And another one….

Yes I’ve bought another painting off ebay!

It was a Mother’s Day gift to myself.

Its by an Adelaide based artist called Lucy Turnball and titled ‘like brother like son’.

It now lives on the mantle above the oven.

I love it!

I’ll have to stay away from ebay for a while…..

Another painting from ebay.

I’ve bought another painting off ebay.

Not as cheap as the one I bought for a $1.00 late last year.

I removed the frame and gave it a few coats of glossy white paint.  I think it looks a lot better.

The description of the painting said that it was of

         Sebrof Mansion on Orrong Road, Armadale painted by J Edelman in 1979 .

As I’ve not had the opportunity to go to Armadale, Victoria  and absolutely LOVE old houses and mansions (in this case)  I had to try to find out more about Sebrof Mansion.

So…

The house has been on the market at some point in the last few years.  I’ve borrowed some photos from Domain.com.au to show you what it looks like today.

I found some images on Trove of what the house looked like in 1975, closer to the time when the artist painted the picture.

It was originally Built for the Hon William Williams by architects Dalton & Gibbons 1885-1886 and later owned by the Forbes family who named it “Sebrof” ( Forbes reversed).

I also found Sebrof Mansion mentioned in quite a few newspaper articles and advertisements on Trove.

24/02/1920

07/06/1893                                       

21/08/1919

21/08/1913

16/10/1894

This grand old girl  has a lot of history and if the walls could talk, many stories to share.

 

Tiles for the porch.

Serious bargain of the year!

Ok so while looking for an alternative to encaustic tiles Fred found some for sale on Gumtree for $20 a sqm!!!

Now I know that I said in my last post that we’d not been too happy with the encaustic tiles in the upstairs bathroom.  But anyone who knows how much encaustic tiles are per square metre knows that for $20 a sqm is a seriously good bargain.

Today we’re grouting.

Beryl gets a new hat!

When I bought Beryl the Cockatoo lamp, she came with a shade that I liked but always wanted to change at some point.

So I finally got around to doing something about it!

I bought some cute spotty fabric from Spotlight and a cheap shade from Bunnings.

To see how much  fabric I would need, I placed the seam of the shade on the edge of a towel and rolled it along the towel until the seam appeared again.  I made a mark on the towel and used a tape measure to find the length.

I measured the width of the shade and added an extra inch either side to fold over the wire on the inside. For a nice tidy finish I folded over an inch of fabric and gave it a press with a  hot iron.

I used a can of spray on adhesive to hold down the fold and allowed it to dry for a few minutes.

I then spray the entire length of fabric with the adhesive and very carefully began to roll the shade along the fabric.  I lined up the raw edge of the fabric with the seam on the back of the shade and finishing with the folded edge.

I folded the edges into the inside of the shade and left to dry for a while.

I’m really pleased with the results.  The whole project from beginning to end took less than half an hour and approximately $20.00.

The floor boards that became a table.

When the builders were cutting through the upstairs floorboards to install the staircase, we managed to salvage some of the boards from the skip bin.  We grabbed some other solid pieces of hardwood too.

We knew we’d like to make something for the house with them and for the past year now the timber has been lying down the side of the house … but Fred got busy building us a fantastic outdoor table.

He gave it a sand and a couple of coats of oil. Added some wheels and bought some stools for $19.00 each from Kmart.

Ta Da

The whole project including the chairs was less that $150.00.

We love it!!!

Seating for the porch.

Hello there

We’ve  all been busy working and so not a lot has been happening around our house but Mr F (lets just call him Fred) has the  school holidays off, perks of being a teacher hey!!.

He’s been busy building us a wonderful seat and cupboards to hide the shoes!!

Here is the porch area before.  The  old Shell boxes were holding the shoes.

The boys gave him a hand.

Doors for the shoe cupboards.

And finally a couple of coats of paint!

We’ve ordered framed micro lattice that will slot nicely into the space at the top.  It’s going to be white and will just give us a little bit of extra privacy.

A nice example of micro lattice.

The cupboards are brilliant and hide all the shoes away.  We don’t wear shoes in our house so the new seating is a perfect place to put on or take off your shoes.

The final thing to complete this area is to decide what to do with the concrete pad.  I’d really like to tile it with some black, grey and white Encaustic tiles but as we’re not very happy with the way dirt and grime sinks into them (despite sealing them TWICE) we’ll have to look for an alternative.

 

 

Waste not, want not!

Since my Nan died last year I’ve been spending a couple of nights a week with my grandfather to keep him company in the evenings.  He’s not short of company during the day, my mum and her sisters visit him regularly.

He’s doing really well on his own and likes to keep himself busy pottering around the house and garden.

Last week when I was doing a few jobs for him I noticed this washing basket trolley.

check out the wheel!

My granddad clearly comes from a generation where the term ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ applies to wheels.

Love you Stan the Man!!!

She’s up!

We managed to hang the window on Sunday with help from my parents.  It was very heavy so we needed to screw it directly into the wall studs.

Because the window was so heavy, we got creative and used lots of different things to get the right height.   Made sure it was level, then screwed it to the wall!

It’s really big and finding the right place for it to hang wasn’t easy but I think it looks good where we’ve hung it.

I’ve done it again!

I’ve gone and done it again!  …

I’ve bought something online without reading the description – (dimensions) properly.

Late last year I bought a painting off Ebay and today I’m now the proud owner of an ENORMOUS old  shop window. I found it for sale on Gumtree.   It looked so much smaller in the photos in the advertisement.

The seller delivered it to our house this afternoon.

I’m always on the lookout for interesting pieces to decorate the house with, especially anything with a story and history.  Even better if it’s local history.  The seller did a bit of investigating into the window and found a listing for it a 1950s business directory.

I found these advertisements for Kaynella on Trove.

Sunday Mail – 4th December 1949

Sunday Mail – 1st August 1954

I googled 186 Adelaide Street but I couldn’t find any businesses using this address today.  It might have been part of the Anzac Square building but I’m not too sure.  I wish I had more time to investigate.

Despite its size I’m really happy with it.  Now we’ve just got to find wall studs to hang the bugger up!

Gumtree treasures.

This advertisement on Gumtree just caught my eye. If you live in Brisbane and like interesting vintage pieces for your home this could be worth checking out.

The ad was listed on the 19th of December 2014, so some or many of the items listed may have gone but if you’ve got nothing planned for the weekend, it could be worth a trip to Beenleigh.