It's been a couple of months since I've needed to update Casa Almora. The thing with renovating is that it is a long, detailed, tedious process (ha! Just like this blog) that requires a significant amount of commitment and time in order to achieve the final vision. And that's just planning. Still in the planning stages we are, but with each blog post you know we are moving forward to construction. At the pace we've been going lately there hasn't been anything new and exciting to share, and this is also due to my absence from the last handful of meetings due to my final exams. I get a vague low-down from my parents about the meetings I didn't go to but they're never in enough detail and sometimes frustrate me because I didn't get to provide my insight in key areas. Since I've finished Year 12, I have a lot more time on my hands and I was able to to go to last week's meeting.
We were told the finish date is likely to be in 12 months time. This time frame depends on so many details and could probably be achieved with quick decision making. Unfortunately the owners of this project (my parents) are not snap decision makers. Unlike me, my parents are still deciding what they love. I on the other hand know what style and aesthetic I like. Sadly this isn't my house so I can't give the final word on everything, but I definitely have a voice. We all want this house to be perfect so every decision is thought out, discussed, debated, rejected, accepted, rejected again basically until there is a mutual agreement by both my parents and the architects. (And me occasionally. *Smiles*).
The architects who have been working on our particular project have changed throughout the process. We've always had one of the directors and a junior designer. Now we have the second director of the firm and a more senior architect who is also the firm's most skilled in interior architecture. She is now the head of the project, and I hope she stays! This change makes sense considering we are designing the interior, prior to going to tender (hiring a builder).
We began the meeting discussing mine and my sister's wardrobes. As per usual, and as expected I would presume now, I produced my own designs for this. Luckily, the interior architect hadn't drawn up any plans for these two rooms. She asked me to explain my drawings and I did so happily. I really wanted to convey my desire for excessive storage and organisation. Like a lot of my designs, if I'm honest, it is probably quite elaborate. (I have shared these plans before but I have altered them slightly.) For example, I have a pull-out scarf rack ("A what?", you say.) Just a little shorter than a door, and only about 15cm wide, this feature is intended to comprise a number of rods that will be utilised as scarf hangers. Beyond this I included myriads of drawers rather than shelves because I don't like the exposed look and I want to be able to pull the storage out for convenience. There's a massive (70cm x 200cm) mirror which is a necessity in a wardrobe, really. I hope I have enough hanging space because I prefer to hang most of my clothes rather than fold them. There's about three wide shoe shelves that will be adjustable, and the top shelves which are out of human reach will be for (nice) boxes, or baskets. I specified thick shelf profiles of approximately 3cm because I want them to look substantial, and I also asked for crown mouldings atop all of the cabinetry. The interior architect thought it would look nicer without these because of the contemporary look of the extension with its clean lines, but I ultimately asked to keep them. (Don't fret, the extension is not intended to be, so hopefully will not be, overly contemporary. But it will be clean and simple.) I have a fireplace jut in my wardrobe and our plan is to plasterboard it so it won't be functional, but to perhaps cut out a shelf insert to make use of otherwise wasted space. We have to ask the builder's opinion on this however.
We proceeded to discuss the downstairs bathroom which is ultimately going to be used by my sister and I. The vanity was the main focus as it originally housed one sink and only a surface for storage. Not my idea of a bathroom vanity. So I changed it. Now it is designed to accommodate two vessel sinks (above counter sinks in order to catch splashes) along with drawers underneath, ideally two each for my sister and I. I said no to cupboards because that is what we have currently and they're not used because they're awkward to retrieve items from. The mirrors above the sinks are going to have built in storage behind them. Am I making my family sound like hoarders? Storage, storage, storage. Moving on from storage, the shower is going to have a skylight which is such a great addition because it actually improves the lighting in the bathroom dramatically. The architect wanted to confirm the glass panels on all of the walls in the bathroom. At this my jaw dropped. Who ever agreed to glass panels? If your style is favourable of coloured glass wall panels that is okay, but mine is not. My sister and I envision beautiful tiles on the floor and walls, installed in a customised pattern, with varied tiles to create borders on these areas. We want it to be interesting and probably unlike what most tile installations are today. I told the interior architect our inspiration was Sarah Richardson and she wrote her name down in order to research the look. My parents wanted the glass because of the minimal grout. They have trouble imagining things sometimes, and obviously an even harder time imagining this room with translucent glass panels. Thankfully the interior architect said tiles would be cheaper. Hallelujah. Now we're getting tiles.
In the powder room adjacent the bathroom a WC and sink will be comprised. The vanity is going to be covered in stone, probably Caesarstone, and have a full wall mirror. I looked at the vanity and thought, where is the toilet paper going? So I asked this question and the interior architect was sort of caught off guard and realised the feature vanity wasn't actually practical. But because everyone loved the vanity so much, we decided to move the WC along slightly (this powder rooms is quite generous) and install a cupboard beside it to store toilet paper, etc. It's going to have a sliding door and a lock, the latter at my request. The laundry across the hall is pretty standard, except it has three laundry baskets in pull-out drawers, and a massive wall of shelves above. The baskets are for blacks, whites, and colours. Isn't that pragmatic?
Floors were discussed briefly. We currently have baltic pine in the heritage part of the house which is very typical of Victorian cottages. It's in pretty good condition so it is probably going to stay, regrettably. I don't like the look of contrasting floor boards. It's so obvious that the front part of the house is heritage and the back is new. If we're going to install dark Tasmanian Oak floors, which is what my mum wants, then do it down the hallway and in the store room too! They're the only parts of the heritage house that will have exposed floorboards and are relatively small in square footage. If it is cohesive flooring, it will be a cohesive transition between the old and new, not an in-your-face stop-start transition. It doesn't need to be like that because it is already so obvious.
In the plans there is this weird space in the middle of the house. It's adjacent to the middle entrance (the entrance guests are supposed to use but probably won't because the heritage door at the front of the house is used as the front door at every other house and therefore will probably be commonly mistaken for the front door at our house. Makes sense?). We call it a study, but it's just "space". It has bookshelves and is probably just over a metre wide in all. Maybe we will put a small antique desk in there, except now the nook where I thought this was going to be has been filled with book shelves because their original position jutted out too much into the "space". I am all for the space, but I want it to have a function and fit a desk comfortably, i.e. move the shelves back to their old spot, just making them shallower.
Contrary to what I first thought, the kitchen is relatively large. So much so, the wall facing the living room isn't going to have overhead cupboards. In fact, no wall is. Initially this sounded ridiculous and annoying to me because I thought it would be nice to have glass overhead cabinetry for displaying the nice china or glassware. However this stuff can go in the built-in (or free-standing, TBD) buffet in the dining area. The said wall is designed to have a feature stone slab installed, such as Carrara marble. Marble is an absolute fortune and in some kitchens impractical as a preparation surface. It makes sense to use it as a feature, to make a statement on an otherwise bare wall, keep it in good condition, and then have plain counter tops in white Caesarstone. On the perpendicular wall, the west boundary wall to be specific, will be the double fridges, a tall cabinet, the sink and the dishwasher. It will be a long stretch of counter space, but not with overhead cabinets. Rather, the architect has put in a single shelf as long as the counter. I don't like this feature, mainly because it looks too industrial in the plans and reminiscent of a restaurant kitchen, hence industrial. That shelf will not stay tidy at all. At all. I think it's going to look messy and should be replaced with cabinets. Glass or not glass, just put in cabinets. The shelf looks cheap, honestly. Below the intended shelf is a metal splashback. My first thoughts were, "Boring, what happened to the tiles?" Then my mum told me it's pressed metal, not plain stainless steel which would have added to the industrial look no one specified as a requirement in the brief. Pressed metal would be pretty, hopefully not too busy or clashing with the marble. I think it should be marble, to carry on with the look on the other wall. It wouldn't need to be marble to the ceiling, just the height of a standard splashback. It would look, again, more cohesive. Shaker profile doors were not mentioned but they will be eventually. I was beginning to get anxious I was giving my opinion too often so I started to hold back. But I really wanted to give my two cents worth. I also wanted to ask for wooden joinery inside the drawers and cupboards because it looks more solid and better quality rather than engineered plastic. The stove top is going in the island. At the moment it's pushed to the side to create an asymmetrical look, and over the other side in the opposite corner a small breakfast bar is located. From the living room you see the asymmetry and I don't really like it. Maybe I would if I saw the renderings with the shaker profile doors. What is also really offensive (sorry not sorry) is the range hood. It's the blessed HVAC pipe again. But twice as many! A double HVAC pipe disguised as a range hood. It is so not pretty. My parents want a feature range hood over the island not a standard one. We like one from Elica that resembles a light fitting but it might not be strong enough, so we are still researching. But there is no way those two chimney pipe things are going in the kitchen. On the wall with marble feature there will be normal benches that will house the two wall ovens. These will be 60cm wide and placed side by side in the centre. I wonder if there should be two tall cabinets flanking this particular bench space or if it would look odd with the asymmetry in the island? I also need to bring up next time contrasting the island colour in ebony to the rest of the cabinets in white.
The living room will require a configuration of beams. One option is to have two of them jut down from the ceiling and run from boundary to boundary. This is the cheaper option. Or, at a small fortune, hide those beams, and only show a metre of them above the media unit / buffet / long stretch of kitchen bench wall. This option would have them run between the skylights also above this area. I like the latter option of course. It is more aesthetically pleasing. The first is okay, but it dictates where the furniture below goes because otherwise some pieces like the dining table or even the light above the table might seem off-centre if not place right in the middle of the beams.
The stairs are still open tread, but the spine is now either side of the treads, not hidden which would have ben really cool and also about $15k. So the more affordable solution is going to be installed. The architect played around with the gradient of the stairs, as one of my parents wants it to be a gradual incline up the stairs, not a steep, uphill hike. Except when it's the gradual gradient, the stair case is much longer and almost ramp-like. I'm not sure which gradient we will settle for. The balustrade is no longer a glass wall, it is just transparent (acceptable) glass panels at standard balustrade height with a rail on the wall. Hopefully the stairs will be made form the same wood as the floor boards.
In the upstairs living room and master bedroom the ceilings will be vaulted to give the impression of space. In both bathrooms the ceiling height is dropped to 2400mm or 2.4m or 40cm higher than a door. This doesn't bother me because it's a bathroom and I don't really have much more of a reason to give you. It's a bathroom. It's not a grand living room. Anyway it bothers my parents. Nothing can be done about it anyway, it was designed that way so the upstairs extension can't be seen from the street - a requirement of our local council. We're still playing around with the configuration of the ensuite bathroom upstairs because there is a cabinet in the middle of the room that seems awkwardly placed. I think it's unnecessary considering the bench space in that bathroom is long and there is like 2.5m of cupboards right outside the door for towels, etc. I'll inform you of its confirmed configuration.
The master bedroom's walk-in-robe is going to have a small pull-out ironing board. Isn't that cool? This was a request of my mum who is obsessed by ironing. It's rubbing off on me and the interior architect offered me one too. I don't know if I should say yes, though. If it doesn't take up too much space then sure.
There's still lots to go over. I have a list of things I want to bing up, such as the store room - I want to ask for my wrapping paper station but I'm scared I'll get laughed at or be told it's too extravagant even though I'm dead serious about it and believe it's totally practical. My parents didn't seem too opposed to the idea either. We have to confirm the windows in the upstairs living room and how far they open and a few other key areas that haven't been 100% refined but there was definite progress at this meeting. I really like our new duo of architects. Our interior architect was really good at moving things along, and offering different, practical ideas. I can't wait to go to next week's meeting - here's hoping it doesn't get changed - so that I can bring up those other points and maybe we will finish the interior design. What do you think?
Thanks for your loyalty everyone
XO
P.S. In an old post I said we have a fig tree out the front, but I have been instructed by my parents to correctly inform you it is actually a quince tree.
