Material Girls

Where have the past six weeks gone?

We’ve been back in Chez Wayville that long: unpacking, building new routines or patterns in our new spaces and generally nesting.

The feature wallpaper wall has gone up – am thrilled with the results.

Wallpaper - Anna Spiro for Porter Paints Rosey Posey Trellis in Pink Ginger - spot the new blue and white lamp on the bedside table - waiting for a new shade.

Wallpaper - Anna Spiro for Porter Paints Rosey Posey Trellis in Pink Ginger - spot the new blue and white lamp on the bedside table - waiting for a new shade.

All while waiting for our new furniture. Emails from Cult Living this week say the kitchen stools and two of our dining chairs will be here next Tuesday/Wednesday. Yay.

I also got to test out the foam for our new sofa during the week during a visit to the upholsterers. Exciting

Meanwhile, Christine and I have looked at dozens of fabric samples to narrow down our choices for cushions for the bench seat and sofa. To be honest, Christine has done all the leg work or searching and I got to pick from her curated results.

This is what we’ve chosen.

Week #3: Getting down and dirty, Muuto and a Scandi find

A slow start but by week’s end there was a lot of PVC.

First though, Matt our site supervisor sent me a photo of a digger inside our little house excavating for the re-routing the pipework.

Excavating for the new laundry.

Excavating for the new laundry.

It was a tad shocking to see such a large piece of equipment at work inside Chez Wayville. It was invasive but necessary.

It seems a slow start but all the plumbing has been done for the new bathrooms and laundry. Yay.

New ensuite.

New ensuite.

New pipework in the laundry and main bathroom.

New pipework in the laundry and main bathroom.

Meanwhile, Monsieur D and I came back to retrieve the fridge, TV, sofa and arm chair, beds and other assorted bits and pieces – like our pantry goods, kitchenware, laundry items – and moved into our new temporary home. They've been locked away behind one of those boarded up doors you can see in the image above.

For the next 20 or so weeks we’re living around the corner from Chez Wayville, which is incredibly handy and lucky. Between us this is our fourth address in Wayville, we’ve only ever moved about 300m-400m. Creatures of habitat.

We worked non-stop from 10am to 6pm even though we move the bare minimum. Dreading the move back.


Two steps forward one step back with our fittings choices this week. We’ve (that’s Christine and me) have settled on the kitchen pendants.

This will give a clue to the part of the kitchen colour-way.

Muuto Unfold Pendant in Grey

Muuto Unfold Pendant in Grey

Muuto is a Scandanavian design company and we have liked a few of their designs, particularly an oak dining table.  The Unfold Pendant is actually made of rubber! However a stockist in Sydney put us off Muuto's furniture after telling Christine they'd had a lot returns; wooden furniture routinely arrived chipped. That's triggered a rethink, except for these lights. This pic from Surrounding, an Australian design website, shows them in use:

 

Christine also found some ideal pendants to hang over the dining area. They're Danish by the design outfit Frandsen. Apparently they're sold out. Fingers-crossed she can negotiate a re-supply. I love them.

Frandsen Kobe Smoke Glass and Copper Pendant Lamp

Frandsen Kobe Smoke Glass and Copper Pendant Lamp

Here's what the Australian website Design Stuff says about Frandsen: "The Danish company Frandsen Lighting has been designing and making lamps since 1968. The collections interpret the best of Scandinavian lighting aesthetics and signal quality and taste with key emphasis on design and quality."

Roll on next week.

  

Week #2: Shock and awe plus 6cm worth of trouble with Australia Post

So everything but the bedrooms, study and entrance hall has been gutted.

Even though you know what’s coming , it’s still a surprise to see your interior completely exfoliated.

Looking towards the front of the house - main bathroom and old atrium gone.

Looking towards the front of the house - main bathroom and old atrium gone.

By week’s end new pipework for the ensuite has gone in, and a trench dug in the kitchen to relocate its wet area. An alternate plan has also been found to resolve a nasty sewerage issue that emerged just days before our start date.  It won’t be any cheaper but will involve less disruptive work.

Kitchen and former laundry gone.

Kitchen and former laundry gone.

Chez Wayville dates to 1920 and we still had some original earthenware pipes apparently. These have to be replaced with PVC. Instead of having to pull down fences and excavate externally, disrupting the neighbour’s build, they’ll now be replaced under the original slab. The new main bathroom and laundry pipework will be connected to the PVC put in when the previous owners built our extension in the 1990s.

Digging down to replace the pipework for the new bathroom and laundry

Digging down to replace the pipework for the new bathroom and laundry

A pipe specialist with a camera on the end of a probe was brought in to trace the pipe network. Wish I’d been there to see that.

So, we’re slightly behind after two weeks; footings should have been laid for the new bathrooms and laundry but I’m told they’ll be a cracking pace this coming week.

Meanwhile, this stunning mirror for the main bathroom is languishing in an Australia Post mail centre in Portland, Oregon. All because of 6cm.

The Ojai mirror was found by my sister Christine on a US homewares website Serena & Lily. It’s absolutely perfect for the new main bathroom. And it was a reasonable price. Unfortunately they didn’t ship to Australia.

So I decided to give Australia Post’s new US postal service ShopMate a go.

It’s free to register and you get a US address. I previously belonged to myus.com – wish I hadn’t cancelled my subscription now.

It’s a mirror – it’s not a table or sofa or something large, I never dreamed there would be an issue. It’s under Australia Post’s ShopMate weight limit by 2kg (including the extra weight from the packaging) but apparently it exceeds the length limit of 105cm by 6cm.

Australia Post’s options are: throw it away and charge me $5; I arrange return to sender (as in online seller) and charge me $5; or I make alternative arrangements. The latter is what I’m attempting to do. FedEx quoted me $950. I said no thank you. I’ll update next week how the freight fiasco is going.

Meanwhile, a second attempt at using ShopMate worked for these cute handles for the main bathroom vanity.

They’re from another US retailer Hickory Hardware. They only cost $27 to ship to Australia. Maybe I was a bit harsh when I filled out the Australia Post customer service survey based on my mirror experience.

Postscript: Christine tells me she's ordered these door handles for the vanity as well - and she's still waiting for them to arrive.

They have to be dipped to match the bamboo draw handles. I'm thinking tybuy.com is starting to sound like a bit of a dodgy site. Hope not because they are gorgeous.

Are you getting a feel for theme in the main bathroom yet?