What Mr F did ALL weekend.

Mr F was really busy over the weekend painting the walls and door frames in the hallway.  We took the bathroom and the back bedroom doors to John at Earth safe Paint Removal to be stripped and sanded.  For a very small and skinny hall, it took a long  time to paint.  Each piece of the vertical Joinery had to be painted with a brush to get in to cracks between.

The photo below was taken when the tenants were still living at the house.  It’s hard to tell from the photo but the colour was a yucky kind of cream. The hall is now  sporting a lovely fresh coat of white and showing off its brand new hall light!!

Look what he’s dragged home this time!

I thought Mr F was safely on his way to work when suddenly he appeared back in the house filthy!!. His work clothes were covered in dirt and he was wet through. Despite the rain and the clock ticking, he saw this sitting out on the kerb at the front of someones  house waiting for the ‘kerbside collection’ pick up..

Percy having a sniff

Somehow he managed to drag it back to his car and get it home. He was so happy with his find and I think it’s great too. It looks like it’s an old ‘meat safe’ and will make a great replacement for the  Ikea tv cabinet in the boys bedroom.

Now what colour should we paint it??

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.

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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

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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.

the lounge and dining room continued…. Window shopping!

All of the windows in the house except one in the lounge were replaced at some point with aluminium sliders.  They’re awful!!  Slowly we’ve been able to source replacement casement windows and take the others to the dump!  We really like the chaps that run the Demolition Yard at Cavendish Road, Coorparoo.  They are very helpful and its very easy to look at their stock.  We are also on the lookout for a nice front door.

   

We replaced the windows in the lounge and dining room.  We took them to a place in Salisbury called Earth Safe Paint Removal  to  have the paint removed.  Many people would advise against this process as it dissolves the old  glue.  We did re-glue some of them that did need it.  The owner of this business John has an enormous amount of stock there too .  He is also a very nice man.

My mum made the blinds for us.  The fabric and the multi coloured pom-pom trim came from Brisbane Fabric Market on Stanley Street, East Brisbane.   They also have a shop at Wilston.  It was hard to take a photo to show you the blinds.  I will try to take a photo of them when the light is better.

Speaking of lights.  I have a thing for Lamps and have brought three this year.  This is Beryl.  She was brought from a shop in Bulimba called Just Plain Gorgeous.  I think she’s fantastic.

Here are some photos of how the lounge and dining room look at the moment.  If we do get to build, these two rooms will change.  As both the living room and the dining area will be down stairs.  These rooms will become a study and upstairs living area.  The black footstool has gone to live at my cousin’s  house and the red chair now lives in a bedroom.  Oh and the youngest boy broke the lamp in the corner.  I’ve saved the  turquoise velvet shade though and am looking for an old wooden base that I’d like to paint yellow.