White Again

So it seems I have a love affair with white!! 

Just like my white kitchen I have planned, which I talked about here previously. I also have been dreaming of an all white bathroom...white tiles with white grout.

I know it's not practical at all. It’s going to get grubby without a lot of maintenance. With this in mind I still can’t change what I want.  Believe me I've tried to talk myself out of it but no luck. 

I have two bathrooms in my house so have decided I will be practical in my main bathroom and go with darker colours but have all-white in my ensuite bathroom. It’s a tiny room, so hopefully I can maintain it. 

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I’m currently on the lookout for a vanity cabinet mirror with storage. There’s a few at Ikea, but I’m still not sure which style I’ll go for. Plain mirror, or something a bit more traditional looking. I'm still looking around in case I can find something better elsewhere.

Do you know of anywhere that sells great little mirror cabinets?

Big week

Well house selections week in upon me!... I’m so nervous. 

I'm heading down this Friday for part 1 of the process. I still haven’t made my mind up on so many things... such a procrastinator, leaving everything to the last minute. No doubt I’m going to be stressing over the next few days. I know it’s not that big a deal, but I’m just scared I’m going to get it wrong and pick something that I’ll regret in 6 months when I see it in the flesh.

However the good news is once this is done its just one step closer to construction which shouldn’t be all that far off now. They may even start before Christmas which is was sooner than I ever thought, but we shall see. There might be some unforeseen delays yet. That’s the thing with this building business, never expect anything, timelines are always changing. 

Time defiantly seems to be flying by though, won’t be long and I’ll be living in my very own house. I'm so excited!!

Fan of the Fan

Gone are the days of the ugly white plastic pedestal fans.... let me introduce you to the gorgeous Tripod Fan by Fanimation!!

 

I want one of these bad boys so bad, dont know if it'll fit in my ever tightening budget though. We will have to wait and see.
They are available from a few places including Fat Shack Vintage.

Surely I'm not on my own in loving this guy. I wouldn't be hiding him away when guests are over!

Sale Fun!

Last Saturday I did one of my favorite things ever, I went to a Charity Auction, or 'Sale' as we call it. At a sale you will find hundreds of bits and pieces ranging from furniture, electrical, plants, old toys, scrap wood, anything any everything basically. All items get donated and then auctioned off with all proceeds going to the charity. I Love these sales as you can pick up things dirt cheap. There is usually no reserve prices so stuff is basically given away. I bought some amazing chairs at a similar sale some time back, but I'll save that story for another day.

A lot of the stuff is a but junky, often broken, so you just have to search through everything to find your diamond among the mess... But when you do find it, just hope no one else wants it more than you do! I'v seen some pretty fierce bidding wars at these lil ol' auctions.

 

Unfortunately on Saturday nothing at this action caught my eye so I walked away empty handed, but it was still a nice day out. This little metal drawer box thing caught my eye, but there was a lot of interest in it and I didn't end up hanging around for it to be auctioned off. It was being used to store screws and washers but I thought you could bring it inside to store small stationary maybe? very rustic of course.

 

After the glorious sunny day on Saturday, Sunday was the opposite - very cold, wet and windy. So I may or may not have stayed inside all day, on my bed, in my PJ's, reading through old editions of Home and Garden magazine. It was glorious! I love those days when you don't actually have to do anything. I felt a bit guilty for not achieving anything but then sometimes I need to just do nothing, don't you?

I love re-reading mags as it usually gives me new ideas that I'd missed previously. I dont like ripping pages out of my magazines though so usually use the scrap paper method to mark pages of interest.

Anyway, It was a successful reading day as I found a great idea for the backyard, but I'm keeping it a secret!

Hope your having a great day!

Running out of room

I have so much stuff and no where to put it all!! Iv been slowly, slowly buying new house essentials for a while now. I have everything = sheets, towels, plates, cutlery, pots and pans, about 4 chopping boards. and now I have no where to put it all. I have cupboards and boxes overflowing in the house and shed. I did a little inventory a few weeks back of all my things and it was 3 pages long!

It's going to be like Christmas when I get into my house and get to open it all up and use it. hehe.

Everything has been bought on sale so I've managed to get a few really nice things without paying the big bucks. My Stanley Rogers cutlery set was over $350 retail and I think I got it for $80ish.. CRAZY!!  A bunch of things were also given to me as gifts. Now only tools, garden items, furniture and the big appliances to go!

Tool Time.. my wish list

I have a tonne of house project ideas floating around in my head on a constant basis, I'm waiting patiently to get into my house before I can do most of them. I have pretty ambitious plans for a beginner, too ambitious really.

Anyway, I need some tools as I have none. Well except the pink hammer and socket set I got for Christmas one year. But its about time for some big girl tools.

I've compiled a list of a few things I want in my beginners toolbox, just basic stuff to start off with. The plan is to add to my collection over time as I need different items, spread the cost out.

 

Now don't laugh, we all gotta start somewhere.

 

 

Not too sure of brands at the moment, I need to do a little more research yet. I'm a bit like that, I research the crap out of everything, even some cheap $20.00 thing will get the once over on all the internet review sites before it gets purchased. I over think everything.

I would love to hear anyone's suggestions on good brands to go with or any basic essentials that I've missed.

 

Labor Day Weekend

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. We just had our 3 day Labour day weekend, which was awesome. Also day light savings just started here in South Aus, which is so nice to have a few extra hours of day light in the evenings. I’m getting pretty excited as this all means summer is on it's way, my favorite time of year!

I went back to the house selection centre on Saturday to refresh my memory on a few things. I took mum with me, sometimes it’s nice to have a second opinion. We went over everything, I didn't lock as much in as I had hoped but it still helped to have another look. 

One decision I did make is to pay the upgrade cost for different brick mortar. I want white mortar using white sand. The standard browny-grey mortar just doesn't work with the Oyster bricks for the look I'm going for. The bricks end up looking dirty brown instead of a true grey. I think its defiantly worth the extra $$.

 Oyster bricks with white mortar

I'm still undecided on bathroom tiles. Iv narrowed it down to a few choices, but still unsure.

Also found a different kitchen sink with no drainers, which I love. Not sure if they will let me have it without it costing me a fortune, so waiting to hear back on that one.

Its pretty overwhelming trying to pick everything for a house all at once, but ill get there. Its slowly coming together.

Where its at..house progress update

A little house status update of where things are at:

• Plans are currently in Council for full development approval. Expecting this to be complete possibly early November but I'm not really sure. Fingers crossed that it goes through smoothly and they don't have any issues with my plan and the position it sits on my land.

• Currently trying to finalise my electrical layout. This is hard. Hows a girl to know where to put every single power point, light and switch for a house thats not even built. I'm just trying to figure out where everything will go so I can make sure they are all in the right spots and I have enough for all appliances that require electricity. Cant go too crazy as the $$$ soon adds up with extra power points and lights.

• Booked my final selections appointments for early November. That's where I'll lock in all my bathroom tiles, kitchen colours, wardrobes, wall colour and a tonne of other stuff. Thinking of heading down to the showrooms again this weekend to have a look at everything and try and lock a few things in. 

Also thought I'd add a pic of my front elevation/facade. It gives you a rough idea of what the front of the house will look like.
The house is only 11.5metres wide at the front, so all you see is the garage roller door, front door and bedroom window. I'm not having any render so the whole front will just be my lovely Oyster grey brick.

Bricks, bricks, bricks

Choosing the brick colour for my house was probably the hardest decision of the whole build. Why? Well with every other little detail I know what I want, or I at least have ideas floating around in my head. With the bricks however, I had no idea, no clue at all.

Now the bricks is a pretty big decision, it’s the whole look of your house. Maybe that’s why I was so indecisive, because I knew it was kind of a big deal if I got it wrong. I would have to live with this choice everyday, its not one that could be changed later unless you did something drastic. There was also the cost to consider. I was not real keen on spending more money to upgrade bricks, so I was eager to select something from my builders standard range.

I looked over the brochures I had been given, trying to pick a few out that I liked. But it was pretty hopeless as I knew they would look drastically different in real life.

So a few weeks back I went down to the local PGH brick display center for the first time. It was really fantastic with all the different brick colours and styles on display walls. It was interesting how the colours also looked different depending on the light or shade or direction they were facing. Also the colour of the grout seemed to have a big effect. I narrowed my selection down to 5 colours, and they let me take some samples home, woohoo!

My top 5 = Caffe Latte, Plateau, Canyon, Vanilla Ice and Oyster. 

Quite a variety really. A few mid browns, a dark brown, a grey and a white.

Another week or so past, and I eventually whittled it down to my two favorites, Plateau -the dark red-ish brown and Oyster the grey brick.

I kept leaning towards Plateau as I had seen quite a few dark brown houses around and knew I like it, but I was a bit worried that plateau would come out a bit too red.
Oyster was hard as I couldn't find any houses in my local area with anything that resembled a grey brick so had to go for a long drive and eventually found a few.
Oyster felt more risky than Plateau, but also would suit my whole love of grey thing I have going on, and it would compliment my interior plans really well.

Eventually I had thought about it so much, going back and forth between the two colours, it was doing my head in. You know sometimes when you think sooo much that you start to not even care. Well that was me. I needed to make a decision and just go with it. I knew either colour would look great anyway.

So.......I went with the grey, Oyster it is!!  Lets hope it turns out ok.

Interior Colour Scheme Ideas

Just throwing around some ideas for the overall Interior Colour Scheme. Nothing is set in stone and ill probably change my mind and head in a whole different direction because, well lets face it, its still a long way off before I move in. Construction hasn't even started yet, but I'm a planner, I like to be prepared, but most of all I'm just too excited to wait...

Anyhoo..

There will definitely be an overall base scheme of grey and white mixed with wood and metals. I'm a neutral girl and I always gravitate towards neutral schemes as they are probably the easiest to do and always look good.

However as much as I love neutrals, they are pretty safe... and I don't want to be too safe. I want my house to be interesting and full of life, therefore I'm plan on bringing in pops of colour throughout. I'm envisioning my walls in the main living areas to remain fairly neutral but will bring in the colour with my curtains, rugs, accessories etc. These are easily changed if I mess it up because no doubt I will make some bad choices, and it might take a few tries to get it just right, don't forget this is the first time I have ever done this! In the bedrooms I might get a bit more daring and paint the walls a bold colour, maybeeee.

My Dining, Kitchen and living rooms are very open plan, its really one big room.. The colours need to flow throughout this space to make it feel cohesive but I'm still hoping to define each area in its own way.

Some of the colours that I'm leaning towards at the moment are Navy, Yellow, Coral and Pink. No particular reason why other than I just love these colours.

Here are a few samples.. not the exact shades I would use but you get the idea.

So what do you think? Everything will of course evolve over time, I might scratch those colours and go for something different but for now that's the direction I'm leaning towards. Would love to hear anyone's thoughts.

...dreaming of a white kitchen

Out of the million and one things that need to be decided when building a house, the kitchen colours will be the easiest for me. Its the one thing I know for sure what I want… thank goodness.

I decided long ago that I wanted an all white kitchen, thats right ALL WHITE!
I just love them, so bright, fresh and classy... and when I say all white I’m mean cabinets and bench tops. Colour can still be brought in with the splashback tiles or with accessories.

When I finalise my colour selections with my builder, ill be sure to share them on here.

I can imagine sitting around with family and friends, serving drinks and nibbles in my pretty white kitchen. Still seems crazy to me that it will be a reality soon. Cant wait!

Now for a few amazing White kitchens for us all to drool over….

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Buying land story - Part3

I’ve broken this story up into a few parts as it’s a bit loooong. You can read part1 here and part2 here

Two days later I receive a call from the real estate agency, but a different agent this time.  She tells me that they had spoken with the vendor and they were willing to drop a few thousand of the price, I tell her I’ll have to think about it and I end the call. So without me saying or doing anything they have supposedly gone off their own back and managed to get a few thousand off for me, once again this sounded suss. 

Without delving into too much detail, we knew who the vendor was and how we could contact them. Although it’s not the proper way to go about things we decided that we should just contact them and ask ourselves if they really were a fixed price. If they were then I could move on. After a few phone calls back and forth, a few days pass by and I get an answer, yes they will review ANY offer put forward. They knew nothing about a fixed price. So the agent was straight out lying the whole time. 

A few more days pass by when I receive another call from the agent, ‘what would you like to do?’ she asks me. I explain that I’ve been told that I can make an offer and that’s what I would like to do, I can come down that day during my lunch break. She’s says that’s fine and off I go. I get their offices and the agent assists me with all the paper work, I fill in my offer and leave. 

The next day I get a phone call, and whadoyaknow the vendor has accepted the offer. 

Wow, what a run around. Basically what I learnt from this is you really can never trust anyone who’s trying to sell you something. All I wanted was to make an offer on a block of land, I would have been fine if they didn’t accept it. But instead I was lied to, made to feel like I didn’t know what I was doing, they were trying to pull the wool over my eyes because I was a first home buyer, they assumed I knew nothing, assumed I would have just accepted what he had told me and signed there on the dotted line. I’m very thankful to my parents who stood by me and helped me uncover the lies, and in the end get the block of land I wanted at the price I wanted to pay. 

Hopefully that didn’t all sound too doom and gloom. I can only laugh about it all now, and this experience hasn’t discouraged me but only made me stronger. Once of those great life lessons I guess!

Buying land story - Part2

I’ve broken this story up into a few parts as it’s a bit loooong. You can read part1 here

April 2013 I had found another block that I liked. 

The land had been available for some time, it was in an older area which I guess could put some buyers off but there was to be 10 new houses built along this street, so I knew in time It would be a good move. There was also a reserve at the rear with gumtrees which I believe is a much better sight that your neighbours back fence. The blocks here were also much larger for the asking price, but still a little over my budget. However as I had been following the market for so long I knew that there was a time the previous year when they briefly dropped the prices on these specific blocks, this gave me hope that they may in fact accept a slightly lower offer. 

I rang the agent to discuss things further, a few days later we met at the block. Everything was great, he went through the services and encumbrances and it all felt right. Without me saying anything about price he told me that the vendor might drop a little but not much. The following week I rang the agent and explained that I wanted to make an offer, he was happy for me to come down the next day during my lunch break. So I’m all excited but also a bundle of nerves of what I was about to do. I walked into the offices where he greeted me at the door with a big grin, we sat down at his desk and he dumped the contract in front of me, he started going through it, it all made sense, then he tells me the contract price... Hang on… I thought I was coming down to make an offer? I tell him I want to submit an offer below the asking price. He flat out said NO, not possible, it’s a fixed price contract, I ask again, almost begging for him to at least show my offer to the vendor. He once again says no, and then he closes the paper file, pushed it towards me and said 'sorry for wasting your time’. I was shocked at the way he spoke, I grabbed the file and walked out to my car, all I wanted was the chance to make an offer, sure they might have rejected it but shouldn’t I at least have that opportunity? Nowhere in any of the advertising did it say these blocks were a non-negotiable fixed price. 

I went home in despair to tell mum and dad what had happened, they were equally as shocked at the way the agent spoke to me. Dad wanted to ring him up right there and give him a piece for the way I was treated. I told Dad that would only make things worse and if the land was a set price I would just have to accept it. However it all smelt of foul play, it just felt like the agent was lying. Why did he say on our first meeting that they would drop a little, if in fact it was a set contract price all along? It made no sense; there were too many holes in the agent’s story. 

Update, you can read part 3 here 

Buying land story - Part1

I’ve broken this story up into a few parts as it’s a bit loooong. 

I thought I’d share a little bit about my land buying experience. I try to not let things stress me out as this whole house building process should be fun but buying land was a little bit different than I had expected. I expected to walk in, make my offer, have it accepted, and yay I’m a land owner. Well things didn’t all go according to plan. I’ve not mentioned any names or locations as I’m not trying to slander anyone, I’m only hoping to help other home buyers to be aware that some agents are not to be trusted.

It all begun back in November 2012, after dreaming for so long I decided the time was right, time to move on this dream of mine and buy a block of land. After following the local land sales for years I knew what was available. My budget was tight so there wasn’t a lot to choose from but there was 1 block I had in mind, it was an odd shaped block with no right angles but sat at the end of a cultersack in a new housing estate, it was nice and within budget. I rang the sales rep and asked for a few details, and told her I was interested but I still needed to follow up with my bank and builder etc. The rep said she would put my name next to that block, like a verbal hold. Well when I rang back I was told it had now been sold. I was disappointed, not so much that I had lost that particular block but that the sales rep didn’t tell me that someone else was interested. Oh well, I took it as it wasn’t meant to be. After this I decided to wait a while, I was having mixed feeling about if I was doing the right thing building a house, I think every first home buyer has those jitters.

Fast forward to April 2013, I realised that if I was going to do this, I had to move on it now. What’s the point in delaying my dream?

Whats my Interior Design style?

So what's my Interior Design style? well I don't really know. I love so many different styles to narrow it down to only one - industrial, country, modern, eclectic. Really a mish mash of everything I guess.

Probably the only way to really give you a good idea of the kind of interiors I love, would be a have a look through my pinterest boards. Which you can find at www.pinterest.com/misslibe

House Floor Plan

I've always loved looking at house plans. Imagining what each room would be like, how it would flow, seeing how the space had been utilised to its maximum potential, positioning of windows, doors etc. I remember way back when I was probably 14, maybe even younger, excitedly waiting for the Sunday paper just so I could look through the 'Home' liftout. I would analyse each floor plan and pick out what I liked and didn't like. Of course back then I was drawn to the big fancy ones with 5 plus bedrooms, buttlers pantries, walk in robes the size of my bedroom. but who doesn't fantasise about that! Maybe I'll have a McMansion one day.

Anyway fast forward to 2012 when I decided to have a poke around some display homes with Mum and Dad in tow. With my budget, a small 3 bedroom would be all I could afford, but in reality its all I need. Plus I knew that no matter what house, what size, I would love it because it was mine. I was just ecstatic that this was really happening, I was actually looking at houses for real! So we ended up looking through 3 display homes that I had picked out of the catalogue which fitted my criteria.

I knew the moment I walked into the display home that I am now building, it was the one for me. It just felt right... you know when you get a gut feeling and you just know. It ticked all my boxes!

It was open, spacious and light filled. the perfect first house for me!!

Its main features include:

3 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
Open plan living area
9 Foot ceilings
Attached garage with internal access
Alfresco area under main roof
Walk in Robe to master bedroom
Build in robes to minor bedrooms
Open and airy feel
Lots of Light

So what do you think? perfect first home or what..

Land details

Selecting a block of land is a lot easier said than done. There is a lot to consider - size, orientation, slope, location, available services and of course price. Plus every man and his dog that you speak to has an opinion on what areas are good, not good etc. but in the end I had to choose what was right for me, my lifestyle and of course my budget.

I am very, very happy with my little piece of land and I know I made the right decision.

So all the details....

My block is 721 square meters, 15 meters wide by approx 48 meters deep = long and skinny.

The front of the block faces west, with the left side facing North.

My favorite feature of the block is the reserve at the rear with huge gumtrees and a small creek, which is actually just a water drainage area. I don't know about you but I'd much rather look out my back door to see gumtrees than looking at the back of a neighbours house, especially for a small block like mine.

All along my side of the street is vacant building lots with the other side being older established houses. My house will probably be the first built on my side of the street, which not ideal but not much I can do about that.

I'm so excited to see it all come together and see my house built there soon. I have a vision in my head and I know it will me amazing.

Welcome

Having a home of my own has been something I’ve wanted for a very long time. It might be a bit strange for people to understand as I’m only young -"Why don’t you want to travel the world?" Why don’t you do this or do that? 

I can’t really explain it other than it’s just what I’ve always wanted. Everything fell into place this year and I am now building my first home. Woohoo! Exciting.

I love love love anything to do with interior design and home DIY projects. I love looking at floor plans, paint swatches, fabrics and DIY ideas. I could ramble on about it all day long if you let me.

I can’t wait to make this house of mine amazing!