Before and after - Wall colours

Before

After

You saw how 'bright' our house was when we first bought it. We were really fortunate and were able to get early access in order to clean and to paint the house prior to moving in. We had such a hard time choosing one colour let alone more, that we decided it was best to stick to a neutral tone and paint all the walls the same colour.

When you finally choose a colour then you need to choose the strength to use. Arrgh! So many decisions! Then when you start painting there is that moment when you start to question whether you chose the right colour or not. Doubt begins to creep in and sometimes you need to just step back, take a breath and have an objective look.

We have a great family and they helped us lots with all the work involved in buying a new house and moving. Our Nan and Pop came for three weeks before settlement to paint the house from top to bottom. The first moment of doubt was when the undercoat went on. The helpful lady at Mitre 10 told us that in order to get coverage it was best to tint the undercoat grey, well when we put the undercoat on the walls we were worried that it was too dark and that we had been given the wrong advice, but no... the helpful lady was spot on and it worked.

Before

After

Once it was all done we were pleased with the result. It really does make such a difference when you freshen up with a coat of paint. If you can do it yourself, it is economical and makes such a big difference. The colour we chose was Dulux 'Fawn Beige' in full strength. The first room that was fully painted was our 4th bedrooom/study. It is the smallest room and the day it was finished was a particularly overcast day. We did question whether the full strength was too dark but once the sun came out.... we realised that we loved it!! For now anyway.......

Long Weekend

We just had a lovely long weekend with lots of food and relaxing. It was great, the best thing was it rained for two days so we don't even feel bad for not doing much work around the house. Saturday soccer was not rained out so we took advantage of an out of town game and explored the countryside and cafes. We visited the historic village of Carcoar, wandered around, looked in the antique shops, Nick took lots of photos and of course we ate some more at the Stoke Cafe. It was a very nice meal and the cafe is cute with a nice cosy atmosphere and they served tea made from tea leaves.

Favourite things

Some of my favourite things are oriental lillies and candles. My wonderful husband spoils me with fresh flowers often and he knows that white and pink lillies are my favourites. I love flowers they make me happy. They are so beautiful and delicate, an inspired creation that bring joy.

I also adore candles, I have them all over the house and I place them in unusal holders like silver milk jugs or in big vases or I scatter tealights all over the place even outside on the front steps to greet guests as they arrive for dinner.

VIVID festival in Sydney

As promised here are a few more photos from our weekend away. The one above was located in the Rocks close to the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The fabulous Opera house. Isn't it so clever what they can do with lights. Some people have great imagination to come up with these things.

The Museum of Contemporary Art had a changing light facade. So well done to line up the projections with the windows.

Pretty in Pink. The Museum had at least 6 different facades and they changed around every 5 minutes. There were quite a few people wandering around I think it was pretty fortunate that Nick was able to get the photo without anyone in the way.

Long Weekend

My Wonderful Husband and I spent a lovely long weekend in Sydney these last three days. The weather wasn't great but we enjoyed our stay and had lots of fun. We ate, shopped, ate, took photos, ate and fortunately walked a fair bit too. While we were in Sydney we were able to enjoy some of the great light creations as part of the VIVID light and music festival. We wandered around in the evening and Nick took some great photos. This is the only one he has made available to me so far but I will post some more over the next few days or weeks. He really is very talented and creative. I admire his patience in getting all of the settings right when he takes a photo. I am more a point and shoot person. If you happen to be in Sydney before the 14th June I recommend that you have a look at some of the events that have been organised as part of the festival. For more information you can visit this site. http://www.sydney.com/Vivid_events_sydney_events_p3582.aspx

Blue, Hot Pink, Lime Green???????

We soon discovered why the house was taking so long to sell, the previous owners liked their colours and unfortunately their colour scheme wasn't to everyone's liking. Add to that the fact that the finish on everything was not done well (on one wall we discovered that rather than remove the masking tape they had used to get neater finshes on their edges they painted straight over it). Fortunately we could see past the bright colours and we knew that with a lot of hard work (the house was filthy too) we could make a huge improvement and create a welcoming comfortable house.

Buying our house

Before I start showing you all the work we have been doing on our house I thought I would show you the photos that made us go and check the house out. We actually saw the house advertised for sale months prior to us visiting it, but it was not really appealing from the outside and we assumed it was in an area that we weren't really keen on moving to. Anyway months later the house was relisted, curiousity got the better of us and we had a closer look. The advertising photos looked good and the description suited us, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, single garage and a carport. So we booked in a visit.

Welcome

I have been a blog stalker for long enough and I finally have the confidence to begin my own.... along with the support of my wonderful husband. We're not sure what direction this blog will take except that it will be a journal/journey of our loves, hobbies, renovations... our life. We'd love for you to join us, share your journey with us and encourage us in ours.