Sunday 5 April 2015

The new & improved Stank Room

Such an unfortunate nickname. But you all know it can never be called anything else!
We have spent the last couple of months making over the two guest rooms in our humble home and, while we still have a few things to do to finish up the small room, the Stank Room is complete!

Tim & I decided that the best idea for us would be to divide and conquer....working on both rooms together, but each having an assigned room to design and style. A necessary step to prevent our usual bickering. So...did it work? Did we argue about every choice in each room? OF COURSE WE DID.

Tim chose the Stank Room and wanted to make this space a mix of moody colour, Scandinavian touches and a modern feel.

Let's start with some old photos of the room to jog your memory.

View of the Stank Room during our initial walk through before purchase

& that disgusting air con

We previously removed the window air con and shoved a spare queen bed into the space for visitors - it looked like this for the last 12 months.

That disgustingly stained carpet and broken fan really added a bit of flair, don't you think?


I cannot describe to you how excited we were to rip up the old carpets and skirting. Full of 20 years worth of dust and old people smell...it was absolutely awesome to see the subfloor in perfect condition and ready for our new laminate to be installed. We chose to continue the Quickstep Midnight Oak Brown flooring through to the guest rooms as we love how it has performed through the rest of the house.



We did have to get a little creative and cut the bottom of the doorways to allow the boards to slide underneath. It was also a bit of a jigsaw puzzle to install the laminate through the toilet/bathroom/small bedroom alcove. Definitely used all of my brain power that day!








We made the executive decision to remove the front of the old builtin wardrobe opposite the bed....and by 'executive decision' I mean that we ripped it all out on a whim, I said to Tim "Maybe we should put it back?", Tim said "Oh..um..yeah so I broke some of it...", then we both decided to act like we meant to do it all along. Nice. 



All the while being supervised by the Pug and Phee Phee just outside the window.....


I honestly believe we obtained the most in-depth knowledge of every bed that can be purchased on the Gold Coast during our hunt for the perfect piece for this room. We visited Freedom, Super A-Mart, Domayne, Harvey Norman, countless obscure side-of-the-road outlets and, of course, trusty IKEA. I always refer to IKEA as the place where relationships go to die...I wonder why? 
Tim FINALLY gave in after about 2 hours and choose the Stockholm Queen Bed and I dutifully headed towards the special order section to purchase it. "I would like the Stockholm but no leather cushions please"; "No leather cushions? But they belong with the bed."; "How much are they?"; "Oh wow they are $450 for two"


So now for the reveal!






The mirror above the bed is also from the Stockholm collection at IKEA; bed linen is Dwell from Spotlight and cushion is from the ANZAC line at Target. Grey pot is Masters (with an elephant ear plant from our garden). We framed out the wardrobe with tasmanian oak, linking in the alcoves in the kitchen. Chest in the robe is one of our previous projects

We do have to lengthen the Spotlight curtains as they are too short now that we have mounted the curtain rod higher. I could've photoshopped them longer, but I respect you too much...and I have no idea how to use photoshop. So let's pretend you didn't notice and look at this cute pic of Phee instead. 


I will update the Source List shortly after I post up the smaller guest room reveal (hopefully next week!)



Monday 12 January 2015

Let me share with you a story....

This is the tale of the great Fishtank Flood of 2014.

Picture it, our new floors and gleaming kitchen sitting happily minding its own business, reveling in its beauty, when suddenly a tiny hose on Tim’s 4ft aquarium decides that it really doesn't want a close relationship with the CO2 system anymore; - and cries its lukewarm, fish filled tears all over our floors.



DISASTER. Or so we thought.

Luckily I had just said goodbye to a sleeping Tim and begun my journey to the car to leave for work, and noticed the approximate 120L of water on our floors. As the cupboard under the tank sits flush with the floors, a newly wakened Tim started to empty the fish tank so we could move it out and mop up the river underneath and behind. Never has a fish tank pack down happened so quickly (or so calmly on my part I might add….apart from when I may have yelled ‘I don’t give a (naughty word) about your fish right now!!!’. Poor Tim)

My new hairdryer definitely got a workout drying the joins between all of the laminate boards.



























The non-disaster news is that our quick clean-up, floor drying and sheer luck that our house is raised and not on a slab, resulted in no damage to the floor that we can see. We may have to replace one tiny part of a plinth (kickboard) next to the fridge and Tim’s tank stand is ruined :( The tank itself is okay and the fish and plants are happily swimming in makeshift tub tanks in our garage.. *PHEW*


You can see the fish tank cabinet here in a reeeeally old photo 


Onto the air conditioner pics! (nice segue there Jess, so seamless!)

I promised you all pictures of our installed air-cons and here they are. Scroll down for photos if you can’t be bothered listening to me waffle about their performance so far.

I am happy to report the large air-con in the loungeroom does actually cool down the guest bedrooms. Tim had a terrible cold and I vacated to the small spare room for a night or two to avoid the germ-fest that was partying on in our room. We let the air-con cool down the main areas then opened up the door to the bedroom and presto, it worked! So happy!!

We have been incredibly lazy and haven’t set up the WiFi mode as yet (I am beyond ashamed to tell you this). However all reviews online say that, while the app can be a bit glitchy, all in all it works quite well. I can’t wait to turn off the air-con when Tim’s home and I’m out. Just for sh*ts & gigs of course.

The loungeroom with new air con. Ignore the poor sad plants, 
I am a horrible plant parent and I am very ashamed. 

 Oh look, another sad plant....and our bedroom aircon (how cute is the misspelled sign! Tim made it for me when we first started dating. He is totally adorable even if he can't spell <3

& a sneak peek of the new entranceway mirror - the Stolkholm from IKEA. Tim has been lusting after this for almost a year but all of the Australian stores went out of stock. I happened to check IKEA web site just before Christmas and it had reappeared! So in love!



In other news, I have torn a ligament in my ankle - my first exercise injury...that makes me an athlete doesn't it?? - but I still have plans to enter the 12 week transformation challenge at my Goodlife Gym which starts in approximately 4 weeks.

Anyone who knows me personally knows that not very long ago I was the unfittest person - the thought of taking the stairs at work made me want to find solace in some sort of frothy, whipped cream concoction from Starbucks.

13 weeks ago that changed when I bit the bullet and joined a gym and found my absolute favourite new person - Sharyn from Associated Fitness Solutions. A typical conversation between us goes something like this: "Ok I want 20 lunges", "I hate lunges", "And Iiiii don't care!", "Fair enough" *lunges*



So be prepared for maybe a couple of non-house related posts (I promise to keep them short and sweet!) where I waffle at you about my growing muscles and mourning the loss of ice-cream.

Till next time x

Saturday 10 January 2015

2015!

New year, new house projects!! Yes it is 2015…the dreaded year when I turn *ahem* thirty. Yes yes I know, I have to get onto actually finishing the flooring and the painting before I turn into a shrivelled hag and just disintegrate into dust (what? That’s not what happens when you turn 30?!!)
 
Keeping in mind that the below are our goals, not set-in-stone events, and whilst we have no definitive dates for the projects to occur, we will be starting on these in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!!
 
But first, let's look at what we accomplished this year....
 


The 2014 house recap!

 
January 2014 – We accidentally bought a house and signed the contracts

February 2014 – We moved in and immediately re-painted, removed some of the old items i.e. pink pelmets full of old people dust and disgusting mouldy air-conditioners; fence goes up
 
Mid year 2014 Kitchen planning begins (including endless visits to homemaker centres/hardware stores/almighty IKEA)
 
August & September 2014Floor demolitionkitchen renovation started; new flooring in; electrical work started to change over lights to downlights


 
October 2014Kitchen completed!


 
November & December 2014 – Project planning begins for 2015
 
 

2015 Planned Projects (both small & large)

Exterior
  • Replace some of the flailing plants in the driveway garden & side gardens 
  • Remove dead trees/shrubs from the north-east side garden and plant new

Front Entrance & Garage
  • Repaint front & garage doors – the paint on both was a bit damaged during the kitchen renovation
  • Finally cap off the edge of the flooring that runs to the steps in the garage
  • Do a huge sort & clean of all items in the garage – sell unwanted items on Gumtree
 
Loungeroom
 
  • Build & install oak pelmets over the two sash windows
  • Have electrician swap the 5 button light switch for a 4 button
  • Build a new fishtank stand & set up tank again so fish have a home
 
Kitchen
 
  • Finally install the final door handle on the last kitchen cupboard
  • Paint touch-up on the roof and the wall to cover two small marks
  • Possibly replace one small kickboard near fridge from fishtank leak (more on that later)
 
Hall
 
  • Finish flooring through to bathroom alcove and bedrooms
  • Replace smoke alarm with new slim-lined version
 
Stank Room - Although we both will carry out the renovations on the bedrooms, we decided to take one each to style and decorate to avoid incessant arguments. This one is Tim’s :)


 
  • Complete renovation
  • Remove furniture, carpet, skirting boards
  • Repaint with Dulux Vivid White
  • New fan & down lights to be installed
  • Replace skirting boards
  • Replace existing bed and furniture – maybe with a grey upholstered bed and DIY crate side tables?
  • Possibly install shelving in wardrobe
  • Find the perfect artwork 
 
Main Bathroom & Toilet
 
  • No change this year – next year’s project!
 
Small Guest Room – My guest room! I have such great ideas for this space. I am thinking a dedicated guest cupboard, white & gold colour scheme, green plants and mirrors to create illusion of space


 
  • Complete renovation
  • Remove furniture, carpet, skirting boards
  • Repaint with Dulux Vivid White
  • New fan & down lights to be installed
  • Replace skirting boards
  • New bed – possibly this Willow bed in white
  • Build a floating side shelf to shift the bed away from the window wall
  • Install white venetians on window 
  • Make over the desk with gorgeous hairpin legs that is currently sitting in my garage, to fit in the nook between door and existing cupboard
  • Create a dedicated & organised guest cupboard in the existing closet – with toiletries, additional bedding, towels, space for suitcase etc
  • Hang the ornate gold mirror that is currently in storage
  • Find the perfect artwork
 
Study


 
  • Complete renovation
  • Decide on a wall covering – paint or wallpaper?
  • Plan and install new linen closet
  • Plan and install new floating desk with storage; chairs and
  • Finish flooring into master bedroom
  • Decide on future of sliding door (a GIANT point of contention at present, shhh don’t mention the doors to Tim)
 
Master Bedroom Suite – Nothing has been decided on style of the Master bedroom as yet, I think we will both just be overly ecstatic when the carpet is gone) 
 
 
  • Complete renovation of bedroom
  • Remove furniture, carpet, skirting boards
  • Repaint with Dulux Vivid White (more than likely)
  • New fan & down lights to be installed
  • Replace skirting boards
  • Replace/re-structure existing furniture – new bed to be built
  • Complete renovation of walk thru robe
 
  • Remove current shelving, carpet, skirting boards
  • Repaint with Dulux Vivid White (more than likely)
  • New down lights to be installed
  • Replace skirting boards
  • Plan and install new wardrobe
  • Ensuite – No change this year – next year’s project!
 
Sunroom
 
  • No change this year – next year’s project!
 
It seems like a loooong year with plenty of time to tackle these projects but I guarantee it will fly past!