Now for the finishing touches

Well, the kitchen and bathroom renovations are finished apart from painting over a few scratches which were made when the cabinet makers had to come back and add something to the cabinets so that they went right to the wall as the painters couldn't get into the little space. The blinds were put up yesterday which was very timely as the kitchen faces the west and we are expecting 36C on Friday.

 

 Also yesterday the three aircon units were connected up so we have those to use when the heat really gets too bad for the oldies :-)

In this post I want to record the colours we used for the kitchen for future reference. I first saw the green tiles in Wendy's blog post My New Kitchen . I fell in love with them and looked high and low for something similar. The closest I could find were Johnson's Crisp Apple Gloss which aren't quite as dark as they look in the above photo as I used the 'foliage' setting. Seeing as these tiles are on three walls we went with a light colour for the cabinets which is 'Antique Wiluna White' with a gloss finish and 'Sand Pebble Natural Finish' for the bench.

The light green on the walls is 'Whipcord Green' from the Taubman's White and Neutrals range and the ceiling and window trims are an off white which I will have to ask the painter about regarding the colour. The green walls change colour depending on the time of day and we probably should have left it at half strength but when the painter was first putting it on the walls it just looked white although he did say it would get darker once it dried but I said just go to full strength. Anyhow it looks okay.

I realised that you learn a lot when doing renovations the first time.  I was out when the windows were being painted and when I came home noticed that the inside of the window now looked a bit shabby as the windows would have had to be removed to paint the inside section which would have been a huge job. We also had security windows installed and then I realised I should have cleaned the outside of the windows beforehand. Oops!

Some sections like this coffee nook are a work in progress while I decide what to put on the shelf under the cabinets.

Another work in progress is the pantry while I sort out how I want to store everything. While I would love to have all the bottles with pretty matching labels I know it is not going to happen in this household so have just written on the tops for the moment until I get more organised.

Another work in progress....what to put on these open shelves just inside the doorway.

 

The cabinets are quite high so I won't be able to reach the clock above them anymore to change the battery so at present it is perched on one of the shelves until I find one that will stand up.

The planks which everybody loves and so do I as they don't show the dirt...ha ha...are 'Chic Chevron' from the Imagine Masterpieces 'FAUS' range which are quite new apparently. They were the only ones the CEO liked so who was I to argue :-) I like anything that doesn't show the dirt.

 

A mistake we made was to order brown security windows for the whole house to match the front door which was already in place. As the CEO wanted to keep the old push out timber windows rather than replace them with aluminium ones, the screen had to go on the inside and the brown just looks dreadful so I am going to have it replaced with white. The blinds were installed in there yesterday as well so now it feels more comfortable having a shower rather than having to drape a towel over the windows :-)

The shower is really small but is designed so that we don't have a glass door or need a shower curtain. I used to keep my soap on a 'shower caddy' of sorts which hung from a hook in our old bathroom. There are no hooks in the new one and there really is nowhere to hang it so I am on the lookout for trays to put my handmade soap on so that it isn't sitting in water. We have some old plastic ones in use at present until I find something more suitable. If you intend to make your own soap you have to make sure it doesn't sit in water or else it will get soft as it doesn't have the preservatives in it that bought soap does.

As the bathroom is so small it was difficult to find room to put up towel racks so we had to compromise with a couple of hooks as well to hand towels on. The builder was able to fit in a rack for a towel and one for the bathmat. Just as well we are now empty nesters.

One of the CEO's friends twisted his arm to change all the doors so we now have a green front door which I love. However, this is the colour it was when it was picked up from Bunnings and is yet to be painted. Sob sob! I am wishing now that we had chosen green trims rather than dark blue as then I could have a green door. LOL!

The painter will be back at some stage to finish off the painting and then we will have a break from renovations and tradies being around. It has been very stressful especially on the days when there were a lot of different tradies in the house and the noise from the powertools was unbelievable. We are going to have some work done on the laundry next year and once that is done the floorcoverings in the back section of the house can be laid finally as they needed to be done years ago. After that, we will just put up with the paint peeling off in some of the rooms in the rest of the house until we have recovered. They haven't been painted for thirty years or so but we can't rush these things  :-)