I think I have the renovation blues this week.  Combine a severe case of decision fatigue (Ref.-Bungalow Girl), returning to work, no daycare placement for Miss O, a heat wave with all of my summer clothes packed away in the shipping container, 3 out of 4 of us being sick plus a couple of disappointments on site and I'm left feeling very weary!  But seeing our front door handle installed was a reminder that it won't be much longer before we return to our home and our life returns to normal.

Much of this week involved the builders completing the sheeting, adding the mouldings and installing the wardrobes.



New VJs for the guest bedroom wall.

 

Miss O's Bedroom door frame.

Miss O's Wardrobe.

Master Bedroom Robes and Ensuite.

 

The ensuite was lined ready for waterproofing, the installation of the vanity and tiling.  I am really looking forward to seeing the hexagon marble mosiac tiles laid.  This week I decided on some wall sconces that will look great above the vanity.

 





The retreat area windows have also been trimmed nicely to frame some more wall sconces.

The final cabinets were added to the kitchen so it is now ready for the benchtops to be installed.

For now I will dream about the house being complete and enjoying this lovely family living area.

  

I have shared the inspiration for our new kitchen and now I'd like to show you our selections and plans.  As I mentioned in my previous post we were keen to reuse as much as possible of our existing kitchen which was only three years old.  So our finishes are the same except the kitchen walls are now 1/4 strength rather than full strength Dulux 'White Duck' and white 100x200mm subway tiles will be added to the splashback.

Our fittings include our existing LG refrigerator, Miele appliances and Phoenix tap but we are upgrading to a larger double bowl Clark 'Monaco' undermount sink.

I am pleased that the extension to our house has opened up the kitchen area and allowed us to incorporate an island bench and study area.  We have also been able to add a broom cupboard and additional storage beside the pantry.


Our design was restrained by the desire to reuse as much of the existing kitchen as possible.  Careful planning allowed us to reuse all but three of our existing cabinets in the new design.  We are also able to reuse two of the three Caesarstone benchtops.  Existing cabinets are marked with dashed lines in the drawings below.

Study and Kitchen Southern Wall



Kitchen Western Wall

Kitchen Island Bench

Installation of the study and kitchen commenced last week and it is great to see our plans come to life.
 

The study and kitchen so far.

What a week!  Big progress with painting and the kitchen this week and a very busy time as I returned to work on Monday.  Now I am very much looking forward to moving back home and life returning to normal!  So I'll keep this post brief and let the pictures speak for themselves.

The painters starting adding colour to the front exterior.

The facade is looking better all the time!

The painters got busy on the interior walls of the kitchen, dining, lounge area.

Completing necessary painting before the installation of the kitchen and study nook.

The first rough sand was completed.

The new and old sanded floors in the hallway.

And wait for it...

 

The cabinet makers have started installing the study nook and kitchen.



Just a few more cabinets to add to the kitchen.

 

Study nook ready for benchtop installation.



The interior is starting to look complete with the addition of mouldings this week.  140mm skirting boards and 93mm architraves set off the windows and VJ walls beautifully in the extension area (kitchen, study, dining and lounge).  The ceilings are 3.2m high so the picture rail breaks up the wall nicely and will act as a crown moulding above the kitchen and study cabinetry.

  

 

We decided to remove the dado rail from the guest bedroom (as it was the only room in the house that had one) only to discover a split in the VJs.  So new full length VJs will need to be installed.  At least we were able to add insulation to the western wall in the process. 

To allow the builders to finish the internal wall lining and mouldings we needed to purchase and install our wardrobe inserts for our main bedroom.  The plan is to have one main clothing robe in the bedroom and a walk-through shoe and accessories robe between the bedroom and ensuite.
 

We decided to use the Pax and Komplement products from Ikea.  They have a great online planner that allowed us to play with designs and create a product list before heading instore.  This made processing our order at 6:15pm (45 minutes before closing) with two hungry and tired little people in tow very helpful indeed!  We ended up with 45 boxes and Hubby M did an amazing job of getting them all into the back of the ute and into the house!
 

    

 

The painters are still working their magic on the exterior of the house.  The facade has been primed and is looking great.  Not long now until the brick work disappears and work begins on the ground floor. 

Floors, doors and more!  Words cannot express how pleased we are with our flooring.  We decided to pull up the pine flooring from our old kitchen dining area to use in the sleepout area that had hardwood shot boards.  The builders did such a great job of splicing in the new and old boards resulting in a seamless master bedroom area that looks like it was always there.  We even had a few extra boards left over to replace some dodgy ones throughout the house.



This also meant that there wouldn't be a join between new and old flooring in the middle of the open kitchen, dining, living area and allowed us to select a more durable timber than pine.  We opted for Blackbutt 130mm boards in a standard grade to give us some markings and character to match our aged pine boards.

We now have a smaller join between the pine and blackbutt flooring in the hallway.  Once the floors are polished the change in flooring should be even less noticeable. 

Did you spot that gorgeous transom at the end of the hallway (as well as Builder N and Builder A)?  Yes, our front doors have been installed!  The facade finally looks more authentic unlike the missing front door and mismatched french doors that we used to have.

I seriously LOVE our front door!

I also love that the kids will have lovely french doors in their bedrooms.  This is Miss O's bedroom-

More progress was made this week with framing and lining the bulkheads.  After cleaning the tops of kitchen cupboards I vowed to never have a kitchen without a bulkhead again!  So the builders and cabinet maker have coordinated a bulkhead with a picture rail running along the join and giving the look of a crown moulding above the cupboards.
 

A bulkhead will also fill the space above the study nook. 

The plumber was also on site this week installing our drain pipes, storm water pipes and hot and cold water supply pipes.  Now I really need to make up my mind about tiles!

 

A beauty on Better Homes and Gardens USA


My 'Flashback Friday- Family Home Number 2' post explained how we sold our last house and had 60 days to renovate our new family home to a liveable state for our newborn Master H.  The kitchen was one of the main priorities as it looked like this-

I loved the last modern kitchen we designed in Family Home Number 2 with glossy white 2 pac doors, glass spashback etc.

The kitchen we designed in our last home

But this time I thought I would stick with more of a traditional look.  I found myself drawn to the classic look of Provincial style kitchens in magazines and A-M's gorgeous kitchen featured on her blog 'The House that AM Built'.-

Cape Cod Designs- AM's kitchen

We didn't want to make any structural changes to the house until we had finalised our major renovation plans so were restricted to a small u-shaped kitchen design.  Sadly, I didn't think to take any proper photos of our completed kitchen but here are some quick snaps I took with the iphone before we moved out and the house was a complete mess!

Now with our major renovation and extension, we are able to change the layout of the kitchen.  I am pleased that we will be able to have more storage, an island bench and study nook.  I found great inspiration on Houzz and numerous blogs and have been busy pinning to my kitchen board on Pinterest.  Here are some of my favourite images and main inspiration-


Georgica Pond Interiors- Mel's Kitchen



'Building Our House of Grey and White' Blog- Natasha's Kitchen

 


Cabinetry and layout inspiration.  Pinterest

 

Study nook layout inspiration.  Pinterest

 


Study nook inspiration.  Pinterest

 
I'm really pleased with the kitchen plan and selections that we have settled on and it's great that we are able to reuse 90% of our exisiting kitchen.  I can't wait to show you!