. We are lucky to have enough space on the block, and to have a floor plan that can accommodate this. Our plan was to hide the garage underneath the house, and to have it accessible from the driveway. So far so good.

Somehow though we have ended up with a garage that while it is undoubtedly concealed from the street and the front of the house, is the largest space in the house. It could hold 4 cars.... and we only have 2 small cars. Everyone who comes to look at the house - almost without fail - says "mmmm. The garage is pretty big isn't it". The man of the house has great plans for a wind trainer, and the boy of the house wants the space to scooter around in. I suppose I should be glad I don't have to mop the floor.

house viewed from the front garden this week - partially painted.

Front wall of the garage is the timber palings,

unpainted in this photo

closer look at the garage space

side entrance of the garage. This shows the

side of the house progressing nicely -

external cladding finished, windows in and

painting almost done.

the garage - the biggest room in the house...

The roller door will be installed next week so it looks

like it will also be the first space to be

finished.