Lighting Choices

With last weeks Melbourne heat wave there was no work completed on the house - and who could blame them.  Hubby is starting on the plumbing and drainage this long weekend so at least things will happen in that area. Hoping that sometime this week the sub flooring will be on track again and I will have some updated photos

We decided a few months ago that any special items for the house such as lights and wallpaper etc  would be ordered well before they are needed as lets face it once we have a large mortgage and rent to pay for our budget won't be looking as great

This week I ordered five of these gorgeous Hampton outdoor lights - four of them will sit at the front of the house and one in the alfresco area at the back

I also ordered 3 of the smaller hanging lamps for our kitchen island bench

These pictured are the larger version of the light - I have ordered three of the smaller ones

Ours will hang more like this photo above which is the inspiration for our kitchen


I am now on the search for a beautiful light for our entrance. Finding it quite difficult to find something I love so may wait until the space is completed so I have a better idea what will suit. I am after something quite elegant but classic so it remains timeless

I also ordered some beautiful wallpaper samples which should arrive by next week - I an thinking of doing a feature wall in the entrance and then another in my study - will upload a post with my choices next week  :)

All images and links can be found on my pin interest board

Week 2 - Dream House

After a few weeks break for Christmas and the New Year the bricklayers were back to it. Lots of progress being made to the sub floor as our house sits on brick piers and sits quite elevated from the back. Rather exciting seeing the outline of the house not including the alfresco or front verandahs. The boys and I were away for the week down at Barwon Heads in our caravan so hubby kept us updated with lots of photos - had a lovely and relaxing stay but of course the weather only got warm on the second last day before we left!

Lovely red bricks - the whole house will be fully rendered though with weatherboard detailing on the front

Garage going up

Starting to see the outline of the house - hard to take a good pic as this is from the side ( hubby took this so I am sure I would do better being a professional photographer - must bring my camera next time!) All the tradies keep commenting that it will look great with all the ins and outs of the home - we wanted to make sure it wouldn't resemble a long ranch style home so set the garage and studio back on each side

Lounge & Fireplace Details

With the house on standby until all the trades get back from their Christmas Holidays it has given me some time to work on a few things for the house. One of which is the fireplace in our lounge area. Originally we were going to have a floor to ceiling travertine stone fireplace with a gas log fire but after staying in a cottage in Daylesford last year we decided that a wood heater would be much nicer - there is nothing cosier and relaxing really! We do have gas ducted heating so it won't be our main heating source plus my mum and dad just sold their home on 2 acres and have heaps of wood to keep us going. Only issue I have is that the wood heaters are a bit on the ugly side and don't sit flush as they have the handle to open the door etc.

This was our original idea to have a stone or travertine floor to ceiling fireplace feature - just not sure how this will look with the wood heater as it doesn't sit flush and look as nice as a gas heater

Wood heater we have chosen but in a darker charcoal colour ( note the ugly handle!)

The other option is to then have a mantel and have in built white shelving on either side like below. I am pretty sure you can get a metal surround made to fit the heater to fill the space within the mantel

This is the plan of our main lounge area - it does have a huge bank of windows to take in the view.  The area next to the fireplace would be perfect for some built in joinery

Have also been day dreaming on the style of the lounge room - hubby thinks I am crazy but all the boring building talk on sub flooring, framing etc doesn't excite me at this stage! Thinking of getting soft grey linen couches with splashes of duck egg blue, white and grey.  Being our lounge room - the kids have their own so hoping to go a little more adult like in this space! This is probably the only room we need to furnish so needing a big couch, rug, coffee table, cushions etc - looking forward to sourcing all of these towards the end of the build

Love this coffee table and the relaxed vibe of the interior