Big brothers are the best

Big brothers are actually amazing. There's been a few jobs at the new house that we just haven't managed to get done, because I couldn't find someone to do them! Two of the downpipes out the front were rusted through and not running into the drains, a few of the down pipes were missing their bottom piece that juts out to angle them into the drains and the vents in the ceiling and wall in the lounge for the gas to flow out of the house when we use the gas heater were missing and needed to be purchased and installed.

Enter Jared Goodlet, the master, who did it all, and then fitted my dishwasher to boot. What a legend. He took his time to make sure it was done properly, problem solving as he went along and did such an amazing job.

I can't even tell you how grateful I am to have a big brother who has always had time for me. ❤

 

Plumbing - after hours

You literally can't even make stuff like this up. We got home from a kids birthday party in Bullsbrook this afternoon and there was water all over our driveway. It had been raining quite a bit the last few days so I wasn't surprised, but what did surprise me was that it was all randomly in one spot, when it hadn't been raining for hours. I kind of thought yeah well that's weird went inside. A few hours later I came out to put something in the street bin and not only was the water still there, it was rippling in the middle. Definitely something wrong. Sooo I go and check the water meter and sure enough, it's spinning... there's a damn burst pipe - UNDER the driveway, with a home open looming just after lunch time tomorrow. AUGHHHHHH.

So - I called our local plumber, no answer (they actually got back to me the next morning, they had a family birthday and didn't have the phone with them. They are so lovely!), the Jims plumbing for our area, not available... by this stage I was losing my damn mind - this NEEDED to not only be fixed, we needed for it to be not at all noticeable the following day. WELL, after one more call, oh did they deliver. Mick from next door came out and started digging up the driveway to find the leak, the kids went next door to Sammy's and Doug and I helped with getting the bricks out. The plumber arrived within an hour (all the way from Kenwick - yes they were still local, the owner lives in Brabham, this dude was on call), found the fault immediately, dug it out, repaired it and tested all of the pressure quick smart, then filled the hole, compacted it and repaved the driveway. I absolutely thought I could not be happier, until Sammy had dinner ready for us too! We have the absolute best neighbours and that is the only sad bit about moving.

But I still can't believe it happened today of all days. Fingers crossed all goes well tomorrow.

Sheers are in!

Our sheers are finally in! Oh my goodness, I love them! I love having something to cover the windows of the house, and with the amount and size of windows in the living area, we decided to go with sheers, as they won't block the incredible view (definitely the most important thing to consider here haha) and are nice and soft, still letting it all the light.

I am 100% obsessed with this photo of Doug checking them out after their installation. He honestly looks like he is walking through a fine art gallery.

Seriously, look how pretty!

All that beautiful light!

In the master bedroom, we had sheers fitted, with a black out curtain behind them. I learned very quickly when letting tradies in during the warmer months that there was going to be no sleep for us past 5am in summer if I didn't do something about it. 

Hellooooo new house! I can't wait to actually move in! 

❤

Empty pantry

My pantry is finally painted and looking flash. It was the very last thing that had to be painted and we were avoiding it like the plague cause I couldn't empty it until I had space to do so.

Here's why. Who the heck knew I could fit so much into a pantry. I am constantly amazed at pictures on Instagram and Pinterest of these "perfect" pantries... where the heck is their food?! Mine is packed in and in very mismatched containers. Who can afford to outlay that much money to make them all match? Seems like a waste of money to me... I use all Dougs old supplement canisters.

My only matching ones are the sistema cereal dispensers that I have collected from opshops over time.

So yeah. It was a pain taking it all out and I can't imagine putting it back in will be any more fun. I'll be taking out a stack of stuff we don't use regularly and taking it up to the new house, that's for sure.

One thing that has completely blown me away, is what a bad job of painting the previous owners did. The pantry wasn't even the same colour as the rest of the house - it was a purply colour similar to the colour the front strip used to be - and the frames hadn't even been finished. Thank goodness for our very OCD painters as it now all looks wonderful!

Here's a before shot - so glad it's done!

My new kitchen!

Oh my goodness. What a difference a new kitchen has made to our new house. I have to admit, I hated the kitchen... the setup was perfect but the colour was hideous. I wanted the whole thing gone, but knew I was going to have to wait, until Doug told me to do it before we moved in, as he couldn't stand the thought of me having to live without a kitchen at a later date. Originally I had asked the bloke who did our wardrobe fitout (Luke from Defined Cabinetry) if he could strengthen the drawers as they were sagging and that was not ideal for me haha. He suggested politely that the kitchen could be upgraded without demolishing it, which both Doug and I were thrilled with. Next minute, we've got a quote and are going ahead - and I got to have my GREEN kitchen I have always wanted! Woo!

Originally I wanted to get rid of the lot, I hated the marble. But my smart husband pointed out that he was sure it wasn't the marble I hated, that it was the colour with the marble. What do you know... he was right. I LOVE it with the green and I am so glad he made me look at that as an option.

I am in love with my new kitchen and cannot wait to use it. We raised the cabinetry all the way to the ceiling for more storage and to make it look sleek and finished (100% for the extra storage!).

Brushed gold handles complete the look perfectly and even better, one of the only things that was left in the house was a wall clock that matches perfectly! Crazy. 

One of my only problems was going from a 900mm oven to a 600mm, but Doug solved that too - we got a second oven! We couldn't get a second one the same, but I was actually so thrilled about a stuff up that happened when we ordered two new ones. They were on clearance and had to be transferred to Perth for collection from Bunbury. We had paid and hadn't heard anything after a few weeks so I followed up. Turns out the paperwork wasn't done - and someone had sold the ovens - the last two in the state. I was then upgraded to a better model, which were almost a thousand dollars each - and I had paid just under $1400 for both. Winning. PLUS, the Outlander came to the rescue yet again, when they both fit in the back along with my toddler when they were ready for collection.

I LOVE it. So much.

SO much storage room!

We also managed to find a $999 top of the range dishwasher on marketplace, unused and still packaged, from a display home - the person who had bought it had a personal preference for a different brand, so sold it to us for $600. Winning!

As you can see, the before was absolutely nothing to write home about...

While the after is flawless. I love the integrated rangehood too. So flash!

A few days after it was finished we got the loveliest gift delivered too. Our new neighbours had been over to see the new kitchen and when they were shopping the next day, bought me a casserole dish that matched the kitchen perfectly. So sweet of them. The only thing that has upset me about the move so far is moving away from our current neighbours as I love them so much - so it's lovely to know our new ones are just as nice! ❤

The attic!

It has always been my dream to have an attic. I grew up reading any book I could get my hands on and most of them featured fabulous attics full of antiques and sloping ceiling beams with dusty windows. Look I'll take what I can get, considering my attic is solely for storage, but I am thrilled with our first addition to the Kendall Dream House. Our first tradie in was Ben from Aussie Attics to fit this amazing ceiling space, which is about 16m x 2ish m high in the middle - perfect for all my storage needs considering I don't have a shed (yet!) 

There is a staircase/ladder leading up from the entrance in our bedroom and light switch on our wall courtesy of Tom our resident electrician right next door. He simply disconnected the light that was in the entry and reconnected it in the roof. Bingo.

The entire room is dustproof and capable of holding plenty of weight, I am really stoked with the finished product and well intend on storing all my party supplies in the roof. So much room for activities hahaha.

Looks a-maz-ing and I am beyond happy.

Thank you Aussie Attics! 

renovations - complete

i actually cannot believe it... our home reno's are done and dusted. on christmas eve, we did our handover and everything looks amaaaazing! we are so happy and love all of it. 

so, long story short, our bathroom was not waterproofed and was leaking through the wall to the theatre and over time had done a lotttt of damage. we plan to sell this house in a few years when we find another house we are happy with, so the only logical solution was to renovate all the areas with issues so when the time comes, we are ready. room one was our bathroom/ the theatre room repairs. due to all the moisture, there was an insane amount of mould, both areas had to be gutted back to brick, before they replastered the theatre - resulting in it needing new carpet, new skirting and a paint job. fun times. it looks amazing in there now though! even better than it did before.

our bathroom also had to be gutted, so it could be redone and waterproofed prior to the new install. we kept the same shape and setout, but customised all the cabinetry to fir the room perfectly and to add a pile of storage. i love it and we are seriously happy with the end results. most impressive was doug knowing i would have loooved to have had fish scale tiles, but also knowing how fiddly and painful they are, and finding a tile which had that pattern embossed into it. i love them - and using them as a feature wall - even better. i love that there is a niche in the shower too, ready for my shower bottles to look all fancy... and the biggest surprise is that i love the shaving cabinets. i ummed and ahhed about them for so long, only to finally go with them and i am obsessed. all neatly stacked already and it's the best storage! i'll absolutely do them again in any house i have in the future.

i mean honestly, check out this eye sore. the only things i didn't like about the house when we bought it were the bathrooms and laundry, so i was thrilled to see them go. the colours are just ghastly. but it was fixable. the only thing that really made me angry, was finding out that the previous owners were aware of the water damage and chose not to disclose it, in fact the real estate agent didn't even suggest that we have a building inspection... which i feel certain would have uncovered all (if not the majority) of the issues we've had to repair. lesson learned for next time.

i am obsessed with my new laundry. it is 100% my favourite room in the house now. it's so sleek and elegant. i love the beautiful white lines, the clean white subway tiles, the gooseneck tap, and the washing machine that just completes it so nicely. i went looking for a washer with something else in mind and went with this one because it just looks so classy. i love this room so much! there is even a powerpoint in the cabinet for my dyson to hang and charge and little open shelves by the window where i can keep my laundry powder and a succulent on the top shelf. obsessed. they absolutely nailed this room.

as you can see, it was not great to start with. no shelves at all, the only storage under the sink and those blerg as heck colours again.

sleek toilet, with the gorgeous black feature wall again... and a flush back toilet (which we also have in our ensuite too). the new toilet was the most exciting part of this room to me, as the toilet that was previously there was stufffffed. there was a crack in the pipe below the concrete line and tree roots kept growing into the pipe, causing a blockage and leaving us with a toilet that wouldn't flush. our plumber friend told us that roots will grow for hundreds of metres seeking good fertiliser which toilet waste obviously is! after having to clear the pipe 4 times in the last few years, we are thrilled to have a second toilet back in our lives!

another very blergh room to begin with, with a drain clearer stashed behind for emergencies baha.

last but not least, the kids bathroom. featuring the deepest bath i've ever seen, another nice black tiled feature wall, drawers and shaving cabinet storage yet again. as a bonus, the door now opens fully instead of bashing into the shower door! winner

this room constantly smelt wet and had no room to even turn around. it is obviously not any bigger than before, but the clear, high glass, the final setup and the door opening fully has given an illusion of a much larger space. i cannot get over the difference!

we are so, so happy with our renovations and highly recommend ruan and his team at lasting impressions home renovations. we had a great experience with all the tradespeople and were so impressed with their high standard of work. 100% happy with the final product. so glad we made the decision to go ahead with them. 

bathroom 1 complete

well, bathroom number one is finally complete! when we moved into this house almost 6 years ago, the only things i hated were the bathrooms and laundry. i just was not at all into them, the colours especially. a few years after we moved in, we found out there was water coming through the wall into our theatre room, bubbling the wallpaper and wetting the carpet. it got worse and worse, to the point where the wallpaper began peeling off the wall. we plan to sell the house at some point in the future and know we won't be able to sell it with the water damage, so we decided to go ahead and reno the bathrooms, repair the theatre and upgrade the laundry while were at it.

i was so so anxious during the process, they came and completely demolished the ensuite, then had to strip the theatre wall as well to replaster and repair it. i cried the day the theatre got ripped out, the damage was so bad that i thought it wasn't repairable. but bit by bit and day by day, the tradies worked their magic and created this beautiful room that looks incredible!

in all the samples and pictures and inspiration i found, i loved the mermaid tiles that were available. but the grout and work in them were horrendous. doug looked at the options available from the renovation company and chose these gorgeous black tiles with a scale style embossing on them. they look incredible and we are so happy with them. i have to admit that seeing the bathroom is so weird to me. so clean and huge, but really nicely done. i am sure i will get used to it in time.

we are really happy with the finished product though and i cannot wait to see the rest, which is being undertaken as i type. it's going to be amazing.

 

bathroom inspo

what a freaking nightmare. on our list of to-do's for our house is to completely redo both our bathrooms. the kids one has always smelt slightly musty since we moved in, but smelt wet in the winter months, even when we were not using it. we had a plumber come in and look at the two (as our ensuite has leaked through to the wall behind in the past also) only to find that the two of them were not sealed correctly during the build and are leaking into the rest of the bathroom and house surrounding them.

oh great. 

however, (here enters jade the eternal optimist) when we bought the house, the only things that i did not like were in fact the bathrooms and the laundry. just not to my taste at all. so, this gives us a chance to make them something we are happy with! i was totally convinced that i wanted white and grey, but after doing some googling/pinteresting over the last week or so, i am obsessed with green! dark green/white/copper pipes are totally singing to me. now just to get the husband on board. 

here's some of the pics i have for inspiration, which i am posting here, so that when we decide on what we are doing and actually finish it, i can look back and see if it's anything like what i currently have in mind!