Excitement

We got a new fireplace today!  It's summer, stinking hot and our fireplace - all brand new and shiny -was delivered.  It's now in the new man shed (more on that soon) down the back of the section.  It is hard to believe we will ever have a home for it OR a need for it in the middle of summer.

Other very, very exciting things:  We have bought a new Fisher & Paykel ice and water fridge, a new induction cooktop, an oven and a rangehood.  There is no going back now.  Well, there could be, but we'd be majorly in the red after we sold everything on Trade Me.

Our beautiful new fridge

We have had the scope of work from the builder.  The cost was around what we expected, but now we need to work out exactly what it includes and excludes.  So the builder is coming over this evening, and he likes to go through detail with a fine-tooth comb - and we will need to - so it will be a bit of a session.  Kids must be in bed early tonight!!! 

Back to that shed.  Steve bought a kitset shed, a really big one, and his dad picked it up for us and they both got to work constructing it.  It was supposed to take a day or just over, but that silver beast in our backyard took about 3 days to build.  It was definitely not for beginners.  Steve and his dad did a great job - it's just the shed is pretty flimsy and could blow over in a storm!!!!  Well, perhaps not now there is a great hulking fireplace inside it.

Steve's mum also shifted lots of our plants so that when we start the build, they will be safe.  And we've shifted the swing set from down the back to the front where it will live for the next while.  Next thing is deck dissembled and trees cut down....

I have been dwelling on lights a bit.  I want something amazing, but different .. Steve loves coloured glass, particularly green, and there are lots of amber, plum, smoke and blue lights - but not so with green.  Where can we find such a thing?

The search goes on....

x

Sentimental fool

Last night Steve was talking about how we need to take the deck out so we can get the trees cut down, and I had a sudden (and totally irrational) feeling of loss.

Steve was flummoxed - poor guy.  He cannot understand why I would feel anything other than excitement.  I thought I'd try and figure it out.

We have been in our house for five years now.  In those five years, we've had 3 babies.  Those babies have taken their first steps here, and they've played out on that deck and underneath those trees more times than I care to imagine. 

Babies Olivia and Sofia outside in Springtime with the Rhododendron petals (the Rhodo is one of the trees that is going).

It's not as if we are losing the house, but we are losing part of it.  The deck is a place where, in the summer time, the doors are flung open and the kids run loose outside.  They've played in the sandpit out there, had al fresco lunches on the deck steps, they've fallen off those steps onto the concrete.

In the kitchen - which will not go straight away, but will go - they've pulled out all the plastic pots, banged on pans, and learnt to get their Dad a beer from the fridge. Lots of lovely memories (except for that one about the falling onto concrete). 


Baby Olivia busy in the kitchen

So I guess.. the only way I can try to explain it is, saying goodbye to the deck and the 'heart' of the home (the kitchen) will feel like it's definitely the end of the baby days.  Which - although I complain about the intensity of it all - I will miss when they are gone.

Unless of course, we christen the new house by having another baby. 

Steve will read that last line and cross his fingers, secretly hoping I might come around.

x

Time out

It's been really nice to have a break from looking at house stuff.  We had glorious sunny weather in Auckland over the weekend, so we made the most of it.  We took the girls to Ambury Farm Park in Mangere Bridge - it's fantastic; a working farm and therefore had actual farm animals on it.  Sheep, pigs, cows and chickens.  It's good for the kids to see that they exist not just in story books....!  And the views over the Manukau Harbour are beautiful:

We cycled there from Onehunga (about 10km return) - Steve with the girls in the bike trailer and me by myself (very cruisy!).  Max had some quality time with his aunty and uncle.

Speaking of our family, we are very lucky to have some great experience within it when it comes to renovations.  Both my sister-in-law and brother-in-law have completed one each.  One in the UK which was mostly decoration and one in Australia which involved renovation and rebuild.  Both were super stylish and great inspiration for us.

We have had great conversations over the summer about the practicalities and the pitfalls (eg 'charge up' versus 'fixed priced' pricing), and they have collectively forced us to look much more closely at the detail much sooner than we otherwise would have done.  Like the lighting - we still need to think about exactly where we want the lights (although Steve has done a draft plan), and how we will use them.  I must remember to detail outside lighting... we don't have any at the moment (except for a spotlight) and I love the idea of creating a warm atmosphere outside for dining or relaxing at night in the summer time.

I also get emails from my sister-in-law with pictures from magazines and websites attached.  She is so good with suggestions and ideas.  Also, if we have ideas or questions she is quick to respond with her experiences (eg continuous hot water systems) and recommends solutions... so brilliant to have her experience on hand.

Here are her latest deliveries to our inbox: 

This picture was a possible solution to the TV conundrum we were having (I think having the TV above fireplace seems like it gives the TV hero status and is ugly).  We are probably going to have the TV above the fireplace nonetheless.  Within a dark wall, recessed and hopefully, barely noticeable!!! 

The sheer curtains in this picture are an idea for us with our huge stacker door opening.  In winter, I think these would create a nice cosy atmosphere, along with our fireplace.  I am a bit scared of curtains though....they are hard to get right.

This kitchen has an appliance cupboard - hidden.  So you don't see any clutter.  LOVE.

See what I mean?   Fantastic fodder for thought.

The girls have recently taken to poring over house magazines and pointing out their bedroom or their house.  They could be a great help too.....

x

Kitchen adventures

Yesterday I went to see a house which was renovated by our chosen builder.  It was amazing and I was really excited afterwards thinking about our project.  The house I viewed was a villa and not dissimilar from what our layout will be and had beautiful wooden floors, huge stacker doors and the kitchen was great.

The kitchen is what I would put in myself.  So I asked the owner where he got it from, he told me, and off I went this morning with Max in tow to talk to Kitchen Systems in Onehunga.  There, in front of me when I walked in, was the one.  The kitchen I can picture in our new house.  White on white with a sleek, no handle look and one which sticky little finger prints would be easy to clean off.....

Kind of like this one:

Max was put into the stroller and buckled in to prevent him from picking up blocks of granite and banging them on the kitchen cabinets (this has happened elsewhere).   He was a bit cross at his imprisonment but I got what I needed to do finished and we left with another little job ticked off my list.

I await that quote with anticipation.  I heard from another kitchen store today - the very first one I went to - and we have an appointment on the 16th Feb to go through our kitchen design and quote. I am excited to see what it will look like 3D.  We have been drawing up crude elevations which look like this (complete with all the design cliches of the present: Tram scrolls, oversized clocks and 'eat' spelled out in a block):

.

So kitchen designers we are not, because apparently we can underestimated how much room we needed for our fridge.  This reduces the space on either side of the cooktop from 300mm to 200mm, which I don't think is enough.  Not that we'll be doing prep there but it would be good to have room for a dinner plate or two - so I think we will have to (possibly) take the 200mm total out of our pantry space.

Those are my thoughts for the day.  Kidstuff:  the corkboards my moodboard is on fell off the wall.  Sofia and Olivia took off the business cards and hid them in their dad's shoe.  Handy.

x

The beginning

I have no idea what I am doing blogging.  It is probably because life is busy, and in case it all passes in a complete blur, I feel a need to document what we are doing because I'll forget otherwise!  And what we are doing is extending our 1920s wooden bungalow from 140m2 to 200m2, adding in two extra bedrooms, a study, and an open plan kitchen, living and dining area. 

We also have 3 children - 3 year old twin girls, and an 18 month old - and we plan to live here through the process, so it's going to be interesting to say the least!! 

The stage we are at today:  we have council approval!  The builder is chosen (well, 90% there).  The plans are pretty much in the right place.  So we can probably start............in the next month.  Now is the exciting time; time to imagine, dream and do things like look at NZD $21,000 lights (more on that later).

We didn't get an architect.  Instead, we spent a year planning the project, starting with valuable input from our family over Christmas 2011 and a 2012 tweaking the plans.  We hired a fantastic draftsman, who was patient with our 70 million changes and got us the council consent we needed.

So the plans in the beginning looked like this:

The existing house is on the left and the new bit contains kitchen, living and dining. 

Now, they look like this:

So a little more detailed, but not that dissimilar to what we started with after going through about 20 iterations.  Original house in green, extension in black.

Back to that $21k light.  Here it is (http://www.dezeen.com/tag/bocci/):

Hmmm, so back to the drawing board.  I LOVE this and it would look perfect above our kitchen island.  However, we need to have a floor in the house.

We are planning on matching our kauri floors (which are a yellowy brown) in the new bit too.  That is going to be the link from the old to the new.  After much (MUCH) deliberation, I think we will go with a very white kitchen.  That is, white cabinets, white benchtop and white walls.... too much?  This is the look I am thinking of:

I like the simplicity, and the warmth of the wood with the coolness of the white.  My husband is worried that it'll look clinical, but I think you can add colour with lights, flowers, soft furnishings etc. 

On another note, and probably a topic for another day - doors.  We are going to have 6 metre stacker doors on the back of our house, which open all the way up, like a pavillion.  These are what I am most excited about.  In Auckland, it rains a lot (not at the moment, but I digress) but is mostly warm (depth of winter aside) so I want to have the doors open even when it's raining.  Especially with the children around.

Like this (from www.jonesarchitect.co.nz):

I just remembered, I need to do the before pics.  Here are some of our house when we first bought it, 5 years ago:

I forgot to say that while I have been writing this, the twins have alternately drawn on their arms with highlighter and climbed up onto the bathroom cabinet to fill their water bottles up.  So writing has been interspersed with time out in their room.  Fortunately their little brother has been asleep and as I'm looking after my 2 year old nephew as well, that is a life saver!

And with that, I shall sign off, from my first blog entry.

x