Discover something special at....

"Discover something special at Le Kitchen".

I was in town last week, walking past a shop called "Le Kitchen" and I thought to myself, "I should go in there and see if they have any Cath Kidston mugs" (they have a huge range of beautiful mugs in store) ..........

......then lo and behold the table out the front of the shop had, literally, stacks of them.

I could not believe my eyes. I had been coveting them on the CK website for ages, but the postage on her site is just so horrendous that I have not bought any.
They only had three designs to choose from but I wasn't complaining!
(Strawberry, Cockerel and Wobble.)

And for a very reasonable price.

They also had the boxed set of the "floral gingham" mugs as well.

I actually went back this morning and bought a few more for Christmas presents.

Yeah, a few more ticked off the list!

Kathryn. XX

P.S. I know I said I would take you outside on the "house tour" last Friday, but the weather has been wet with lots of wonderful rain, that any photos would not have been that great. I will have to try and do it in the next few days.

A week of the house - day 5

I'm a bit late in the day aren't I?

This morning I had to go to whole school assembly, then some much needed shopping - dreaded Christmas shopping at that. But, we had success, so that is a relief!

OK, on with the tour....

Hubs insited on having a French Door off our dining area which will lead to the alfresco area, eventually!

"How on earth are we going to keep the flies out then?" I asked.
"With a roll away door of course" said dear Hubs!
What on earth is a roll away door?
It is like a roller blind only vertical and it is made with fly wire! How cool is that!
Mind you, we have waited, and waited, and waited to have it made and installed.
But, it was worth the wait, it is fantastic.
I just hope the cat does not discover it......
The laundry fit out was also done by Kitset Kitchens and it has been hassle free and I love it.
We did the same colour combination as the kitchen.

This is a huge cupboard that will be the "drying cupboard" in Winter, once the central heating is installed. It will be great to have all washing away and out of sight.

The boys bathroom which we have all been using. I think it is the only finished room in the house, apart from a blind for the window.

Master 7's room

Master 8's room

The family room from the back sliding doors. We budgeted for some new furniture so there is a lovely new lounge suite on its' way.

The stone is being delivered for the fire place wall on the weekend. I know Hubs is itching to get this done.....pity he's not itching to do the painting....have I mentioned that I hate painting?

The bay window off the family room. This will have a window seat.

The back sliding doors. These are huge - consequently i can't find ready made curtains to fit it so I will have to make them. I have seen some beautiful curtain fabric at Lincraft which comes in just the fabric, ready made/ready to hang, and just the hem and hang variety.

So, we have a lot of options.

Having them made was just going to be way too expensive, and plus, I can sew right!!!!

See you tomorrow - outside.

Kathryn. XX

A week of the house - day 4

I thought I'd take you upstairs today.

Most houses in Australia are bunglalows but with the ever decreasing size in our building blocks, a lot more people are building upwards.

Our block is quite large (1000msquared) but, because we wanted the steeper pitched roof, we decided to make the most of it and include a couple of rooms "in the roof".

The steeper pitched roof did add a bit onto the cost of the build, you have to allow for scaffolding etc..., and of course the extra labour of building it and finishing it off inside.

This is Hubs office. He does have a full time job but does a lot of work, for himself, at home.

At the old house we shared the third bedroom which was a nightmare, space wise. Although, it was nice to talk to one another in the evenings whilst working!

Looking back at the doorway and the little pop hole doorway into the roof space and a small storage area.

The office has a little balcony so that you can see who has come in the front door and, so we can communicate with one another without having to climb the stairs all the time.....

I am surprised that I haven't heard "Can you make me a coffee?" yet!

This is looking from the office to the guest bedroom.

This window is along the landing and allows light into the "vestibule".

Many angles up here - the plasterers had fun!The guest bathroom. The floor tiles look a bit yellowy in this photo but are the same as in the photo below. They were matching floor and wall tiles from Ballarat Tiles.

Shower recess.

The guest bedroom window. It has a really nice "nook" to sit and relax.

We have decided to get someone in to paint the upstairs. Yeah! hubs knows a few painters from work who may be interested. Fingers crossed!

The view from the guest bedroom window to the left......

.....and the right.

It is fantastic up here on a stormy night! We watched lightning a few weeks ago and it was amazing!

I hope you are enjoying the tour so far?

See you tomorrow with more, Kathryn. XX

A week of the house - day 3

Feeling Hungry?

This is the kitchen in all it's unfinsihed glory! Hubs has done a great job putting it all together. We just have to do the bulkhead over the stove to house the rangehood and put in one more cabinet then it's done!

The plasterers will have to come back and finish the cornice at some stage.

The kitchen was purchased through Kitset Kitchens. Whilst we have had a few things go wrong, it is a really good system if they could just get it right first time.

Hubs knows a guy who works at "The Good Guys" so we got all of our appliances at a very good price!

The island bench - and no the kitchen people have not been to see the "Slpit".

One of them actually said "Can you bring it in?" What the......

The handles are from "IKEA". After searching around for ages on the net for the perfect handles, I finally found them. We wanted something fancy without being too fancy if you know what I mean.

The benchtop is "Laminex" Limestone and the cabinets are Frosty white.

Oh, and the tiling still has to be finished too - does it ever stop?

The bulkhead is to be built to house the rangehood and we will have a mantle over the top with a couple of "fancy" corbels!

So, there it is in its' unfinsihed glory.

A new, bigger, dining table is on its' way too. Gosh, we may be able to have some visitors in comfort at last!

Kathryn. XX

A week of the house - Day 2

"Hi, welcome, come on in!"

Day 2 sees us through the entry and into the "vestibule", as my husband likes to call it, - a bit fancy I think!

The stairs up to the two top rooms. The stairs were done by "Slattery and Acquroff".
They were installed in two hours!
We are going to stain the treads (Victorian Ash) then paint the rails (pine) etc. white.
Looking up to the landing upstairs. Everything will be painted white upstairs as there are so many angles it is hard to tell where the walls end and the ceilings begin!

Looking towards the back of the house.

This is the front room on the right as you walk in the front door. This will be more formal than the back of the house and will be great for guests when they stay. We planned the upstairs guest bedroom and the front of the house so that, when the boys are a bit older, we will do B & B.

The light fittings were purchased through "Beacon Lighting".
They were meant to be the antique brass finish but the electricians were half way through installing the pendant upstairs when I noticed. I was not going to change it because there was no way that we were going to manage getting it fitted ourselves (see photo 3 from the top for an idea why!) . I won't even begin to tell you how they managed.....

I think the white will be OK, but why is it so hard to get things right in the first place?

Door from the garage into the house. The cupboard is especially for shoes, umberellas etc....

Our bedroom. Lots of work to be done painting. A friend of ours did the celings and one coat on the walls. We, in time, will get it done. I really would like to have it all done over the holidays so we can finally put some curtains up! The paint colours are "worn white" for the ceiling and "Sugar Cookie" for the walls both by "Haymes"

Walk in robe - what a mess.

Our Ensuite bathroom. We haven't had a shower in it yet. The vanity isn't complete yet so there is really no point in using it (apart form the toilet in the middle of the night).

Big whole ready for the basin to be put in.

We are going to do a fabric covered headboard to match the curtains etc...

The theme through the house is really white and beige with bits of colour thrown in.

You are probably wondering where the pink is? Well, the upstairs guest bedroom will have the shabby cottage treatment!

Handles by "Gainsborough".

looking back at the entry from outside our bedroom door.

We still have some flooring left to do. The flooring is Bamboo uniclick and really easy to install. We purchased it through "Floor Planet" in Tullamarine for half the retail price here in Ballarat.

Big store room - great for vacuum, suitcases, Christmas decorations etc....

And, looking towards the Kitchen, which I will show you tomorrow!

If you would like more info on anything that I have missed out, just leave a comment here and I will pop it in tomorrow's post.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour - so far.

Didn't I tell you, we have a lot of work to do!

Kathryn.. XX