WiP Wednesday at laaaast :)

Wow. Blogging more than once per week! Are you double-taking right now? I know I am. Look at me, actually linking up to Freshly Pieced and talking about projects other than the house! WHAT. CRAZY.

Finished:

So to begin, I'd like to share the project dearest to my heart for a while now, my Sophie Makes Tracks quilt. I started this thing with help from Sel and Claire, inspiration from Jeni over at In Color Order, and spent an embarrassingly long time cutting out and assembling the bear claws. I used only Sophie fabric and I think it turned out just beautifully.

I'm sorry I don't have a better picture! I forgot to snap one while Nanna was here to help look after Piper this morning. (Though my featherbrain is a direct result of the head cold I'm developing, I'm sure.)

The second finish? I finished unpacking. That's right. We have been moved in for less than a month and everything is unpacked. Partly this is due to the fact that we don't have a garage to store stuff in, and partly this can be blamed on my Type-A personality. I won't lie to you. Those boxes made me anxious. Those boxes made me fret. Those boxes had to go. So Monday, they went.

And my third finish was a different type of craft for me. In the whole house we made a conscious decision to have bold, bright wall colors but glossy white trims. On Monday I went out to Bunnings and picked up some cheapy spray paint and tackled the picture frames around some really treasured family paintings, and I had just enough to spray my collection of embroidery hoops, too. Yesterday I hung the paintings and tonight, at the eleventh hour, I put snippets of my favorite fabrics into the hoops and hung them on the dining room wall.

They look pretty nice, don't they? Some really treasured fabrics in there. I'm happy they are on display in still-useful pieces if I ever run all the way out. :)

Works in Progress:

The Mermaid quilt is still churning steadily along. I've sewn all sixty strip-piece blocks, pressed, and starched them. They sound pretty metallic if you thump them but I like my starched blocks to stand up on their own. Kevlar-style quilt blocks are going to be all the rage, I predict. Ahem.

I've been working on a few "improv" blocks to use up the 42 little squares I have.

I can't wait until tomorrow to get my design wall up so I can start laying these out! My in-laws are coming over in the morning so my father-in-law (and his pickup) and I can go to Bunnings, while Piper plays with Nanna! I'm using MDF and a staplegun and a roll of quilt batting but the only difference is, I'm doing it in sections so I can hide it in the nook when company comes over!

Another project I have begun is the Os quilt (from Scrap Basket Sensations). I forgot to include a picture of the cut out/unpieced blocks.

Haha, YIKES, right?

These are a few of the blocks I've already done. I just love how smart and sassy these look.

Stalled projects:

• Handwork (my curved hexagon blocks)
• Garden Fence quilt
• 30s repro tumbler quilt
• My sister W's Swoon quilt

I just need to buckle down and sash the Garden Fence rows. That is it! How sad am I? The 30s quilt is an easy afternoon of chain piecing; I just need to find that afternoon. And I know as soon as I start my sister's Swoon quilt, it'll just roll right along.

And I just can't even find my handwork bag. Where is it! Argh. I put it somewhere really safe...so safe I couldn't find it again, obvs!

Well that's me for the week! I hope to wow you guys next week with something amazing. It's nice to be back in the saddle and working on things at a normal, not-insane pace. And it is really nice to be unpacked. I can finally relax a little bit now! But just a little. Got lots to do still. :)

Have a great week and be sure to link up with Lee!

Cheers!

xx

home at last.

First of all, my kid is famous. Check it out. Someone has been practising her walking in the most unlikely places...Cottage Quiltworks, one of our favorite local quilt shops! Don't worry, she's not walking yet...but she has been given free rein (reign like a queen? or rein like a horse! what on earth DOES that saying mean) of the house, so she's been walking around the furniture, finding the flat part of her feet for weeks now. Sometimes she stops, with one hand on the bookcase or bed or whatever, and stretches out her other hand as if she's going to take that all-important first step...and then she drops to her knees and crawls superfast instead. We have lots of booboos and Mama kisses it all better approximately 8,567 times a day. Oh except she hates to be cuddled when she hurts herself because it makes her mad. But you'd better not leave her alone or she'll howl. Definitely my kid - she's all contradictions! :)

We have been thoroughly enjoying being moved in and mostly done. Sitting at the table for breakfast. Enjoying the golden sunshine pouring through our still-dusty windows, peering out at the yard below, eyeballing the washing on the line - is it dry yet? Or a few more minutes? Let's just have another cup of tea.

The books are unpacked and arranged by color. I need more shelves, but for now, these are beautiful and I love them.

Sometimes, heading into the kitchen, I just stop and admire the view. It's so blue. And so beautiful. My sunny, warm little kitchen is where everyone congregates in the house. Whether it is Nanna and Granddad visiting for Mothers Day Brunch, or Piper's godmother coming to see her, or friends of mine, the kitchen is the place to be. It is little but so precious.

Piper has been enjoying naps in her own room! And there is room for everything. It is amazing.

And we as a family have been enjoying our new bed in our new bedroom...complete with a finished quilt for our bed! Sophie Makes Tracks was completed shortly after we moved in and promptly turned into a bed quilt. I batted it with wool so it would be extra warm for chilly mornings! So far so good!

Sometimes it still feels unreal. After all this time, we're here. We're in. It's ours and it is really bloody fabulous.

We have had houseguests, too! My good friend Lucie came to visit. She is Piper's godmother and was there when Piper was born. Piper remembers her of course and spider-crawled over to her, even though she was grumpy and needed a nap, and she was SO happy to see her Aunt Lucie we simply couldn't stop the smiling!

Oh yeah, she has teeth now. There are six in that photo but this weekend another one popped up (what) and its little friend is struggling to make its way out too. Eight teeth by ten months! Might as well give me a heart attack right here and now kid. I can see you're going to be a handful. :)

Aunty Lucie was not Piper's only visitor. Mr Poppleton's cousin Kilian is studying in Sydney and dropped by to meet Piper and have dinner with us. I'm afraid he ended up with oodles of noodles - I gave him my leftovers because I am convinced that college boys are all starving husks with poor nutrition!

These two had a good time...once Miss Grouchy got over her shyness! She's at the age where big strange men are scary and she stuck her lip out, but eventually got over herself and gave up some of those beautiful smiles.

I wanted to also talk about my favorite room in the house: my sewing room. (Well, we call it the study, but really, my husband is just borrowing a few walls of my sewing room!) I have it mostly organised and have spent the last few weeks unpacking, tweaking things, and finally have it more or less the way I like it.

I put my computer behind my sewing desk so I can easily swivel if I need to, and there is a narrow gap between my desk and my fabric shelf - handy for getting those fabrics out, and it's where my lamp goes! I love the light, the shelves, and a room that I can shut the door on the mess when company comes over. Too bad I always end up showing off this room anyway...no chance to hide the mess when I'm always crowing like a rooster about finally having a sewing room! :)

I've been working, too. These are Os for a scrappy quilt I started cutting out at scquilters a few months ago. The pattern is very simple and suited for 2.5" wide scraps. The book is Scrap Basket Sensations and is the same book my mother's Flower Basket quilt comes from!

I've had a few magical Fabric Fairy visits this week, too. I love the postman here. Because we don't live down a terrifyingly steep driveway (like in our unit), and our house has a level walkway to the front door with a protective little nook, if I'm not home, they just leave the parcel on the front steps. Which means I don't have to strap the baby into her seat and drive up to the post office! I LOVE having a house. Brilliant.

Some Alegria from Cloud 9 fabrics. It's a step outside of my usual but very interesting fabrics and colors.

I completed my Heirloom fat quarter sets. I just couldn't resist.

And, it was time to branch out and pick up a FreeSpirit Designer Solids color card. My Kona color card is on loan to a friend and though I am eager to get it back to compare the colors, I am already a fan of these! I will order some and try them in a quilt soon. For now, the card is enough.

And, finally, my little "in tray". This is where my current big projects go. I spent a few weeks fretting over these Mendocino mermaids but when I finally settled on the "how" of the quilt and began cutting, it didn't seem so bad! This fabric is super hard to find but I know that JaneyMacShop on Etsy has a lot in stock. She sells it in fat eighths (her shop is where all of mine are from) and in bundles too.

I am using a lot of solids and letting the Mendocino shine. All Kona, in Charcoal, Bright Pink, Cerise, Pomegranite, Robin Egg, and Ice Peach. I think the yellow is Mango? Maybe School Bus? I need my card! Haha. I've been sewing and starching and pressing like a madwoman.

So, because it is Sunday and I like to make plans, here is what I'm doing next week.

Tomorrow I have to paint a bathroom, book the car in for servicing, and go to the hardware store to source two more sheets of roughly door sized MDF in the same thickness as my existing piece because that will be - TADA - my DESIGN WALL! I'm planning to make it in three pieces so I can move it to the "nook" when company comes over, but still put it against the blank wall of the dining room. There it should have enough space around it I can mull over and change my quilts as I make them. No more shouting at everyone to BE CAREFUL THAT'S MY QUILT and IF YOU RUIN THAT LAYOUT YOU BETTER FORGET ABOUT EVER RELAXING AGAIN. Ahem. Not that I would ever say that. Ahem ahem.

But ahh, it's late, and I should haul my exhausted self to bed. It has been a big weekend - Piper got a "big girl" car seat (sob! growing up so fast!), I made sixty quilt blocks in three hours (ahhh) and the grown-up faction of this household is rapidly approaching Cold City - we both have sore throats and sniffles! So it is time to cuddle up together under the new blanket, in the new bed, in the new house, and sleep.

It's a new life and I am feeling GOOD.

we are in!

I dropped off the face of the blogosphere, didn't I? Sorry about that. I have a good reason for that, though! We moved into the house, and we have to wait for the internet to come back. A few more days until I can upload pictures awaits but now, my phone and laptop can share a 3G connection so I can BLOG! Sorry about the lack of photos, though - partly it is the limited uploading, but also because I keep seeing things that can be tweaked before I do the "before and after" blog post!

I will say, though, that the move, while stressful, was over quickly and I was 90% unpacked within seven days. Pretty good for a gal with a baby who is THISCLOSE to walking, right? I have to finish up the dining room, paint the bathroom, and get started on a plan of action for trimwork painting over the next month or so.

We were in by our wedding anniversary, and it was so nice to wake up, the first morning ever, in the new place and recognize that the three years of marriage we've shared helped to get us where we are right now. I say it now and then but it bears repeating: my husband is the best person I know. He is kind, absolutely polite, fearless, dedicated, loyal, loving, trustworthy, and handsome too. He always makes me laugh. I love watching him with the baby: he is so gentle but fun and she adores her daddy so much. I got VERY lucky three and a bit years ago when we said "I will" to each other.

There will be pictures soon, when our internet returns, but I just wanted to pop in and tell you all I was still, in fact, alive.

Cheers!

Penny xx

the last push.

This weekend promises to be hellishly busy, but I am prepared. This will be the last push. Moving day is set for Monday, and if I have to live without a fridge or a shower screen then I'll make do, because we will move in on Monday. (I may have just done the fist-clench to the sky.) Anyway: moving day is fast approaching, so I'm spending this week packing my apartment.

Yesterday I packed all of my fabric (except a little bit of Kona Snow for sashing my Garden Fence quilt) and it was so hard. I love my craftiness and my fabric is a significant investment, so putting it into brown moving boxes was tough. I kept trying to leave things out, as if I would somehow magically make time to sew in the next six days! I know my limits but my heart wishes I had a wealth of time. I kept it to two projects, the aforementioned Garden Fence quilt and my Sophie Makes Tracks.

I managed to pin baste my Sophie quilt, though!

How amazing to finally have the backing and batting firmly sandwiched to my quilt top. It's ready for me to wind bobbins and as tomorrow is Anzac Day, I am letting my hair down and treating myself to some quilting!

I have a great little helper, though, don't I. :)

"Who, me? I'm definitely not rolling all over your quilt in my sleep bag, looking all cool..." My goofy kid.

Now, the floor polishers have been hard at work for two days. We braved a visit tonight to "check the mailbox" (or peep in the windows!!) but we arrived at the right time: they were just about to put the third coat of polish on the floors. Just as a reminder, this was our dining room floor on Monday morning.

It looked like a big golden retriever rolled around on fresh glue. I did my best to prise up the big chunks of glue, but it still looked awful. I was scared it wouldn't come up, but when we stopped by the house, the floor polisher explained that, five sandings later, it all came up.

And WOW.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT IS THE SAME ROOM? I could not stop grinning! Mr Poppleton was equally impressed and we both couldn't stop talking about it. I can't wait until Thursday, when we can go back in and look it over with shining, home-ownershippy eyes. It is just beautiful. The wood came up so nicely - I never expected it to look this warm and knotty - and I just feel so happy. It's close. It's so, so close.

So: back to the moving tasks. But I have a new wellspring of hope, having seen the beautiful "new" floors in our little house o' dreams. It makes it easier to sort our belongings, to get rid of the old and worn and make way for the new, when I know that I have a home worthy of nice things. It's a good feeling. It makes the work lighter.

We are so close. So very close!

Ta ta for now!

Cheers. xx

on the home stretch

We have been beavering away on the house, and it shows. We're nearly done. And it is a miracle we haven't gone spare, that is for sure. This renovation has tested me in so many ways. As a normally competent, capable person, it has been really eye-opening to rely on others for help and expertise. If I only had the time to learn how to do it all myself...but I don't, so I can't, so we have lovely Clark to help guide us. He hasn't steered us wrong yet!

I have a few pictures.

The tiler finally turned up. Two weeks and two days late. I tried to ignore him but unfortunately I had to let the benchtop guys know about the road resurfacing that was happening. Anyway, there he is. He's done, and we paid him. Thankful that's over with!

As I said, the benchtop guys turned up on the same day...with my gorgeous Caesarstone. How I love it. They set the sink in and the tap in but didn't install it, so those are just floating there, but dang. It looks so great. And it is SO cold - perfect for pastry!

I worked on the wardrobe in the master bedroom a bit, worrying over configuration of shelves, the trouser hanger (pictured), and the clothes rail. The wardrobes are 2.4m high,  but we have 2.8m ceilings so there is plenty of room for them...and a bit on top for my A3 box collection!

And we put in our new front door. I was outvoted on the handle - both Clark and Mr Poppleton thought it should go on the top of the lock! I protested but even though I knew it was wrong somehow, I was outvoted. The next day Clark sheepishly admitted that because the lock was so high up and the threshold a step up from the stoop that yes, I was right to want the handle lower! Thank you very much. :)

Oh. And I painted. We went with a glut of blues. As you progress toward the back of the house, it gets deeper and deeper. In late afternoon, the darkest room, the dining room, is where you end up. But during the day it's like looking down into a very blue tunnel.

And looking back the other way, toward the light.

Of course my hands were a casualty. I think I could be convincted of Smurficide with that as evidence, eh?

The study got a fresh lick of paint, too. Pink along three walls and the same deep grey along the back cabin log walls. It works so well, the pink and grey!

On Friday, I took a Tips and Tricks class at Cottage Quiltworks and my in-laws and husband took out the floor coverings. When I came to visit, I had nothing but bare floorboards to greet me. Even unsanded, they look amazing. This is Piper's room.

And our room (note the finished wardrobes, so super pretty)!

But the dining room didn't fare so well. It looks like the glued the vinyl down, and it's all hairy and stuck to the floorboards. I have been experimenting with getting that fuzz up, and it looks like a stiff brush  cleaned out often is my best bet. What a pai, though - it's a HUGE room.

But then I have the consolation of the gorgeous living room to think of. Oh how lovely it will be when they are all done!

And of course the loveliest thing of all - the dearest and sweetest girl in the world, my gorgeous Piper. She was so tuckered out the other day that she fell asleep in my arms - that NEVER happens. I took the time to sit and enjoy it!

Since the floorsander is in on Monday, we have one more day to finish everything up. I have trims to paint, and three ceilings, and fuzzy floor to rescue, and a hall cupboard to finish. (It was horrible just to get the frames done - I'm so grateful all we're doing to finish are doors and shelving!) After Monday, I get three beautiful days to spend at the apartment, packing. I want this place spick and span by Monday afternoon. Mostly packed and totally spruced up - the floors cleaned, the spots on the wall painted, the drapes at the dry cleaner, everything. I'm packing two to five boxes a day at the moment trying to get ready...because we move in a little over a week.

I'm not sure when next I'll post, so here's hoping it will be sooner rather than later, but if not...hang in there, I'll be back soon!

Lots of love,

Cheers. xx

muddling along

Well, the house is still not finished. SURPRISE. I feel like the world's biggest jerk, but I'm so disappointed that it's taken us TWICE as long to move in. It's money wasted on rent. By my original timeline, we should be well moved in now, and just unpacking. Instead, we're still without a tiled bathroom.

So we're doing small things, getting lots of other projects finished up. This week my goal is painting. Unfortunately, my little one has her first cold. She's not feeding well, absolutely hates the aspirator, and will not sleep. (And she really needs sleep.) I went so far as to turn the heater on because we've had such a cold snap the last few days, I am sure she needs to be kept toasty warm.

This cold, though, means she's a very sweet, snot-covered little barnacle, which limits the amount of painting I can do. This weekend will have to be THE weekend. I will be finished BY SUNDAY EVENING!*

Some things have happened! Like my drawer units have HANDLES. ALL in preparation for the benchtops coming in on MONDAY.

And I bought interior doorknobs, sash lifts, and window locks.

I gave the fabulous front door a prepcoat!

Bedroom 3 received the final prepcoat and now we're on to the dining room.

I scraped the ceilings, windowsills, and walls of the nook and caulked all the gaps to prepare for a prepcoat.

We chose the paint for the last room! Atlantic Mystique. It's a very oceanic house. Three of the rooms are blue, the bedroom and hallway are grey, and even Piper's room is green!

And I spent a minute just standing on what I refer to as the "laundry porch". This is overlooking my neighbor's back garden. But I like my pergola. I want to hang strawberry plants on those hooks.

And...here is my finished Nicey Jane quilt. Still needs a name! "Nicey Girls take the long way around" perhaps?

I am so exhausted. It is time to give the baby more medicine, and rock her back to sleep. We are listening to Angus Stone and trying to take a nap. Hopefully she will sleep. My poor girl.

Cheers, folks! Enjoy your midweek. :)

*I hope.

Hanging in there!

Renovating is one of those things that turn you into a bad friend. I am guilty of that and because of that I'm watching birthdays and weddings fly by, invitations forgotten, because I have been too busy to keep in touch. I'm sorry, friends. I love you and I miss you but I must get this house done.

Progress has been made, somewhat. There are architraves on the windows in the laundry and there's a loo now, so we can work at the house longer than two hours at a time! The wall faucets work but not the basin - it's not connected to anything!

We took the door off of the back hallway where the bathroom door used to be. The hallways is now useless (it leads to another back door, but we'll almost always use the laundry door) so we are thinking of closing it up and turning it into a shed, accessible only from the outside. For now, it is just another great source of light for the dining room!

The laundry room now has a door on the inside! This is for privacy. It still needs to be painted but hey, a door's a door, man.

And this...this is my future sewing nook. Mind, that is only the pre-prepcoat so it looks pretty rubbish BUT the log cabin wall will be a dark, moody grey and the walls a nice sweet pink. The reason for the "feature" wall is because the original exterior walls (i.e. the log cabin walls) have lots of spaces which, when painted white, show up. I don't want to gap-seal all of them. So we're painting them dark.

My kitchen cabinets are coming along nicely, though. They have handles.

And fancy light switches for my fancy undercabinet LEDs.

And oh hey, check out my cooktop, right smack on my drawer unit. It hasn't been installed as we're still waiting on the darn benchtops.

I love looking through the blue of the kitchen into the afternoon sunlit dining room. Such a change in color and tone. Makes such a difference!

In our bedroom we've begin building the wardrobes. They look SO enormous!

And finally, Clark has begun the skylight. It has a villaboard lining and he is setting in the corners so I can sand and paint those very soon. I might as well, since the tilers (&^$*ing tilers, UGH) flaked out AGAIN and are now two MORE weeks late getting in to tile this bathroom. We are now a MONTH LATE moving out of this apartment. I'm not happy we're still renting. It's costing us money every day we're not in the house, and they are directly affecting my budget. GAH.

The good news is, the bathroom is ready for the tilers. All of that waterproofing is just brilliant, isn't it!

It's not all negative. We do have some pretty roses in the garden to console us!

Well, until I take a walk and see how much more there is to do. But this can wait until after we're moved in! (That's my sewing window. It does not open both ways. So it needs to be repainted, and unstuck.)

I do find my patience wearing a bit thin, especially with tilers. (Actually, more or less, ONLY with tilers. Everyone else has been GREAT.) And I want to be moved in. The worst part though was that this long weekend, the perfect weekend for getting things accomplished...we got sick. Piper first, then a couple days later, ME! UGH. I really don't like being sick. It interferes with my whole "get up and go" personality! I knew it was a beautiful warm day outside, perfect for getting work done, but by the end of the day all I could do was get a few stitches in at the sewing machine. Boo. We are on the mend now and feeling much better, but I'm still tired and my ribs ache. I did manage to get the study/sewing room prepcoated last night, in an unexpected burst of inspiration!

Well we're off to get coffee and have lunch with the family for Easter! Hope yours is equally lovely. Cheers!

More renovations!

Does this count as a WIP Wednesday? I'm desperately seeking time to sew, but instead my house is full of renovations. I'll put up pictures of both, I swear...

Anyway, linking up!

So the work has continued apace, and the pace at which it has continued is...excellent! Except the tiler fell and fractured his ankle and then fell again and sprained his wrist. So my laundry has only been screeded whereas I should have had a functioning laundry room (with a toilet) by now!

But that's the only hiccup, so I should be thankful, right? And in a way, it's kind of fine that the tiling has taken so long, because instead of focusing on getting the bathroom ready, Clark went and put my kitchen in.

I painted the walls in the kitchen blue. Glorious, Dulux Shampoo blue.

So glorious with the light from the window coming through! And since the films on the cupboards are blue, it's very much like living in a pool at the moment.

I have had lots of help from the tiny tradie though. She's been coming along like a trouper, eating biscuits and pulping bits of cardboard and being generally very patient with her very patient mama.

She sits up all by herself now, and she has finally sprouted a third tooth! It's her upper left eyetooth, of all teeth to sprout, and she's had a miserable week and a bit of fussiness. I'm glad it's broken the surface, and I'm sure there are another two or three on their way...poor kid.

The bathroom does need finishing. Check out my raw skylight. It needs walls!

The board around it was swollen and waterlogged, and it came away like Weet-bix. It will be replaced with waterproof Villaboard in the future.

And, LAMP! It's done, and when I came in the other week, Gary had hung it up for me!

I think it looks so great, the blue of the metal against the stark white ceiling. I'm really proud of what we've been able to recycle, and of how my efforts are turning out.

I'm not the only one who is excited. Piper loves the new pantry. We played "Baby in the cupboard!" while the tilers were working hard!

She is also super excited about her new bright green bedroom, with its beautiful beaded pendant light. Oh, so cute and sweet and still girly!

The only sad room is the bathroom. It's so sad. The floor needs to come up before they put down a new screed and the cast-iron bathtub took three days alone to remove. You can see all of the work that the plumber has done; those are all new pipes and he's even packed the wall out to sustain the wall-mounted sink. Bless.

It is coming along. I know this. I am there every night with some little task. Last night it was drawers; the night before I was painting the kitchen. I'm at Spiders' Group tonight but I'm secretly hoping to head up and see if I can't get some trimwork done in the kitchen. Or some windows painted. Or something. It's so addictive.

Well, in the sewing department, I am still knee-deep in my challenge with Pinky. She is kicking my toosh in this challenge! I have a finished top but I am terribly undecided about the backing. I've been back and forth to Craft Depot picking out backings but none have matched my expectations. Sigh. SIGH. So this is as far as I've gotten.

But! I have a treat! I have photos of the fabric I picked up in AMERICA!

Check out all of these beauties...

And these DS Quilts fabrics from Jo-Ann's...

And some sweet boyish puppy dog fabrics and a few little bits and bobs...

And pretty pink and girly prints....

And sewing literature. Holy pants. I saw that blocks book and snapped it up so quick I gave myself whiplash. Boom.

And this spool holder barely survived in my suitcase. It has a slight lean to it....yikes!

Finally, I picked up a ruffling foot. I've wanted one of those for ages, to make ruffle-bottom pants for Piper!

I had so much fun buying this fabric with Sarah and with my Aunt Rose. I wish I could do it all the time! I got such a good variety that as soon as we're moved into the house with the sewing room sorted out (and everything unpacked) I'll be able to put these projects to good use!

Hopefully my blogging will get back to a normal schedule, sooner rather than later...I'm excited to be finished, and I'm really keen to get all the furniture built, the painting done, the floors polished, and the tradesmen OUT. (Though they are lovely!) I can't wait to just come home and be home, and not have to make two trips back and forth every day. And I can't wait to wake up to my east-facing bedroom windows pouring light over the foot of the bed, and my little family all curled up around me.

It's going to be so amazing.

(PS Sewing, I miss you. FREALS. Let's get together soon.)

Cheers, and happy WIP! Hope your days are less frantic than mine! :)

Drudgery, part the millionth

I'm scooting through house renovations as quickly as I can, but the past week has been a haze of getting 'er done.

Tuesday we had the asbestos removed, which meant we could see straight through the kitchen wall into the laundry! And I felt like I could REALLY BREATHE, for the first time ever. All that nasty asbestos, gone!

My house is made from what they call "Oregon timber" here in Sydney but I know it by its true name: Douglas fir. I was so pleased to hear my house was made of the same trees that I grew up surrounded by. These two-by-fours aren't the smooth sweetish pine of modern times, though: they are splintery and rough-hewn, scratchy and dark. Still, to me, they are beautiful.

We made our mark on the house. We are now part of its history. I've spoken before about the previous owner, and a few more little stories have come about. The house was built by the previous owner for his bride around 1950. She was the kind of neighbor who loved to garden and have cups of tea. I feel a bit like she haunts us, but only in a nice way. Houses move on to other people. We bought a house with a wonderful history.

And we've been magically able to keep a lot of that history alive.

Here is the old bathroom door. We are putting a toilet into the bath and leaving the existing one in the laundry, but there was no point having three entrances to the laundry room (outside and inside) so our builder Clark has closed up this door. It's Villaboard on the other side, but he recycled the splintery, rough-hewn timber from the wall he took out to frame this in. I love that he did that!

But of course, the old plumbing had to go. The hot water line was running up the OUTSIDE of the kitchen wall. Yikes! So our fantastic plumber Laurie spent Friday snipping, welding, drilling holes and making bends. And in the end he took the old, crappy (heh) toilet out and capped the hole in the floor. Ready for making new.

This is for the kitchen. Isn't it just super? Shiny and new!

I haven't been idle, either. I spent yesterday feeling sorry for myself (Mr Poppleton is away on a business trip) so I took the baby to Nanna & Granddad's and painted undercoat on most of the living room walls for three hours. I stopped at the rendered brick because I ran out of time.

I just love the difference the white makes. That whole room will eventually be sky blue, but for now the white is just so bright and cheerful!

And Mr Poppleton would like everyone to know he has not been idle, either. This week he and his mum and dad spent three evenings building my kitchen cabinets.

They are awaiting doors and handles, but Clark will manage that when the flooring is up and the kitchen walls are reclad!

More painting. I should really be flicking back to the "before" images, where everything was dark and moody because the timber was stained really heavy. Having it all white just freshens it up so much.

Those are Clark's two by fours in the floor there, but those boxes? Those are my living room tiles. Brilliant! I'll order my bathroom tiles as soon as I get a quote in from the tiler. He is mythical at the moment, but this week will be the week I get this house on track!

If a certain someone complies, that is.

Oh man. She's so perfect. I hope she understands someday how most of this work is for her. We are making a home for her.

Well - off to work I suppose! Today is more undercoating. Going to get the living room and hallway 100% primed. Boom. It's good to have goals, I guess. But just before I go, a sneaky look at something I did while husbandless-induced-insomnia had me in its clutches last night:

Hmm, it looks like a Nicey Jane quilt top...hmm...we shall see I suppose!

Cheers! xx

Asbestos

Today's the day it goes away!

I'm sitting on my front stoop waiting for the removal guys to turn up. Oh! My builder will be there as well. Hooray!

It's all happening...