Faking It

Lately we have been considering 'faking it', and not in a botox, faux fur, or self-tan kind of way but by installing synthetic turf or fake grass.

smart turf

As the inside is almost complete, we are turning our attention to the outside.

We have an area at the back of our property by the pool that becomes a complete quagmire when it rains, rendering it quite useless. We have even taken to fencing it off from the dog lately, with all the recent rain he seems to be constantly covered in mud up to his armpits!

gc flooring solutions

There are also two areas at the side of the house that are so tiny it's a real inconvenience to bring the lawnmower out (if you know what I mean).

The solution ............. beautiful, evergreen, non-growing (is that a word?), drought hardy fake grass!!

Awww - so cute!!
compare quotes

Has anyone else ever faked it, or considered faking it? I'd love your opinion.

Hope you're having a great Monday.
Michelle

p.s. I must apologise for my recent absence, but it was a big week in our house - my oldest started school! Of coarse all the grandparents had to be there for the big day, so we had my in-laws staying over from Noosa - it was a great week and she had a wonderful first day!!
On the way to school this morning she asked if I thought she would learn to read this week - I didn't have the heart to explain that prep is still play based and it may be a while before she learns to read - looks like I may have a job at home!!

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

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

To Ikea, Or Not To Ikea?

Hope everyone has had a wonderful week! This week, in Brisbane, we had a public holiday for Ekka. We decided it was a good idea to go to Ikea .... (ahh)! Not a good day to do this as half of Brisbane had the same idea!
Anyway, I very rarely get my husband to shop at all (let alone at Ikea) so I eagerly took this opportunity, popped no. 1 daughter into the kiddies play land, strapped no. 2 daughter into the pram - constantly watching the clock as I know it normally takes me around 3 to 4 hours to get around that place - not a chance with husband in tow! We had 1 hour before daughter no. 1 had to be picked up so the race was on! Breezing past the isles I would normally linger at .... then, my husband said - what about an Ikea vanity for our ensuite renovation? What? Shock, Horror .... then I took the time to look ..... they actually don't look that bad, and an entire double vanity with taps for $1600!!
So, I was wondering ..... To Ikea, Or Not To Ikea .... has anyone else dabbled in an Ikea bathroom before? If you have, what did you think? Was it durable? Can I make it look expensive? Anyway, my head is full of questions. Of course I went straight to Google and here is some inspiration ...

The Smartest Fish

Love the image above - in this bathroom they have painted an Ikea island bench and used it as a vanity .... who would have thought??

pics digger

Ikea with marble ..... may just be the right balance?

Ikea Fans

The image above shows a similar vanity to the one we were looking at - it comes in other colours and finishes.

Plastolyx

The vanity above shows an Ikea carcass and a concrete top - possibility?

Bathroom Furniture Reviews

Lastly .... is this really Ikea? It looks a little bit minimalist for us, but still can't believe it's Ikea!


Think I need to do a little more research but potentially we may be able to create style on a budget! What do you think?

Hope all you Brissy followers had a fantastic People's Day, and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Michelle

p.s. I left without my usual "I've been to Ikea for 3 hours" headache so maybe there is something to be said for having my husband in tow!!

Vinnies Finds

As you all know, I have been slowly stockpiling yummy things to put into my youngest daughter's 'big girl bedroom'. Recently I have been looking for a 'girly' bedside table to paint - I have had no luck on ebay, and everything in the stores looks too ...... well 'new' ..... and not quite right.

Well, things happen for a reason as yesterday I popped into my local Vinnies and found these two lovely bedside tables for $12 ea - okay not quite so lovely at the moment .... but nothing a coat of white paint and some beautiful crystal knobs won't fix - right?! I think I need to channel Kristine from The Painted Hive as I have a few projects for her room now! Will post about these in a few months when I have completed them - wish me luck! Oh, and any of your lovely suggestions would be good. Michelle

More Reno After Images

Hi everyone, hope your having a great week. Last week I promised a photo of our kitchen as it looks today. I'm no photographer, and I did find our kitchen hard to photograph because of its galley style, anyway here are some after images:-

Yes, I usually have some form of baking in my kitchen - this is not a set-up! If you ask any of my friends they will tell you that my mother's chocolate slice is usually under the glass dome. My mother often bakes it for me (spoiled I know) but sometimes (when the cravings strike) I do bake it myself.

The artwork on the wall is one of my hearts.

If you missed the before images and want to check them out, you can see them here.


The image below is of my laundry - we replaced the bench top with the same stone as in the kitchen. We still have to get rid of the yellow cupboards (they matched the original kitchen colour) and re-tile the splashback ...... many jobs to do!

Lastly, I just thought I would share my mother's chocolate slice recipe as its a great winter one:-

For Chocolate Coconut Slice you will need:-
4 rounded tablespoons of butter
3/4 cup of sugar
1 egg
1/4 coconut
1/2 cup of sultanas
1 cup of flour
1 tea spoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons of cocoa (big ones - I usually put in 3!)
optional - but oh so good - 1 handful of roughly chopped cooking chocolate
1 tablespoon of milk

Then: Cream butter and sugar. Add egg beaten in the milk, then add all the dry ingredients and mix. Bake in moderate oven (180 degrees) for about 30 mins - I find that in my fan forced it is done in 20 mins.
Icing:- just do your favourite - we do 1 cup icing sugar; 2 big tbspns cocoa; 2 tbspns butter; small amount of water

Hope you enjoy this one. Have a great day. Michelle

p.s. I will be announcing my giveaway tomorrow so please pop back in and say hi!

Reno Before & Afters plus Another HR Find

Hello everyone, hope you are having a great week. As promised below are some before and afters of my lounge. This is where my husband and I spend most nights just chilling out. Once again, apologies for some of the images - I wasn't intending others to see them! Please also realise that my house is not 'staged' - this is how we live 'warts and all'.

Below is image of our lounge AFTER. The framed 'bus scrolls' are actually tea towels that I framed in Ikea frames for an all up cost each of $10!! The doorway to the right goes into the girls' playroom which we created from a car space in the garage that was originally for 4 cars.


Image below is BEFORE. Please note the horrible windows which you will see in the next set of 'after' images I have replaced with cafe style bi-folding windows with seating. Toys are everywhere before we created the playroom.

The door (shown below) was the original entryway into this room. It is now where the t.v. sits and on the other side, our fridge in the kitchen - if you missed these 'before and afters' and wanted to see them click here, and here.


Below more AFTER images of the lounge. The first image (sorry about the light but it was very bright this morning) shows the cafe style bi-folding window with seat that we put in. This leads out to our front courtyard and entryway.

Below the AFTER image of the playroom entryway - we have tried to make it look as 'adult' as possible from the doorway.

Below is the AFTER image of the playroom .... when you walk around the corner - this is what you see - all the girls toys! Yes, I have put tags on all the baskets for ease of finding where each type of toy goes - I know, it's the Virgo in me!!


The final AFTER image of the playroom shows the craft area - I did a post a while back about the pin board I found in an op shop for $4.50 - here it is in situ.


Lastly, on to my Hard Rubbish find! I was driving through a neighboring suburb on Wednesday and oh my gosh if I didn't spy a Casala chair out of the corner of my eye!! Well, my heart skipped a beat as I did the u-turn to go back to have a look ...... not 1 but 2 Casala chairs!! Okay they look a little bad right now all dirty and covered in cobwebs, but, they will clean up okay and I will then have them resprayed for my new side deck that is being started next week. Yay!!!


Oops, just realised I said I would post an image of my kitchen again as it looks 'today'. Sorry, I will do it next week.
If anyone wants any contacts for tradesmen or companies in Brisbane re renovation, just ask - I have folders brimming with contacts as this is reno number 4 for us.
Hope you all have a great weekend - we are just doing a bit of work on the house ready for next weeks phase two to begin. Michelle

More Reno Before & Afters

Hope everyone has had a great week. Sorry I have not visited anyone this week as I have been very busy with school holiday 'stuff' and filling wholesale orders for stores. I hope to knock on all your doors over the weekend.

As promised, some more before and after images are to follow. I have only included our outdoor entertaining space and kitchen today - and not the final kitchen image I am sorry as it was too dark when I got home to get a good photo :( I will also show you the lounge etc. next week as the light just got too bad! Once again please forgive the ..... ahem ..... 'unstaged' look of our home.

Below is the outdoor entertaining area at the back of our house as it looks today. Sorry about the leaves in the pool - it was very windy today!

We had the pool completely renovated (resurfaced) and the tiles outside replaced to match the new tiles indoors. We also installed a glass pool fence. The image below shows looking from inside out towards the pool.

The image below shows how it looked before (yuk)! The lattice (not my fav) and the old pool fence really closed in this space.

On to the kitchen, if you want to see what the old kitchen looked like, please refer to Tuesdays post here. The room below shows where we created the new kitchen - it runs right next to the laundry and downstairs bathroom, so it made more sense to locate the kitchen here for ease of flow and a cohesive design (the 'ghost' in the laundry was someone who didn't want to be shown in the image). The door shown on the second image below is where the fridge now stands in the new kitchen, this was the old door to what we now use as our lounge. Are you confused yet, because it's getting late and I know I am!!

Below shows part way through the renovation.......

Below is the new kitchen, some of these pictures were taken before we painted etc. The light was so bad today I had to use some images I already had. Will take a better one for next week.

Looking back at all these pictures made me realise how much we actually have done! Not that far to go now to finish the whole thing off .... looking forward to that day so we can have a bit of a rest and enjoy it before we move on. Thank you all for your lovely comments on my previous 'before & afters'.

Hope you all have a great weekend. I am exhausted, and, just between you and me, can't wait for pre-prep and daycare to start back next week! Think I'll spend my weekend trying to catch up on some sleep! Michelle

The Reveal

The finished product!!

After sanding and removal of old vinyl.


Finally, after a few hours and many chocolate eggs, my lovely retro chair has a new life!! The leather upholstery proved to be a little more challenging than I thought but all-in-all for a novice I think it turned out pretty well. First I sanded the teak back with a coarse sandpaper, then a finer sandpaper, and finally I gave it a buff with steel wool ...... and wallah the wood feels like silk! I then decided to apply furniture wax, instead of varnish, which has given it a gorgeous light glow while showing off the beautiful grain of the teak. I then cut the camel coloured leather to size (this was scary), and stretched it over the seat and back of the chair fixing it with furniture staples. My chair now feels wonderful and looks beautiful too. If you are up for the challenge you can find many vintage chairs for sale on ebay. Happy hunting!!