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.

 

ebay auction!

Have you ever placed a bid for an item on eBay and forgotten about it only to discover that you’ve won the auction?

Well that’s what happened to me recently.  I saw a painting that I kind of liked and decided to place a bid…. for 99 cents.  It turns out I was the only person to place a bid on the painting and I won!!!

The painting was in New South Wales so freight to Brisbane was $40.00.  I figured if it’s not quite my ‘cup of tea’ I could either relist it or take it to an Op shop.  It arrived a few days before Christmas and I had no idea that it was going to be so HUGE!!!

The auction description did say that it was 130cm x 170cm but I obviously didn’t  notice the size.  The following picture shows two of my sons standing next to it.

Here is the painting unwrapped.  I can’t find a signature on it but the previous owner said it’s by an artist called Victoria Lobregat .

Mr F wasn’t so sure of it and initially  offered to hang it on the wall in the cupboard under the stairs.  I’m planning on hanging it in the hallway by the front door until I can afford a Wendy Chenoweth.  I like it and Mr F has told me that he’s warming to it.

I know not everyone is going to like it but I’m actually quite happy with this particular eBay experience.

Topiary animals.

We love to potter about in the garden.  So while we wait and wait and wait for the alterations to the house to start, I brought these sweet little topiary frames off eBay to give us something to do.

They’re only little but I thought they’d look interesting (once they’ve grown) scattered around the garden in some of the bright and colourful Morris and James pots that we’ve had for years.

The plant that we’ve used is called Buxus Harlandii ‘Mystique’,  “A tropical and exotic native to Taiwan –  sweetly perfumed flowers during spring.”  Fingers crossed they work.

A new/old standard lamp.

I’ve been looking for about a year now for a timber standard lamp base.  I’ve been on eBay and Gumtree, trawled op shops and secondhand shops but had no luck.

but…

Mr F was driving home from work this week and found it sitting out for the kerbside collection.  Woo hoo!!.

I wish I’d managed to take a photo of it before he started attacking it.  It had two bendy lamps  like tentacles coming out of the top.

I sanded all the varnish off and gave it an undercoat.

The colour I’ve used is called Marquise – Taubmans.

The velvet shade came from Freedom about five years ago.  I’m not 100% sure about the shade yet.  I’m thinking it might not be big enough.  I’d appreciate any thoughts.  should I add some pom-pom trim?  .

Or am I going overboard with the pom-pom thing??  as the blinds and Beryl the Cockatoo lamp have them.

A bedroom for the boys

Until we decided what we’re going to be doing with this house, the boys (middle and youngest) are sharing the front main bedroom.  This room actually needed  a lot of attention.  The plaster ceiling was quite bad and the old ‘horse hair’ walls needed replacing.  The room had a really peculiar smell too.  It was a strange sickly, sweet smell.  Fortunately it’s gone now.  We really had no clue what the smell was but this is what it might have been.  As we pulled off each wall panel ‘this stuff’ was waiting behind.  It was thousands and thousands of tiny pellets.  We think it might have been cockroach poo but if anyone out there knows what this was, please let me know.

 .

Mr F also did a lovely job of replacing the ugly aluminium windows for much nice casement windows.   We used Dulux White on White again.  In fact this will be used throughout the whole house.  Gone are the days for us, when each room was a different colour.

When we pulled off the plaster sheets from one of the walls we discovered some very nice ‘untouched’ VJ!  Except they were a bit crooked, prehaps the original builder was quite keen to hide his wonky walls. It didn’t take Mr F to put things right and with a good smearing of builders bog, you’d never know the difference.

It was hard to decide what to do with the windows. We wanted to keep it really simple. We decided on ‘old fashioned’ retractable roller blinds. We had a few different quotes and Vista came in at the cheapest. To be honest, I’m not sure if I’d ever put retractable blinds in a child’s room again. They’re not that easy to put up.

We also brought a cheap chandelier from Early Settlers. We got it for a good price because someone had returned it and it was’nt in a box.  It looks fine and does the job. The electrician we used for the installation would have to be one of the nicest electrician you’re ever likely to meet.  He’s so incredibly honest and genuine. We’ve been using him for years now and would recommend his services to anyone. His name is Shannon Drysdale and his business is called Drysdale Electrical.  He is based on the Southside of Brisbane but doesn’t venture to the Northside for work.

The boys needed a chest of drawers as the last house had them inside the wardrobes.  I’d been looking on Gumtree and Ebay for something suitable for ages.  When we were at Restoration Station looking for lights for the lounge, I found  these drawers downstairs.  The owner of the shop told us that they’d come out of a deceased estate in Paddington.  Supposedly the owner of the house had never married and the house had been his parents.  It’s a great story.. but the drawers were in a sorry state.

                                                 

I brought the drawers  and I  decided  that I didn’t want to strip them at all.  In fact all I did was scrub them, repaint the inside and give it all a quick coat of white paint.  the mint green on the drawers  is the original colour.  I’ve left them as they were, animal scratch marks and all.  There were a few knobs missing but luckily Restoration Station sell these too

.

So now the boys have some drawers.  They’ll do for now!  It was fun to buy a few bits and pieces for their room.  I brought the whale cushion covers from a great shop called Three Two One by Kim & Judi  at Coorparoo.   I also enjoyed making the felt pom-pom garland.  I brought the pom poms from ebay and strung them onto the thinnest red cord I could find at Spotlight.  I also brought from ebay two cute lamps for each of the boys.  I was just about to buy one from a shop at Fortitude Valley and decided to look online.  I found them on ebay, the seller was in Holland.  For the price it was going to cost me to buy one here, I brought two, plus the postage and the convertor plugs. BARGAIN!!

The Moose ‘Norbert’ came from  Green Grass Home and Body at Bulimba.