For Kerry

This blog post is especially for my friend Kerry who asked if she could see a house walkthrough. 
Okay, let's start at the front door.  It still has the bright blue undercoat showing cos we are over painting for the moment.  Eventually that door will be 'Manor Red' which is a medium gloss dark reddy brown.  We haven't decided whether or not to paint those indented panels in a different colour or have the whole lot the same.

As you open the front door you are in the entry.  We have a copper sculpture thingy for on the wall that is still in a box somewhere, but we are also toying with the idea of putting a mirror on the wall here, to reflect the light coming in from the pretty glass door panels.

If you head left after the entry you will find yourself in our bedroom.  We also have the desk in here as the room is huge.  I am sitting at the desk writing this blog post right now.  I have some work to do on the quilt that is on our bed.  It is falling to pieces, particularly the borders that hang over the bed.  I am thinking I will cut the borders off and re-bind the quilt into a smaller lap quilt, as I do have a half finished quilt that would look great on the bed (yes Kerry, the Indian Orange Peel quilt!!).  It's on my list for completion this year.

 We are fortunate to have a really nice ensuite attached to our bedroom.  It is interesting that using only rainwater in our house, the shower glass stays a lot cleaner, yay, less cleaning!

 

 Ok, heading back into the entry and looking right, you can see the living area.  This is a large open plan area in the middle of the house, comprised of sitting area, meals area and the kitchen.  We are really liking having it all together rather than in separate rooms.

 Walking into the living area and looking to the right you see the sitting/tv area.  I took all these photos in the late afternoon and for about 2 hours we get direct sun coming in through these two windows.  Hence the need for curtains, but for now we are using old sheets.

 

 Heading left into the living area and looking towards the front of the house you can see the blending of meals and sitting.  All our walls are very bare at the moment as we haven't unpacked any wall art yet.  Looking forward to putting up some adornments on the walls.  The fire is just out of sight to the right of that bookcase.

 

 Looking from the sitting area towards the back of the house you can see the meals area with the kitchen off to the left. 

 

 From the meals area you look into the kitchen, which I still love the best of all the rooms in the house.  In fact everything in the house works well together, spacing wise and positioning.  Everything seems easy and within reach.

 

 Heading into the kitchen and looking slightly left you can see the walk-in pantry.  What a fabulous thing this is.  It is still in a somewhat chaotic state but amazing how much stuff can be fitted in here.  I have big baskets all around the walls at floor level which are great for home produce such as potatoes/pumpkins/onions etc, but also for keeping all those pesky plastic containers that disappear into the murky depths of cupboards.  Much easier to find plastics in a big open basket!  Behind the pantry door are four skinny shelves which is where we keep preserves and other stuff in jars.  Presently you would find pickled olives, pickled beetroot and pickled onions.  Next to the stove you can see the breadmaker, our trusty friend.  We use it about three times a week.

 

 In the kitchen, turning around to face the living area once again, you can see the meals area on the left, and fridge/freezer area.  The dog's bed is just around the corner from the fridge, right in the middle of the living area so she can lie there and view her domain.

 

 Walking through the living area, past the meals area on the left, we come to the hallway.

 

 First door on the left is the laundry.  The dog's night bed is on the floor, and the latest boxes of stuff to unpack are sitting on top of the drawers.  This is the darkest room in the house due to the solid door and small window, but I imagine it will lighten up when we paint the door white.

 

 Looking to the right of the laundry you can see the wall length line of cupboard doors.  There are three sliding doors concealing floor to ceiling shelves, which is just brilliant.  I love having a house with a decent amount of storage space!

 

 Back out to the hallway and heading into the first room on the right we find my sewing room.  There is a line of tall cupboards along the wall to the left, a sewing table in the far corner and my cupboard unit in the centre of the room.  Basically the unit is six little cupboards/drawers positioned in a 'u' shape with a melamine top on it, long enough to give a bit of an overhang at one end.  That's the end I sit at.  The top is fantastic for working with patchwork as I don't need to bend over and it is big enough to spread things out properly to cut and measure.  Those rolls of fabric on top are for making curtains, my next mission.

 

 Further into the sewing room you can see the sewing corner more clearly.  To the left of that I have a bookcase with all my craft books.  There is also a lot of crap in this room that we haven't found a home for yet, but it is tidy enough to get started with the curtains!  I am itching to hang some quilts on the walls in here!

 

 From the sewing table looking back towards the door, you can see the big cupboards where all my fabric and other stuff is stored. 

 

 Back out in the hallway and entering the second door on the left we find the loo.  Complete with psychedelic ceramic cow adorning the window ledge.  I will be happy when we have a bit of garden growing out the back, currently the wind blows all the dust and sand around and I keep finding it all over the top of the loo.  Amazing how much comes in through the tiny open part of the window actually.

Third door on the left is the main and guest bathroom.  This the bathroom that contains the bath, a new thing for us.  Love it. 

 

 Second and last room on the right is the guest bedroom.  You are seeing it warts and all as I haven't yet stripped the sheets from the bed after the last visitors left.  I should have done it before the photo but couldn't be stuffed.  :-) 

 

 Finally, the room at the end of the hall is the back bedroom.  There are two single beds in here plus we will store a bit of our stuff in the cupboards as well, leaving a couple of drawers for visitors.  Steve's tools are all over the chest of drawers as he had just put up a curtain rod for me.  This will be the first curtain I make, the prototype.  And maybe the wonky one, if I haven't measured properly, this will be my test case.  In the past I have always made curtains using the tape with the slots in it for the hooks to make the pleats, but this time I am having a go at making the pleats myself.  Watch this space...

 And to finish up, this is the view from the back bedroom down the hallway towards the living area.  Pepper is watching you from her bed.  There's the fire behind her to the left and the kitchen behind her to the right.

 So that's where we are at, this is our happy home that we love.  Still some boxes to unpack but we have done most of them.  The shed is an atrocious mess but Steve is working through it slowly, trying to work out where the workshop area will be, the beer brewing area will be, the garden area will be, and so on.  It all takes time, slowly does it.  :-)