Making An Entrance

Yesterday we walked down our entrance and I realised it can be something special even if it is rather small and narrow.

Obviously this is a little bit wider than ours but still... i love this very very much and am hoping we can achieve something similar. Its actually pretty basic, lovely old slabs of concrete, creamy render and something just a little bit magical

Curvy and Loving It

Well I am very happy to say I now have my curved wall.... and its heaven.

its such a subtle curve it looks so great, I just want to run my hands along it however the bricks are sharp and so i wont.

So picture updates just for you.....

Where Did All The Fun Go?

So I was at the train station yesterday waiting for my train and the most perfect little girl walked down the steps with her mum and I just had to smile.... she had obviously decided to dress herself and of course she was wearing a bright purple tutu! With sparkly red gum boots and a pink cowboy hat.

And standing there in my very chic all black ensemble with tan shoes and belt I though ... when did life stop being fun. I'm not talking about champagne and high tea kind of fun (Although I wouldn't say no) I'm talking, when did everything we do like dressing in the morning or even decorating a house go from being fun to being a form of art. I love colour and every so often I will put on a skirt I own which is full of brightly coloured flowers and tulle. Why do our houses resemble some calm urban form of being "part of the crowd" when we could have something that just makes you smile when you open your eyes.

There is a house of our beachfront which is clad.... and every year first week in January the paint it a completely different colour, this year its yellow, last year it was this lovely creamy pale blue.

This is another house I found on the Houzz website and while I'm to much of a conformist to have this as my every day house - I may well just use some of the ideas for my dream down south house.

What do you think..... too much?

Rolling With The Punches

I started out this post determined to speak to you about the gate house we are building but somehow my eye keeps being drawn to country gates ... and I think that's the same thing in life. You plan for something, you have your heart set on it and then something changes, something else comes along and you have a choice to make, you can fight against your instincts, you can stick to your meticulously planned life or you can step back and just go with the flow....

Obviously its going to be uncomfortable to step back, its going to feel like your head is going to explode because you didn't plan this, you didn't choose this.

And before you start scratching your head - I do realise that this is a very ambiguous blog, I cant really go into the details yet, I'm still fighting against the tide myself but in one small way I'm going to allow myself to let go... these pictures captured my heart, I desperately wanted this life today, I want to step through those gates in a pair of wellington boots, my comfy baggy jeans and a big baggy jumper, I want to breath in the cold air and watch my breath smoke when I let it out. I want to listen to nothing buy the roar of millions of leaves fluttering in the breeze as I walk down my long muddy country road and just be.... no thinking, no plans for the day, just me ...

So no gatehouses - today its me walking down a road, a road I haven't planned, haven't put on my to do list in life, something I wanted but just not yet, but maybe, if I just let go it will be just as great as my plan, maybe it will be better and I hate to use the word fate but maybe this is part of a bigger plan I'm just not aware of yet.....

Easter For Adults

When I think of Easter I instantly thing foil, tummy aches from to much chocolate and those terrible pastel colours usually associated with very small babies.

However just to prove Easter can be a glamorous grown up affair take a look at these eye catching Easter design ideas....

Tres Chic

Ok so again with the holiday ... am so looking forward to my holiday. 6 weeks of swanning around Europe eating and doing the annoying tourist thing of stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to admire the architecture.... I have the most wonderful husband who puts his body between me and the annoyed residents taking all the pushing and shoving himself while I jump up and down over a window or roof line....

Don't get me wrong, I also do the same in front of a particularly lovely shoe store but we wont go there... I am trying so very hard to be good.

Anyways, I found the most amazing hotel in Paris called Seven Hotel and the reason I love this hotel is because it just looks so cool. Its one of those hotels that has just decided - screw Parisian Chic design, I'm cool and different so take me or leave me.

Well baby - I'm taking!

Drama Filled Weekend

So on Friday I received a call from the builder - I should say frantic call from the builder but we will stop at call because even thinking about that call gets my heart racing.

So I received a call and the builder advised the the feature brick we wanted to use on the curved wall was on hold. The reason it was on hold was because the machine that cuts the bricks into those lovely rough shapes was broken ... when they asked how soon it would be fixed the brick maker just said ...we don't know, it could be weeks, it could be months ... ehhh its all good.

Well it isn't all good we needed a wall because we couldn't even start moving onto the next stage until that was done...

So over the weekend we ran through all the possible options.

1. Wait months for the machine to be fixed - no additional cost but possible 2 months delay


2. Find another brick - not possible, only 2 brick companies in WA and neither had what we needed


3. Use a stone cladding - No additional delay but approx $5,000 cost


4. Render wall and use laser cut panels on curve as feature - No additional delay but extra costs

So after much deliberating we decided on option 4 - we will be rendering the curved wall and the upstairs wall, we will be rendering both - the upstairs in green and the curve in sea mist and we will be using the screens after handover.

I'm pretty happy with the decision - It was a big one to make because in my head, I wanted the bricks but .... the saying, you roll with the punches really does apply!

The old bricks

The screens

I Can Almost Taste the Escape

Ok so im not going anywhere ... at all but at the moment every single image I seem to be drawn to is a cute little house miles away from civilisation.

Does that make me anti-social? Possibly, but I can think of nothing better than getting in my car and driving down to a cute little holiday home to sit on my couch and read in front of the fire.... oh oh oh or even better, sit on my verandah and watch the silence with a lovely glass of red and a lovely pair of ugg boots!

Drunken Inspiration

While dancing the night away at the casino on a girls night out I stuck my head into a new restaurant that has just opened up called "Rockpool" and was blown away by what I saw.

This is breathtaking and I instantly thought - WOW I can do that at my house and I know the exact hallway where it would look best. Obviously i would only do it on one side and on a much less grand scale but still, I think it would look great, walking through the front door and then you see this.... What do you think, i found a few of my favorites and am just waiting for the moment I can hit "buy"

My Head Is Falling Off

The last week has been one of the most insane weeks of my life ... work wise anyways. I have not really had much time to think - grown men are being demanding, nothing is going as planned and last minute requests are just expected to magically happen. And here I am - Hopefully with my head still in place as things quieten down. The engineers will now spend the next 8 weeks closeted in their little room reading the tender documents intently leaving me time to do what I do best - Plan my house.

An updated for the house - its kind of all stalled at the moment, im still waiting for the feature stone bricks to come from the eastern states ... and I think my brickies have moved onto another job so im guessing things are just going to sit where they are for a while ... sigh.

Look Up

So my blog has been a bit dull lately with all these wonderful pictures of red bricks.... admittedly to me its one of those exciting moment where I pinch myself and say ... this is my house but reading about them every day must get to you. You must think - My god! How much more brickwork can I take.

Well you will have to take alot more because I still have another floor to go but today I thought I would show you some images I have been saving ... Wallpaper on the ceiling. Such a simple idea and yet its heaven, I am sure I will do this in a kids bedroom, love the idea of bright yellow and white stripes but then again ... these are just as great?

What do you think - Are you game enough to try this? Perhaps the bigger question is - AM I?

Hallways and Shoes

A bit of an odd title but lets start with the hallways.

Obviously with a long house you need hallways and when I was designing I tried as hard as I could to make mine interesting and light spaces. Well I can now finally start to see what they are going to look like and I have to admit I'm pretty damn impressed with myself (Silently patting myself on the back)

This is the walkway up to the front door and these are my very special windows. They just give you a little glimpse into our house, and its lovely, really lovely the way the light filters through. Inside the hallway runs from the garage to the entry.

Outside

Inside

This is the big hallway finished between the entry and the kitchen / living area. This is where the pool rests up against and I love how very wide it is, its almost a room of its own - I really adore this space. I cant wait to see it finish, I have such plans!

Finally - this is my entry, its small and it doesn't give you much of a hint when it comes to whats beyond, I like that - I like how you have to walk around the corner in order to see how the house expands.

Oh and as for shoes - I have found the best pair ever for walking on site. You wouldn't think it but these little babies meant I had no sand in my shoes at the end of my visit - oh yes, this could be the new pair of house visit shoes.... just need to add a steel cap!