Monday, August 29, 2011
The weekend...
Monday, May 30, 2011
A nocturnal visitor
Monday, May 23, 2011
The renovation so far.....
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Exterior/Street Front Inspiration for Chez Pirate
Monday, November 29, 2010
Swimming Pool Update and a visit to Abode Bazaar
We have had a rather industrious weekend at Pirate HQ. My parents have been up visiting, which has been lovely as R and I were able to complete various tasks around the house. Often a challenge when small children are "helping" or feeling needy, so it was fabulous to have some extra pairs of hands! One of the main jobs on my to do list was to source some pots similar to the one above. My mission was unsuccessful unfortunately, however at Abode Bazaar in Willoughby (one of my favourites!) I found some other lovely pots that I decided were perfect anyway!
This is one of the new Abode pots with a lovely Bromeliad in it, I so love the aged, stone effect of the pots. They remind me of the gardens in India for some reason. Whereas, my blue and white china pot makes me think of KL and Singaporean gardens ( that particular pot was purchased years ago when we were on posting in KL though.):
In this photo you can see the pile of stone that was delivered. They then stuck each piece of stone onto the cement sheeting, fitting the pieces together like a puzzle. The more random the better it looked we decided!
My Dad hard at work,(R is cracking the whip somewhere in the background!):
The end result! (Ignore garden and pool furniture for now, still working on those parts...). Although, you can admire the lovely new glass pool fence!:
Thursday, November 25, 2010
The Apprentice
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
The Garden
The "exam tree" in bloom! Aaaaaahhhh!!! Image is from here:
The rest of the garden is looking fabulous as well! I recently read (I think in House and Garden) that for every $1000 you spend on plants for the garden, the value of the house can increase by up to $5000! My planned New Years Resolution preventing future nursery purchases might be unnecessary, I am investing in the property!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Mayhem Chez Pirates!
Incident 1. The Snake
The Captain announced calmly to me from the french doors that lead out into the garden, "Mummy, there is a snake in the garden" the calmness of this statement threw me and I ignored him! In my defence, I was thinking to myself that it must be a stick he is looking at. A second, more urgent sounding "Mummy, there is a snake in the garden" got my attention though and I got up to have a look.
"Get inside the house and shut all the doors and windows!" I screeched, grabbing the phone to call husband and seek his advice on what to do. Of course he was in Melbourne playing golf. Admittedly and in his defence, it was a charity match raising money for Ronald McDonald House, however at that point in time I was outraged that he was not at my beck and call. He suggested I ring WIRES. They were very helpful and identified the snake as a non-venomous tree snake! Phew!
Incident 2. The demise of the Dishwasher
Out of frustration and to punish husband for his neglectful absence in my time of need I went and bought myself a shiny new Miele dishwasher and to go with it a lovely new Miele oven. Well, it was on special and that never happens with Miele. Plus, our stove top is Miele, so now everything matches and looks lovely!
Incident 3. The Power Failure
Tree-loppers across the road in their attempt to remove some Bangalow Palms managed to accidentally knock down a giant Strezlitzia straight onto the power lines! No power for hours, this was merely inconvenient compared to incident 4 though.
Incident 4. The Wardrobe Malfunction
I left the house at half-past eight and dropped the Captain off at pre-school. Then with the baby went to do the shopping, pottered around Spotlight buying party items, had a coffee and some lunch and then visited several of my favourite junk shops. During the course of the day I chatted with numerous people, but it was not until half-past two when I went to collect the Captain from school, that one of the other lovely Mums sidled up to me and whispered in my ear, "Emma, your dress is on inside out!" I was mortified! I have decided to blame R for this incident. If he had been at home he might have perhaps noticed such a significant wardrobe malfunction. Also I might not have been so distracted (see incidents one, two and three).
Thankfully, throughout the mayhem, my two little pirates were angels... thank you boys!
P.S. I love my new oven and dishwasher and it made walking around the northern beaches with my frock on inside out all better, admittedly some rather extravagant retail therapy though!
Monday, September 20, 2010
The swimming pool renovation begins!
Cleaning the interior with acid! I relocated the boys to the chatterbean (little one can't say trampoline!) for this part:
These are the waterline tiles that we have chosen. We really wanted to use a darker tile colour, however as we are on the northern beaches of Sydney and the odd funnel-web does turn up in swimming pools here (eek!), the pool company STRONGLY recommended that we stick to a light interior and a light tile. They then proceeded to show me pictures of funnel-webs in pools and how much easier they are to spot in a pale pool interior. After researching funnel-webs and their lengthy lifespan under water (an alarming 5 days) and chatting to the neighbour, "oh yes that's right, the former owner was bitten by a funnel-web in the pool!" (what!? eek!!), we decided to follow the pool company's advice.
The new sandstone coping for the pool edge:
Now the dilemma... I have always adored swimming pools that are part of the lawn.
Image: http://www.gotgeoint.com/
Image: http://www.luxurypools.com/
Am I crazy? Will half the lawn end up in the pool? Should we deck the entire area inside the pool fence?
Image: http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/
Image: http://www.ajsmith.uk.com/
Or a bit of both? Decking around part of the pool? Where the sunloungers will be and where the steps into the pool are located?
Image: http://www.topdeck.uk.com/
Love to hear any tips or recommendations!