Beautiful Lillys....

Given to me by my husband for our anniversary......

What happened to blogging every day ?

Kitchen before installation.....

Renovations , thats what happened ! I started out with so much enthusiasm. We had actually started renovating 6 weeks before I started my blog. All was well the first few weeks , the trades were arriving as scheduled & then the one little tradesman with a hangover (namely the plasterer) didnt show up one Saturday morning. Urrgg, that then caused a three week delay with reshuffling all the other trades that were to follow. The kitchen company also phoned during that time breaking there promise on delivery time.

So the kitchen I would only be without for 2 weeks turned into 6 weeks.

Its funny how you think it will be a novelty to not cook for two weeks but then turns into a hunger of , give me a cooktop & a saucepan. We would go up to the little italian restaurant around the corner with its open kitchen & watch the chef cooking our meal. One night the urge to create a meal was so strong , I just wanted to be in there cooking , Im so jealous of him throwing in the garlic , prawns into the hot oil & tossing it in his frypan with the flames underneath flying out, a pinch of salt there , fresh tomatoes, some baby spinach , torn basil leaves, drain the pasta, tip into the sauce , onto the plate, drizzle some olive oil over it.....

Oohhh the experience was excilerating ...............

Our cat Chelsea inspecting the concrete being laid...

Kitchen & windows coming out...

Kitchen , windows, door & wall gone......

New walls , windows & doors. All done in one day , the builders have been great , even cleaned up after themselves before they left for the day. The new doors are made of cedar & when I told the builder they were being painted white, the look on his face was of total shock, apparently he is in agreance with my husband "you cant paint cedar" . Now I know cedar is a lovely timber but I didnt order it to be made in cedar that is the timber they use & on the other side of this room beautiful french doors are going to be installed to step out to my french courtyard & garden. In my vision the doors have always going to be white. What to do ?? Mmmmm paint the cedar I say.........

Next on the list , tiles to come up that should be a messy job but we are able to block off the hallway from this room. Fingers crossed the dust dosent come through into the rest of the house.

The room is ready for final measure for the kitchen to be made. Now I was told it would be 2 weeks from this point. I could cope with no kitchen for 2 weeks, eating out regulary at our favourite Italian restaurant around the corner (Danys at Hope Island) . But was the kitchen installed in 2 weeks ???

Karyn x

We have decided to renovate instead of moving at this point in our lives. After looking at other homes on the northern end of the gold coast we couldnt find any that were done to our needs or taste. So we would have to renovate anyway & they all had much smaller yards and with two young children our backyard is perfect at this stage. While the renovation may not give us all the extra space we would like ideally , it will certainly be lovely to have everything fresh & new again. If we survive this stage while living in it we may extend up in 12 months time.

Pictures show before the start of the renovations to the kitchen & family room. The outside shot shows just before the builders take out the door & windows to extend the wall out level, which will allow us to have a more open plan kitchen.

Just a mention ,when we received the quote for the kitchen it was going to cost $480 to remove the old one & when I asked what they did with it I was mortified when they told us they smash it up to take it out & it goes to the tip. Now the kitchen wasnt falling apart & with a new sink , tap & oven surely someone would be grateful for it , putting aside enviromentaly I couldnt be part of disposing of it that way. After not being able to find someone to donate it to in a short space of time my husband dismantled it without any damage to it & I decided to list it on ebay. To my surprise it went for $1025 to a family who had bought a house that was suitable to convert an area into a granny flat that needed a kitchen. A cheap alternative for them , my concious was clear it wouldnt be thrown into landfill & we have an extra $1025 to add to our budget.

Karyn

My First Blog Post

I couldnt think of a better way to start my first blog than with an image of my children relaxing by the sea, this is a favourite of mine taken on a holiday at Noosa. They were sitting quietly (which is rare) watching the sun set. Beautiful !

Tommorow I will start sharing the photos taken last week of the start of our renovation. We are starting in the kitchen /family room first.

Karyn x