And so it begins… 28 February, 2009
Posted by Kt in Bathroom, Extensions, Kids' rooms, Kitchen, Lounge.3 comments
We had a draftsman over this morning to talk about our plans to extend the house and build a granny flat (or, in this case, a grandpa flat). He’ll get back to us on Monday, and then it’s all systems go.
The draftsman (Phil) thinks we might be able to get approval in 10 days once the plans are done, using some new guidelines/regulations that come into force today.
Our plans are to add another bedroom, study and dining room to the back of the house; rearrange the front of the house to give us a bigger master bedroom and family room; change Polendino’s current bedroom into a bathroom (with bath!) and build a one-bedroom cottage at the end of the yard for Wing’s Dad.
We’ll all move into the front of the house while the back bit’s done, and then move into that while the front bit’s done. Then we can fitout the new bathroom and re-do the kitchen.
Phew… I’m exhausted just writing about it.
So take this as a heads-up that the next 9 – 12 months will see lots of activity on this blog as we get stuck into this major project!
Busy fingers 10 October, 2008
Posted by Kt in Art, Kitchen, Whatever.add a comment
One of the great things about school holidays is having the time to do some of the little projects that we’ve been adding to our wishlist over the past few months.
Just today, the house was a hive of activity. We had Hamble making sunprints with some paper he bought himself at the NSW Art Gallery months ago…
Booboo was busy making spooky, blood-stained invitations for her pre-Halloween party (she also made a stained-glass suncatcher to hang in her bedroom window)…
And the boys and I made some rather spectacular marshmallows (almost more chemistry than cooking)…
Shroom 26 June, 2008
Posted by Kt in Garden, Kitchen.add a comment
Look! Our first mushroom! It was yummy.
Kitchen organisation 29 December, 2007
Posted by Kt in Kitchen.5 comments
Now that we’ve been using the kitchen for two months, we’re starting to work out where the storage is insufficient, and where the workflow between preparation, cooking and cleaning is less than ideal.
Today saw us braving the post-Christmas sales to visit Sydney’s only Ikea store (two more are in the planning stages). We picked up a whole bunch of Gruntdal kitchen aceessories, and have spend this evening drilling holes in the walls.
Storage to the right of the stove:
Storage to the left of the stove:
Note the new red stove-top kettle – a Chrissie pressie from Mum & Dad.
Note also that I still haven’t worked out how to clean the grout between the tiles. I’ve tried just about everything, and am about to resort to repainting the grout white.
We’ve had to work out how to live without any drawers in the kitchen. The major issue is cutlery – we’ve gone cafe-style with some more Ikea containers, one each for knives, forks and spoons. And another for chopsticks, of course.
Kitchen 17 December, 2007
Posted by Kt in Before, Kitchen.2 comments
The kitchen’s been slow in coming together.
First the painter stripped all the pink wallpaper and painted the walls and ceiling (the ceiling needed 6 coats).
Then our builder removed the old stovetop and the bit of benchtop that was rotten and grease-laden, chucked out the dishwasher and the shelf that held the microwave. He also relocated a cupboard and some benchtop to fill the spaces left once all the yucky stuff was gone.
We took all the beige doors off, and found a gas stove that fit perfectly. We tried to get some Ikea doors to fit the cabinets, but they were too short, so we ended up getting the Builder’s Bargain Centre to cut new white melamine ones. Much fiddly drilling was required, and some incorrect hinges needed exchanging, so it’s taken us ages to get around to hanging the doors. But finally, they’re up.
Here’s the before shot of the troublesome corner:
And here it is now, in the middle of cooking dinner tonight:
Cooking with gas 19 October, 2007
Posted by Kt in Before, Kitchen.2 comments
When we first got the keys, we realised the kitchen had no oven. Sure, it had a convection microwave, but it appeared that the devil himself had crawled in there to die (his spawn had evidently followed suit in the dishwasher).
Not only that, but the chipboard in the bench-top beside the sink had swelled up so much that there was a cavernous gap down beside the built-in electric stove-top, into which had fallen all manner of grease-sodden food scraps.
Chris took that entire section of the kitchen away for us. We need mention it no more.
This leaves us with enough room to put in a GAS STOVE. Today we bought a 5-burner gas stove with electric oven. Stainless steel and sweet as:
The oven has 116 litres of room for cupcakes!
And so it begins 29 August, 2007
Posted by Kt in Before, Kids' rooms, Kitchen.add a comment
The first tradesfolk came through today – these ones to clean the gutters and down pipes. Ten autumns’ worth of leaves had turned to black humus throughout the stormwater drainage, and as a result, every time it rained, the flow off the roof backed up into the ceiling above the front door.
Tonight, Boo and I pulled down the sliding door in the kitchen, took the doors off the built-ins in ‘Dino’s room (we’re going to replace them with curtains to make the skinny space more usable) and ripped handfuls of nails and screws out of walls, windowsills, doorjambs… Wing joined us to dispose of the disgusting microwave and some other kitchen bits.
It’s already looking and feeling different. More ours.
We have the keys 13 August, 2007
Posted by Kt in Bathroom, Kids' rooms, Kitchen.1 comment so far
This arvo I picked up the keys from the agent and got to go through the inside of the house for the first time. Three bedrooms plus a sunroom – just right. The carpets and wallpaper are a disaster and, sadly, the kitchen and bathroom both had chocolate-brown renovations in the 70s.
The kids immediately agreed on the bedroom allocations, which makes things easy. Booboo will have the converted sunroom, Hamble will have the big room behind hers (connected by an internal window for maximal sibling annoyance) and Polendino will have the smallest room. This last one was a surprising choice, but he assures me it’s in the centre of the house so he’s close to everything.
Hopefully I’ll be able to go back tomorrow when the light is good enough to take some “before” shots.
