Our Weekend

Thanks Dad and Honey! The tree I blogged about last time is, in fact, a cherry tree. An Ornamental Japanese Cherry Tree, to be precise, according to my most informative neighbor. I tried making an arrangement out of the blossoms, but they don't seem to last very long. This weekend, we finally got all the rooms in the house sorted out! Rory rented a trailer, and we got a lot done... First off, our living room got a makeover! Before, we had these chairs in the sitting area over by the heater. They were okay, and I liked their shape, but I hated the way they looked in the room. Blue, green and yellow stripes hardly go with our burgundy, blue and green rug. We tried covering them with a throw blanket, hiding the pattern with oversized pillows and just plain ignoring them, but I'd resigned myself to the fact that we would either have to cover them or buy something new. As 1) I'm not very good at covering things and 2) our favorite second-hand furniture has recently closed down 'until further notice', we'd been wondering where we were going to find an affordable replacement. And then, luck struck! When we went to our friend Paul's house for our weekly Games Night, Rory noticed that Paul and Karen had a new couch... and were getting rid of their old ones! They're nice and neutral, work perfectly in the space and (best of all) were totally free! Pretty good, huh?! This is my favorite spot in the whole house... after I've made dinner and had a bath, I'm generally doing something on that couch. Its right by the heater, so it stays nice and warm all evening long. We picked up that wooden chest this weekend at Salvos, and I think it finishes off the area nicely. I recovered the top, which was covered with an ugly, stained, green fabric, and now we have a great chest that does double duty as an extra seat. We also finished off our office (previously our box-dumping room). We've been storing a whole heap of stuff in the office, shutting the door, and ignoring the mess and disorder that was just getting worse and worse. Before we picked up the desk we had to clean up the room so that we could at least open the door... I keep asking myself why I didn't get rid of stuff BEFORE we moved instead of moving it all and THEN throwing it away. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? I had found a desk on ebay, and we went to pick it up, but unfortunately the lady we were buying it from wasn't home (this was AFTER she had confirmed that she would be and AFTER we had agreed on a time). Luckily, our good, standard stand by was open... Salvos! And they had a desk that looked better than the one we were going to pick up from the ebay lady. The trim is blue, which fits great with our color scheme throughout the house... blue was the 'decor' color from our paint chip! Here's what the office looks like now: So, we had a very successful weekend! Rory also finished off the kitchen, so the whole house is looking great! I guess next weekend we'll start on the garden... and THAT is going to be a big job.

The New, The Improved Kitchen, Dining and Living

Mom, Dad and Emily have been up from Houston since last Sunday, and Dad has gone to town with kitchen renovations!! Rory was wonderful, and worked until about 11pm every weeknight for about two weeks before they arrived to get the house finished. I helped too, but Rory deserves most of the kudos... he did all the hard stuff and really made it all come together! We ended up moving in the day before Mom, Emily and Dad got here... in fact, I was still unpacking 30 minutes before they arrived! We had a great week in Canberra... we visited Gold Creek, went to the farm, ate in the Telstra Tower revolving restaurant, and they saw most of the sites around Canberra. Dad tiled the kitchen, Emily painted loads of trim, and mom's decorating skills will be sorely missed. They left today, leaving the kitchen looking like this: I bought the kitchen second hand for about 1/5 of what we would have paid for it new (from someone who had only had it 3 years... who gets rid of a three year old kitchen?!). Rory knocked down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room to make one big, long room, and it really opened up the space and made it look excellent! We even got a dishwasher, which is a giant leap away from washing dishes by hand! When dad came, he did a fabulous tile job. He used the tiles that we had on the hearth in the lounge room, which I really liked. That brings the grand total of 'original decor' items to 2... the tiles and a bit of wallpaper that we left in the master bedroom closet. Dad also bought us the kitchen cabinets, which match perfectly... lucky, considering we bought them from Bunnings (Australian Home Depot) straight off the shelf. And now, the living room: My favorite room in the house! Remember the ugly pink bedroom? Rory knocked down that room, too, and we separated it into two seating areas. We laid carpet on one side of the front door, and wood on the other to make the long room into two separate areas. We chose a paint chip from Bunnings and used every one of the colors on it... kind of un-inspired, but it turned out great!! The walls are gray, the trim is a darker gray, and the focal walls and firplace are green. The carpeted side is the TV area, a small seating area with the blue couch and the TV (and Alfie's chairs). The wood side we use for a game/ seating area. I prefer the chairs over by the heater... its been nice and cozy over there for the past few cold nights! It turned out better than I could have hoped for... there is lots of room for lots of guests, and its comfortable to boot! Mom, Emily and Dad went up to Sydney yesterday, and Rory and I will join them to catch a flight to Cairns on Wednesday morning. We're going to go to the Great Barrier Reef for a few days... I can't wait for the warmer weather! Hopefully, I'll have lots of great pictures to share when we get back, and I'll continue the house tour as well.

The Old, The Ugly

I set this blog up primarily so that I can 'stay in touch' with people back home, so I figured I would start with the biggest news: In June, Rory and I bought a 'fixer upper' house in Latham, ACT. That's in Belconnen, about 15 minutes away from my work (I work as an Internship Coordinator at the Australian National University), 30 minutes away from Rory's work, and right down the road from Rory's family, lots of our friends, and the Belconnen City Centre. This is what it looks like: When we bought it, it had four bedrooms: And some very retro wallpaper. Every room had a different print, and every print seemed stuck to the wall with super glue. Don't you love the bright pink? They have some floor to ceiling windows, though, affording a great view of a HUGE backyard (1200 sq m... the second biggest backyard in the suburb). The kitchen was tiny, and full of 1970's 'charm': As was the dining room: And finally, the living room. We could see the potential, but it was small and cramped. For the past month, we've been busy renovating, and I must say, the results have been better than I could have imagined when we started! I will post the 'afters' soon, so stay tuned!