To be honest, when I found out we were having a girl the reality was overwhelming! Though it was a dream come true, I had gotten pretty comfortable with my little man style and the frills and sparkles all seemed a bit too much. With a girl, it felt like there were so many options, I didn't know where to start. Then I fell in love with the one piece of furniture I didn't need...
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Pushing our design and colour scheme ideas is an exciting way to renovate, we had to chose different elements for the bathroom without visually seeing it all together till the end result. At times it feels like guess work, making decisions from lying out one tile sample, looking at colour swatches and viewing products in a showroom. To see it all come together well - you have to do your best to imagine the end result, considering how each product will work in the space and finally, just back yourself and go with your gut.
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When your builder calls you to let you know he has 1.5 days free next week (when he is fully booked for months), and you are due to have your second child in a few weeks, there is only one answer to give – (or at least that was Alice’s thought) – let’s renovate the bathroom.
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Putting together a child’s room brings out your inner child – though for Caleb and I we have never struggled with that! We love playing with our soon to be 2 year old and designing him a new room gave us an opportunity to get creative and create him (and us) a fun environment.
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There was no doubt that when it came to this property, the old kitchen needed to go, there was wasted space, cabinetry that was near death and a hot water cylinder taking up storage space. Though budget and time was incredibly tight (the two things you traditionally need in order to design a great kitchen) we were realistic, we knew that we needed to keep costs to a minimum and be decisive in what we wanted to design.
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A common question I have been asked lately is Should I use a Paint Sprayer for my project? After using it on our latest project - with great success - our predilection has definitely swung in favour of using an Airless Spray Gun. But before you throw your rollers away and rush out and make the investment, here's a summary of the basics and a few key details to help you decide if it will be right for your project.
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Our recent renovation project where we set the goal of a 3-week renovation within a 30K budget during one of the busiest times of year, November / December, was no small endeavour. But come December, the moving truck was booked and we moved into a newly and quickly renovated house. When our electrician and his team came around to do the final fix they were completely taken aback by the extent of the progress we had made in such a small time, having seen the house after the first weekend of demolition - “You guys have done in 3 weeks, what takes most people at least 3 months”.
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As we shared in our first blog, this project was well planned before we had even received the keys, but as we have learnt, what you plan and what you actually achieve can be too very completely different things. As I find to often with Alice, I may plan out a budget, that doesn't mean she will stick to it! Therefore your planning is only as good as your programming and outworking of that plan. With renovations, you need to allow for extra tasks and costs to come up unexpected, but adjust the plan to accommodate those changes, not allow them to derail of of your preparations.
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It is well known that kitchen’s are the heart of the home and we think windows are the eyes. In an understated way, windows draw visitors inside your home, framing and connecting your outlook, create the perception of space and bring light into your home.
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The success of your vision often lies in a detailed plan with clear objectives to achieve it. Getting yourself prepared and in a position to execute your plan. From when we purchased this house at auction we had 4 weeks to create a detailed plan on how to achieve our vision and begin to put the cogs into motion to achieve this.
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After months of searching and researching, talking with agents, visiting open homes and watching auctions go well above our expectations, our next project has ended up being a house only 7 houses down the road from our Hidden Treasure Project! Being familiar with the area now we think were onto something good. Our approach to finding a new project is to be flexible with our expectations and how we will achieve our objectives - avoiding a list of requirements a property must have and instead focusing on the opportunity.
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Dressing a bedroom is your opportunity to give your home personality and draw out an even more emotional pull. I always make a point of dressing bedrooms in a way that woman will love, while men are outside figuring out where to put there BBQ and how easy it is to get their car out of the garage, women are in the bedrooms dwelling on how the space makes her feel. A bedroom needs a sense of space and a feeling of warmth and calmness.
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Staging furniture and decor creates a stage for buyers to imagine what their lives would look like in your home. Staging creates a home that has an emotional pull and leaves out the guesswork for the buyers. Ultimately you are creating a place for someone to call home, and people never think of home with blank walls and no where to sit!
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A bathroom may be a small space, but there is a lot to fit in - shower, vanity, storage, toilet, bath, mirror, towel rail, lighting, a fan and that’s just the essentials. Beyond fitting everything into the room there is the need for it to be practical - towel rails by the shower, mirror above the vanity, powerpoints accessible and lighting in the right areas.
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Everyone says it, because it true, kitchens are the heart of the home. It seems every time we have people over, the kitchen bench is the place they decide to sit. Kitchens are important; they sell houses and make homes.
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Your team can make or break you, you may have a great vision – but without the right team, that vision will become a nightmare. To avoid that, you need to make sure you get the right people on board with you so that the vision of your renovation or project ends up as the picture you had in mind.
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Renovations have a reputation of bringing some serious stress to relationships. There are a lot of opportunities to disagree and with something as personal as creating your home, it’s understandable that disagreements can blow quickly into heated arguments.
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Deciding on the paint colour of a home is something I look forward to in every renovation, I have done some pretty bold things with colour in my short interior design lifetime, orange and “bumblebee” coloured curtains or emerald green, midnight blue and yellow walls!
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Budgeting. It’s a love hate relationship. There’s no glamour in doing budgeting, but an essential part of your renovation planning and management to make sure you stay on track and don’t leave the bank account in red when you’re finished.
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Sometimes you hear people talk about a house needing a renovation as a ‘blank canvas’, if only that was true! The first stage of renovating (once your plannings in hand of course) is getting the house Back to Blank
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