A renovation update

Years ago there was a teacher at my boarding school that eventually went on to write a series of books about Australia at war.  The Tomorrow Series. In the first book Ellie (the narrator of the books) says that: 

"time spent in reconaissance is seldom wasted"

It is a quote that frequently pops into my mind, along with "touch it once" (but that is a post for another day).  If I remember correctly, Ellie names Napoleon as the source of the quote, who was probably referring to military type matters when he said it.  Nevertheless, to my mind it is perfect for renovating.  My number one renovating tip would be to do your research.  Take your time making decisions, think everything through and especially take the time to check references.  You are much less likely to make decisions that you might regret if you are not too hasty. This applies to everything from selecting tradesmen, to making decisions on fixtures, colour schemes and layout.

The colours that we have chosen are Dulux Oyster Linen for the weatherboards and Aspen Snow for the trims.  My sister in law is an interior designer and recommends painting a house a minimum of three colours to make it visually interesting and her suggestion for the roof is a neutral shade, complimenting the other colours you have chosen.  A neutral shade for the roof is probably a wise choice as it will need to work with any future exterior colours changes.   

For years I have been collecting pictures of  pretty Sydney weatherboard houses so I had a reasonably good idea of what colours we were going to use long ago. Even so we painted lots of sample colours onto the side of the house before comitting to a decision.

The front door is gloss black.  The door people were horrified that I was painting a cedar door black.   As a teenager though I lived in the States for a few years and really admired how much effort the Americans put into decorating their houses, in particular the seasonal decorations on porches.  A wreath looks stunning on a glossy black or red painted door.  I would have loved a red front door had we gone with a grey/white colour scheme but that had a more Paddo inner city style weatherboard feel to me rather than a beach house!

The new bathroom is now finished, hurrah!  All that we are waiting for is a mirror to hang over the vanity. This bathroom is fairly small so we were very careful with our use of the space and I am super happy with how it turned out.  I absolutely love the travertine floor!

 

Now we are fiddling about with this bathroom:

Yesterday we moved everything around in it a number of times using a chair as a toilet and blue painters tape to mark out the shower screen location.  We are doing a wet room area similar to the one that Jenna and Josh (from The Block) did in their ensuite, with the bath positioned behind the shower screen:

Image

We are now wondering whether or not to run a shelf all the way along the length of the wall.  Josh and Jenna stopped theirs at the shower screen, probably so they didn't need to have a kick in the glass but we are thinking of continuing the shelf all the way along.  I would love to hear what people think about this idea!  Does anyone have a shelf in their shower or one of those nook things, are they hard to clean?  Love to hear any thoughts/feedback regarding this!