Cabin progress

I WAS going to wait until it was done to show you, but I know me and that date will be somewhere in 2012. So. Here is the knock-down and rebuilt step-by-messy-step. All the tradies are done – it’s just up to us to finish painting and then we can move all our stuff in. Slight change in plans: it’s now going to be predominantly my office and a playroom for the kids so we can (try to) keep the living room toy-free. In our heads, it’s the perfect idea. In reality, I’m sure we’ll still be stepping on Lego men and pencils, but we’ll give it a go. My moodboard is irrevelant now, but not to worry!

We’ve actually finished painting the exterior and have undercoated the main inside room’s walls and floor (yay – it’s white!) and painted the ceiling. All the trims and the laundry/bathroom walls and ceilings have barely been touched but we’ll get there one day. Here we go!

BEFORE, obviously. hopefully obviously!

INSIDE BEFORE: there are no words… just to be clear: we have not touched this space since we bought the house 6.5 years ago – we just threw our junk in there and that was it. so none of this is our, ahem, “work”. I can’t find pics of the other side – there are about three different types of tiles and a huge “floating” shelf that is too large and is therefore not floating, but falling… In the corner there is a sink but there was no plumbing and more tiles and wallpaper and several different types of panelling. Because all of that is needed in such a space apparently!!!!!!

 bye bye crappy cabin. how’s that for an outhouse?!

clear! the backyard is actually quite large. but not for lo-ong…

frame goes up. and layla does some site inspecting in her finest clothes(!). the fence is even smaller than before thanks to the deck. we need to extend it. it’d be nice to replace it totally but i don’t think that’s going to happen for a while. for now we’ll have to hide it somehow…

the cabin gets a hat and a wrap: insulating paper or something and then weatherboard a little way up the walls, just like the main house.

We got windows! And bench seats! And finished walls!

After the plasterers have worked their magic. Is that the tiniest cornice ever?! Door to left goes to loo/laundry. Door to right in cupboard.

The other side

Bathroom tiled and laundry cabinets fitted. It’s actually an IKEA kitchen.

We replaced our old back door with a new glass one – now all our major doors are the same. I can’t tell you how much of a difference this door has made to the inside.

Are you bored yet?!?!?!!

French doors leading inside. And the bench seats – these have been used to death already. One half of this side and one third of the other side are hinged so we can store stuff inside like plastic containers or those vacuum bags – anything air tight in case the water drizzles in.

And somehow I managed to skip a few steps and have no more images until yesterday when I undercoated the floor. I should have continued with the walls but was too keen to see what white floors looked like!! I’ve since spak-filled the nail holes and it’s ready for another coat tomorrow. I sort of feel like I’m in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory when I’m in here – you know that white room they go in?! (I haven’t seen the Johnny Depp version so no clue if they did that scene). But I totally get what Anna at Door16 meant when she painted her office floor white and just wanted to leave the space empty. It has that kind of feel about it – it’s like a studio and you want to leave it clean and white and empty so you can get in there and create something new every time. But of course we didn’t pay a good chunk of money to have an empty room, so that’s not  going to happen…

 And finally… this is a sneak peek at my latest project. I’m transforming this kids set – paint will be used but so will other secret-squirrel ingredients and items. I’ll show you once I’m done, of course. So far, the kids are thrilled… So, back to the paint: guess what colour?