Mini Orb in the Passage Way

mini orb ceiling of passage way trimmed and finished neatly

 Slowly but surely we are making more and more progress with the renovations in the back.  The laundry is working now, and the bathroom in it lacks only additional glass screen or doors in the shower.  The storeroom is pretty much done too.  Both rooms now have door framing and doors hung.  The framing and doors them selves need to be painted up.  A task likely to get done soon, but on a day when not 35 C !  For fun the doors will be bright colours (I think, ...I mean--why not ?!)

insulation batts go into
passage way roof cavity

Now that the laundry/bath and storeroom are pretty much done, it is time to get the passage way done.  This week has seen that go from not much to nearly complete.  Last week we took delivery of mini orb, in long six metre sheets, needed to do a tidy  finish to the ceiling of the passage way, which runs horizontally past half of the back of the house, with the back foyer area in house structure and the new laundry and storeroom spaces across the passage way from the back foyer doorway and windows.

First Ian put up the rest of the insulation batts.  I was rather relieved about this, because I wondered what we would do with it all, the left over portion from roof space above laundry and storeroom.  I must say, those rooms have stayed temperate, even on hot days, so the insulation is so helpful.  None of those rooms or the passage way running in front of them have very lofty high ceilings.  So the insulation is essential to keep the area from feeling like a little furnace.

the passage way ceiling looks excellent

The area for the ceiling was already framed in steel, work done earlier when Ian was doing a lot of framing.  Once the insulation was in place, he began to put up the long sheets of mini orb steel.  I take it this was a tricky or even unpleasant job, probably because the sheets are very long and we don't own a sheet holder.  I had to work, so could not help this part of the project (and I might not have been very useful anyhow, that is how some of these things just are...Engineering Department finds me not to be useful enough, tall enough, strong enough, or at times I haven't the right attitude !  At times, it seems best to just stay out of the way...).

Now you can see on left the passage way ceiling is done.  Wiring ready for the flushmount light fitting.  Edging neatly applied to finish off the mini orb.

I have been asked what colour will get painted  in the passage way.  Happy day--the icky sicky mint green paint over render can Finally get covered over.  The answer to all of this is a grey colour.  something that will look industrial, not too dark, but with lights will look very smart.  I have to find a suitable product for the icky green side on the right of the snap, as Ian prefers a textured finish over having to make the existing mess of a finish perfect.  The sheet board on left side of the passage way will be the same, but it just needs a primer on the wall finish and then a lick of paint.

close up of hammer finish
metal paint in Gunmetal

Meantime, just outside the passage way (which in last pic is far on right, the dark area)., we have  clad the other side of laundry shower wall in colour bond we had left over from other projects here.  There were two different colours so it looked patchy and funny.  We had some metal paint in a hammer finish that was used on the kitchen island left over.  Just enough to do the job.  Left photo shows the hammer finish in gunmetal colour way, close up.

the cladding for wall, painted to unify scraps of different
colours Colourbond

meanwhile, with washer and dryer in their new home, there is room in the back foyer for a utility sink area.  More on this soon, the plan is drawn up, it awaits its turn for materials procurement now.  Maybe late next week even !

Next work after that will be to finish up bits and pieces, and start making the list we need to do the studio enclosure.  Its the last job to tackle out back.   Stay tuned, as we work to complete the last chapter of the work.

Almost Done: Laundry & Storeroom

 It has been a busy spring of construction so far.  I found a fab old shop trolley and brought it home to keep and use for my art paints, palettes, and mediums.  Someday (when I have a completed studio space to deploy it in !).  Meantime, it has gotten pressed into service as a paint trolley for our works in progress.

And so while Ian tackles jobs big and small around here, things are coming together.

storeroom, with a crate
sitting in middle of the
space

laundry/bathroom, feels
a real room now !

The storeroom and the laundry/bathroom are looking pretty good.  These photos show both as they looked when I departed on the latest business travel, at end of October.  Both rooms with tidy wall boards and ceiling board.  Plus some moulding at top of the walls.   What a difference it makes having the walls and ceilings up.  Like "real rooms."  Though no lights as yet.  You see the electrical cables hanging from the ceiling for the overhead lights.  The photo of laundry on left has a worklamp in it at time of the photo, to light up the area.  Both areas have concrete slab floors, but a bit rough, they will get covered with tiling later.

Laundry now ready for service.
Two overhead lights, installed but replacement
glass domes on order

 And then after my travel, I returned mid November to find a lot done !  Lights connected and installed.  Warm mid grey porcelain floor tiles leftover from our inside renovations laid and grouted.  Walls finished off and painted (Porter's Icelandic Stone in Laundry, Porter's Old Church White 200% in store room).

In the laundry the shower base, toilet are in place.  A sink cabinet and new tap installed.  A broom cabinet also put in the corner.  The washer is in place and even working !!


The overhead lights need new glass covers, as both were broken when we opened the box.  Apparently happened to a lot of buyers of them, the supplier has had to order replacements. But they work !  We will be putting in a sky light in between them.  Sometime in early 2013.  The skylight fittings we want are 440 dollars, just for all the materials.

Accent light fitting above sink.
Need to put up a mirror or mirrored cabinet.
Must find the Dryer bracket
to mount it on the wall.

the shower area, not yet tiled

 The decision of what colour for the laundry walls was especially difficult.  What to use with the mid grey floor tiles, the white appliances and sink cabinet ?  And the cream coloured tiles we have for the shower.  White would have seemed more versatile, but we got the tiles for a good price, $5 a box.  And they are older tiles, made in Australia.  Simple 100 x 200 subway tiles.  But cream, not white.  I was intent to find a way to use them, as we have had to do everything we can to reduce outlay for this laundry/bathroom.  We will also order or later get a piece of tempered glass for the side of the shower nearest to the toilet fitting.  A fixed pane of glass for side of the shower.  The other two are the corner shown in the photo, yet to be tiled.  The un covered side will have a rail and a shower curtain.  That's the plan at this point !

Storeroom. one overhead
ceiling light and two
pendants, with simple
decorative glass bulbs.

And the store room is looking very neat and tidy.  A few boxes already moved in.  More when the base moulding can go in.  The wall on right (where the crate is) will be storage.  I hope a wall full of closet/cupboards.  Not too deep, maybe 60 cm deep.  Floor to ceiling (which is not that tall).  Fitted with shelves for lots of storage space.  Underneath the pendant lights, will be a desk.  To its left, most or the whole wall will get painted with chalkboard paint.

More soon, I have more with tiling done to show next post.

Looking Like Progress

Wall boards have gone up this week--
it's beginning to look like a real room !
Wiring for overhead lighting dangles from ceilings.

The work on the back construction has gone so slowly this late winter, or so it seems.  I know it is all important bits, framing, preparations to put things in place.  But it has taken its time, even though Ian works on it all week and every day, all day long.  He only takes breaks to do other chores or watchmaking on the weekends.  So good marks for industriousness for sure.  But the work that has been underway was just that sort of slow thing that takes while when only one person is advancing the tasks each day.


Last week the electricians were in doing some cabling and soon we need to have the lighting fixtures ready to be put in and connected.  Must source these before they come back--needs to be at the ready (so I am told !)

wool insulation in the ceiling space

So this week it was a bit exciting to see insulation batts appear on the construction site !  Honestly, I never quite know what will be out there or going on when I step out the back door, so this was a surprise and a development too !  Eco wool batts, nice and fluffy and not as scratchy as fiberglass sorts.  They looked like dirty sheep in colour actually like noone bothered to wash the fleece (like sheep can look when running around in dusty paddocks, the same colour as the ground they trod upon !).  Apparently there is a mix of fibres in there, including some little bit of glass content, but it does look and feel like pure wool batting.

gyprock sheet lifter,
a very useful tool

The insulation went in between the framing and then wall boards went up.  Ian borrowed a gyprock sheet lifter to put the ceiling panels up.  But even with the lifter, it was still a heavy and difficult job for one person going it alone.  (I wasn't readily available throughout the timing for this task, with work and other appointments already committed.  And maybe I am not the best helper for a task like this anyhow ?).

some wall and ceiling boards  now up in the
laundry/bathroom (pale grey)

Today the wall boards started to go up.  And by afternoon, what a transformation.  Before that it all looked so rough and like an outdoor place.  By afternoon it was looking like an interior room !  I can really see what the space will be like.  Yes, these two rooms are smallish, not palatial proportions to be sure.  But they are now looking very tidy and I can imagine they will work out very well.  For people just checking in or finding this story, the room on the left and below foreground (before ladder) will be a combined laundry and bathroom.  The room in the photo below (at and beyond the ladder) will initially be a store room, but next year we will fit it out with a wall full of built in cabinets/cupboards, a desk, and a wall (opposite the built in storage) painted in chalkboard paint and covered to allow sketches and also place for creating mood boards or other inspirations.  The wall board material in the two rooms is different, a water resistant product has been used for the laundry/bathroom (paler grey finish, the regular gyprock is a grey beige colour)

wall boards on walls and ceiling
of the storeroom (beige).  

Both rooms will have sky lights.  Ian has found a sort he will order, not cheap, but looks well engineered.  Oh well, why not !  The space between their exterior dome and the interior is short, so not much ducting or tubing is needed.  But these rooms are bounded on sides by thick stone retaining walls, and a low ceiling.  Windows were not practical.  So sky lights will give us some filtered light during day hours.  And we will have good lighting for other times.  The skylights will be where you see green in between the insulation battings.  Though now ceiling boards cover it, and have careful markings to cut the interior skylight area when the exterior skylight unit has been installed.

Part of next week I am away to Sydney, short business trip and doing my world hours plus local timings meetings from there.  Wonder what things will look like on my return ?  Stay tuned for more news.  And maybe some ideas on procurement of lighting fixtures.

Back Construction Now in Progress

gorgeous glazed old doors at the salvage
building supply yard

I have been slow to post on this blog, have been cloistered in working during the winter.  In the past two weeks, we have gotten construction started on our back extension and fit out project.  Ian is busy with this every weekday.  We have begun to source some of the building materials we need for our project.

First, a peruse for some old doors.  Ian has had to restore several of our old doors, they were in shocking condition, you could see throughout the cracks in their timbers and one let rain into the house when rain blew a certain direction.  They had rotted timbers that had to be replaced to restore them.  And also get wood putty, and glue.  It is a fussy and time-consuming job that is also rather boring.  But we wanted to use the old doors where we could, as they have fab old door hardware, including ancient old locks with big skeleton keys.  Ian has made them all sound again, and even restored the locks so I can turn the keys more easily.

We picked this yellow painted set.  Had the
best door furniture, hardware, and in best
condition.  No warping.  Awesome 10 lights,
fitted with thick beveled edges on each light.

At an Adelaide business selling salvage building materials we found a range of great old ten light glazed doors with beautiful beveled glass and door furniture.  All in wonderful condition.  This appealed to Ian a lot after all the doors we had here that were in such poor repair.  This set of glazed doors seems to have come from the same building we think.  A careful look through them helped us pick the ones we thought were a best fit.  Happens to be painted yellow, so will definitely get new paint work in time.   This set of doors will be the entrance to our studio, coming in from the old red brick paving and path we have put in.

The door I spied and WANT !  Still have to talk
Director Engineering into this.  Need to
work out if it suits one of our door requirements.
Fab big door with half glazed facade inscribed.

This week we will go back, after three more doors.  Plus maybe one additional to replace an interior door that is a sad cheap door (probably replacement for the original one ?).  We want a door that matches the character of the other interior doors in the house, but sized to fit the door frame set in the stone wall, and it is not a very big doorway, so we need to find something to fit or that can be cut to fit without ruining its character.  The other three are for the extension under construction and will include a door for the new laundry, I hope to find one half glazed (top half).  One for the storeroom next to it.  And one for the steps out of the studio  at the steps that go up to the clothes line, also half glazed if we can.  I found one for either the laundry or to the clothes line steps, with old inscription Operations Branch.  I love it and would love it in one of those areas.  But considerations include the side of the glazing the inscription is on, and the side of the door already organised for the hinges and knob.  also its size.  This turns out to be a rather large door.  Might not fit the laundry space (which has a lower ceiling height).  And not sure if the hinge and knob placement plus inscription work for the one to the steps up to clothes line.  This to be worked out this week.  And then a trip with the trailer to the salvage yard.  See if it is there still if suitable. If not, find something else and bring it home to design doorways around.

Steel framing for the laundry.  Washer and Dryer will go on
the far wall, stacked in left corner.  Need to find a cabinet for
 sink for middle of that wall.  

Meantime, work is underway for the wall framing for the laundry and also for the storeroom to its right.  Ian has chosen steel framing.  As you can see in the pic, the framing for wall boards is all up and he has also put up framing beams for the ceiling boards.  He now needs doors to work out placement of door framing to hang them in place (which will be done later).  Because we want old salvaged doors, we need the doors and he can build framing for their size (or whatever cut down size we decide for them).

The far wall you see there is a stone retaining wall.  This property is built on a slope, we have heaps of stone retaining walls.  Other side of it is a water tank and pump, we catch rain water from roof into gutters and drain into the tank.  The pump sends the water to one of our large tanks up on the hill behind our house.  One of the tanks is plumbed to provide water to the toiler.  The others are storage reservoirs.

We don't want to use the retaining wall for our interior walls.  It is thick enough, but it is rather rough in finish and a neater fit out will be had with framing just in side it.  So both laundry and store room to its side will be fit out this way.

The  roofing materials above the laundry and storeroom will be renovated with some transparent polycarbonate roofing.  This will allow us to create some "skylights" in each room's ceilings, for a bit of filtered light.  See how that looks in material of same sort in pergola roof as shown at centre top of last photo below.

This last photo shows the framing for the side of laundry.  Plumbing in place for a toilet and shower along the right side of that wall.  The other side of the wall will be finished off and clad with something on the studio side.  And tall bookcases will go in front of it.  Reference materials for art and design studio.

Outlook shown below is to the someday-studio area, which will be almost completely enclosed.  Do please ignore all the stuff stacked up !  Much of it will go into the store room when it is fit out, we will do it up into a small office with tidy built in storage later on.  But initially, it will be a clean and dry storage space while we get laundry and then studio done.  Large windows planned over looking garden retaining walls.  We are not yet sure whether to get them as salvaged pieces or buy some.  More posts on that as this develops.

Framing of side of laundry space, where a shower will go in right
corner and toilet next to it.  Was the best way to get a second
bathroom in and make good use of efficiencies in plumbing
(one wet room, not two).  Other side of the framing will be studio. 

Exciting, construction happening.  Each day has lots of construction site sounds while I work on my IT things, or on plans for a small local business we want to launch next year.  I asked Ian when the work on the laundry, storeroom and studio enclosure might be finished.  He thinks it could be in December.  Stay tuned and see how we go.  More progress posts to come !

Preparations, and dreaming of a laundry

corrugated metal to enclose space
above a stone retaining wall

It is quite chilly, but we are plugging away making some slow progress on the back extension work.  This part looks quite boring, but it is important to have the basics and foundation pieces done (right ?!). We have stone retaining walls at the back of the property and need to seal them up, so rain does not come into the area.  Once it is all enclosed into  a studio this will be more important a consideration.   Also some of the retaining wall has been repaired and fixed up.  The inside of the retaining walls will be properly lined.  And the space in this area will have skylights, plus nice bright lighting.

We will be using corrugated metal siding for some of our enclosures, so we have started the work on that.

a rather ugly space in back,
enclosed by thick stone retaining walls

Here is an old picture of the inside of the space bounded by the retaining walls.  A rather ugly space, and not very pleasant.  We took a half a container load out of storage one year ago and have had a lot of the stuff stacked up in there, so like shed or garage.   It is still a holding pattern for a lot of it.  Still, I can imagine two working areas here.  One (left, where you see white wall) is a beautiful but utilitarian laundry.  The other, to right, where you see the horrific minty green walls, is to be a small workshop storage area.  To the left of the laundry will be a large lofty and airy high ceilinged studio and workshop space, with outlook to the garden.  French doors opening facing the red brick pathway we paved on the other side (not shown).  And a doorway at bottom of steps shown above (which lead to a good old Australian icon--a Hills Hoist laundry line...and though ugly, it happens to occupy the best aspect on the property for its job of sunning, airing, and drying clothes.  Plus, it is not visible from the parts of the house where we would entertain, and won't even be an eyesore visible from the new studio.   So, it may just stay for a while !)

I do not like Ugly Spaces, but with some imagination, it is possible to consider a more attractive space.

the roof looks low here, but that
is because the rear of the house is facing a
sharp slope, and property is terraced with
retaining walls.  This area is up the steps
seen in previous photo above

Still, many influences at the moment require us to be first utilitarian and functional in our consideration. By this I mean to say, we wish to spend less than originally planned on this part of the build !  I truly had grand ideas for the laundry especially, a full wall of cabinets, including a tall one for stowing the vac, mops and brooms.  A new front loader washing machine (that of course, uses less water and electricity--clear benefits).  A stunning farm sink and a tall necked tap to facilitate filling buckets or whathaveyou !  Gorgeous painted finishes on the cabinets.  A compromise already accepted into the design was a bathroom (toilet and shower) in the room, instead of having a separate bathroom.  But I have been pulling great ideas on combined laundries and bathrooms, so I was ready for a clever layout and finishes that would make lovely conditions for clean up chores (and as a good Virgo/Libra lady, I do like my clean up chores, but ideally their space should also be beautiful).

Alas, practicality of budget constraints at the moment mean that Laundry v1.0 will be a less glamourous affair.  Instead I am reviewing all my sources for clever cleaver ideas that cost Very Little !!  Industrial chic, here I come.  Furiously, I am scanning all my references for anything functional that is not expensive, that can also be interpreted into cool or chic !!  The wall of cabinets is out for now.  The front loader machine will be a refresh when top loader can't go on working.  We will redeploy an old stainless steel sink and drainer we removed from the original kitchen.  (A glimmer of sunshine in this plan will be the sink can get a new tap, as the old one was so grotty and yucky, it fell into a skip bin long ago).  So stay tuned for more about the Laundry v 1.0 fit out  in a coming up post (and find out what is actually left in the design).  All I can say, is it should not be the end of the world, as this story got played out over and over again for our main bathroom renovation, where every lovely idea I had at the ready got brutally dashed by Engineering and Construction Departments, usually due to poor feasibility or some structural thing I had to respect/accept.  In the end, it did turn out nicely.  Though resembling nothing like any of the ideas I had in various stages of redesign !

There is a door leading to the back side of the house, also a space bounded by retaining walls. We have lots of retaining walls, because the house is built on a slope.  They are well constructed, solid, and well engineered too.  So we have decided to work with the retaining walls, and use them as perimeters or parts of our structure.  The door to the side of the house need replacement.  It was not really used much before, so did not have to be super serviceable.  But now it will get used.  Turns out it was in quite poor  condition.  This makes it the third door Ian has had to completely fix, pretty much from pieces and put all back together, but better.  I suppose we could buy a new door.  But the work is now done, it took a couple days.  He had to reglaze it and managed to use some old textured glass from an interior door we will not keep.  Most importantly, he completely fixed and repaired to good service the original old lock.

The back area is still a holding area for stuff
(but way cheaper than storing it off premise !)
restored old door is shown at right, with
glazed light.  The Falcon is front and centre !

The photo showing the door is not very impressive and lighting was not my friend when I photographed it.  The sculpture you see is The Falcon, perched on its (very heavy) solid sandstone plinth.  The Falcon will move when we have finished and decided its home here !  (in our previous home it kept watch and looked out the sunroom window).

I hope to make the next post more aesthetically pleasing !  However, I know from our earlier renovations that this stage is very much about a working construction site and conditions.  I may be the Design Director (and Finance and Procurement Departments too, plus the Planning Commissioner), and have input.  But Director Engineering and Construction is clearly in charge at this stage !!  Still, as I like to do, I will try to find something nice about the view to capture :)

Telling Time

In the Lounge/Living Room.  Sitting on Fireplace Mantel.
Vintage clock with ceramic parrots glazed in iridescent finish.
Acquired at Bowsers of Barossa.

We love clocks and timepieces here.  Especially ones with good character.  Ian is a self taught and rather talented watchmaker, he restores vintage mechanical watches from the 1880- 1930s era and is now making watchcases in titanium.  So time keepers are favourite items in our home.  Practical and also beautiful.

I like to be able to see what time it is in every room, without having to look at a watch (maybe I am not wearing one at that moment ?!)...or my mobile phone.  So the goal is a gorgeous clock in every room, so I have only to glance to know what time it is.  It doesn't matter so much to me if the clocks are vintage or not, but good looks and character definitely count.  Though, some of the clocks you will see below are more symbolic than exact or actual time measuring.  Some are set statically at times, like close of business, cat dinner time or wine o'clock.  Others don't tell time at all !  But I love them all.

Check out some of our collection, deployed in various vignettes and settings here at home.

Master Bedroom.  Cool looking shiny chrome
clock in fob watch style.
Sourced from Ironstone Cottage in Tanunda.

In the Kitchen.  big vintage Telechron Clock,
with verdigris chippy finish.
Sourced from davidmetnicole, Surry Hills.
Complemented by pale green enamel tea kettle.

Love the greens !  In the Lounge/Living Room.
French vintage hexagon shaped LePaute clock.
Also sourced from davidmetnicole, Surry Hills.
Above a framed
antique map of Great Britain, map found in an
antique arcade on my travels in UK.

In my office:  vintage style old clock,
Chinese paintbrushes found in Beijing markets, and
two charming encaustics paintings by Jacqueline Coates

Alos in my office.
Fab vintage 50s era Tonka farm truck,
vintage globe, and a big clock dial.
All found on & acquired from ebay.

Again, my office.  Old ceramic clock dial,
detail from a stunning oil painting Too Small for Me,
by Marie Peter-Tolz, 2010, Paris. 

Close up of vignette on fireplace mantel in my office
"K" is for Kim
(Timber K inherited from my grandfather,
graced his office for years
sitting atop an antique shorthand book)
ceramic clock dial and oil painting backdrop

Exterior Colour Scheme, now in progress

original colour scheme as when we bought the house

Our old stone house is made of what is called blue stone, with some dark steely blue stones in the mix.  It also has stones in rust, beige and other hues.  The exterior trims on the house are very bright, a deep/bright gold ochre and a dark indian red.  We have intended to change this to a more neutral scheme, but the work pushed out as we did the complete interior renovations.

However, we await planning permissions for our studio space in back, so other jobs we left for later are getting pulled forward to do now while we wait.  One of the jobs to do was to restore a door in the front, a door we don't use for entering/exiting the house, but that is of a very poor condition.  It was very drafty, having holes you could look through from inside out.  So poor in condition that when the rain blows towards the front of the house, water flowed through every edge and every timber panel of that door.  Ian decided to take the door off, restore it, and then seal it up.  It would still look door-like, but would be weather proofed.

the restored door in front,
in new colour scheme
windows to left also painted

The job was not as simple as it seemed.  Some of the timber door framing and also timber panels to sides of the door were rotted, because a gutter near by had a leak and let water splash onto it.  The timber rotted probably over a number of years.  Ian had to cut it all away and replace it.  When the job was all done, he did not want to paint the door the same previous colour, because we intend to change the exterior trims to a more neutral scheme.  The door needed priming, then painting.  Once only please.

I was dispatched to get exterior paints (I am the Procurement Director here !).  Masonry would be painted over from gold to grey.  Timber work on door and window frames from gold or red into charcoal, in a  Colourbond colour called Monument that matches guttering on the shed and back patio/pergola.  Eventually we will replace the guttering here too, and it will be replaced in Monument colour.  The door is painted a dark steely blue.  

left side of house has new trims colours
guttering and roof not done.
Front gable and right side not yet done.
(house will look mix-match for a while)

(eventually the roof will be cleaned, primed, and painted over in a Micaceous Iron Oxide paint, we are considering Murobond Bridge Paint for that.  Probably a mid grey colour.  This will be a big job and will require good weather conditions too, thinking late winter or early Spring might be the right timing).

 south side windows look MUCH better
in new trims colours

You can see some of the work in progress.  Ian started on the door he restored and is working around to the left of the house.  It is more easily accessed with ladders we already have.  Painting window framing is a very slow and tedious job.  Also, windows need to be removed, so he can scrape years of old paint off them, or off the glazing, and fill, sand and paint anew.  But gosh does it ever look good when done !

back entrance,
now painted in new trims colours

This week he made it to one of our back entrances.  The door here will get done over in the dark steely blue too.  That will "quiet" its look down, to more of an elegant whisper (the red is very brash).  The door's paint job is delayed until next week because that door needs restoring too, on closer inspection it was not as solid and sound as we had thought to hoped.  

the kitchen window and door frame are
painted in new trims colours.
Door will get its new colour soon, steely blue.
Reglazed window above door looks very good,
other two old coloured glass windows
to be reglazed next week

Another delay was the window above the door.  It was a "legacy" window in pink textured glass, next to another window like it in same colour, and one to side of door in green textured glass.  The textured glass panels were cracked, and on the Replace Someday list.  But that list is always long, and some things sit on it a while, waiting for other work to be done, or for funds for their turn to come up.

window above the door shattered,
needs new glazing

Anyways, Ian touched the top window and it shattered to bits.  He had to stop other painting work, go find some glass to reglaze the window.  By the end of the day it was done.  Looking lovely in a cathedral pattern clear glass.    Now the other two windows look all wrong, so their Replace Someday turn may come next week.  When all of them are done, the door  and window frame painting can be completed.

The whole job will take some time to complete.  So our house exterior will look a bit disjointed until it is done.  But it is great to see where it is going and it feels like the changes will enhance the house's curb appeal.

I am loving the look of the old red brick paving in back entry with the more neutral trims colours.  All very complementary to the stonework, letting it be more noticeable as a feature.  Which is part of the point !

Coming Soon: New Blog & Posts on Interior Inspirations

You have found or stumbled across my new blog.  I have decided to move my interiors and renovation related blog posts over to this new blog from their previous home on my art inspiration & journey Blue Koi Studio Blog.  Stay tuned soon for a gallery of Before & After shots from our own renovation of our old stone house in the Barossa Valley town of Angaston, South Australia.  And also for design vignettes, colour palettes, and other interior decor ideas and inspirations.

More soon !!

Cheers,
Kim