The new great wall.

It's finished. The wall of next doors garage. We first heard of this wall around 2 years ago, at the time it was planned to go in front of our sunroom windows - something we were not happy about to say the least. Fortunately for us, the council were not happy about it either as it did not comply with the building regulations.

So to cut a long story short, the wall location has been changed (it's now a legal distance away from our north facing windows) and building commenced a couple of weeks ago. This long awaited wall has finally arrived and to be honest I quite like it!

It is rather imposing though and feels very high (although it's only about 290cm) but I think it will help soften the noise of approaching trains and provide us with lots of privacy which is lovely.

I look forward to seeing how we can incorporate it into our backyard and make it like a courtyard feature. Hopefully in the end it will be a win win situation for everyone.

New Kitchen thoughts

After trying for quite some time to inspire David into going with a more classic meets contemporary styled kitchen I have given up. I was hoping once he saw Dale and Sophie's kitchen from 'The block' he would relent. I was wrong.

So, here is our latest thoughts on the kitchen. I like the simplicity of the design and think it would work quite well in the space. Of course I don't think we will have anything like the actual budget this kitchen required. However it's always nice to have something to aspire towards.

I should add that we aim to put the sink on the back wall central to the window splashback as I like the idea of a sink free island. I've done a little research into our granite benchtops, looks like the next step is to head down to the stonemasons and pick out a slab. Exciting stuff!

A complete 360º

Well well. What can I say. As it turns out we cannot afford to build upstairs and renovate downstairs after all. Well, not without saving for another 2 or 3 years. So we have made the decision to abandon our second story plans in favour of extending and renovating the ground floor plan only. Yes, this is what we were thinking a good 2years ago - I know.

I'm actually really pleased with this decision. I was always nervous about building a second story extension onto what I consider a pleasingly proportioned californian bungalow. What if it turned our lovely little house into a not-so-lovely ill proportioned towering monstrosity (second story additions work best when the roof ridge line is parallel not perpendicular to the street)? We could never go back.

It does however mean living with a 3 bedroom rather than 4 bedroom house, and giving up more backyard than we would have liked, but ultimately we believe this to be the best solution given the funds we have at present.

I am currently getting these plans drafted up a.s.a.p. in order to get our permits as quickly as possible.

We have been consulting with builders and getting ball park quotes. It would appear the above plans are much more doable for us. However choosing a builder is a little more difficult.

But we think we have made a decision. God let it be a good one.