Coming down the home straight

We're moving in at the weekend - I am SO excited! There has been loads of action up at the house this week: the floor finally dried enough for workmen to come in on Monday, and since then we've had people putting up the chandelier, touching up the internal painting, fitting shelves and hanging rails in the wardrobes and cleaning up. Officially the Council inspection happens tomorrow (Friday), after which we can move in as long as the Council's inspector gives us the all-clear. I've spoken to Warren about potential issues, but I hope there aren't any: Council has been checking the building process periodically anyway so one would think there won't be any surprises.





















This is the floor in darling daughter's bedroom. Everyone was so suspicious of an oiled finish (especially the flooring guy!), and yet when they see the final product they're amazed and impressed. Poor Phil may find himself having to become an expert in oiled finishes because Warren likes it so much he's decided to go for it himself!





















This is a view down from the bedroom end of the house all the way through to the TV room at the other end. Lovely! I really like the finish: it isn't really shiny, but it has brought out the natural grain of the wood. It is moppable, waterproof and reasonably stain resistant, and any scratches can be repaired with an oily rag.





















This is the island unit, complete with oven and gas cook top. And it's fabulous. The cupboard and drawer fronts are oiled Tasmanian Oak: a neutral veneer that will set off rather than compete with the completely MAD wood that will shortly be going on the big unit. See further down for more images!





















And THIS is our gorgeous chandelier. Weve talked about it for ages, and here it is, after almost 4 years swathed in bubblewrap in a crate! I hadn't realised the electricians were about to put it up or I would have made sure I cleaned and rewired the crystals beforehand... as it was, I spent a precarious hour up a very tall ladder, wiring in the crystals, washing and polishing them all individually, and changing the low-wattage CF bulbs. I want to move to LED bulbs but they're expensive at the moment and I actually had the replacement CF bulbs, so as and when they begin to give out I'll investigate the price of LED replacements again.

We owe thanks to our former friend Claire in Bristol, who gave us this chandelier when we bought our previous Victorian-era house in Redland, Bristol. She apparently found it at auction (?) or possibly an antique shop in the Cotswolds and for years hung it in her own place, but when she moved into a Georgian cottage with significantly lower ceilings she found it wasn't suitable and it spent a few years languishing in her attic before she gave it to us. Sadly our friendship hit the rocks a few years ago, despite the fact that she is darling daughter's one and only god(less) mother, and we haven't seen her for a while. But whenever we look at the chandelier we think kind thoughts of Claire, and miss her. Anyway, it was lovely to see the look on darling daughter's face this week when she saw it hung up: she was four years old when we moved back to Australia, and she's eight now. Even so, half her life away, she remembered the chandelier and is thrilled to see it again.
















The decorative brass chain is too short - goodness knows where the rest of it went! - but I've managed to find an exact reproduction from Antique Lamp Supplies in the USA and after a brief and effective email exchange (thank you Michael Barnes!) a 2 foot length is being shipped over by USP as we speak, and so the final position of the chandelier will be lower and it will become more of a visual feature in the room.

TALKING OF VISUAL FEATURES!!! THIS is the black-hearted Sassafrass veneer we're using on the big kitchen cupboards. Wow!
















Because I'm itching to have some idea of what the finished cupboards will be like I did a couple of mock-ups using some other photos I've taken of the kitchen as it progresses. They clearly won't give you a proper idea but I needed to imagine, so here they are, despite their numerous faults!




















The perspective is wrong, the colours probably aren't correct as the wood hasn't been oiled yet so we don't really know what it will look like but... the mock-ups do give me some idea, and we all love it!