Beautiful bathrooms using grey sandstone.

I came across these photos while looking for bathroom inspiration. They are the work of Breathe Architecture, and while I think they are amazing, I doubt I will have the design expertise to pull something this great off.

That's ok. If my bathroom ends up 10% as good as these I will be a happy gal.

D - Day!

The builder just called to say we got the permit and that they will be around on Thursday to start demolition. So much to do, so little time!

Cool kitchen

I came across these photos on the website of Clare Cousins architecture. I immediately recognised it as being a renovated edwardian a few streets away. I often walk past renovated houses in our area and think "would love a sticky beak inside" fortunately with this one I was able to do so via the architects website.

Although not a large kitchen by any means, I do like the combination of surfaces used to great affect. This kitchen appears to have it all, stone, stainless steel, wood, coloured joinery and white cabinetry. The end result is relaxed, functional and just a bit cool.

Contract signed and deposit paid - Is it really going to happen?

Well last weekend we signed the contract. This weekend we paid the deposit. Plans are with the surveyor awaiting approval of permit. Commencement is about to take place any day now. Still can't believe it is happening.

On another note ceasarstone have released some new colours. They look a bit more like marble than their usual granite look. Need to get down and see them in the flesh!

Fingers crossed the permit goes ok.

Tiles - chosen and paid in full.

We did it! Today we chose and purchased our tiles.

We initially thought about staying with the same theme as our other bathroom renovated 4 years ago, thinking a bit of continuity would be good. However as we were no longer able to source that particular tile our only option was to go with something similar - but not the same. And while the "something similar" was ok, it would always be a compromise on what I really wanted. So in short - to hell with "something similar".

Besides that was 4 years ago, my tastes have moved on since then!

So here it is:

Sandstone Grey 30 x 60cm - Floor and feature wall tile.

Here it is used as an allover floor and wall tile.

Floor only.

We plan to team it with a plain 30x60cm matt white porcelain tile, a bit like this.

So there you have it. Tiles sorted! No going back now!

Mourning the loss of my backyard.

It's offical, the build is going to start around October the 12th (a mere two weeks away). And while we are super excited at the prospect of what this will bring, I still cannot help but look out at my glorious backyard and grieve at the forth coming mess and disturbance that is about to take place. After removing a few trees to enable the build to happen, the backyard has never looked better. It's green, it's spacious, it's spring time. I really hope we don't ruin things forever.

Callistmon Hedge progress (Callistemon Eureka)

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.