My kitchen has handles!

Check out mah handles! hehe I attached them:) They are GRIP handles from ikea and at a sweet $5 a pair how can you go wrong??
I picked them because they would not only be very neutral and simple but also because you can't really stuff up their installation... like i could with a handle on the front... I would probably make them all angley.. and not in a cool way...

With the grip handles I attached them using the width of a piece of sticky tape as my measurey guide, I then used my electric drill to put in some holes, using the actual handle as a guide and then screwed in the real screws... took me all of 10 minutes to do all 12 handles! yay! and so technical with my sticky tape... hehe

The new kitchen! Wellll almost...

My first before and during pics from our ghetto! Its not finished but close enough to give you a sneak peek:) here we go....

These pics show the kitchen as we walked in after the tenant of 7 years left! It needed a mega clean! Cigarette smoke stained ceiling, ingrained mould, lovely peely lino tiles and stiff with grease and oil curtains! Of course a lot of this went that night with some hard cleaning and curtain removal...

More recently the lino tiles were pulled up and replaced with some neutral bunnings tiles installed by lovely sister in law and instructional father in law! She now has a new skill... she doesn't know yet but she is going to teach me how to tile the laundry and toilet... hi Luey! Wanna play tiles??:) hehe Might be another pizza in it? hehe


The cabinets were also removed and yesterday we installed these new ones from the lagan IKEA range. Super bargain at half the cost of their more advertised Faktum range. Since we were going for white anyways to maximise the amount of light in a fairly dark room.... They were pretty easy to install, except when we hit the 60 year old hardwood frame... Can you see our makeshift loungeroom kitchen in the background? Convenient right?


Then this is tonight! Currently no handles... that is a job for tomorrow! And no bench tops.. that is a job for the professionals! Luckily we got them from the same IKEA range for a mega bargain.
The tiles will be padded out with similar tiles in the missing spaces and then all painted to match up. I also need to do a bit of a touch up on the paint job to fix up all the bits that are now uncovered and bright yellow...

But even though it is unfinished we are still super excited to put all our stuff in the clean, fresh cupboards and have a oven that doesn't turn off mid-cooking!

All up this renovation has cost us approximately $1500 and a large amount of hardwork! Yay for bargain renovations to fix up the rental! YAY!

Um excuse me...

But that is my pillow... And although you are a cute 2kg bunny and I am 6 foot 2 giant I would still like a little bit of pillow... Or even bed for that matter.. The general convention is parallel sleeping not at a 90 degree angle...
You can get away with it coz you are just so cute.

New Kitch!

This is what we moved in to this house with.... OBVIOUSLY in need of soooooo much work... not only in the cleaning stakes.. also the cupboard door stakes!! See that bottle of bleach? It got used... On the kitchen... still not clean.
Luckily the kitchen is now COMPLETELY gone! And today the floors are tiled (thanks Luey and Ron!) and the cupboards and oven are all ready to go in! YAY! Today! YAY! Of course it won't be finished today... Don't get too excited... But it will be a lot closer than this! hehe

Of course the weird ugly oil and filth coated curtain went away straight after this picture...

More ghetto fabulous!

More of my ghetto not yet fabulous... hehe this will be my future craftroom... there is Al cleaning the walls... good job Al! hehe They don't look like this anymore...

Al's nerd room! No those are not his Winnie the Pooh curtains... they are now gone too... hehe


Master bedroom... you can tell by the built in wardrobe with no doors... That is now a different colour and no weird blue curtains...

How nice is this bathroom... hehe hmmm.... it looks very similar to this still... although I am now the proud owner of a shower curtain... first ever...


Laundry/ Toilet! Dishwasher in laundry? For sure!

Developing a Green Thumb...

It's true. It's very strange. I have developed somewhat of a green thumb. Mum says it runs in the family... I don't know about this! I think you just want what you can't have! hehe because we are renting I can't really plant anything and the garden consists of some grasses and a fig tree and some palm type tree! And a lot of lovely decking and a shed and some gravel.

So I seem to have taken up putting stuff in pots and growing things! I have taken a few pictures because i am ridiculously excited about the lettuce, basil and coriander seeds i planted on Christmas day which are ALREADY coming out! The chives are a little slower and haven't come out....

Mixed Lettuce...
Basil...
Coriander (nerd al hates coriander!)

And my beautiful strawberries in their special hangy planter thingy... 9 plants. All still living.


I scored these baby tomato plants at the end of the year from school. The school where I teach has a farm where the kids learn about agriculture and horticulture. Someone didn't want their tomato plants so I got them!! I haven't replanted them yet.. but one is growing 3 tomatoes! YAY! They are supposed to be Roma tomatoes.


And my succulents:) My babies. These are some I have replanted in some vintage teacups!:)




And that is some of my garden!

The Summer Rental...

We have moved! We are out of our Mornington house and are now in our Safety Beach house. We will be here for only four months. Barely worth unpacking! But this is not true:) hehe I need to unpack my craft room. So I thought I would show you the craft room before I have unpacked it.. hopefully this will encourage me to finish unpacking and make it all pretty and stuff so I can take a lovely photo of it finished later! You can even see how the stuff it hanging out the door and edging down the hallway... only a matter of time till the stuff makes its way out to the dining room table...

And this is sad little Suki-la stuck outside the door gate... no carpet for lovely suki to chew on...