Decisions, Decisions

Let's take a break from the messy stuff outside and talk about a dilemma that's been plaguing me for a while.

That dilemma is... what direction do I go in for the home office? I honestly can't decide which colour scheme to choose.

So far, all we've done is to paint the walls grey.

Now I need to start thinking about curtains to put up.

And I'm of two minds.

For those who follow me on Pinterest, you may have seen that I've been heading very much in the way of a black and white colour scheme for the room, with pops of Kelly Green.

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via pour on Pinterest

But at the same time, I've been kind of leaning towards a completely different alternative, that involves this kind of curtain fabric.

Terrain Bloom Seedpod

When we first painted the room grey I imagined colourful pink/purple/orange curtains to brighten the room up and give it some liveliness, but then I fell in love with the idea of Kelly Green highlights. The two things aren't really in any way compatible.

So now I have no idea what to choose. I can't think about a rug or curtains until I know what direction I'm going in, and I can't decide!

This has brought me to a step I never thought I'd get to. Mood-boards.

I've never been much of a mood-board girl. I've always found them a little bit hard to relate to. But I've reached a point now where I need to see how the various elements in a room will look.Who knew, but your imagination will only get you so far, and it's really helpful to bring everything together into a little collage of images to see what effect a particular element is likely to have on the rest of the elements in a room before making a start!

So I've spent a bit of time playing around in Photoshop this evening (actually Gimp, because it's free and Photoshop isn't), and come up with this.

It's my prospective Kelly Green crossed with classic black and white office, and I really like it. It's got class, wide striped black and white curtains, a crisp white desk (with the proposed addition of turned timber legs), a bold black and white rug, a Kelly Green industrial-look pendant and even a Kelly Green painted chair.

That chair I actually found on Ebay recently for $30. I love it.

But the Kelly Green is not my only option. I'm also leaning in this completely different direction.

That panel on the left is that potential curtain fabric, and I'm also loving the other fabric options for framed bits and pieces on the wall and a little cushion for the chair. And don't get me started on the rug options! That orange and white one in the picture is pretty fabulous, although I don't like my chances of getting it here Downunder.

So now the big question is.... which one do I choose?

Aside from the white things (and grey wall colour) that remain common to both options, everything else is entirely different. And I still don't know what to choose! So I can't really get anything for this room until I make a decision either way, because the two alternatives are so very different.

I'm waiting to see what Tom thinks of the two options, so I'm hoping his opinion will tip me over the edge, one way or the other. But then if he doesn't care I have no idea what to do! I think I'm leaning very slightly towards the pink/purple/orange option because the fabric options are pretty cool and it's fun and happy, but the black/white/green option is much less commitment. Remove the furniture, and it's completely colour neutral. For a house that we're not planning on staying in forever, that might be a good idea.

Any thoughts?

Have a Cup of Concrete

With the advent of our new front stairs, we realised that we had a problem. It was impossible to reach the stairs from our new front gate without stepping through mud, since we've had quite a bit of rain lately.

So we decided to make the front yard a little more liveable, while spending zero money.

Daniel got the ultra fun job of making a start on the mound of hardened clay just next to the stairs...

With the goal being to spread the dirt around so the front yard was more level.

And later, as the fence was taking shape, I took over the role of chief dirt mover.

It involved a lot of this.

And it was the most exhausting thing I've done in a really long time. Considering how much dirt we removed by hand from our last house's backyard, I marvel at our stamina back then!

Allie took over her traditional role of trying to protect what was left of the dirt pile.

Just like old times.

As a cheap and easy alternative to actually investing in paving the front yard right now, we decided to scavenge all of the pieces of concrete lying around that we've somehow managed to accumulate as we've gone about raising this house. We heaved them all onto the back of the ute, trundled it down to the front yard, and heaved them all back out again, attempting to lay them as evenly as possible.

We didn't really succeed in creating an even surface, but it's better than mud!

A couple of days later we scavenged a bit more concrete from the original under-the-house laundry slab, and added it the yard.

And we found a nice big chunk to sit at the bottom of the stairs. It was ridiculously heavy. Unfortunately I didn't leap out of the way fast enough as it fell to the ground a few moments earlier than expected, and it took out some of my skin on the way. No serious harm done though, and they do say "no pain no gain"!

And here's the extremely attractive view (of both the yard and the freshly puttied fence) from the top of the stairs

We plan to get some small rocks to fill in the gaps between the pieces of concrete so we can use the front yard as a sort of patio. It won't be smooth or even, but it will be an improvement on mud, and since we're not ready to spend the energy paving it properly, this will definitely fulfill the purpose admirably for now!

Guess what's next? Those little white putty dots are a clue...

Stairs, Glorious Stairs

I know it seems like Project Front Stairs has been dragging on for...like...ever, but we have been progressing, I promise!

Here's where we left it, once we had concreted in the supports for the posts, put in the small set of stairs, and built the landing.

Once again we very carefully measured and re-measured and did the maths and re-did the maths, to figure out exactly where we could concrete in two more steel brackets to support the bottom end of the large set of stairs.

Aside from waiting for the concrete to set on those two extra brackets, the other reason it took us so long to get any further was these.

They are H.E.A.V.Y. Really really REALLY heavy. We needed four of us to get them up and into position, and there was a lot of mucking around to get them perfectly level and locked into the landing nicely.

As you can see from the peek at my work shoe in the bottom left of this photo, once the heavy lifting was done I showered and dressed for work, and left the boys to finish getting the stairs nicely into place.

Then it was a matter of bolting the stairs in at the bottom, since all they wanted to do was to slide downwards and out of place with the weight.

We recently decided to invest in a new battery drill (and a matching impact driver), since our existing battery drills were driving us crazy with their uselessness. Tom was pretty excited to christen them on this stair project.

I believe this would be a Happy Drill Dance. Hmm...

Anyway, I returned home from work that night to this gorgeous view.

Allie came with me to inspect the workmanship and make sure it was up to scratch.

Can you believe it? We have STAIRS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But of course it definitely wasn't over yet. Then began the process of putting in hand railings. And the first thing we needed for that was posts at the bottom end of the stairs.

Tom did an admirable job of notching away a diagonal section of the posts in order to slot them nicely over the angled side of the stairs.

As you can see, he suffered a few war wounds in the process, but fortunately the circular saw didn't get in on the action this time.

We also decided that because the large set of stairs is 11 steps (12 if you count the step down to the ground), it would be sensible to also put a couple of posts half-way up to the landing to avoid an almost four-metre stretch of unbroken (and therefore likely to bend in the middle) handrail.

We're pretty proud of the angled notches Tom managed to cut into the bottom of the posts, so they fit perfectly onto the step on one side.

So once the stairs were nicely in place, it was time to move onto the next stage. Sanding them! And then cleaning them. The latter included both washing them down with a hose and a cloth (soaked in water with sugar soap mixed in), and then vacuuming them once they were dry to catch any other dust.

Vacuming stairs is not easy! I developed this hold-the-vacuum-with-one-hand-so-it-doesn't-topple-down-the-steps-while-actually-vacuuming-with-the-other-hand technique. Whatever it takes to get them clean, right?

I then decided to pull out the old putty again to cover up any nail holes and imperfections in the timber on the stairs.

The landing didn't miss out either. Allie seemed to like it.

And here they are in all their puttied glory (minus the halfway posts, which haven't been bolted in properly yet). Stairs!!!!! We have front stairs!!!!!

We've still got quite a way to go, but the fact of the matter is that we have a solid, fixed-to-both-the-ground-and-the-house set of stairs! It's such a giant step forward from our current tied-on back stairs, and we couldn't be happier with how they're turning out!

Just look at the difference!!!!! I know the angle isn't exactly the same, but I'm sure you get the idea.

It's proving to be a slow and very careful process, but it's going to be so very worth it!

Fence a-Front

It's time to put our fencing hats on again!

Actually, I donned an Aussie green and gold sombrero. Much more exciting, don't you think?

And gloves, a face mask and sunglasses. All for the purpose of sanding our new (but very old) fence posts.

I've learned a valuable lesson here. Sometimes it's really not worth it buying cheap secondhand timber. Particularly not when it's covered in layers of thick old paint that peels in some places meaning you HAVE to sand it back to get a smooth overall finish, but it doesn't want to budge in other spots. It's not fun. I spent an entire day doing this.

The biggest advantage of second-hand timber (aside from the fact that it's cheaper) is that it's straight. Brand new timber often tends to warp because it's still young. Not these solid old posts!

Anyway, we very carefully measured the height that we needed each post to be for our new front fence, and the posts got the chop.

We tried to cut off the worst end of each post and leave the good stuff.

Allie tried to distract us as much as possible.

Playing ball is so much more fun than sanding posts!

Finally, as the day was drawing to a close, most of the posts were sanded and cut down to size. We decided to try to be smart and use the circular saw to help cut notches at the top and bottom of each post for the future horizontal rails of the fence to slot into.

It's so much easier to cut the notches when the top and bottom cuts are already made!

Since we had already concreted in the steel brackets for the posts to slot into, it was a relatively simple process to install the posts by drilling holes and then putting in bolts.

So in virtually no time, the posts were up!

I gave them a wash...

And patched up any holes with some putty. Unfortunately we didn't have any putty designed for exterior use, but decided to go with the indoor stuff, since it will be painted over anyway.

Tom then gave them an undercoat. We decided to buy an oil-based undercoat for extra tough adhesion.

They look so fresh and clean white!

After that it was time to attach some sleepers between some of the posts to act as a retaining wall.

The boys bolted them in nicely...

And then the process of putting up the horizontal beams and palings was reasonably simple. Daniel got the job of cutting all of the palings to exactly the same length, and Phil (Tom's brother) attached most of them to the fence.

Both the horizontals and the palings we used came from the original house. They used to enclose the area underneath it before we started raising it.

Once the majority of the fence was up, we started work on a gate. Tom managed to find one for sale on Gumtree (I swear I must refer to buying something on Gumtree once every post!)

It was a bit taller than we needed it to be, so Tom chopped off the timber boards at the right height...

And then used the grinder to cut off the steel frame at the right height.

I then took the newly shortened gate with the severed top bar off to the guy that supplied the steel posts we used to support the house when we raised it, and he re-welded it all together for us.

A couple of screws later, and it was installed!

 

It's pretty incredible what a difference a few days' worth of work on the fence has created. It's transformed the way things look from the street!

The gate certainly isn't the prettiest in the world, particularly not with those two fence-paling horizontals you see below the yellow boards (there was a large gap there, so we popped a couple of short palings in that space so that Allie won't be able to slide through there).

Plus, the secondhand palings certainly add a rustic charm that wasn't really the look we were going for. The theory is that a fresh lick of pain will solve that problem, and it's definitely an improvement on no fence at all!

More to come shortly! It's not over yet!