Category Archives: house

2024 – A Review

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Well, here we are at the end of another year. Like most years, this one has had its ups and downs, highs and lows.

There has been overseas travel and renovations at home.

Sad farewells to friends and family members who have left us far too soon.

Catching up and celebrating with extended family – siblings and cousins.

Regular routines and out of the ordinary adventures.

Living in a location with 4 distinct seasons and lots of deciduous trees clearly defines the seasonal cycle through the year. I appreciate the seasonal changes and cherish the special aspects such as savouring seasonal produce when it is at its best.

We will be spending New Year’s Eve with family but I suspect we may all be in bed well in advance of midnight.

Resolutions are not really something that I do but I am keen to work on some key principles and encourage others to do likewise as we move into 2025. Things like kindness, gratitude, sharing, empathy and community spring to mind. Nothing too big or exciting but simply woven into every day and making a difference to our own and other people’s lives.

I love this image and have used it each year on the blog for a few years as I like to think of the waves gently washing away the year and leaving us with a blank page ready to write the story of the upcoming year. I think it is a better reflection of my attitude to the New Year than fireworks and popping champagne corks.

I would like to close this post by thanking each and every one of you for your interest which encourages to continue writing this blog after almost 14 years.

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2025.

Unveiled

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Last week I was watching as the builder was putting the finishing touches to the pantry. Then there was some final sanding and painting to do.

The final step was to rearrange things. It was a big job and I took my time and there is still some more tweaking as usage patterns develop. Now it is time for the big reveal.

Since it is a long, narrow space it is impossible to photograph an overall view.

The extended benchtop, drawers and overhead shelving. Note the LED strip lighting under the open shelving.

The full wall of open shelving on the other side. The height placement of the shelves was specifically determined according to the height of what I wanted to store.

Since well before the pantry renovation began I have been dreaming of how I would organise the new, improved version.

Let me show you a few closer details.

I previously had these plastic tubs full of plastic storage containers in the corner cupboard. It was a reasonable solution but having them in a deep drawer is even better.

I spotted these 3 cute glass jars in an op shop recently and immediately decided that they would be perfect for GMan’s collection of teas – black, Earl Grey and green tea. All ready for making tea and coffee. The mugs are hanging just out of sight to the right of this photo.

I have reinstated the ‘breakfast corner’ with the kettle and toaster together near the entrance to the pantry.

The far end of the extended bench is home to the Kitchen Aid stand mixer and airfryer, both of which are used frequently.

Other regularly used appliances are stored on the open shelves. I have placed them at a height which makes them within easy reach and simple to access.

The storage buckets of bulk dry goods stand on the floor.

There is space to store the empty glass jars and bottles.

Teatowels and aprons in a drawer close to where they are used.

The addition looks completely seamless as we were able to match all of the components with the original. I am beyond ecstatic to see this all come together and I am really looking forward to the increased functionality of my kitchen and pantry.

Beating the Birds

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I have been fully occupied for the past few days doing some writing that was not blog posts nor in any way blogworthy. It was administrative work for a local voluntary organisation that I belong to.

Today we ventured out in the garden to do a few jobs and one was to net the fruit trees to keep the birds at bay. Last year was our first summer in this house and although we harvested a bounty of fruit we did lose a portion of the crop to our local feathered friends.

We have 3 espaliered fruit trees near the side of the house – a nectarine and two nashi pears. They are now suitably enclosed for at least 3 months while the fruit mature out of harm’s way.

The raspberries are thriving in a patch near the back fence and we did cover them last year which resulted in most of the crop feeding us rather than the birds. Last year it was a pretty simple matter of throwing some netting over them. I have some slightly grander plans this time and will get onto that later this afternoon once it is a bit cooler.

Meanwhile, the building work in the pantry is complete and GMan is finishing painting the new wall and cornice. I have started rearranging some of the cupboards and shelves and I should be able to unveil it soon. Watch this space for details and plenty of pictures.

Installation Day

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Yesterday we had a couple more changes finalised.

The front room which is my sewing room has large outward-opening French doors but no way of restricting access to the unwanted insects. These doors are the only direct ventilation for this room and that is not a significant issue for the majority of the year as we are trying to keep the house warm. However, about 4 months of summer can be a different story. After much research we found a solution to the problem.

A retractable, folding mesh screen that is barely noticeable when it is retracted yet allows us to open up the doors on warm days without the insects coming inside.

This is the view with the doors open and the screen closed.

The doors are closed and the screen retracted in this photo. It is quite difficult to make out the housing for the folded screen on the left-hand side.

The second part of the job was to have a security door installed on the front door. Once again, there are limited times that we actually need the front door open but it is a nice option as well as the additional security even when the door is shut.

The view when the main door is shut.

And when it is open.

It is great to have these improvements in place as the weather is set be be quite hot over the next few days.

Starting Afresh

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Revamping our walk-in wardrobe was not an absolute priority but rather a by-product of the pantry extension. Our wardrobe is now about half of the original size but we are very confident that it offers more than enough space for our needs.

Once the new wall and cornices were installed, the next stage was to repaint the entire space. It is now white which I feel provides a clean, bright backdrop to the clothes.

We had removed all of the shelves and hanging rails before the renovations and are planning to install a more functional modular system which fits our needs. We are going to check out the components next month as the business is located on the other side of Melbourne from us and is not that easy to access. I expect it will be 2025 before we actually install the new shelving and rails.

In the meantime, we have moved some of our clothes and shoes back into the space.

There are plenty of off-season clothes, coats and jackets still in another wardrobe as well as shoes, hats and bags. Of course, I also have tops and underwear folded in drawers. However, this is a pared down selection of what GMan and I mostly wear. I will be interested to see how often I actually need to go to the other clothes.

When I look at this small hanging rail of clothes it is really easy to see why I have consistently remarked that my food is more important to me than my clothes when asked about our plans for the pantry and wardrobe.

Flowers and Fencing

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I really enjoy this display of sweet peas that we can see from the kitchen and family room. I planted them from seeds I collected last year that were hanging over someone’s front fence. I will definitely be saving the seed pods again for next year.

This was the original front fence when we arrived.

This has now been demolished and the new posts are in place for the new fence. The rails have been salvaged and earmarked for another landscaping project.

It will be 1.5m high so will offer a bit more privacy and security as we are on a major regional through road. There will be electric gates for the vehicular access as well as a pedestrian gate in the centre of the fence.

There will be more photos once it is complete.

Work is Underway

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After almost 18 months of debating, wondering, planning and trying to find a suitable tradesman, the changes to the butlers pantry and walk-in wardrobe are now underway.

After one day this was the view.

Looking from the existing pantry you can see where the wall has been removed exposing the end of the walk-in wardrobe. The pantry extension will go right through to the wall in the background.

Looking from the door of the walk-in wardrobe.

Day 2 and things have started to take shape. The framing for the new wall is in place and I can start to imagine how things will look.

We now have a clear idea of the wardrobe space. It will be plenty for our needs.

I managed to buy matching tiles for the splashback in the pantry and today I sourced some more vinyl planking for the floor covering in the pantry. The particular colour/pattern I needed has been discontinued but thankfully there was some in the warehouse. The builder has matched the cupboard fronts, handles and benchtops so I am confident that it will all match up seamlessly when it is complete.

Planned Changes

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We have now been living here for 17 months so have well and truly experienced the full range of seasons. Despite having some basic ideas of changes we wanted to make to the house and garden from the time we moved in, we feel that it is good to be informed by the experience of actually living in the house for a full year.

There will be a number of changes over the next 6 months or so but the first one begins next week. I think this is the one I am most excited about.

The butlers pantry and the walk-in wardrobe share a common wall and make an L-shape on the relevant section of the floor plan below.

The wall between the pantry and the walk-in wardrobe will be removed and the wall behind the sink in the pantry will be extended. This will effectively double the size of the pantry and halve the size of the walk-in wardrobe.

The extended pantry will have a long bench on one side with 2 sets of deep drawers below it and the other side will consist of open shelving.

These are a couple of views of the current pantry. It is good but more space will be wonderful.

Looking from the kitchen directly into the pantry. None of this will functionally change. The extension will be on the right-hand side of the sink.

This is the wall that will be removed. The bench and shelving above will continue as will the floor-to-ceiling shelving on the other side.

I cannot wait to have more space and I will be able to rehome the storage buckets of bulk flour, seeds, nuts and dried fruit that are currently in the wardrobe of the spare room.

Of course, there is a trade-off. A smaller walk-in wardrobe is not an issue. The existing space is huge and could almost be regarded as a dressing room although we do not use it as such.

We have managed to spread things out to almost fill the space but we know that we can utilise the smaller space much more effectively as we will install modular hanging rails and shelving to easily accommodate our clothes. Additionally, there are 2 other bedrooms with wardrobes if we find that we need to hang out-of-season coats and jackets. The mirror will go and the shelving/hanging rails will be fitted on the side (about half the length) where the existing rails are as well across the end where the mirror is currently positioned. We have a full-length mirror in the hall near the front entrance so do not really need the second one.

During the next week we will need to move everything out of the wardrobe so that it does not get covered in plaster dust. The wardrobe and bed in the guest bedroom will accommodate most of it.

The pantry is not as much of an issue as everything on the open shelves is in sealed packets or containers but some of the things at the end near the wall removal will need to be moved out of the way. The builder has estimated about 10 days for the work so I am prepared for a bit of disruption. I am confident that it will be worth it when the job is completed.

Not DIY

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Although we successfully do many jobs around the house ourselves, there are some things are definitely best left to the tradesmen.

Just over a week ago we had heavy rain overnight which resulted in us receiving 80mm in about 12 hours. The next day we noticed a small puddle of water on the hearth around the heater in the lounge. A few days ago we contacted a local plumber who came the next day, checked the roof and found that the problem was a couple of splits in the rubber seal on the roof. He fixed this in next to no time and was on his way. GMan does not have a long enough ladder nor is he keen on climbing on the roof so this was definitely money well spent.

The water entered between the flue and the cowling on the ceiling. Thankfully, there is no long-term damage as we noticed it quickly.

This photo shows the front of the house originally. By the time we bought it the double garage had been converted to a lounge room but there was no additional landscaping outside.

After quite a bit of discussion we decided to extend the small terrace at the front of the house to include the area in front of the lounge. We contacted a concreter a couple of weeks ago and after finalising the details of what we wanted everything fell into place quite quickly.

The slab was laid today and once it is properly cured we will arrange for it to be polished and it will closely match the finish on the existing area.

Here are a couple of views of the freshly laid concrete.

Now that this is done, we are looking forward to further developing walkways and plantings in the front garden. Since the front of the house faces north we will certainly be making the most of the sunny aspect during the winter months.

The Hub

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The kitchen is often referred to as the hub of the home but for us in this house the hub is definitely the office.

The office space is perfectly located as it is a walk-through space between the hall and the laundry, has an internal opening through to the informal family room and kitchen as well as having a view of the back garden and being within speaking distance of the the back patio.

This space is also the last to be properly organised and is finally done 9 months after we moved in. There are a couple of reasons for the delay. There was an assortment of paperwork and brochures relating to the house and the local area which the previous owners has kindly left for us. Some are useful but others are no longer relevant so we really had to sort them all out. Secondly, we had an assortment of peripheral equipment for the computer which I was unable to neatly position due to the layout of the desk.

Last week I found that the holes in desks for managing cables are not confined to bought furniture. So, we bought a couple of what are known as desk grommets and borrowed an appropriate-sized hole saw from the neighbour.

GMan created a hole in the desk and another in the divider under the desk so that we could feed the cables through to the power point.

This meant that we could set the equipment up on the desk with the power cords neatly tucked away rather than trailing over the front edge of the desk.

This is the view behind the monitor with the cables all tucked neatly out of sight.

Under the desk.

The other side of the divider.

The power board and cables are completely hidden by the shredder and bin of paper/cardboard to be shredded. I do this on a regular basis and add it to the compost. The covered item on the shelf above is the printer which we use very occasionally so we store it here when not in use.

We also finished sorting out the random piles which had collected on the desk and the addition of a shallow basket for paperwork that is ‘in progress’ or ‘to do’ keeps everything much tidier.

On the wall opposite the desk are these IKEA cupboards. Although they are not true built-ins they are attached to the wall and were here when we bought the house. It is great to be able to have our books behind the glass doors, mostly on view and accessible without gathering dust as they do on open shelving. One of the lower shelves stores stationery items.

I am happy with the result. Despite being quite compact (2m x 1.7m) it is now a much more useable space.