This is the look I have to marry with the one from the previous post

This is classic modern. Still has the white but mixed with dark timber furniture. This is beautiful. Only trouble is I have to work with what we have as well. I do want this look for the top level of our house. There is Ikea used quite a bit in these rooms but it is well blended. That is my intention.

I am wondering can I do this on level one and then the other on level two. Our house is split level. I already have some good pieces to start this look off with. I reckon I can pull it off.

 I have a great table from the sixties I can use as an occasional desk for my laptop but it needs a paint. I have an antique hall stand from my granddad, it could do with a restore but I can't do it. Maybe one day I can have it professionally done.  We have a chest of drawers for our bedroom that needs staining and new knobs. I have an old chair that needs recovering too. I am going to paint our house too once we live there and get a feel for the space. I am loving the turquoise paint from pic2 at the moment. I am thinking for our bedroom.

I have to find a space for all my ideas now. Sometimes I wish the house was going to be a bit bigger but then I think about the reasons it isn't and my main one cleaning and then I think no, we made the right choice.

Style Confusion

 

I am a bit confused about the decorating aspect which bemuses me because I KNOW knew what my style is but now I am liking a few bits that may not actually go with 'the' style OR am going back to a style I liked years ago OR maybe I just like an eclectic style and need to embrace that. Anyway I'm a little confused...

I know I love white and light. I also love some colour. Hence the coloured quilt in the previous post which Michael agreed we could keep but with the tag " the things I will do for you!".

I love the wall shelves below they are fabulous for picture arrangements. Using these I change my photo arrangements when ever I want to without putting holes everywhere. Brilliant!

Above are our existing cabinets in white and pine.
This is as shown in our last house. Doesn't Ikea furniture look so much nicer without all the tags.




I love these curtains for our family room. I showed Micahel and he likes them too which is great. His taste surprises me sometimes. I expected him to hate them. I am not certain they will be "the" curtains because they are rather thin which allows alot of light to penetrate which may be too much but I do love them. They are cheap too so may be great for "an until we can afford blinds" option.



This was the only style I loved for years. Classic, modern scandanavian. Coutesy of my favorite store Ikea. I love the birch furniture with the light gray and white soft furnishings. They have such short dark days in Sweden and this colour pallet works well in that environment as it allows as much light reflection as possible. It works equally as well here as we have really short winters so we live a very sunny existance. I really like the jute rug. I got my eye on that one.



We already have these bookcases in birch but I would like these white doors for them. Once the doors are installed they will match our existing furniture pcitured above(pic2 I think). The doors will hide some of the items or books, making the shelves less busy and making them more conjusive to living outside the study, maybe in the family room or media room. This will then allow more space for Michael's musical equipment in the study.



Michael would like a leather futon in his music room but I don't think one will fit. I saw this chair which I think is perfect for sitting and playing guitar. Michael did however point out to me that we have ALOT of chairs already. Maybe we can use one of those instead.



I also like this option for one of my bookcases. I want to get rid of our existing cabinet that houses our glassware. It is beech and goes with NOTHING. I think this would be a great alternative. In fact I think I want to get rid of alot of the glasses as well. We have sooo many. All engagement and wedding gifts that we almost never use. I am sure Michael will want to keep every last one of those dust catchers. I could paint the glass cabinet white. I wonder if that will work. It's better than sticking it in the garage. Hmmm.



Michael wants a high backed desk for the music room/study. This matches really well.

 

I also like these curtains but think I may tire of them more quickly.

 


This is the style I want for our family room. Here is another example of those great picture rail shelves.  

  

Now I just have to marry it all up to get the look I love without buying all new furniture.

Got our final appointment

Just got a call from the builder. Final plans are being drawn up tomorrow and we have an appointment to sign the final plans next Tuesday. The build is sceduled to start the week after. Please no rain.

WE ARE SO FRIGGIN" EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quilt Love

Today I went to  do banking and I visited "the quilt" in Myer.

I too and froed and made a crunch decision. I bought it. Owww I do love it. I think it will be a nice addition to our room, it will add some modern spice to our existing furnishings. Change things up a little and unlike our old red walls(yes we used to have bright saturated red walls in our honeymoon days) the quilt can be changed easily when we tire of it. If Michael really hates it I can exchange or refund. I do understand that Michael does have to sleep with it everyday. I am hoping that he will like it though.

All is not lost if it goes back to the shop as I did  see a wonderful white quilt with pinch pleat details and fancy buttons that was also on sale. Plus I KNOW he would like it if the coloured one doesn't work out.

To be continued...

Finally a break

Michael spoke to our builder yesterday and they are closer to starting than they thought. They want us to come in mid next week to sign the final "for construction plans". Then the build should start the week after. OMG that's close. As Dora says rain, rain go away come back some other day! Or in our case in another six months.

Yesterday the bank had a private valuer do the valuation on what they expect the house to be worth once completed. He called us for help with it rather than wait for the bank as they can delay things. We had a good chat and I forwarded off heaps of docs which he was very grateful for. Anyway my assistancee paid off as he rang Michael at 9pm last night to ask a few questions about the kitchen and bathroom finishes and he said that all was great and that he was sending it off to the bank immediately. It was via email so the bank has it as I type. Yah!

Now letter of commencement come, come, come!

Had our first blinds quote

$4000 for blinds and $2500 for security doors. I tell you what those double stacker doors cost a bomb to screen. This does not include having any window coverings on the largest windows in the house which are located in the family room. There we are having curtains. A very simple white curtain estimated at $500.

Fans

The last post wouldn't let me load the image. Anywho...here is a picture of the fan. It looks much nicer in real life. This is the wood grain side but you can't even see the grain in this picture. They have remotes too.

Fans for Chloe's bedroom and the mastersuite.

Now that we are near to the building start we have decided that as things we want come on special we are going to have to seriously consider buying them. So on the weekend we went and got the fans for two of the bedrooms.

They have a reversible blade with wood grain on one side and dark grey on the other colour. We will go with the dark grey. Or I might spray paint the blades on Chloe's white. 

I love this quilt

I got a Myer voucher for my birthday. Last week I was in Myer and I spotted this. I fell in love instantly. Michael isn't so sure. I am thinking I should get it and then live with it(in the pack) for a week or two and then if I change my mind I can always take it back and get a refund. It is on sale so I need to move quickly.

As of today

We have had word from our mortgage broker that the final construction loan is approved. That was just a formality really but it's another step. Now a valuer has to do a valuation on the expected finished product. That is happening today or tomorrow. Then we sign the final loan documents and the letter of commencement will be sent to the builder.

We sent back the signed variations discussed with builder last week. Concrete has been extended and we are getting an extra door installed at hallway near Chloe's bedroom. This will block sound when she sleeps and will give us an area for the dogs to be contained in. They can then go between the laundry, bathroom and hall. They won't set off the alarm and they won't be able to sit on my new lounge.

Michael and I went to the show home on the weekend and it's funny how things change in shape and size the more you look at them. We knew we were getting a much smaller yard, a large courtyard sized space but yesterday it just seemed a lot smaller. Well it looks fine just turfed but we want garden beds and water features and pergolas. We have to really plan this space well. There isn't the room to play with a million different plants like we did at out old place. We will only select the plants that did very well at our last home and plants that we really love and are in line with creating the environment that we want.

Of course we had another delay!

Things have moved slowly again. We finally got the construction certificate. Our retaining wall is over 1000mm and of late our council has started a requirement that we have an engineer certificate for that wall prior to CC being issued. Anyway after a bit of drama we got around it by using the specs for boral retaining wall blocks "keystone" and kopper logs down the dead side of the house. I don't really like koppers but it was worth it as otherwise we had to fork out over $700 for the engineer and there would have been a further delay of 5-10 days.

Things are back on track for the time being. Today we meet to discuss the final electrical plan, discuss and order further variations and talk about any questions we may have before the final plan is drawn up.

We sent everything outstanding to the bank and now just await the final construction loan paper then once signed they will issue a commencement letter.

We have been told we should be in to sign off on everything for the builder within two to three weeks and first break of soil should be the week after. Here's hoping. Oh and if it doesn't rain.

On a lighter note the tiler has got a new great range of tiles for us to chose from. Awesome tiles. Beautiful florals, stripes, mosaics and some nice art deco inspired ones. Can't wait to go and chose those now. I ma designing bathrooms in my head as I type. So I guess the question is to decide whether to be brave and choose a modern tile with some serious wow factor that will date eventually or go for plain white, boring but won't date. Hmmm. Decisions.