Black & White Delight

Well it delights me anyway!  

Credit to - Lotta Agaton (love her!)

I have a thing at the moment for browsing on-line at German Company Car Moebel as well as having just discovered the delights of TineKHome and Day Birger et Mikkelsen, my wish list is obscene friends...here's a sneak....

Love the black peg rail from car moebel

the b&w crockery from TineKHome

Love everything TineKHome!

Cushions by Day

Desk - Car Moebel

I'm really into the white painted floor boards too in these images...alas I'm fighting a losing battle with Mr C over white floor boards in the Conlon House, just can't convince him of their total desirability , he's adamant that they are just not practical...even with my compromise of having them fitted upstairs only!!  

Til tomorrow...Mrs C x


PS  see HERE for a great Day Birger post from Home Shopping Spy

U Turn

Image - Lotta Agaton 

Have made a quick about turn on bathroom tiling after learning the lesson that less is most definitely more when you're dealing with pebble tiles!!


Where I was contemplating pebbles in other bathrooms I've made a quick switch to a brick bone mosaic tile.  

something along the lines of....

I'm finding all the tile choosing to be my least favourite bit of the whole house build so far. I suppose I'm taking another leap in choosing this 'broken down' brick bone mosaic tile over something a little more traditional and safe, like this one here....

Trouble is I'm not a huge fan of bathroom tiles full stop, but as all my bathrooms are in theory wet rooms (there are no shower trays or glass panels), tiles without any shadow of doubt become a main feature!


So even though I know that I may be leaving myself a tad exposed to the potential of these brick bone tiles turning out a little "Barney Rubble" my decision is made.  Taking into consideration lessons learned, I'll be using these a little less liberally and keeping my fingers crossed!!

pebble tiles are.....

"a pain in the ass" 
(if you'd ask Johnny the tiler) and I tend to agree!  They have been a right pain to install and on top of that I'm just not keen, there needs to be a bit of strategic removal for sure!

it all started off so well

The first few pebble tile sheets went on and it was smiles all round....I walked off happy at this point that pebble tiles were most definitely the way to go!

Trying to get the right amount of grout was tricky...too little and you can see the joins....too much and it hides the pebbles.  Our current issue is finding the right sealer.   The one I purchased (gallons of) is too matt.  We need to find a suitable alternative that will give the pebbles a slight sheen.....answers on a postcard (ok gmail) please if anyone out there in blog land has any recommendations


This is roughly where we are at right now....the word "Flinstones" keeps on passing through my mind, no matter how much I try to replace it with the word "Spa".  I'm hoping they will grow on me, I'm reserving my final judgement on whether 'pebble tiles must go' til I see the finished article, when the fittings are in and the walls and ceiling are painted white. 

I should point out here that it's just the one wall of pebble tiles, everywhere else is going to a plain white painted finish.

luckily I'm happy with the flooring (huge sigh of relief there!).   

Just as well really as the en-suites in my older girls bedrooms have this floor tile and tiling has started in there already...more pics to follow soon!


I've decided to carry on blogging regardless of my paranoia after the attempted break-in on site!!


Don't forget...any tips on a good sealer for the pebble tiles...drop me a line, Mrs C xx

**update** 

Ok so now I'm looking at these tiles and definitely feeling the Fred & Wilma vibe...definitely O.D'd on the pebbles!!  need to have a quick re-assess of the situation, some strategic pebble removal needed me now knows for sure!!

My Sixth.....

Love 

this picture

it will be forever a reminder of

How lucky I am

How hard I have worked

How beautiful my girls are

The sun does shine (if you're lucky) in Ireland

How we must try to restore the hedgerows we have destroyed!!

Thanks to Erica over at Moth Design for tagging me in her latest post, to join in I needed to look back to find the sixth picture I ever posted on my blog (didn't have to wade through too much as I'm still so new to blogging and quite sporadic in my posting!)......

Erica....not quite as glam as your "bar cart in the bathroom" but a very sentimental one for me!!

attempted break-in

Hasn't been the best of weeks :-((


Have been really feeling the strain this past week of house build + 3 kids + husband away for 3 weeks (he made it back yesterday despite of volcanic ash fall out....relief!) only to find out today that there was an attempted break-in at the new house last night!

An attempt was made to start up the JCB...they smashed their way in as you can see from the photo but luckily failed in their attempts to steal or vandalise anything.  Not a lot we can do really, just hope that this was their first and last attempt.


This left a nasty little taste in my mouth and has put me off  blogging about exactly what's going on and going in at the house, don't want this blog to become an advertisment for every would be crook in the neighbourhood.....paranoia setting in now!!

Mmmmm Eve's Room I'm thinking.....

This is Eve

{she is 5 and she's littlest sister}

This is Eve in her new room

 some ideas for Eve's Room

We already have the colourful gypsy chandelier, it was purchased last summer {more ebay - love it!} I really can't say who's more excited at the thought of it coming out of it's box soon....Eve or me!

I've been on the look out and scouting round for ages to find some fun and bright bedding to complement Eve's chandelier {and that doesn't cost the earth}.  I did see some things I liked at Vertbaudet but find it really annoying that they don't/won't deliver to Ireland.

However...da da da da daaaa...Zara to the rescue!! Delighted to find out that there is a Zara Home....it's on line....there's lots of things I like....for a fairly reasonable price....and they deliver to Ireland {not the cheapest delivery rates I may add, but free if you spend 200euro or more}

I Like this

this

and this

this

this

and these

 so does Eve!!

girls about the house....

Took the girls for a quick snoop round their new house on Saturday afternoon.

Our visit was cut very short as we came across an unexpected visitor who scared the life out of us...... a {HUGE} blackbird!! Can only think that he must have got in down a chimney, poor thing.  

Anyway, there was a moment or two of slight hysteria, we are not a family who likes big flapping birds in confined spaces!! As you can imagine, no one wanted to hang around for long after the discovery, so here goes with some quick snaps from my camera phone..... 

Eve in our family room (open plan from kitchen)

This was taken around 5pm at the beginning of April, so I'm hopeful this will always be a light filled room {even with a dark floor}.

This is Orla at the other end of the same room, standing right in front of where our tv will go.

I'm going to run low level wall to wall drawer units under the tv {these will be the same style and colour as those in my kitchen}.  These units will disguise the paraphernalia that goes with TV's and will also be a place to hide the kids bits & bobs.

Girls in front of the fireplace.

 

I have been in love with this Altanta Bartlett fireplace for the longest time. This was most definitely the inspiration behind the big inglenook fireplace space in our family room above.  

Think I tore this out of a copy of Living etc magazine, way back when I used to rip out pages for reference {I'm laughing 'cause I can even see a little black arrow that I've drawn in at the top....!!}

This is the stove that will go into my nook - it's a Stratford TF90B boiler stove.

we saw signs that second fix had begun.....

Amelia not looking impressed enough at our 

walk-in pantry!

 ducting for my 

island extractor

the ducting has been in place since the concrete floors were poured {back end of last summer!}  I was 100% sure that I wanted a down draft extractor and not a ceiling mounted contraption {sorry they are a pet hate of mine}. 

 I've just ordered an extractor like this

 from De Dietrich 

Will Leave you today with a parting shot of where my kitchen office will go...

There does seems to be a bit of debating going on out there in "blog world" about the need for these in kitchens.  For me undoubtedly 100% the right decision....

Image: MarthaStewart.com via In My House Design

and hey if it's good enough for Martha, well then I'm in good company!

Image via Lotta Agaton

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog this week

and to my new followers...yay I have followers!!

hope you all have a great week-end

xoxox

Can you tell the difference?

Right, need to make a decision pronto on my light fittings (this week just the downlights...thank goodness).  Choice is between

Deep - Wever & Ducre

and






Deep Ringo - Deltalight

The positions of the downlights are already decided upon (phew...ticked that job of the list a while ago).  Just need to make a final call which light to go for....have narrowed it down to two options....ahhh why am I finding it so difficult to decided between the two....THEY ARE SO SIMILAR!!! 

Can you tell the difference?? Even their names are almost the same!  The main albeit small difference is that the Deep Ringo from Deltalight, is ever so slightly more recessed into the ceiling than the Deep from Wever & Ducre.

the look I'm attemping to achieve

found this image on splendidwillow.com - well worth a look at the rest of the house, if you haven't already!

Slightly off topic....I also loved this

Love everything about this room ....nothing I could possibly imagine embellishing on here.  


The one element that did catch my eye in particular was the quirky access to the guest bedroom (your guests would have to be agile wouldn't they?!)  Said bedroom is actually  a little loft that you access by using the ladder.


My older two kids  have a sleep deck similar to this in their bedrooms....Mr C is having kittens about how high up they are and how safe ladder access like this will be.....if it's good enough for this dream home...well.....Mr C I hope you read this!!

Tomorrow there'll be tiles....

Bathroom tiles have arrived on site, and tomorrow "tiling out" commences.  I have a morning meeting down at the house with Johnny, who'll be in charge of ALL the tiling (so he'll be kept busy for a good while!) Not looking forward at all to the early start (and with kids in tow).

Can't wait for July

We'll be moved in

Only 12 or so weeks to go 

SO MUCH TO DO BEFORE THEN

** keep reminding myself that this is good busy and good stress ** 

Black & White Delight

Well here's me wondering why I seem to have such a strong passion for Black & White........??

Newcastle United celebrating their 

promotion back to The Premiership

Monday 5th April 2010

The answer then became crystal clear....I was born into it!  Absolutely thrilled that there will be premiership football back in Toon soon.


And just in case I was in need of any further convincing of my passion for a bit of Black & White, I came across these today on Purplearea

and these on Apartmenttherapy