The hallway light.

We started sanding the hall last weekend.

For a small hall it seemed  to take ages as all the walls are VJ (vertical joining, or tongue and groove) but it’s done and we are ready to undercoat it this weekend and paint.

After work this afternoon I went to a shop in Windsor called Victorian Living to look for a pendant light.  I’d never heard of this place before but I read about it on the blog  Number 90 and was keen to go and check it out.    Wow! It’s a very small shop and it is absolutely crammed FULL of lighting and hardware (original & reproduction).  I was a little hesitant to go in as I was sure I was going to knock something over but I clutched my handbag to my side and tip toed in.  The photo below was taken from the doorway of the shop.

Looking back towards to entrance to the shop.

This is the shade I chose.  I brought the rod set too but didn’t bother to take a photo of it.

I also brought this little sailor.  He’s only 5.5cm (two inches) tall.  My photo isn’t very clear.

He is one of four, the owner of the shop told me that they found the mould for them when they were at the site of an old engineering workshop that was being demolished  here in Brisbane.  They cleaned up the moulds and  have cast  some new ones. The photo below is from the shops website. (I tried to enlarge it but it went all blurry).

They are described as’ ANZAC soldiers’ and include Army, Navy, Airforce and ‘lady’ WRAAC.   They’d sold out of the soldier wearing the Slouch hat.  I’d like to collect them all.

Remnants of past residents.

It may not be very interesting to some but to me its been quite special  finding  these small bits and pieces.

The brightness of the lino is so cheerful.  It was under some stinky cupboards in the kitchen.  There was newspaper under it but it’s still stuck to the floor.  The coins and the comb were in the main bedroom, wedged between the skirting boards and the walls.  the plastic lion and the broken fork were buried in the garden.

The bright lino teamed up with the original green on the walls would have made it a very  colourful kitchen.

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.