Glass Basins for the Bathroom

My heart goes pitter patter every time I see glass basins in a bathroom I've always loved the look of them they've got that different edge and a real wow factor that I've been wanting for my house. So when it was time to pick the basins for the bathroom I thought bugger the practical white porcelain, I'm going for the glass basins and making my renovating dreams come true!

I found a fantastic local company called The Stone Super Store which have 100s of different glass basins in their showroom to choose from and I looked through their brochures and website a zillion times and visited the store twice before I picked one. It's called Sparkling Silver and has silver foil on the outside and crushed glass look on the inside. They are made from 20mm tempered glass so strong enough for every day use. Plus they look ah.mah.zing! What do you think?

We are having a double vanity which means we need to buy 2 of everything - we bought 2 of the sparkling silver bowls, plus the pop up waste and spacer (which allows it to sit up a bit so you can wipe under the bowl). We bought them home and had a bit of a play around to see how they would look on the bathroom vanity (which is in the midst of being made)

I'm so happy with them and feel like my renovating dreams are slowly coming true being able to have these amazing pieces in my home. They will be the hero of the bathroom ... you wait and see!

Stirling Silver Bowls $319 each - rrp $395

I saw them at another shop who I won't name and shame (unless you ask me to!) for $495!

Pop up silver waste $27.50 each

Silver spacer $25 each

Total $743

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Bathroom Renovation - Where's That Sand Coming From?

There is sand coming from my bathroom floor!

I had no idea that when I chipped through the floor tiles and sledgehammered through the layer of concrete that I'd be standing in sand and rubble. In the house. Sand. 

The house is covered in a fine layer of dust it's found it's way onto everything even the laptop keyboard feels dusty as I type this blog post. Oh the joys of renovating!

As you can see the bathroom demo is in full swing. I got all decked out in my trendy safety gear - glasses, gloves, ear muffs and got stuck in with my scraper and mallet.

All that banging was good to get out some pent up tension I tell ya, but it may have ruined my neighbors leisurely weekend nap as we were making a hell of a noise.

It took pretty much all day to demo - we turned the water off, closed off the taps, removed the old vanity and tap wear, chipped all the tiles off.

Then Mr P had some fun with some manly tools - a kick ass drill bit and sledgehammer. The shower alcove was chipped away and because its the wet area an extra layer of bricks came out with the shower recess.

Then the sledgehammer came out onto the bath to break the surrounding tiles and pull out the bricks and rubble holding the bath in place.

We couldn't get under the bath to undo the pipe so used a hacksaw to cut through the bath pipe.

My parents want the bath for the farm as a drinking trough for the horses - can you imagine a purple bath in the paddock that will be a funny sight.

All the rubble was taken outside bucket by bucket and once the rest is cleared I'll order a skip bin to have it all removed. 

So now that the demolition is done that's the hard part out of the way. 

Now I need to get my butt into gear and pick the tapwear - shower mixers and basin taps so that the plumber can come and do the plumbing this weekend .... yes tomorrow!

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[All image my own]

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Cheese and Bacon Muffins & Minestrone Soup

This weekend was really overcast and rainy so I thought I'd make one last pot of soup for the season before summer hits us. I made Donna Hay's Minestrone soup. I also made from my written book of favourite recipes my Mum's Cheese and Bacon Muffins. These muffins are always a hit with a bowl of hot soup ... enjoy! 

Mum's Cheese and Bacon Muffins

Makes 9 large muffins
10 minutes prep
20-25 minutes baking - unless you put extra cheese in them (like I do) then you'll need to cook for about 40 minutes and they'll be soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside .... delicious!

Donna Hay's Minestrone Soup

Serves 4-6

2 tsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 gloves garlic, sliced

1 carrot, chopped

1kg smoked ham hock

400g can peeled tomatoes

5 cups beef stock

1/4 cup small pasta, such as macaroni

150g broccoli, chopped (I put in 3 celery sticks, chopped instead)

100g green beans, chopped (I put in 1/2 cup frozen green peas instead)

310g can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

sea salt and cracked pepper

2 tbs chopped flat leaf parsley

Cook the oil, onion, garlic, carrot and celery in a large saucepan over medium heat for 5 minutes. Remove the skin and visible fat from the ham hock then add to the pan with the tomatoes and stock. Cover and simmer for 35 minutes Remove the hock, cut the ham from the bone and dice. Add to the pan with the pasta, beans, salt and pepper. Continue to simmer for 15 minutes. Add the frozen peas for 5 minutes. Stir through the parsley then ladle into bowls and serve with shaved parmesan cheese.

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My 1960s Retro Bathroom Beauty

Before I go all sledgehammer crazy I'd better show you some before shots of my 1960s purple retro bathroom beauty in all its glory ...

This is the only shot I have of the old vanity - it had a purple sink to match the purple bath fancy smancy with jarrah legs underneath and absolutely NO storage

We replaced the original vanity about 6 months after we moved in (and before I started this wee blog!) we were lucky enough to be given this small vanity by family who didn't need it anymore and it fit perfectly. We also changed all the plastic taps to some shiny new $30 ones. The new vanity has been great to get us through until we did the proper renovation and it gave a bit of storage but still not quite enough.

There is also storage above the vanity, a built in wall unit with sliding mirror doors but it's very narrow and not very tall so only really good for cosmetics and perfumes etc. We are going to convert this unit into the shower alcove where the shampoo, etc will go. Not exactly sure yet how we are going to do it but we'll work it out. The mirror is so high I can only just see my head so if I want to see anymore I have to stand on my tippy toes (yes I'm on tippy toes in this photo!). I'll be having a large mirror in the new bathroom so I can see from my shoulders upwards thanks very much!

Here's our little bath which admittedly never got used in the 2 years we have lived here. Our new design doesn't include a bath, not sure if we are making a big mistake not having a bath but hopefully the double shower makes up for it. I have no idea how we're going to sledgehammer our way through getting this bath out it's going to be pretty tricky I think.

The shower is 900x900 and our new shower will be 1740x1000 oh yes a vast improvement! We also changed the plastic taps and shower head in here with some shiny new ones for $60. It was the small changes that we made that made it a bit nicer for us until we go to this renovation stage. See that shower curtain? Well there will be NO shower curtain sticking to my butt in the new shower, it's glass shower screens all the way baby! 

The tiles with their crazy swirls and tiny floor mosaics which are impossible to get clean. You can see why I'm so excited about my new grey and metallic tile choices.

As you can see I haven't fought the purple, I thought it would be better to embrace it and buy a purple shower curtain, towels etc. I also love the lime green towels and accessories they add a bit of retro fun to the bathroom too.

So that's my retro bathroom before and I'll be sure to show you some durings and  in a few weeks time I'll be able to reveal my funky modern bathroom after. Most likely without a purple or green accessory in sight!

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Trio of Vases

Ikea's set of 3 vases that I've been eyeing off made they're way home with me on my latest Ikea shopping trip. The blue glass is such a striking colour they look gorgeous grouped together with some bright flowers in them.

Even though I'm in the midst of renovating and there is dust all through the house from the bathroom demo (I'll be sure to put some photos up soon). That doesn't stop me from wanting the rest of the house to still look nice and there's nothing like a bunch of bright flowers to lift the place up  :)

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You'll Never Guess ... Tile Picking

I made 3 decisions in 1 day, yes I know, it's a miracle! I've picked out ALL the tiles for the bathroom. These metallic feature tiles, grey floor tiles and white wall tile (just imagine the white colour chip is the white tile!)

It was actually a lot of fun I’d walk into a tile shop and make a mood board – grab a white tile, grab their feature mosaic tiles and floor tiles and see what would work. I never noticed before how much white really makes the other colours pop.

These are the glass mosaics (don't mind the cracks someones a bit clumsy and dropped them countless times!). You know I'm crazy about feature tiles and I want a metallic feature tile for the shower alcove (where the shampoo etc goes like I posted about here) and either a strip behind the vanity or on the side wall, I haven’t decided yet. I looked in a zillion shops for metallic mosaics and fell in love with these ones which ironically were the cheapest I found at $20 a sheet – compared to $63 a sheet which is what I thought I would have to pay so I was pretty pleased with that.

The floor tiles I picked 300x600 which are the extra large rectangle modern looking shape. I wanted a light grey colour to match in with the metallic mosaics. After running around with my little sample of mosaics (yes and dropping it a few times!) I finally found one that complimented it beautifully in a medium shade of grey with a white fleck through it for a bit of interest. They are porcelain tiles designed and made in Italy and just my luck were on sale for $47.50 per m2 (reduced from $72).

 

(Don't mind the kacky tiles underneath they will be ripped out this very weekend!)

The tiles for the walls I went for the same size as the floor 300x600 and opted for a bright gloss white. I was going to only tile in the shower area but have decided to tile everything now, floor to ceiling. I love how the white tiles reflect light around and I'm hoping they will make the room feel bigger. The white tiles are $29 per m2 but we are trying to get a better price.

Now we have picked the tiles we are getting quotes from tilers to lay and hope to book someone in before Christmas. Before the tiles are laid we have some work to do - lots and lots of work (I have a 2 page list of things to do in fact). This weekend I'll be busy shopping for the basins, mixers, shower grate, etc ready for the plumber who is booked in next weekend.

Oh and another thing, we also have to demo our bathroom, yes I'm talking some serious sledgehammer action is on the cards, ripping out all the tiles, the purple retro bath, shower recess, etc it is all coming out ready for the plumber. It will be a super busy weekend!

I hope everyone has a sledgehammering good weekend!

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My Pin Up Girl Art Is Up

Remember these retro pin up girl posters I bought a little while ago?

Well I've been carrying around a piece of paper cut the same size so I could find the right frame to suit them. What do you know Ikea came to the rescue, I bought these simple black frames with a white matt for $25 each. I also got to use my rent cheque and got $15 off which was a bonus.

The space above the tallboy is where they need to go as the big blank wall has been boring me for way too long. I decided to centre them on the wall, rather than centre above the tallboy (which is further to one side) and I'm happy with how they look hanging close together and taking centre stage. And the fourth one that was a little different, more seductive than cheeky pin up, is hung on the opposite wall near the door.

I'm so happy I finally have my own pin up art up and at a fraction of the cost of the ones that inspired me at the art gallery

Gallery Art $395 each Vs My DIY Art $33.20 each

Posters @ $11.95 x 4 = $47.80
Frames @ $25 x 4 = $100 - $15 Ikea cheque = $85
Total for 4 = $132.80

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