Zak's highchair has finally arrived and I had to share how cool it is. I wanted to avoid a plastic highchair, so looked around for wooden ones and this was my fave: the Stokke Tripp Trapp. It's quite expensive ($299 just for chair; $69.95 for babyset) so I ordered it while on sale at David Jones a few weeks ago and scored 10% off. So I put it together (I'm the handyman in our household; I rock at putting flat-pack furniture together) and Zak took to it immediately - even without a cushion! He already realises this is his dinner chair and gets rather impatient if I haven't shovelled some food into his mouth immediately after sitting him in it!
The great thing about this chair is it grows with your child - the grooves run the length of the legs, which means you can adjust the seat and foot rest to fit your baby/child - even you, as the Tripp Trapp can hold up to 100kgs. I've even heard a rumour that this is the chair all staff at Stokke have at work, which is good to hear they believe in their product! It's made of really smooth, stained wood which is so easy to wipe down, is very stylish and comes in a huge range of colours from bright orange and turquoise to white and various stains of wood - I chose the walnut.
The good news is, Babies Galore is having a huge storewide sale, starting today (Saturday, July 21) and the Tripp Trapp and its accessories are all on sale - for 10% off! There are also a heap of other bargains between 10 and 30% off, so if you're pregnant or a mum, hit the shops now some bargains or shop online at http://www.babiesgalore.com.au/
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Bathroom reno - days 3, 4 & 5
Well, it's starting to take shape - our plumber, Trent, set up all the plumbing, electrician Col organised the wires for our heater/light/fan thingy and the walls are now back on. And the bath is in its new home.
It suddenly looks tiny again, so I really hope once all the fittings are in it isn't too small for us... Jeff has also rebuilt the wall with the door in the middle, so it's looking like a room, not just a big, dark hole. My plan is to use the new nook created outside the bathroom as a small office area. I'll pop a linen cupboard in the corner and run a narrow desk the length of the wall for my computer and paperwork. Don't believe it'll fit? Wait and see...
New pipes for the shower/bath
The bath is in. Can't wait to use it
The new nook created on the outside will become my "office"
It has walls! Starting to look like a real room again
Bathroom reno - day two
The big gaping hole that's to be our bathroom. Can't quite imagine it just yet...
Lots more banging and mess today as Jeff ripped out the door and walls and left a huge big gaping hole - which then proceeded to let in ALL the freezing cold air into our warm lounge room. But I can handle a few cold draughts for a new bathroom. He jackhammered the tiles up which made a fair bit of noise at 8am and made sleeping in a bit difficult, but again, I'm not complaining, just reporting! It's hard to imagine the finished product when the room looks like this - I hope my vision comes off in reality...
Bathroom reno - day one
It looks better already!
Once everything was bought and delivered, Jeff, our builder, came to the rescue and ripped out the bathroom’s insides - bye bye tiles, walls, ceiling, floor. Bye-bye showers also - we’re living here during the renovation without a shower which isn’t great, but has to be done. Luckily, the in-laws are not far away… Banging, crashing, dust everywhere - it’s not the quietest place to live, but Zak doesn’t seem to mind. He finds it all hilarious and spends a lot of his day craning his neck from his floor mat, trying to check out the progress. By the end of the day, we have an empty shell with a gaping hole in the wall (barely covered with a piece of plywood). I’m a little nervous about the wind picking up again (it’s a whole two days after the major June storms), but the plywood sticks through the night and rain stays away. Phew.
The bathroom - from drab to fab (hopefully!)
FINALLY, we’re starting our bathroom renovation. I’m thrilled. I’ve hated this room the most since we moved in. It’s tiny - barely enough room for half a person, let alone two! It had lovely (that’s sarcasm) sunflower tiles which I had to paint over when we moved in cause I couldn’t handle them, a window that doesn’t close, no exhaust fan (just an old vented ceiling covered in some spray-on concrete-like stuff) and a super-heavy door that also won’t close because it’s back is tiled?!!? Who does that? Weird.
Before: drab and falling apart vanity
The linen cupboard takes up most of the room! It's going
The huge shower will be replaced with a bath/shower combo
The PC items (I don’t actually know what PC stands for, but that’s your loo, vanity, shower etc) are just a vanity and a shower. A linen cupboard takes up a huge chunk of the room, so whoever designed it didn’t make the most of the space. There’s no toilet. That’s in the old garage which was converted into a bedroom and is on the other side of the house. And no bath. I LOVE baths and was devastated to leave my old claw-foot bath in our other house when we moved.
I made up several plans and was actually surprised when the builder said it was doable - we’re going to fit a bath, shower, toilet and vanity in the tiny 1.8m by 2.2m space. Ok, so the shower and bath are combined, but still…
Tip: If you’re clueless about where to start a renovation, call your local hardware store or trade centre (like a plumbing place) and ask them for recommendations.
SHOP TIL I DROP Before any building can be done, I’ve got to organise my PC items so I shop, shop and shop some more for tiles, towel rails, a toilet, bath, vanity, taps… Don’t feel you need to head immediately to the nearest bathroom renovation centre. Hardware stores sell a lot of the PC items (Bunnings rocks), BIG W sells taps and mirrors; and Howard’s Storage World has great towel rails and bits and bobs. I was happy to spend on the vanity and taps, but for everything else, I was happy to buy the cheapest piece to fit the space. In the end, I spent up big at Bunnings on the wall tiles, taps, toilet, bath, exhaust fan and vanity. I bought some feature mosaics for $10 each at Amber Tiles (on sale - bargain) and the floor tiles from CTM. I also ordered a window and frameless mirror.
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Zak's room, before & after
When we fell pregnant last year, we figured we better actually finish a room! So I spent a LONG time emptying out the spare room of, well, crap, and spent even more time getting the walls ready to paint. When we moved in, almost every wall was covered in wood veneer (which is actually having a revival at the moment, but there’s no way I was keeping this stuff!). Underneath the veneer were very bad walls: cracks, holes, chipping plaster - some even had several layers of wallpaper, each layer worse than the one before it.
Luckily, the room that was to be the baby’s (who was born in November and is named Zak) was the best of a bad bunch so with a little help from my father-in-law, Cliff, we had the ancient carpet ripped up and walls prepped, primed and painted in a few days. Of course, as is Murphy’s Law - the one area of the house we wanted to re-carpet had beautiful boards; the space we wanted to sand and polish was a disaster, but that’s another story…
I didn’t want to go too crazy with baby colours - we didn’t know what the sex was going to be and I’m not into majorly decorated kids rooms anyway, so earthy and airy was what I was after. We went for Dulux Whisper White for three walls and the ceiling and painted the only full wall a neutral feature colour - Porter’s Paints Donkey Grey.
I was lucky enough to score a relatively new cot for free, my sister’s boyfriend lent me his own baby wardrobe and my mum’s rocking chair would come in handy nursing and rocking baby to sleep. All I bought was a chest of drawers for the change mat and some cheapie bookshelves for $20 each from The Reject Shop (of all places!) which I painted white - several times. That laminate stuff really soaks up paint! I really wanted the IKEA Lack cubed bookshelf but I’d already bought one for the living room and another $269 was better off spent elsewhere. Like on my pram, which was really the only expensive thing I bought. I splurged on the Bugaboo Cameleon and yes, it’s ridiculously expensive at $1499, but I personally think it’s worth it. And I got it on sale. That’s the trick to buying baby stuff. You’re pregnant for so long, you get to take advantage of at least one major sale throughout the year. And most department stores have huge annual baby sales or expos which is a great opportunity to grab everything on your list at a reduced price. Also, if you buy a whole heap of nursery gear from the same store, ask if they’ll give you a discount - it works sometimes!
On the shopping-for-baby topic, I wrote a Bringing Home Baby article for the June issue of real living and some of the extra info is online at the website. So check out my essentials list at http://realliving.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=263139
Back to Zak’s room. Now that he’s here I’ve rearranged the room and am in the process of jazzing it up a little - pictures, decorative touches and personalising his space a little more - stay tuned.
I also have a tip: by placing the cot up against one (or two) interior walls, rather than an exterior wall, it’ll keep baby warmer in winter and cooler in summer. You really feel the cold/heat through a wall (especially if it’s not insulated like old houses often aren’t) and this helps a tiny bit.
And another: a shelf above the change table isn’t the most genius of ideas as I discovered when a little bottle of baby shampoo fell off and landed on Zak’s head. We both cried. He got over it, but I still kick myself.
Before: bad wallpaper and cracked walls.
Luckily, the room that was to be the baby’s (who was born in November and is named Zak) was the best of a bad bunch so with a little help from my father-in-law, Cliff, we had the ancient carpet ripped up and walls prepped, primed and painted in a few days. Of course, as is Murphy’s Law - the one area of the house we wanted to re-carpet had beautiful boards; the space we wanted to sand and polish was a disaster, but that’s another story…
I didn’t want to go too crazy with baby colours - we didn’t know what the sex was going to be and I’m not into majorly decorated kids rooms anyway, so earthy and airy was what I was after. We went for Dulux Whisper White for three walls and the ceiling and painted the only full wall a neutral feature colour - Porter’s Paints Donkey Grey.
After: with a greyish brown feature wall and white furniture.
I was lucky enough to score a relatively new cot for free, my sister’s boyfriend lent me his own baby wardrobe and my mum’s rocking chair would come in handy nursing and rocking baby to sleep. All I bought was a chest of drawers for the change mat and some cheapie bookshelves for $20 each from The Reject Shop (of all places!) which I painted white - several times. That laminate stuff really soaks up paint! I really wanted the IKEA Lack cubed bookshelf but I’d already bought one for the living room and another $269 was better off spent elsewhere. Like on my pram, which was really the only expensive thing I bought. I splurged on the Bugaboo Cameleon and yes, it’s ridiculously expensive at $1499, but I personally think it’s worth it. And I got it on sale. That’s the trick to buying baby stuff. You’re pregnant for so long, you get to take advantage of at least one major sale throughout the year. And most department stores have huge annual baby sales or expos which is a great opportunity to grab everything on your list at a reduced price. Also, if you buy a whole heap of nursery gear from the same store, ask if they’ll give you a discount - it works sometimes!
On the shopping-for-baby topic, I wrote a Bringing Home Baby article for the June issue of real living and some of the extra info is online at the website. So check out my essentials list at http://realliving.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=263139
Back to Zak’s room. Now that he’s here I’ve rearranged the room and am in the process of jazzing it up a little - pictures, decorative touches and personalising his space a little more - stay tuned.
I also have a tip: by placing the cot up against one (or two) interior walls, rather than an exterior wall, it’ll keep baby warmer in winter and cooler in summer. You really feel the cold/heat through a wall (especially if it’s not insulated like old houses often aren’t) and this helps a tiny bit.
And another: a shelf above the change table isn’t the most genius of ideas as I discovered when a little bottle of baby shampoo fell off and landed on Zak’s head. We both cried. He got over it, but I still kick myself.
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
My (very) humble home
I’m almost embarrassed to say where I work. I mean, I LOVE my job, but when I say I work at real living magazine, I kinda feel like a fraud. Why, you ask? Well, because while I write about fabulous homes and decorating ideas and have a hand in their planning, my own place looks, sadly, like this (see below)
The original front door
The main bedroom.
Our kitchen from the living room.
OK, so we don’t really live like this (although there were a few days there…). This is actually the result of ripping out previous-owneritis - approximately 50 years worth of extremely bad planning, bizarre design and fittings obviously bought at The Hideously-Ugly Décor Shoppe. So while it doesn’t look like this all the time, the bedroom is, unfortunately, not too much better. Even after close to four years. Because living in the place you’re renovating while working full-time in what sometimes seems like another state, you don’t get very inspired to do hard labour in the few hours a week you have to yourself.
When my husband Steve suggested we buy our house I thought it was time to have him to committed. I figured he’d gone insane. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I asked him. “Yep - look at all the potential,” he replied excitedly. Ahh potential. I’m all for it - see it in a lot of things. But in this case all I saw was hard work. And I’m not adverse to a little hard work. But this was going to be a LOT of hard work. We’d planned all along to get a house that we could make minor changes to to make our own. We wanted something near the water, with a big yard and near transport - seeing as we were going to be living 80km away from our jobs in the city, we needed it to be close to the train line. And he wanted to live here. With my nose turned up at the granny décor, neglected yard and shabby exterior, I exited stage left, figuring we’d continue our search. But then Steve started describing what we could do: move this door here, add a window there, put a deck on here, add a floor there for water views… and soon enough I too saw its potential and added my own suggestions: oooh we could paint it all white and add a deck and convert the cabin into a guest room and add French doors off the bedroom… Sold!
But like many renovators, our enthusiasm to strip, build, paint and polish started to slow and soon we found ourselves living with bare walls, unsanded floors and a mess that a dumpster manager would be proud of. Then we met a builder and got him to do some construction work and then fell pregnant and it was time to turn the spare junk room (we have a few junk rooms!) into a liveable space for a baby. So the reno began again. And it’s still going… I’ve been documenting what we’ve done and for some odd reason am sharing it with the world! But that’s kind of a good thing. For one thing, for those feeling down that their own renovation isn’t going to plan, it’s proof that creating a home take time, money and effort - and not everyone can dedicate their whole lives to doing it all in one hit. And not everyone can afford an interior designer to help either. So in case you thought the people behind magazines lived in fabulous homes with designer furniture or follow trends to the letter, this may come as a delight or disappointment, but we don’t. Not all anyway. And certainly not me. I AM the real living reader. I’ve a young family, have to balance work and home time, I need inspiration for my home, I have too many ideas and not enough time to put them into practice… Sound familiar? So, we’re in the same boat. Hopefully my own trial and error will somehow help you with your own. And please, feel free to share your stories.
B
When my husband Steve suggested we buy our house I thought it was time to have him to committed. I figured he’d gone insane. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I asked him. “Yep - look at all the potential,” he replied excitedly. Ahh potential. I’m all for it - see it in a lot of things. But in this case all I saw was hard work. And I’m not adverse to a little hard work. But this was going to be a LOT of hard work. We’d planned all along to get a house that we could make minor changes to to make our own. We wanted something near the water, with a big yard and near transport - seeing as we were going to be living 80km away from our jobs in the city, we needed it to be close to the train line. And he wanted to live here. With my nose turned up at the granny décor, neglected yard and shabby exterior, I exited stage left, figuring we’d continue our search. But then Steve started describing what we could do: move this door here, add a window there, put a deck on here, add a floor there for water views… and soon enough I too saw its potential and added my own suggestions: oooh we could paint it all white and add a deck and convert the cabin into a guest room and add French doors off the bedroom… Sold!
But like many renovators, our enthusiasm to strip, build, paint and polish started to slow and soon we found ourselves living with bare walls, unsanded floors and a mess that a dumpster manager would be proud of. Then we met a builder and got him to do some construction work and then fell pregnant and it was time to turn the spare junk room (we have a few junk rooms!) into a liveable space for a baby. So the reno began again. And it’s still going… I’ve been documenting what we’ve done and for some odd reason am sharing it with the world! But that’s kind of a good thing. For one thing, for those feeling down that their own renovation isn’t going to plan, it’s proof that creating a home take time, money and effort - and not everyone can dedicate their whole lives to doing it all in one hit. And not everyone can afford an interior designer to help either. So in case you thought the people behind magazines lived in fabulous homes with designer furniture or follow trends to the letter, this may come as a delight or disappointment, but we don’t. Not all anyway. And certainly not me. I AM the real living reader. I’ve a young family, have to balance work and home time, I need inspiration for my home, I have too many ideas and not enough time to put them into practice… Sound familiar? So, we’re in the same boat. Hopefully my own trial and error will somehow help you with your own. And please, feel free to share your stories.
B
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog! It’s only 18 months late. I’m very good at procrastinating, as I’m sure you’ll discover… I’m also good at changing my mind. I thought blogs were just another sad internet craze worsening our ability to get outside and do things and communicate effectively, but then I discovered some good ones in my internet travels and got a little inspired to set up my own. I might even help someone somewhere, somehow! Basically, I’ll share any tips and tricks I learn during my own home renovation and from my experience working at real living magazine. My colleagues are a bunch of interior design, shopping and decorating gurus whose wisdom on such matters should be shared with those of us setting up home or simply wanting to improve the look and feel of a space. So think of this as your stop for renovation tips, great stores and product reviews, sales, projects and other great sources of inspiration related to turning your own home into a cosy haven - easily, stylishly and as cheaply as possible! And, because I’m a recent addition to the motherhood club, I’ve become all baby obsessed and might talk about that for a bit too - bear with me, please, I’ll make sure that’s somehow interesting to you too, by sharing cool websites or baby-related shopping sites. I’ll also be posting behind the scenes stuff from real living and asking for your input and thoughts on the mag, so get ready to comment. But please, be kind…
Cheers
Belinda
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