Flooring dilemma...

If you have been following my blog you will probably know that we recently added on a small extension to our home. It sits at the front of the house and is made up of a hallway in the middle( with front door) which now takes you into the already existing home. A 'formal' lounge sits on one side of the hall and a bedroom on the other. Just 3 rooms. I have been searching for timber flooring to match the rest of my house but as 'bad luck' would have it they no longer make it and to my disbelief can't find anything that matches. So I have hit a bump in the road and come to a standstill. Now I do have enough timber left over from before to do the hallway so my biggest dilemma is.. do I use another timber.. or go for carpet like hubby suggested. I really don't want carpet as I've been there done that and with kids and living on acres I know I will regret it later.

The other problem is that I already have another type of timber in the kid's bedrooms so this would make it a third type of timber in the house.  Admittedly the new timber will be in the lounge on top of which I would have a big rug anyway, and in my bedroom, so a lot of the furniture would cover the floor .. so I would love to ask you, if you have the time, what would you do?????? as this is driving me totally nuts!!

I cannot wait till the floor is done as I'm aiming to have my home finished inside by Christmas. I have been purchasing some pieces though along the way,  to put in lounge room.

I'm pretty sure you know which way I am going with this.

I have had these oil paintings of Paris for about 15 years now. Someone came knocking on my door at night selling his paintings and I really liked these. I like the one with the Eiffel Tower in the background the most but of course being a Libran I had to buy another one matching to have a pair. I've had these in storage for the last 10 years now. I'm so glad I kept them but I will be changing the frames though to more vintage ones.

Please excuse the junk in the background, at the moment my lounge room is one big mess! See the floor still waiting to be done.

 OK better go as I have dye in my hair and it's been in there for way longer than what it should be... God forbid someone should knock on my door... which did happen once.. oh... the... embarrassment..!!
take care.. Maryann

Painting done and blogger sitting on the fence!

Well, I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! So I will try and go back to fill you in on what's been happening,(which may prove to be a tinsy hard since I can't remember what I had for dinner last night,,)

So, I know for sure I ran out of gb on my computer last month and couldn't use it for a few days, so had no temptation to check for msgs, check out new blogs, check ebay,etc, etc, etc.. It really is amazing how much one can get done without temptation lurking!!  So I have made it one of my goals to stay off as much as possible and use my time more wisely and efficiently. I will still be blogging but perhaps only once a month where I will fill you in with all my boring details...

 Ok.. FINALLY MY HOUSE PAINTING IS FINISHED.... well atleast from the outside. It all looks one colour now... yellow.. I love it.. it makes me happy! I gotta tell ya though that hubby of mine is one slave driver.. if he says tomorrow we are painting this, this and this, there's no changing his mind. Gulp down breakfast and off we go. I really should take a leaf out of his book, and stop thinking about doing something and just get on with it!
Here's some pics,

We are going to pave infront of the house and down the sides and put in a cottage garden as well.

I would love to convert my old front verandah into a sunroom/sewing room and have mentioned it to hubby not long ago( was waiting for my extension to be finished first before I hit him on the head again with another project) Have to say though he didn't say no.. I think, maybe, just maybe, he might do it. Question is when???

I love my french doors, if I could I'd take out all my sliding doors and replace them I would.

Last Friday was Lisa's birthday. She turned 17. She's the one far right being silly with her friends

She is growing up so fast now. She has a boyfriend and will be going for her driver's licence in a couple of weeks. Need I say how I feel?  Sick.. yep totally worried about everything and have the weirdest dreams of her being eaten by sharks... true!  T'was just yesterday she was only a 4 year old who adored mummy, dollys and pink! Atleast she still likes pink.

I just want to also say sorry to those ladies I normally visit and leave a comment on their blog. I have been sitting on the fence when it comes to blogging but I have been reading what you have been up to! Will promise to leave comments at least once a month and honestly you don't have to leave comments on mine all the time too !

I have just started up my sewing again and am working on some orders which I had since before last xmas and some new ones too. I am making a pretty roses quilt for a very special customer and I'm looking forward getting back into it and hopefully some new stuff for ebay. Will post pics as I go.

I managed to get a quote on getting my bargain find reupholstered..

I think now maybe it wasn't such a bargain find, not unless I can do it myself. They want $1850.00 and that's not including the outer material, .. what do you think.. it sounds like alot to me. I think it will be residing on  my back verandah a little while longer.
Well I think that's it for this post.. I do hope all you lovely ladies have been well and happy.. take care, hugs always, Maryann

Painting my house yellow..Yay!

With the Easter break soon upon us Fred has planned to paint the exterior of our extension to match the rest of the house. Then when that's done it will be up to me to paint all the trims and front door white. I hope it's still going to happen as it's been raining since yesterday! Oh well atleast my grass will start to grow where we had that massive pile of dirt right in front of our house, that came out of the excavations. My garden will be loving it too  as everything was a bit dry as you may have noticed from my garden pics.

this is the original front verandah

Sorry about the messy curtain in the back there, that's my laundry which we haven't painted yet and I just tend to throw everything in there right now. That's another post.

I am also looking forward to starting on the landscaping around the front.. but that may take a while.

Hope y'all have a great day, take care, Maryann

My lounge room chandelier..

Have you seen that movie "Castaway' with Tom Hanks.. the part where he's in the cave and he keeps flicking his torch on and then off, then on and then off..... well that was me yesterday with my lounge room chandelier! I just had to show you a pic of it!

 It's been in storage for the last 4 years but finally took it out a couple of weeks ago to work on it.. well all I did was give it a good clean by spraying it with hot soapy dishwashing liquid and then I hosed it down. Yes I had to use the hose it was that dirty and prayed it would still work when it was dry. Ofcourse I covered the globe bits with a plastic sleeves to keep the water out. She came so sparkly. I love it.
She did look like this...

I have to say I was a bit disappointed when I took her out of the box. I forgot what she looked like. I really thought she was 2 tier with a row of globes up top and bottom.. but they were all at the bottom... that's how good my memory is for you! Plus she was filthy, a bit of a let down really to how I had remembered her. I can't tell you how relieved I was when I saw the dirt just dripping off when I started spraying her and her shine was coming through. I just love it now!

I decided not to do the scrunchie thing over the chain as I think its just part of the look of the chandelier.  Have a great day, the electrician's back this morning to finish off a few things so better go get dressed! take care, Maryann

Lisa's bedroom ~sneak peak~

I have just finished painting Lisa's room. It was green before (as this used to be the boys' room)
and have now painted it the softest romantic pink.. I just love it. Just don't ask me what it's called as it's my own concoction of 3 different whites and 3 different pinks, I just kept mixing till I got the colour I wanted.

The lamp you see there is waiting for its makeover, and I have just put in Lisa's new bed (still waiting for a mattress)  It has the same design at the foot of the bed aswell. We purchased this exactly a year ago so we were both anxious to get it out of the box..  we love it and actually were fighting for it but, ok... I let her have it!!

I've also started painting her furniture as you can see

This wardrobe is nearly finished just putting on the last coat today.. then can start on her drawers.

Hopefully it won't take me long to put it all together and you can see the end result. Have a great day, I think the sun may just make an appearance today, fingers crossed!

Take care, Maryann

Reno update- painting almost done!! Yeah!!

Well ladies, we are surely into the new year now! Hope this one's a good one for you! We went away for 2 weeks over the holidays down south as we have a van at a caravan park and it was great not to have to do anything but eat and sleep and fish and walk. The kids love going swimming and going on the biscuits! For those of you thinking.. what the? that's when you lie on a big rubber tyre or doughnut and get pulled around behind a boat! I tried it once and that was enough! Being dragged behind in a straight line is not so bad but when they go from side to side trying to get you off is another. Nope, I'd rather read my mags!

Anyhow, on to the fun stuff... lol! Here are some pics of my house where I have painted.. no more yellow,  just white and am loving it.

After I took this next pic I wasn't quite happy with the look, this corner has me baffled abit on how to decorate it as it has no purpose really. This was where the window used to be so now it's more of a reading nook I thinking.

so I put the camera down and after shuffling and adding a few things it now looks like this....

So there you have it. I am slowly putting everything back where it's supposed to go and giving everything a good clean as I go.  At the moment I am getting ready to do Lisa'a room. Today my 2 nephews are coming over for a few days so won't be getting that much done...   Hope you have all been well, take care, Maryann

painting, painting and yes, more painting!

Well the title pretty much says it all. It took us a while to start painting as after undercoating everthing I had to get the electrician back to put the light switches on. Well, when we turned on the lights at night, hubby wasn't happy with how the joins looked on the ceilings! They looked perfect in daylight but not when the lights were on. So he started... rubbing and filling and rubbing and filling and rubbing and filling and I was going crazy.. enough is enough!

Anyway FINALLY it's done and I have started painting and put the colour on the walls. I went out and bought the paint 'barrister white' by dulux which from the sample pot looked great. A dark creamy colour which would look great, or so I thought.  I painted my entire bedroom but I just couldn't get myself to like it. Where I had lots of light and sunshine it looked perfect but where it didn't have much light it looked to dark. Sort of a creamy yellowy colour. No, it won't do! So I quickly ducked down to the hardware to see if I could get it in half strength but they couldn't do it by exact measurement so I ended up getting a colour I didn't even get a sample pot of. I ended up getting 'antique white'. It's funny how sometimes I can think about something for so long and still get it wrong in the end.  I'm really happy with this colour now, much lighter and will brighten up the house even where its not so bright.

                                                                        Hallway

My Bedroom

The walls still need to be done in the lounge room, but I ended up getting something I have always wanted for a long time. A ceiling rose! Nothing too fancy as I want the fireplace to be the main feature in this room.

Well there's been a change of plans for James' room. We had intended giving it a nautical feel, couldn't wait to do it until someone convinced him otherwise!! Grrrrr!  Lisa had been in his ear!

I quote her "Mum, you can't do James' room all beachy, he'll be teased at school and he'll be bullied"

Surely she was over reacting .. but apparently she wasn't. Bullying is a big problem at schools now and I know not long ago James was getting bullied on the school bus!  Ryan also told me not to do it, so looks like James will be having a typical boys room with cars and  'no theme'.  Oh well, the main thing is what James wants so now I am totally stumped about his room. Looks like he'll be getting Ryan's furniture.

Have also been busy in the vegie patch planting all summer vegies, tomatoes, zuchini, beans, cucumber, lettuce to name a few.  Am off now to put some more cow manure in one section to plant a heap more tomatoes as when I have extra  I love making a basic sauce with them and freezing it in portions ready for the next pasta dish ( instead of buying jars!)   Then it's back to painting.. !

take care ladies, will visit soon, if I haven't already.. Maryann

HELP!!! what a mess..!

Hi girls, sorry for not posting or visiting lately but this is why...

If you would like to recreate this look simply place an industrial fan at your front door, make sure it';s open ofcourse and sprinkle 40 kgs of flour infront of it!! wha la!

Jokes aside, I cannot tell you what I have been through these last couple of weeks. We have been gyprocking. Hubby and I took on the job, with the help of relo's too, and what a big mistake! A job that would have only taken the pros' 4 days took us 3 wks and the mess is unbelievable. Hubby was SUPPOSED to block off the rest of the house but somehow it didn;t happen and now I have dust everywhere. Carol, if you are reading this, no I am not coping with the dust at all! It has been a totally depressing experience and have a heart attack everytime someone comes over,  but on the upside its nearly done, just a few going overs in the lounge room.

Yesterday I started undercoating and is starting to look a bit better.  I am thinking of colours now, as I have decided to get rid of the yellow (as much as I love it) and probably will end up painting it and the rest of the entire house 'Barrister white" by dulux, which is a bit darker than my white furniture.. Still can't decide whether to give James' room a blue feature wall...will have to decide soon though.

Unfortunately my sewing has come go a grinding halt, no way can I sew in this mess!

 Ok better go .. keep well and hopefully next post will have some nicer pics!!!! Have a great day, Maryann