Removing the unwanted wood heater

Vale wood heater. It was nice knowing you, even though we never used you during winter. You were like the elephant in the room...taking up too much valuable space. We never took any photographs of you when you became ours because we never thought you worthy...sadly, unloved

For the few cold nights we have in sub-tropical Brisbane we were prepared to sacrifice cosy warmth for more useable room. 

A shot of the wood heater when the house was with the previous owners

A couple of weeks ago we hired a plumber to remove the heater and repair the inevitable hole in the roof. It only took about an hour or so for it to be done. Afterwards, a few days of rain assured us the plumber did a good job because we were leak-free!

Wood heater-free living space. You can see the maple board on the right.

Our next dilemma is to repair the hole in the Queensland maple ceiling. Finding aged maple rotary cut plywood to match the rest of the ceiling is a problem.

The solution we came up with, with our builder, was to re-purpose some old maple wood doors from the old kitchen cupboards which had been stored under the house. Fortunately the previous owners had kept the old overhead cupboards in the garage and they are a close enough match to work

Our builder has fabricated two old doors into one board which he will use to repair the ceiling. You will still be able to tell there was a repair to the ceiling, but that's fine. It all forms part of the history of the house as it evolves.

Removing the wood heater will provide us with more flexibility in our living and dining areas. That is always a good thing.

Rearranging the op-shop art

We like a good faff on the weekend at the Sow's Ear, where we just potter about without too many pressures. We spent some of our time rearranging the art work.

Earlier in the week I made the annual pilgrimage to Ipswich to visit Jo from Desire to Inspire with my mates Katherine and Carmel. It's our chance to catch up with the guru of online interiors, to check out Jo's spectacular home and to assist in emptying some of her full cupboards.

Jo's been my number one supplier (enabler) of vintage goods for the past three years - God bless her generous hoarding soul! I was the lucky recipient of a few art glass pieces and other goodies which I will show you another time. Thanks a million Jo!

Here's a shot of Jo's amazing home office

This is Jo's master bedroom which is simply, darkly exquisite.
Sorry for the poor iphone quality

This year, Jo passed on a couple of thrifted art pieces which she bought mostly for the frames (she's also an artist and uses reclaimed frames for her art works). I thought they were great as is and have hung them in the dining room. (And Susan do not roll your eyes at my 'art'! Ha!)

The new piece is on the right- a landscape in some psychedelic colours. I like an eclectic mix on the wall - vintage 1970s art print, last supper carving and an acrylic landscape...

The still life below is the other new acquisition. We can't figure out what the green thing is...the kids reckon it's a lettuce...I think it might be a cabbage. What do you reckon?

We also hung the op-shop Sibley lithograph in the lounge room (read about it here). This room is looking so much nicer with the restored Wegner daybed and the DQF viking chairs. There are a few things which need tweaking ...like new lamp shade, coffee table etc...but there's no rush for now...

the Sibley is the framed piece on the right

 p.s Thanks so much for all your lovely comments about our 4th blogging anniversary. xx 

Murano chandelier...third time lucky?

Okay, deep breath. Typing this blog post has probably just jinxed the newly installed Murano chandelier in the dining room...

You see, this chandelier installation caper has been plagued with issues for the past 12 months. If you are new to this blog, you may not know that the first attempt was aborted because Carlo the electrician said there were no earth wires and the metal chandelier could become live if it was installed. Read about it here. I suppose, it was probably a good thing to find out.

The second attempt was a few months later after we had the lights earthed (this was a biggish job which meant taking the flat roof off the sunroom). Wazza the electrician, Carlo's colleague, was in charge that day and he installed the chandelier. It was just gorgeous. However, within 36 hours the chandelier crashed down with spectacular effect while I was seated at the dining table. WAZZA!!

You can read about it here. It is actually one of the funniest posts with the funniest comments. Fortunately I have a sense of humour. Jason, not so much.

Carlo and Wazza were utterly mortified when they heard what had happened and were extremely apologetic, offering to reinstall the light and pay for the broken crystals. I really didn't have the heart to be a bitch about the whole thing - it wasn't like they wanted it to fall. They have always done a good job for us with all our other electrical jobs at the Sow's Ear too. All I can say is accidents do happen.

Anyway, the chandelier had me completely spooked and I was debating (with my inner self) to abandon the whole chandelier business and find a less complicated light or something Danish. I let it rest for a few months until my courage returned.

And return it did (sorry to Anonymous Natalie who thinks this light is fugly). Carlo came back yesterday to hook up the chandelier. He was determined to make this attempt a success. I asked him if he was sure it would definitely hold this time around.

 "She'll be right," Carlo said confidently.

I retorted: "That's what Wazza said!"

Retro chandelier with Murano dragon's tears crystals

Look at the lovely shadow it casts on the ceiling.

The chandelier has been up for over 24 hours and so far, so good, as I cross myself.  Every so often, I glance at it tentatively; it makes me so nervous. If it falls, there won't be a fourth attempt.

Retro Murano Chandelier Restoration

If you don't already know, I am the proud owner of a retro Murano chandelier - a present to myself for our first year in the house.

The chandelier was in a sorry state when I picked it up and a quick trip to a chandelier restorer was what was needed.

On the weekend, I packed it into the car and took it to Chandelier Restorations in West End. What a fabulous place! This restorer specialises in Georgian style chandeliers (wow! divine) but was extremely knowledgable about chandeliers in general.

He laughed when he saw mine and said he actually throws out the frame of these chandeliers but keeps the crystals. Retro modern design is so under-appreciated I thought, as I glanced back at a 19th century German wrought iron chandelier I had walked past.

Anyway, he was very nice despite our differing tastes and enlightened me (no pun intended) about my particular chandelier.

It is a spider chandelier from perhaps the early 70s. The crystals are definitely Murano dragon's tears. And their approximate worth, as there are 72 of the suckers, is over $900.

Well, I paid about $100 for it, so I gave myself an imaginary pat on the back for a job well done. Apparently the value of these things are the Murano crystal but there is very little demand for them in Brisbane. They mostly get sold off to Melbourne or Sydney.

The restorer then rewired and fixed up the lop-sided lean of my poor "throw-away" number. I was able to get a ceiling canopy for it, new light bulbs, some replacement dagon's tears (because six were missing), brass wires and small clear crystals. He did it all while I waited and entertained me with his stories of the chandelier business in Brisbane.

Murano Dragon's Tears crystals. I bought some pink ones to mix in with the blue in the middle tier.

Now that the frame is in good working condition, I just have to clean the 78 crystals. I was told to soak them in Palmolive Green detergent for 20 minutes and give them a wipe with a cotton cloth to get them gleaming again. That is my job for this week while I organise for it to be installed.

The "throw-away" frame awaiting to be adorned with its Murano dragon's tears

This retro chandelier will look fab over our vintage Parker dining table.

Although it is probably not to everyone's taste, we love it and it will be much better than this moth trap.

A year ago today - the scary sunroom

Today's our housiversary - the day we officially moved in.

Let me share the lasting image I had of the Sow's Ear during our 60 day contract. Please be afraid. This sunroom was considered tidy when we attended the second inspection.

Notice the cracked window panes with masking tape on the side door and of course general clutter. We also removed the Lace Curtains from Hell (to be fair, they were probably not too bad but in my mind at the time, they were more shabby than chic). 

This was one of the images on the website when the house went onto the open market. We had a contract on the house before that though. Gee, so much to look forward to.

That's Number 3 son when he was in that crawling/walking stage in the empty sunroom a few days before we moved in. No more lace. You can also see the small window on the left which opened from the kitchen.

The view from the other end. With no clutter, this room turned out to be rather spacious.

This is the sunroom today. It is used as a dining area/reading and play room.

We have done nothing to it apart from replace the broken window panes in the side door, remove the lace curtains and take out the little window, relining the wall with vertical join (VJ) timber boards.

It desperately needs to be painted and have some work done to it. We will probably get to it later this year.

And because it is our housiversary, I bought a new, but old, chandelier for above the dining table.

Think vintage, think 60s Murano, think cascading deliciousness! It is the coolest house thing I have ever bought. I will share some photos very soon.

Sunburst Westclox wall clock

I visited Mum this morning and came home with an old Westclox sunburst clock.

Her back room is an endless source for my mid-century decor habit. Another unloved item in the mound of junk.

The clock is made in Scotland and the metal surrounding the clock face looks like copper, so I will get out Jason's beloved Brasso and give it a gentle buff.

It is battery operated but I don't know what type of battery it takes (?) or whether it even works yet. Surely, it can be easily repaired if it has seized up?

In the meantime, it will hang in the dining area showing the incorrect time.

Some rearranging

I did a spot of rearranging at one end of our sunroom a few weeks ago. Nothing too dramatic but it has changed how we use the space.

It still has a long way to go because the entire sunroom needs a complete overhaul (paint, new windows, fibro removal). Lucky we have an abundance of patience. We think the sunroom was a DIY enclosed verandah because of the thick posts between the windows and the fibro sheeting.

Playroom - this is how it was.

This end is used as the play/reading room. Moving to the Sow's Ear meant we lost a dedicated playroom for the children. I sold our modular Numero IV lounge chairs because we no longer had the room (I kept the ottoman). But I soon remedied that when I bought some DQF viking chairs with the sale proceeds.

Danish Quality Furniture is the Brisbane mid century version of Melbourne's Danish Deluxe or Adelaide's T.H Brown & Sons. It was known for its exceptional quality.

Now - play room/reading room.

We brought up the modular foam ottoman from the gimp room. The kids use it to bounce up and down on, as a foot rest and as a play table, but usually they bounce on it. The bookshelf is old Freedom furniture from 1998 (stunned it has lasted this long) and houses the children's books and general junk. There are also a couple of toy boxes which store their blocks in one corner of the room They aren't so attractive and didn't even rate a photograph.

I floated the chairs in the middle rather than against the wall - it was criminal to hide the beautiful richness of the blackbean timber. The rug was turned around too.

The sunroom is also used as our dining room. I wanted to have an area where the kids could chill after dinner. It makes a good sitting room in the morning and evenings. It does get hot in the afternoon at the moment - the room is truly in its element during our mild winters.

The sunroom will do for now. It is just hard to keep tidy when toys are thrown into the mix.