Our house: One month, and future plans- part two.

I feel like there is a great migration taking place. Unlike God's majestic creatures making their way across Africa's great veldt, our migration is our stuff from one area to another. Like the realisation that we're not using the top shelf in our cupboards for anything, so why not take the bed linen for our bed from the hall cupboard and stash it there? And just like there, we now have oodles of space in our hall cupboard... so why not stash some board games from the living room in there? And why on earth are half of Willow's books in the living room and the other half in her room? When I was unpacking that made sense, because they all didn't fit in there, but now I've actually packed some toys away, they'll totally fit. Instead of Willow's trucks living precariously on a shelf on the book case, maybe I can pack them on the bottom of the hall cupboard where they're not going to damage our freshly painted walls? And so on.

Outside patio area:

Ok. This isn't the view from our backyard. It's the front yard. But it's nice, isn't it? 

Pictured: Our hills hoist. Not pictured: The winds that tear through the valley (anything from "briskly windy, chill factor 3C" to "severe weather warning, blizzard like conditions forecast") unhindered by trees or even a building, until it slams into this part of the hill. Brr. I've never owned so many pegs in my life. 

One day, this area will look amazing. Just not yet. 

We don't have stairs from our shed for some reason. Big bit of lattice was over the double side gate for some reason. Anyone want it?

Don't completely knock it, it's an awesome cardbox box kingdom.

Sooner:

• Pick up all that old lattice that Willow and Ethan dragged out the other week, since it's full of rusty nails and tacks and broken wood.
• Honestly, it's much too cold and windy to go outside, ever. Especially when there's so much to do INDOORS first.
• We need to get our old outdoor table and chairs back off a friend. We were using it as a dining table, but then got a better dining table so we gave it to a friend. Friend used it on her back deck, until she got a better table and chairs, and... now it's back to us. We just need to pick it up.

Sliding door. Yep, it's messy. But... keeping it real. You can all be amazed when we finish the house and move out here. Also note: stupid aircon unit to the top left.

Later:

• Remove that stupid aircon unit. Literally it's stupid, it's a box air con that juts at forehead height right in front of the side gate. 
• Get rid of the boxes. Yeah. Eventually. 
• Lattice down? Open up the patio more? Hmm. 
• Day bed out here. M's mother gave us a day bed. Need to find a way to stop Indian myna's pooping all over it. Effing Indian myna's. We have loads of native birds hanging around, but none of them poop all over our stuff like the myna's do. Some local councils offer a $2 bounty on the dratted things heads. Many a time while sitting at the dining table Mother in Law has thoughtfully commented that there's $4 strolling across my lawn. It's also not just the pooping- it's their habit of roosting right up against our house (and pooping) and making weird noises when they move around- cue, Willow at 3am waking up sobbing that a dinosaur is looking in her bedroom window and it has claws and "I think it wants to lay an egg." Also cue me waking up at 6am to a myna walking all over the aircon unit right above my head. Plus, they spread diseases (which are transferable to humans) and MITES WHICH ARE ALSO TRANSFERABLE TO HUMANS AND ARE AWFUL and they can jeopardise the health of the future chickens I want to get. 
• Maybe I should build a trap for the Indian mynas and let the local population witness M wringing ones neck. I don't want to scare off the natives that visit us however, and I don't want to turn the magpies against us. Most mornings Willow goes out to feed them bread, and I hope come spring they'll remember that we're their friends and they won't swoop us. It's just those intruder mynas, guys. We don't mind the rest of you. 
• Clean up. Yeah. Sweep, hose down- we haven't even swept yet.
• Get some decorative pots and dump some agaves in them, since they're all over the yard. Or succulents. There's a lot you can do with pretty decorative pots. 
• Would the house look stupid partly rendered? Like, if we just render this part? 
• Remove the clear part of the roof, and grow grapevines up there instead. Maybe.
• Terrace this area. Ditto with the front. However, this would require an engineer, and council approval, and heavy machinery... so this would be very much later. Unless we win some serious money. 

The spare room.

Did I mention we live near a small airfield? It's too small for domestic flights, but has lots of light air craft coming and going, including one that seems to do nothing but loop the loops all afternoon, to Willow's enjoyment. This room... is looking better than what it was. 

Sooner: 

• Paint. Yeah yeah, you know the drill. We might start on this room after the dining/ living, or we might move on to the hall. I don't know yet. Hallway requires sanding, so maybe it's good to get it over and done with.... on the other hand, it's also good to take a break.
• Blind up. Once we repaint the window trim from pink to white. 
• We need a wardrobe for this room. M commented that he never thought he would ever say "Let's go Ikea, since they're the cheapest." We're looking at getting this one. 
• Security screen over window. There's not even a fly screen there, and because we are on a hill, this window opens up onto the driveway, which is a whole floor away. Not good. I'm thinking a decorative wrought iron thing could be nice... and possibly out of our budget. M is thinking of lining the window ledge with broken glass to deter any children from climbing out. 

Later:

• Carpet up. We will probably start with this room or Willow's.

The hallway.

Looking better! Top shelf I still haven't figured out what's happening, bottom shelf is home to a heater and the vaccum. It's a work in progress, but looks so much better with a bit of paint and some order. Willow helped me paint this. Don't tell M. I'm half thinking of edging those shelves in a bright colour for contrast. Some stuff from the living room might end up in here, and some stuff in here might end up in our room, like the present wrapping supplies on the top shelf, or the big white box of Willow's art.

View down the hallway. 

View from the front door. Yeah, there is an arm chair right in front of our front door, since we're painting the living room. Willow's shoes go in one basket, mine go in another.

Sooner:

• Down lights in the entryway, since it's so dark. 
• Repaint. This hall has the last two bits of red suede in the house. The one by the front door we've been thinking of wallpapering. Wallpaper= no sanding or painting. 
• Hall runners. One by the front door, and one along the long part, by the hall cupboard. Something to quiet foot steps, to add warmth, and to trap dirt. I have my heart set on an $80 runner from Spotlight- we've had similar as door mats, and they're awesome. I can throw them through our machine, and they're non slip. Or we can spend like $40 on some hideously cheap ones from Bunnings. Or get one of each. Hmm...

Later:

• Framed pictures and art. I was thinking some maps along the hall way? Educational charts? 
• Mirror. To lighten the area.
• Shoe storage. Something like this.
• Turf the bookcase, since I don't want our hall way to get cluttered. 
• Skylight? Another way to bring in more light to the middle of the house. 

The bathroom/ loo:

No real changes, except I packed those two boxes away. 

Sooner.

• Eh, it's fine enough for now.
• Well, once we get a blind for the window, to keep some heat in. But other than that, it's serviceable. It'll be fine. 

Later.

• New mirror cabinet. Something bigger, brighter and white. 
• New handles. It might make the cabinet look more modern?
• Cover up those flower tiles. I'm thinking a black diamond sticker could make the bathroom look more edgy and modern, and less... purple and old. 
• New loo seat. Why is ours even scratched? Thinking of getting one with a built in kid's seat. 
• Two extra towel rails. Why do we only have one? 
• Hand towel rail. Why isn't there one?
• New loo paper roll holder. Why is it on a random block of wood? Why is it so cheap and ugly? 
• Magazine holder. It saves everyone's books being on the floor. 
• Exhaust for loo. Why isn't there one? No one wants to smell other people's poop when they are in bed. 
• Something to stash our loo rolls in. You know, something that sits behind the door? Yeah. 
• Rewire the exhaust fan in the bathroom. All we want is for it to be on a separate switch, so we can turn the overhead light on without having drafts straight off the Antarctic swirling around the bathroom. 
• A bin. You always need a bin in the loo and bathroom. 
• A fern. Embrace the 80's vibe from those tiles. 

The kitchen/ dining:

M is in favour of turfing this cupboard and getting a built in, since he says the cupboard is cheap and not that great. I'm in favour of taking a wooden spoon to the next child who swings off the doors, causing them to break. (Willow and his nephew do it. Willow probably does it more often, but nephew is several years older and heavier.) Why out of every door in the house do they keep swinging off this one? Oh yeah, I moved the microwave.

The microwaves new home. Yeah, our kitchen cupboards are two different colours. Some people say the bottom ones are sun faded. I say they did it on purpose. The debate continues. 

NO MORE RED SUEDE!!! This is just the white base coat. But doesn't it look so much better? I don't even mind that our dining table will be in the middle of the kitchen for a few more days, until two top coats dry and we repaint that window trim glossy white. 

Sooner plans:

• Repaint. This is taking ages, since it involves sanding, then cleaning up. But... getting there.
• Do something about the tap handles. They keep falling off. Weirdly, it's not as annoying as it could be.
• Improve the lighting. It's really dim in there at night. We're thinking spotlights mounted on a bar will be easiest, wiring wise. M wants to put in a new, more modern fan.
• Change the power points. M has been slowly upgrading all our power points from old to shiny new chrome ones. Because he can? He thinks it looks better. (The chrome is debatable. I prefer white). It's probably safer, since the power point nearest the stove actually has grease inside of it. It's a little thing, but it's kinda nice to see new power points instead of old grungy cream ones. 

Yeah, there's a burn on our kitchen bench. It came with the house. 

Later plans:

• New blinds for both windows. Right now there are cheap plastic Venetians on there. They're.... not going to last, being plastic. Especially since we actually open and close them (previous owner didn't.) So, when they go, we will replace them with wooden ones. I'm keeping an eye out for some on sale. If not wood, I'll at least aim for white aluminium. I'm not swinging off them to encourage them to break, but I know it's going to happen. 
• Get two more dining chairs. You know, ones that match.
• Get a bench. For people to sit on, when we have more than four people in the house.
• New kitchen bench tops. Because burnt laminate is so not cool. Also, it's textured, and food spills GRIP to it.
• Retile the splash back. Something plain white? Slight texture/ pattern? Bonus points if it's the same size as the tiles currently there. Or glass. Something to price up. 
• Repaint the cupboards. *I* think if we repaint them white, give the handles a good scrub, then they will look great. Retro and bohemian. M is in favour of new doors. 
• Floating shelf under my clock, by the pantry. Or two. Definitely at least one for my plants will be nice. 
• Centre that clock. Just a little thing that makes sense.

I think after repainting the kitchen might be our next project. M seems keen to get it done. I wouldn't mind getting it done too... but only if I'm the project's sole designer. :P M and I have two different styles- his is sleek and modern, mine is more eccentric, warm and homely. Left up to him, the kitchen will be tiled with large white tiles, with stark white cabinet fronts and black bench tops. Left up to me, there will be a lot of wood, soft greens and mint and warm whites, much more light and open- like a gumtree, with it's warm white textured trunk, and minty green leaves. And plants. Lots of plants. Where I want that floating shelf? I want to put plants on it. If I get lucky, TWO shelves full of plants will go next to that window. M wants to put a cupboard there.
M wants a bright green splash back, since I mentioned wanting green in the kitchen. I want white tiles, something with a bit of detail or pattern to them, and light mint green walls- or some green tiles to contrast.

The laundry.

This rug came with the house and was originally in the kitchen. It actually looks a LOT better in photographs than it does in real life- the only reason I haven't binned it yet is because I thought it would be good to see if a rug would work in the laundry, weird as that sounds. I've thoroughly cleaned several years worth of dirt out of it by spending a morning vigorously beating it. I really needed a hazmat suit for that job. Anyways, the laundry doubles as a bit of a "going out" spill over area- it's where our hats and Willow's school bag lives, as well as M's crib bag and work boots. The basket under the chair is where his other shoes are kept. It's working well for us so far.

Yeah. Still haven't upgraded the door handles... or anything else, really. 

Sooner

• Tidy up that dump tub of stuff. Do you do dump tubs? Very handy to contain chaos when you're dealing with other chaos. Stuff I don't know where to put I keep dumping in that laundry tub. 

Later. 

• Floating shelf up. I'm thinking a shelf could be handy above the laundry sink. Not just for plants, either...
• Hooks up. This photo is angled too low, but there is a plank of wood further up that used to have hooks on it or a retractable clothes line. I'm thinking of putting some hooks up there. 
• Broom hooks. Or in the hall cupboard. I haven't figured that one out yet. 
• Hand towel rail next to the laundry tub.