Let there be (nice) light!

When we bought our house the first things we did were, paint - ceiling, walls and trims, replace all of the doors and hardware and we bought new light fixtures. We decided to get the same light fixture throughout most of the house (it was hard enough to find one style we both liked). We ordered our lights (and paid in full) in December 2008, our lights kept getting delayed for one reason or another. At the time we were so busy doing other things and the delay didn't worry us too much. Finally our lights arrived in May 2009, lucky we had lights that worked however they didn't look very good. It is amazing what you get used to and just don't see anymore. We pulled the old light fittings out of the ceiling so we could paint it and given we had ordered new fixtures we never ended up fixing the existing fittings so for almost a year they hung out of the ceiling..... (oops, excuse the washing basket and the cat, and the towel hung over the chair)

Until one rainy day, when we had time my WH climbed into the roof and installed our new lights. He did such a good job! Fortunately my WH is very talented and having a father who is a qualified electrician is great when you want to double check that everything is done right (don't want anyone getting hurt).

Doesn't that look much better! Most of the light fittings were simply switched over. Some were moved to a more appropriate position and left little holes that needed patching however the lights in the family room were originally big down lights and when removed left big holes in the ceiling. The holes were too big to patch easily without leaving an obvious mark so we decided to use a ceiling mould to cover the hole. Easy, or so we thought until we discovered that they aren't easy to find in Australia. On one of our many trips to Bunnings we were walking through the craft aisle when we spotted the round discs made from MDF. A bit of white paint, some liquid nails and voila.....

No holes and nice subtle ceiling moulds.

We have been really busy over January and we managed to get the paving finished, fences painted and walls rendered. Our feature wall is almost done and we are half way through planting all of our new plants. I have been slack, tired, busy, disorganised but I will get photos organised soon to show all of our progress.

Kitchens

This was the collection of kitchens that I had in my inspiration files.

I like the three lights above the island bench, not so much the style of them but the placement.

I like the idea of a shelf in the splash back, but I don't think I would ever have one, I think that everything on the shelf would get too grimy and just need cleaning more often.

I love the window and the kitchen sink, so nice to have a view while you wash up the pots and pans. I like the bench tops as well. We will hopefully be replacing our Kitchen bench tops this year with something similar. It will be a DIY project. My darling husband will take care of the bench top and I am going to attempt painting the cupboard doors and replacing the hardware for a fresh new look. I love the amount of light in the kitchen, the green chairs are so cute too. Green and white is one of my favourite colour combinations. It always looks so crisp and fresh. Love the big double sinks and the high arched taps, it looks a little bit too much like a laundry though. I love the kitchen cabinets too, they look like they are individual units and have all different sized draws and cupboards.

I really like the idea of a bookshelf in the kitchen to hold all of the cookbooks.

The island bench top, the sink, the green and white, the cheese, the wine. Looks like a great setup to sit and chat to the chef while they cook up a storm.

Once again I like the bench tops and the old fashioned stove (out of our price range unfortunately), and the little window bench seat/ phone nook.

This kitchen is so light and airy and I like the cupboard hardware, I particularly like the island bench.

When we finish our kitchen makeover I will post some photos so you can see what we end up with.