Oh Christmas Branch

After selecting the handles we were able to install them last weekend. The butt handles above look really good and are super sturdy.The middle cupboard has a push open feature as don't use that cupboard much, (It has our circuit board in there) and I think aesthetically it looks better without a handle. The handles below give a slight retro feel. All our finishes on the tap, fridge, oven and sink have a shared look. Solid with rounded edges.


We have added a new rail on the opposite wall. The spice rack from IKEA holds most of our small packets of tea (the spices stink up the whole unit if left out). Better to store the teatowels on the rail too rather than hanging off a door handle or oven handle. The pot holder works well as a paper towel holder.

There are two swatches from Wattyl paints on the walls. We have narrowed down our choice of grey down to two. Snowdonia, or Windspray. I think we are swaying towards the lighter swatch, (Snowdonia) especially seeing that the white we used is called "Manhattan Snow" its only fitting that we stick with the frosty theme.


Getting into the festive spirit, we put up a tree. Well more like I scabbed a branch from the neighbours bush and stuck it ikabana style into our spiked vase. A bit of mood lighting from our fairylights that were sitting dormant in a box under our bed all year.

We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

I found this image a long while ago and always loved this combination of yellow and white. I like it because its utilitarian, its techno and retro in one. Its neon and makes an impact.


These swatches of green are by Wattyl. They made the shortlist as a feature colour I wanted to use in the bedroom.


The colour we opted for was Perfect Flower. Its shockingly bright from the paint tin and after the first coat on the wall it just looked like fluro yellow! Now that we have finished off the third coat (The instructions say two but it really needed three for a totally streak free finish) It's worked out exactly the way I thought.



Here's a couple of shots of the finished result. What I love about this colour is how it almost glows at times. Its in a sneaky corner in our bedroom where half the wall is behind the door. The colour changes so much depending on how the light hits it at different times of the day. Sometimes it looks golden, at other times more like a deep lime green.

PS: That bedroom door is original and its life is just about over. Its been over-laquered, its got flaked bits and chips, dints and paint flecks on it. It's catching on the frame and scraping off paint on the architraves.

Switched On

Bill the electrician has installed all our lights now. A great idea for the light next to the bookcase is a pull switch. No routing in the concrete walls required as the switch is attached to the ceiling. Makes this corner nook feel like a library. Dont mind the extra mess on the side, as we are still finishing off the kitchen and still have some flat pack ikea bits and bobs that we need to install.
These pull switches are really good but are pretty expensive for what they are. I think this basic switch was close to $30. The halogen lights make the glass vases look like crystal!



The pendant in the middle of the kitchen is our main source of light, but we have included a second pendant in the corner near the food prep area and sink. Stops shadows over the bench and it has a nice "bistro" feel to it. I love the cord. Bill said it is the same cord they use for irons. We've used warm globes as opposed to cool globes to balance out the very slight blue tint from Manhattan Snow, (the Wattyl white paint we have used on the walls).



OK so at the moment the bedroom light is looking like a bit of a monstrosity, and it glows like a UFO too. The light globe is a tiny halogen but emits 300watts. Its like a white-out when its on. Need to buy a smaller wattage globe and fit it before we finish off the acrylic gems and frosted base cover. I'll post up an image once its done.
We bought a 100watt globe on the weekend and finished off the light. Here is the finished light.

Get a Handle on it

We have thought about handles for a little while and even though they seem like a small and silly thing to dwell on, they can actually make or break a kitchen. Trust me, I have seen many a disaster kitchen from Google image search to justify the fuss. So many kitchens could have looked good if they didn't make such awful choices on handles. We're teaming up the handles with our current accessories. The fridge is a little retro, the oven and tap have curved, rounded knobs but we still want to keep things pretty minimal. We are being drastic and selecting two different handles. Apparently this is not the normal thing to do, but I am convinced this will look good.

So the cabinets above will have a sneaky little pulley type knob that sits on the edge of the door and is attached from the inside of the door. The drawers need something a little stronger, more sturdy. They will have a curved corner slightly stocky (not so elongated or square). They give the cabinets a bit of a retro feel which I think will give the kitchen a bit more personality. You'll see what I mean when I show you the pictures of the handles attached.

PS: We are buying our handles from United Kitchen Co. They have been very friendly. They make and install kitchens and sell a big range of entry doors, bedroom doors etc. There's a guy there called Phil, good customer service. He has the same thumbs as me which is really rare. There are specialty shops that only sell handles and door knobs. One in Leichhardt too, though they're rude - and pricey too I believe. (These things seem to go hand in hand I've noticed).
See so it goes to show the importance of handles, you can find such a huge range and shops dedicated to them!

Whats Cooking Good Looking?

The kitchen we had for the last couple of months was getting to be unbearable. Check out the before shots. YUCK with a capital Ugh!



With a fresh start. Demolition took a couple of days. The tiles were really hard to get off the wall. and the cork like underlay which protected the original vinyl tiles was a nightmare. We used the power drill mainly with a jackhammer type chisel end to remove it. It was incredibly noisy and we went from the blocks least liked to most hated neighbours. The plumber disconnected the hotwater system and modified the existing tap sockets. Bill the electrician removed the oven. (Which we've recently sold on ebay for a bit of extra pocket money.)


Peg worked through the weekend and I joined in on Monday/Tuesday just passed. We had 3 days to complete the kitchen and on the 4th day, installation of the hotwater system, sink and taps as well as the lights, oven, cooktop and rangehood installation. We were overtime. Rescheduled the electrician. Fit in the plumber in the afternoon instead of the morning. The modified cabinet in the corner was a killer and the benchtop was almost chucked in the bin ready to start again. The masons mitre join (which connects the two pieces of benchtop in the corner) seemed straightforward but was a real bugger to get right. Only one second chance for a recut (which was really a trim) to realign or the whole slab would be history. It worked out in the end but it was one of the hardest tasks of the kitchen building process.



So this is where we're up to. ALMOST finished the most of the cabinetry. Waiting on a few cabinet drawer fronts from IKEA and eventually a splashback and floor will slot in. Handles are in the works and will be attached soon.

A Kitchen Update: Update.

We have installed the high wall cabinets.



Pete has also demolished the original pantry/cabinet that was located on the opposite wall. Most of our kitchen belongings are sitting in half made ikea base drawers and we were able to fit the crockery and other large items in the cabinets. It was really tricky to patch the concrete wall behind the cabinet as it was the original unpainted concrete with a thick line of paint on the edge. I'm thinking this wall will be painted a dark grey colour, we will wait until the rest of the kitchen is in before we finish that wall though.


Spot the difference:

Trees Beneath My Feet

Check out the floor in the kitchen. When we moved in, the kitchen was lined in a wood-look vinyl sheet. It lifts up when we vacuum it. The grossest part is that it has been laid right over the top of the filthy 1965 original kitchen floor. (Also vinyl, but a thick stuck down like a tile sort). You can see from the torn off bit, that Toto has chewed and eaten it (bad bunny). The existing carpet has been laid over the original underlay too, some sort of heshin sack type material that frays and flys through the air when touched. (Yuck). The carpet is Nylon. Brownish, beigy pink. Under all this is the concrete floor which by the sneak peek is quite significantly chipped and damaged so may need a bit of patching before we lay the new floor.









The new timber floor is currently stacked up behind the sofa. It's another one of those gigantic, space engulfing items we purchased when we first moved in. Knowing good and well we weren't going to need a new floor for months, I bought them anyway. The bargain was too good to pass up. $400 for just under 30sqm of real wood! They're the click together sort but with a bit of extra glue needed for support. On the packet it reads southern chestnut but based on what I've seen, this could be in disguise. The colour is quite brown, and this isn't a stupid thing to say, because when you see the HUGE variety of timber available, theres pinkish, yellowy, orange, grey, blue, greeny, and white-like woods. Dark, light, and grainy woods. Thin, wide and long bits of wood. Its actually very hard to find just brown. The unique thing about this timber, (besides it being brown) is the little flecks of black through it, which I LOVE. Check out one of the pictures, it looks like a little peeping black eye.





Still on the shopping list is some "Acoustic Minimising" underlay. This is a special sort that reduces the noise to the unit below. Its about 4-5 times the price but necessary when in an apartment block. Strata usually demand it. I've heard horror stories of people having to rip up new floors because of noise complaints and often strata can reject timber floors altogether. Luckily were in an older block and other units have already got timber floors down so we knew it was safe.

We were tossing up laminate for a while because they look very realistic these days, theyre hard wearing and they're cheap. But you know me, I cant help finding a bargain.

Cashback Splashback

I've been thinking about the splashback in the kitchen. We have decided to go for tiles. They are traditional and are probably the cheapest option (aherm... I mean an inexpensive solution).
But you know what, I think they really ARE the best choice regardless of the cost. One (expensive) suggestion we've had, is to put wallpaper behind a glass splashback. I think this would look good, really uber trendy but uber pricey and besides, our unit isn't going for uber chic, more like retro cool meets modern science lab with a touch of Scandinavian sleek.

Something else I've seen is a mirrored splashback. I reckon the only people who have a mirrored splashback are those that don't cook or those that have a full time cleaner, because they are a pain in the backside to keep clean. You'd expect it'd be those that had the dollars to spend too, because I've heard this is the most expensive option. We stayed in a boutique hotel room once that had a mirrored splashback behind the kitchenette. It made me realise how impractical it was.

Anyway, back to the tiles. You'll have to click on the image to enlarge it to see the layout ideas. (The green is just to see the pattern. We will probably buy white tiles.)
For a while we were considering large tiles. Maybe marble. Yes marble. There's bargains if you know where to look and if have the patience of a stalking lion ready to attack a zebra, then you shall receive. So anyway, we have decided this doesn't work. They're not bright enough and wont match the benchtop.




Number 1 and 2 are similar. I DO like number 1. The brick pattern is bistro cool, and timeless I think, but maybe a bit too country farmhouse. Two words I never want to be involved in are "shabby chic" and "country farmhouse" lives dangerously close. Next door infact. This tile and brick look is everywhere now too so not sure if I want to follow the craze.

I really like the elongated tile in number two and keeping the tile brick pattern nods to the bistro but there's something a little 70's retro about it that I like. These tiles are generally inexpensive too but at $35 a square meter, its almost twice the price of the standard brick shape from diagram 1 (only $20 p/sm). I worked it out though and we'll need less than 4 meters easy so we don't need to buy much.

Are you as grossed out as I am by the layers of grout that's between the original tiles? It's like a clogged up sewer. The renaissance still-life feature tile is NOT doing it for me either nor is the yellowed power socket. I've lost my appetite. Here's a glimpse of the elongated tile from a sample I got from down the road at Classic Tiles.

Degaustration - Hors d'oeuvre

Somethings a little different to the way it was before. But just a bit. We put up our first cabinets. Doing them in installments so its not too overwhelming. All the wall cabinets are actually "Fan Cabinets" from IKEA but they are exactly the same as regular cupboards. They fit really well as a group of three. They are also a nice square shape and are really functional because the doors aren't too big. (56cm x 60cm).

Remember before:

And after:

We are going to place cabinets above for things that we use less often. Stylish AND functional. It's what IKEA is all about isn't it...These will be fan cabinets (35cm x 60cm). The doors arrive in a protective blue coating. The finish is Faktum Abstrakt in white. For a while I was thinking of making a couple of cabinets a feature by buying grey doors, but decided against it because you really cant beat just white for such a small space. Pete also concreted the routing job from when Bill the electrician relocated the fuse box.



The trouble with IKEA is working around their limited sizes. We wanted to build the rangehood INTO the cabinet so that it was hidden. This was something that we had in our rental at Cooper street and we really liked the look. Naturally IKEA does not accommodate for altering. They supply flatpack cabinets. Simple shapes, limited sizes.
Now how clever is this: The stainless steel pull out front of the rangehood was removed and replaced with a drawer front. (These can be purchased as a single item for a few bucks from IKEA.) It is in the same Abstrakt White finish as the doors. The rangehood is recirculating (ie: not ducted) by Omega.
Pete cut down the back and a shelf to fit in the fuse box. All shelves are purchased seperatley because the fan cabinets do not come with shelves.

Below: I realise now after taking this picture that I forgot to peel off a strip of the protective coating from the bottom of one of the doors!


And what did I do? I helped to lift one cabinet and went to work all weekend. I come home and discover this monolithic existence that has landed in our kitchen. Its pretty awesome to see our space change so quickly now.

In the Beginning

Thought I'd post these for those who have not seen our place yet. You can get a good idea of the layout of the apartment. The previous person that lived here did a pretty good job at making the place look nice without having the chance to change anything structurally. I remember the "for sale" ad said something about "vintage(?) charm".

These were the images of the apartment when it was on the market. They were taken by the realestate agent with a nice wide angle lens to fit everything in.



The retaining wall (big long white concrete wall) will be removed and a new "sandstone" wall will be erected from January. This is a BIG project that has cost us a lot of money in Special Levys but its something that we knew needed doing when we moved in. Its going to look much better too. I will keep you up to date in the new year for how things pan out.

Ikea? Ok Yah.

Very soon we will be working on the kitchen which will be very exciting because just look at the current state of our kitchen (chopped together because its so small, I cant fit it in one shot!!). I love cooking (almost as much as I love cookbooks)...anyway, its hard having anyone over for lunch or dinner because there's nowhere to sit and its been really tough cooking under these conditions.We only have about a quarter of our kitchen stuff unpacked from boxes. The hardest thing is baking cakes. Almost impossible but where theres sugar, theres a way.


After much consideration, months and months worth, then some reconsideration, this is the best layout we have come up with. Maybe not THE best priced, or THE most stylish or THE most functional but it is the most of all these things with only compromising on some things. If that makes sense. For example, the fridge will remain free standing, but because flat-pack DIY kitchens offer limited sized cabinets, nothing quite worked without adding a huge cost and dodgy patch ups. We could have gone for just three large overhead cabinets instead of six, but aesthetically six look good. We went for two sets of drawers even though drawers are probably the most expensive component to a kitchen, but these will be really functional (hate reaching to the back of cupboards for things that we will need to use often.)

The sink and hotwater system will stay in place to save on costs from the plumber. Wish we could have fit in a front loader washing machine, but not enough space. We wont be putting in a dishwasher and we don't use a microwave so saved on space there too.


We are going with IKEA because its well priced, offers a good selection of different shaped cabinets and they are actually pretty good quality. Plus they are stylish and have nice finishes.
We are going for a White Abstrakt finish, aluminuim kick-board (you don't see as many scuff marks) and laminate bench top (about a third of the cost of stone and half of wood). Minimal handles.

It's the Little Things

Throughout our renovations, there are many small yet tedious things that we attend to. I guess the difference with us vs an investor, is that they would just paint over things, where as we are not only trying to do things neatly and tidily from the start, but we are also trying to fix things that the last owner did. Plus attending to things that have been ignored for over 40 years. Naturally I can see why because this work is TEDIOUS and we spend so much time working on the fine details.

I have added some pictures of things that we have worked on just this weekend, though there is a long list of these kind of things.

We have been patching holes left from screws in the wall, wall edges where the cement has been chipped off, huge dints in the walls from puling out nails that attached the kitchen cabinets to the walls and washing walls that cad collected a thick layer of dust.



The original light switches and power points were still up. These were replaced with "primo" white light switches with added cover panels so you don't see the plastic plugs that cover the screws.


There are six air vents that had been half painted over and had collected so much soot I think they had stopped doing their job from as far back as 1975. After a powerful suck from the vacuum, we then with a small screw, we scraped off much of the caked on paint that the last owner did. Below shows a close up of the filth, and the below shot is a half worked on grate. The difference is phenomenal.

I see the light. Hallelujah!

After purchasing two white drum pendant lights on eBay, (similar to the ones in the image above) I tested them by holding them up over the naked lit globes to discover that they blocked way too much light. They would have looked great as a low pendant over a table for mood lighting with the assistance of downlights as a main light source, however we are relying solely on two globes to light most of our living space. I couldn't take them back as I bought them privately but sold them on eBay for about twice as much as what I paid so it wasn't much of a loss. It WAS an education on how complicated lighting can be.

I needed something that was transparent. Glass or perspex. An open base. Clear.


Bring in the lights below. I had my eye on one of these for ages and loooked around for the best price.
One of these is a designer brand (or at least a replica of a designer brand, which may I add doesn't sit well with me) the other is a regular no frills light from a regular no frills store.
One of these is heavier than it looks, the other a lot lighter. This is something to consider when purchasing lights as they need to be able to attach to the ceiling without to much downward pressure.
One of these cost a couple of hundred. The other is a display model with an extra 15% discount of an already low price.
One of these was the light of my dreams, the other has woken me up to reality.
Both of these share the same idea and a similar design aesthetic so to me it made sense to buy "the other".

Exhibit A: MattBlatt Replica Massimo Belloni Chi Pendant in Small for $195.00 each.
Exhibit B: A light from a light shop near the Hunter Valley. $75.00 each. Discontinued stock.

I COULD go into fine detail as to why the one above is WAAAAY cooler, but in the end its not worth it and really, I am very happy with our purchases. Whadda bargain! Keep an eye on these when I post after Bill finishes off the electrical work. Probably in the new year.

Mirror Mirror on the Door...

Today we had our wardrobe installed by Impressive Wardrobes.
We went for mirrored doors with gloss aluminium runners and frame. So good to get so much stuff put away now. I was able to fit everything from the 6 drawer chest, clothes rack, elfa drawers, towels, sheets, shoes, suitcases, space bags, iron, ironing board and vacuum! I'm in storage heaven. After cleaning the internals and mirrors and putting everything away (I even have two spare drawers!) I sat on the bed staring at it for a good 30 minutes.


Remember, we had it ready to this stage just yesterday.


I've morphed the left and right in the "after" shot so you can see the layout.


Soooo tidy. - except for the vacuum on the bed.