Before & Afters & Budget Breakdown

Hi everyone, as promised I am showing you the before and afters of my main bathroom along with a budget breakdown - and yes, it is scary!

The image below shows the main bathroom after renovations. Okay it is not finished, we still have some sanding and painting, and a mirror to put up but I couldn't wait to show you our transformation.

As you can see it is quite a bit space 3.5m x 2.5m - so I had some room to put in my freestanding bath and a huge shower.

Now to the before (I can't believe I am showing you this) but as you will see below there used to be three small rooms in this space. The previous owners decided it was a good idea to have all of the surfaces resprayed prior to selling - the images below show the result of this - all the surfaces started to peel around 6 months after we moved in. I knew they were sprayed when we bought but thought they would last longer - yuk!

Above shows the toilet before - one room on its own.


Below shows the toilet after - the shower now occupies its old space

Above shows the powder room before - another space within the zone!

Above shows the bathroom before with shower and bath.

Above shows the bathroom before looking through from what is now our ensuite but was previously my walk-in-robe.

Phew - I hope you are still with me!

My favourite thing is the freestanding bath and the gorgeous waterfall bath spout below.

Now to the Budget - if you remember from a previous post a real estate friend told me to try and do both for $15,000 (impossible!) I then revised the budget to $20,000 which I knew was going to be a challenge! The result for both the ensuite and main bathroom:

Tiling cost $4600, Tiles $2147, fittings $5600, plumbing $4500, building works and electrical around $4000 (final figures on this not in yet), glass and glazier $1155, towel rails and lighting around $700. Okay how are we going ...... that totals $22,702! Okay, being realistic this is only a little over a 10% blowout which is not bad considering the spaces.

Now to my little black book and some really big thank yous:-
Tilers - Eve Renovations - (0414407519) - Females who will do your whole reno. or just the tiling
Plumber - Perry Thomson (0403549037)
Builder - Matt from M2 Build (0421721182) - my brother-in-law
Glazier - Brisbane Glazing (0412824029)
A really really really big thank you to everyone who worked on the project. You kept me laughing even when I felt like crying! I would definitely recommend each of you and I will be calling on all of you again for my next project.

Hope you all enjoyed my little before and after. If you have any other questions please email me at papertreedesign@bigpond.com.

I will post an image of the main bathroom on my sidebar once it is painted and I have some bling to show you.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Wish me luck as I have my market in King George Square tonight from 5pm to 9pm - lets hope the weather holds out!
Sorry I haven't knocked on any of your doors this week - I will definitely pop by and visit tomorrow morning.
Michelle

Wednesday Wicked Design - Shazzabeth

This weeks spotlight features the gorgeous designs of Shazzabeth Creations. Sharon handcrafts beautiful designer jewellery from her studio in Ipswich. As she states in her etsy profile, she started out creating beaded jewellery, but now the majority of her work uses chainmaille and wirework. She also works with sterling silver, gemstones, Swarovski crystals, copper and brass.

As you will see her designs are exquisitely beautiful. I'm sure, like me, you would love to find one of these pieces under your Christmas tree!

Here are just a few of her 100 plus designs currently available in her etsy store:

Dear Santa, I promise I'll be good ....

Sharon also has a beautiful blog devoted to all things jewellery which is a feast for the eyes.

A fellow BrisStyler, Shazzabeth Creations will be on the stand next to mine at the BrisStyle Indie Twilight Markets this Friday night.
I would love to see you there.
Michelle

Ensuite Before & After

Hi everyone, thanks for putting up with my slackness at not posting this on Friday. I have a good excuse - all trades only left at 6pm on Friday, and as I had just had my laser eye surgery to correct my vision I was a racked out on valium! Good excuse??!!

Anyway, as promised the before and after shots of my bathrooms begin with my ensuite (decided not to bore you all with a really long post on both). Although not totally finished i.e. no towel rails, paint, or pretty things yet (yay shopping). I hope you will all agree it is an improvement.

Please remember, this is no glam magazine worthy bathroom makeover. I had very little time to organise the bathroom renovations, and I was on a really tight budget.

The ensuite below after:

The ensuite below before:

Yes, the ensuite used to be my walk-in-robe which has now been relocated (I'll do a post on this at a later date). As you can see it is not a very big room - 2.5m long x 1.4m wide, but we have managed to fit in a big shower, toilet and vanity. I love the way my new tiles look.

Some of my favourite things would have to be the shelf I had installed with the mirrored cabinets above - lots of storage - yay!!!

And, the rain shower head - love, love!

On a slightly disappointing note: You may notice from the image below that along with towel rails and paint, the toilet buttons are missing on the toilet - unfortunately one of the things I had to put up with when I used the BDW at Springwood. We got a really good deal on all of our fixtures with them, and I don't like to blog badly about anyone, however, I have had a disappointing experience them when it comes to delivery of what I purchased. Although they have been accommodating in fixing up all the errors there were far too many errors for one renovation. I guess we can just put it down to dumb luck, but as you can imagine this put a real strain on my week ...... okay ...... I'll admit I was stressed out rather badly before my operation!

Speaking of which, my eye op was a phenomenal success - I can now see clearly with no contacts! There was no pain, and the whole operation took around 15 minutes! Should have done it years ago - I thoroughly recommend it to everyone thinking of having it done - the doctors and staff at the Laser Sight Centre were terrific.

Enough rambling from me now - I will show all the before and afters of the main bathroom on Friday, along with a thorough budget breakdown (need to add it up myself yet) and also give you all my wonderful trade contacts.

Until then, hope you are having a great Monday.
Michelle

Wednesday Wicked Design

What better way to kick off my new segment than with a fellow BrisStyler who is not only wicked by name, but wicked by design! Teneale from Wicked Child Designs states on her blog she simply 'likes to make softies'. As you will see there is nothing simple about her softies - made from felt, retro fabrics and wool her designs have a distinctive eco cred.

With each softie having a name, and wicked story attached to it, you will be begging to take them all home!

Meet some of Teneale's wicked wicked little designs available in her etsy and madeit stores ....

Sam is a kleptomaniac, and fears someone might find her spoon collection under the bed.

The Beatles like to twist and shout till midnight. Then they twist a little more.

Meet Jeffrey.

He doesn't like vegetables. He doesn't like meat either. He will only eat lolly bananas and pretzels. And they have to be eaten together. Not separately. Got it? Right.

Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree Coasters

Teneale obviously has a wicked sense of humour!

I know she would love it if you took the time to pop by her blog and say hi.

Thanks for taking the time to read a little about a fellow crafter - we love it when you support handmade!

Hope everyone is having a great week.
Michelle

Markets and Winnings!

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend. I had a fantastic weekend which started with a stand at the BrisStyle Eco Markets on Saturday. Thankfully the rain gods looked after us and ensured we had a beautiful sunny day for the event. It was so lovely to meet all of my customers and chat about handmade design - everyone's comments were really encouraging! Thank you to all who popped by to say hello - you made my day!

I had a really big space this time

I now have to get busy creating some more artwork for the BrisStyle Twilight Markets which will be held in King George Square on Friday the 19th November!

Every market day the BrisStyle team hold a handmade raffle by collecting something from each of our stands - the proceeds go towards a chosen charity for the day. On Saturday this charity was Peninsula Animal Aid. As you may have already guessed, I was lucky enough to win one of two baskets filled with goodies from my fellow BrisStylers! I was sooo excited, not only did I have a fab day, but it was topped off with a basket of handmade goodness. As you can see I feel very spoiled. I managed to snap this picture before my 4 year old took claim to a lot of these lovelies.

In aid of all of the lovely BrisStylers who spend hours and hours on their craft, I have decided to add a new segment to my blog called 'Wednesday Wicked Designs' to showcase some of their amazing talent. Every Wednesday I will post about a fellow BrisStyler and let you know about their designs. So watch out for my first post this Wednesday.

Renovation Update: My bathrooms will be finished this week - Tilers finish on Tuesday, Plumber is in on Wednesday, and Glazier is in on Thursday. This means, with fingers crossed, I will be able to show you all the before and afters on my Friday post before I go in for my laser eye operation - followed by a complete budget breakdown the following week. Can't wait to see them come to life this week with all the 'blingy' bits!

Wishing you all a fab Monday.
Michelle

Can You Keep A Secret??

from here

That's the name of the new vintage store in Greenslopes, Brisbane.
After visiting this store, you may well want to keep it a secret, as it's packed full with with retro lovin' goodness!

The store, owned by Emily Jane, is part boutique and part lounge. Emily stocks hand-picked vintage clothing, retro homewares, and collectibles. From old typewriters to the skates you probably wore in the 80's, it is an eclectic vintage lovers mix!

The store is beautifully laid out in an old Queenslander at 653 Logan Road, Greenslopes. I chanced upon it by accident, and wish I had taken my camera so I could share some of Emily's vintage style with you all. It's definitely a store I will be adding to my list when doing the retro rounds. Good luck with your new venture Emily!

At My House This Week - I am madly preparing for BiECO which is on this Saturday. With all the reno's going on at my place this week it has been hard to concentrate.

my magnets drying


Don't forget to pop down to Racecourse Road on Saturday to visit me if you can. I will be inside the Church hall on stand number 10. You don't have to buy anything, it would just be great to meet you!


Hope everyone is having a great week.
I'll be round for a visit if I get a chance.
Michelle

Reno Update & Goodbyes

Okay firstly to my 'goodbyes' - no I am not going anywhere but today I said goodbye to some faithful old friends. You see, I am having laser eye surgery in two weeks to restore my vision and I had to say goodbye to my contacts today - ahhhh! I have to wear glasses for two whole weeks prior to surgery, and as I have come to rely on my contacts, having worn them for more than 15 years now, they were very hard to give up. I must say, I have a headache that could kill people today due to the fact that my glasses to not have transition lenses (never thought I would need to wear them for any length of time). So I'm not too sure how I will last 13 more days without finding some ridiculous looking sunglasses to put over the top!!

Love to know if anyone else has had this surgery and what your experiences were.

Okay enough of my whining - on to our renovation update. Unfortunately there is not a lot to report as we are in the boring stage - you know in the middle - so I will show you where we are at anyway. The image below shows the main bath with some floor tiles that were laid today. I love them already! The tiles are porcelain and even though I only budgeted for ceramic I am glad I went this way.

The image below shows the ensuite - you can kind of get the idea of the shelf we are having down one side.

The following image shows lots of tiles etc. in our bedroom! Oh the fun of renovation!

Hopefully next week I will be able to show more finished images along with a bit of a budget breakdown - oh and I think I might actually have a breakdown when I finally add it all up!!
Happy weekend to everyone. Michelle

BiECO Christmas

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?
Well, I know just the place for you to start - the HOTest place to buy all your handmade goodies this Christmas - the BrisStyle Indie Eco Market!

The green carpet will be rolled out ........

Saturday, 6th November
St Augustine's Church Hall and Grounds
Racecourse Road
Hamilton
9am - 2pm

I'll definitely be there along with many other BrisStylers selling their eco wares.

Along with my usual goodies I will be selling some handmade eco Christmas tags
and decorations .....

and some Christmas cards .....

Along with all the handmade goodness the BrisStylers will be selling vintage, and vintage inspired wares. I'm sure there will be something there for everyone!

Don't forget to mark it in your diary .....

I'd love to see you all there. Once again, I'm inside the hall so if you have time please
pop in and say hi!

Other than sending out lots of orders and preparing for BiECO this week I have been watching my bathrooms slowly taking shape - I'll have some more pictures for you all on Friday. My tiles have arrived so I'm looking forward to seeing them go down soon - yay!!! Hope you're all having a fantastic week. Michelle

Doug Up In Sydney

As I mentioned in my last post, my favourite store on my Sydney trip was Doug Up On Bourke. For those of you who are not familiar with the store it is a treasure trove of antiques and collectables, and is one of the largest single stores of its kind in Sydney. One of the best parts is that all of their stock is sourced in Australia and they specialise in mid 1800's to late 1950's! I could have stayed in this store for hours looking at all the interesting objects .... well we were in there an hour and a half!

Thought I would share with you what I managed to dig up on Bourke along with some of the fantastic things they stock.

Love it all ....

Wish I had room for this one ...

How cool are globes at the moment?!

They stock lots of shoe lasts - along with cute little child size ones ....

One of my girlfriends bought an old green iron just like this one ....

They have a great selection of stools of all kinds ...

Speaking of stools, I am on the lookout for an old stool for my main bathroom. Maybe an old milking stool or something. If anyone has seen an old low stool for sale in Brisbane I'd love to check it out.

...... and now to what I managed to dig up ....

All images except for this one from Doug Up On Bourke

A really cute old recipe box for $10 which is perfect for holding all of my unframed artwork. A bobbin which I just had to have as I adore them $35, and an old ceramic electricity cover for $10 - not sure what I will do with this one yet! I was certainly happy with my little haul, but next time I need to allow a lot more room in my suitcase!!!

Doug Up On Bourke will not disappoint those looking for something different. They are located at 901 Bourke Street, Waterloo in Sydney.

Renovation Update: I am still in the thick of a renovation zone and have no decent pictures to show you all yet. I can report that I have gone over budget though (boo hoo). My initial budget was $15,000 as advised by my real estate mate, however, after setting myself a more realistic budget of $20,000 (we are talking two bathrooms here people) I am still struggling to stay under! More on that next week.

By the way, if you get a chance over the weekend, pop over to Natural Modern Interiors and take Lisa's Interior Design Workshop Poll - I know she would appreciate the feedback.

Have a great weekend everyone. Michelle

Sydney and Reno. Update

Hope everyone had a great weekend. My girlfriends and I had a fantastic long weekend in Sydney, we only wish it could have been longer! We managed to shop until our feet hurt a lot eat, drink and of coarse talk until the wee hours of the morning. We haven't had a weekend like that in a really long time - it was actually the first time I had spent 3 nights away from my children - lets just say I needed it!!

Thought I would share some of the highlights with you. We ate spectacularly each day, which was one of our goals - one of the best restaurants we ate at was a place called Wine Odyssey Australia at The Rocks. The menu consisted of some awesome Australian fare and along with a-la-carte you could order off the 'Flight Menu'. This menu consisted of a three course meal with the wines already selected for you - and let me say is was delicious to the extreme! Now I have had this type of meal before, usually costing in the region of $100, but this was a little different with each meal being a tasting portion at a total cost of around $35! I had the Sparkling Wine Flight pictured below - with poached quail egg on brioche toast, king prawn & sweet potato gnocchi, and duck terrine to finish - yum!!! All the wines were exceptional too - if you live in Sydney and haven't tried it I would definitely recommend you put it on your list!


After the main, the dessert menu which was also a tasting dish for only $26, was washed down with a port! We all agreed this was our favourite restaurant of the trip.


We started out with a wish list of shopping destinations and got around most of them - Doug Up on Bourke (my fav), David Met Nicole, Koskela, Have You Met Miss Jones (closed while she is on leave unfortunately), I Ran The Wrong Way, Oxford Street strip shopping, and Oxford Street Markets, Pitt Street and the QVB Building (of coarse) - phew we were certainly exhausted at the end of each day, but it was well worth it!!!

Coming home I was a little anxious as to what I would find knowing that the demolition of the bathrooms was taking place while I was away. Well, they didn't disappoint - my house is full of rubble as you would expect, but I am really really excited about the new spaces! The main bathroom is going to be a great size 3.5m x 2.5m and the ensuite will definitely be adequate at 2.5m x 1.4m. At the moment they look like this ....

main bathroom

looking from main bathroom into what will be new ensuite

ensuite

The new walk-in-robe has been sheeted, along with the new linen cupboard.

walk-in-robe

The builder and plumber are back tomorrow and all of my bathroom goodies arrive - yay! Hopefully I will have some better images for you all by the end of the week. I'm off to look at more tiles - I can't seem to find any I love but I will keep you posted.
Michelle

Renovation Update & Sydney

Hope everyone is having a great week. No need for guessing - my week has been really crazy and stressful due to trying to find EVERYTHING for my main bathroom and ensuite along with organising trades (aagghh!!) by today! This in turn has led to me dreaming of bathroom ideas ..... or should I say panicking about my bathroom ideas.

With the budget a lot tighter than it was with the rest of the house - I can hear my friend (and real estate agent's) voice in my head "you can do both of these for under $15,000" - It has meant putting my dream bathroom on hold for a slightly lesser version - or has it? Armed with many images in my head the challenge was on!

Dream item number one on the list is the
freestanding bath ....

waterforce

This bath is obviously beautiful, and comes with enough room to place your glass of champagne! The price tag - you guessed it - well beyond my budget. In fact the one I really wanted was over $2,000 just for the bath (yikes). The challenge - to find a budget version .....

Fairly similar no?

And the price .....

Yes, you read it correctly $999.00 - and, as I purchased everything from the one outlet this was open for negotiation too!! The place (thanks to Sonia from Raine and Sage) - The Builders Discount Warehouse. I went to the one in Springwood but there are other outlets. If you are thinking of renovating your bathroom I thoroughly recommend them - nothing is too much trouble, and if you have an image in your head - they will do their best to find it for you. So thanks guys!

With Tilers, Plumber, Electrician, Glazier and all fittings organised I can now quite happily fly out to Sydney tonight for my long awaited girls weekend - yay! I think I deserve a glass of bubbles ... or two.

I'll let you in on more of my renovation rants next week - the upstairs of my house looks a little like a war zone at the moment. Hopefully I will be able to show you the before and after shots of my walk-in-robe next week, along with some more bathroom news. I am also hoping to visit you all again shortly - I have really missed having time to read all your news. Michelle

p.s. added 3:45pm - OMG I can hardly type .... I have just seen that paper tree design is on the front page of bluecaravan - wow!!! No wonder the orders are coming in faster than normal!! I'm sooo excited. Check it out at bluecaravan if you get a chance.