A little bit of a boring post, but exciting for us.
Last week our $80 Big W temporary microwave died. Well not completely, I'm sure it still works perfectly well, it's just that we can't get the door open when the button is broken. So off to the local white goods retailer I go dreading the inevitable....dealing with commission hungry cheesy sales people. Cringe worthy.
So here I am by myself during a mid-week lunch break let loose among the appliances. A dangerous scenario indeed. Why? Because I just happened across this Whirlpool 90cm free sanding oven/cooktop that is on special. It's a display model and has been super seeded. We had allocated $2,000 for the oven but got this gem for only $1575, it's original price was $2,200!!! The fiscal saving is so impressive that it leaves us money to pay the plumber to install it and one almighty big Lamb Roast. Happy Days.
I did eventually get a microwave.....on special of course. But we only saved $65 on that purchase, which after the $625 saving on the oven seems a mere trifle.
That's not all, there's more savings. We picked up a new toaster took it to the register, payed for the three items and left the store. It wasn't until we got home that we noticed that they hadn't even charged us a thing for the toaster! Weird. So I think today might be one of those days when your good karma in the past comes back to reward you.
hugs
Ro
PS. The new microwave doesn't have a button to open the door. It has a handle. Clever. Well done Omega.
Last night I cooked a special mid week meal. Roast Kangaroo with Couscous, chick peas, dried currents, orange rind, Kaffer Lime leaves, lime juice and dried chillies. I love Kangaroo meat, cooked properly, and it's the most sustainably produced meat in Australia with less impact on the environment than cattle or sheep. But that's another story, of which I'm happy to discuss with any anti - Australian emblem eating turkies.
The kitchen is such an important area of the house. It's where all the action happens (no puns please). It's where I discovered how much joy a well cooked meal can bring to family and friends. The range of tastes and flavor's concocted into a dish that makes us feel great. There is nothing better than having people over, music playing, wine flowing and plenty of laughs and conversation.
So with this in mind you can imagine the effort we'll be putting into the new 'old' kitchen.
Unfortunately with time and budget constraints we won't be doing too much to the kitchen immediately, but this is no indication that it will be a neglected room. So far our vision is to paint it white......surprise! To begin with we will leave the existing cupboards but just give them a freshen up with a lick of paint. We will then install a heap of shelves on the wall with the window for storage of our plates/bowls/mugs etc. The shelves will also be home to the glass jars from ikea that we have been accumulating, full of pasta, flours, sugars, tea etc. This will make a great array of colour and texture, accentuated by the contrast of the white walls.
Eventually we'll get a new ceramic sink and fittings, followed closely by a new dishwasher and a deluxe 900mm gas/electric stand alone stove/oven. Man those things make me go all Tim the Toolman...AAARHH ARRHH!!
The floors will get polished with the original renos and the plans that we have well into the future include, replacing the hideous aluminum window frame and installing French doors to the patio.
Until then all we can do is drool over these inspirational images collected from various blogs and photo sources online.
Ro
Simple but effective herb storage
This is the sink I want.....nice
It looks like the 3rd of May is when we can actually start the renovations!!!! (over use of exclamation marks but we are excited) We're just waiting on the current renters to sign some paperwork and then it's all official. We'll keep you posted. In the mean time here is what the basin and tap that we bought on eBay looks like on the cabinet we painted. You like?
The entrance to our new house isn't exactly massive but if we keep it uncluttered it should make a pretty swell entrance. We want it to have a little of our character and a liitle style, but simple. Here are a few beauties found on the web oasis.
PS. I boughts a few more treats online. The black Chandy is for our bedroom and the hand carved Tiki Statue is for the wall of books.
R
For those locals (living in Southern Victoria) how perfect was yesterdays weather?!
Absolutely inspiring. We kinda faffed about all day doing little joyous things and enjoying the public holiday. I bought Laney a tiny version of my tin watering can and she went about watering (with bath water) our collection of plants in pots, of which we have a decent collection. They sit patiently in a row on our wobbly brick paved back yard waiting to go into rich soil and reach for the stars. I have heaps of small stuff, like seaside daisies, strawberry, Impatient's, Monstera, Tea Tree, plenty of herbs etc. I have three decent sized shrub/trees; an olive, lime and a lemon. They don't grew well in pots and we are hanging to get them into the ground. Have I told you that I've kinda designed the backyard? I'm a little embarrassed by myself for spending the time in Illustrator and MapInfo making the draft design (it's even to scale). But here it is.
I know what plants I want and almost were they will go. We'll have a little oasis where some of our food will grow and we can relax with family and friends for lazy afternoons, with vino, stinky cheese and crackers. Come on! When can we move in!!!!!??
Here's some of our inspiration.
xoRo
I bought this picture frame from the Daylesford trash market about a year ago and I've been waiting for an idea of how best to use it. I paid the whopping sum of $5.00, they guy I bought it off just wanted to get rid of it, I'm not sure why. It's full of character. I was going to paint it either white or black gloss but then Kim suggested I keep the wooden beauty. So I sanded it back and then covered in the same bee's wax stuff that I treated our kitchen table with that I made out of recycled floor boards. I'm pretty happy with the result and think it will look great on our future white walls. All I did was nail on some cheap cork boards at the back and set a wire hanger.
The early signs of cooler Autumn weather have finally arrived. Although not in any subtle form what so ever! Ballarat recording some of the strongest gusts with the wind change with over 100km/hr winds. I went for my morning ride this morning and all the walkers around the lake were rugged up in beanies, gloves and scarves. A smile raised at the corner or my mouth. Change, the essence of an interesting life had finally come back. With the cooler weather testing my climatic endurance I started thinking of standing in front of a warm fire, which although brought some nice thoughts it also brought me back to another little choice that we need to make about the interior of the new place.
OK so we've made it pretty clear that the house will be painted white all through the inside, but that raises a few questions in regards to other internal elements. I originally wanted a fireplace (gas) with an ornate mantle piece also painted in black. My original idea was to make the faux gas coal fire place the center piece of the room. Normally this would be okay, however we have lovely dark brown (nearing on black) leather couches which even with 12" white ceilings and walls the room might look a bit dark. So with a little subtle persuasion from Kim I've come round and now we will probably do black fireplace with a gloss white mantle piece. What do you think? Here is a few randoms from Desire to Inspire/Selby and other web sources that I can never keep up with..jpg)
I just can't help myself. Last week I fixed up the cabinet for the bathroom and now I have a basin to sit on top! All I need now is the fittings for the outlet and a handy plumber.
This is the style basin we have wanted for a while, it's modern but hopefully not so much that it will date. And I got it for a steal on eBay for $129 which is really cheap. I've been to Reece and Camerons Plumbing supplies in town and the price for what we wanted for a basin like this was around $400. So if it arrives this week without a hitch we've done well. At least it will leave us more money for nice fittings!