Bedroom - #1 Son

French doors with a glimpse of a spider droid in the foreground

Number 1 Son (his birth order and not blatant favouritism) has a room to himself. He probably has the nicest bedroom in the Sow's Ear because it is near the back with a set of French doors opening onto the deck. And I mean nice in terms of aspect and situation. It is, in fact, the bedroom in the poorest condition.

The water damage on the vjs

The VJ walls have suffered some water damage; the paint work is particularly flakey - filo pastry in texture (if you are like me and imagine only in food analogy). The original wide pine floor boards are mostly in excellent condition.The thinner pine replacement boards which are found randomly in the room (we think termites made a meal of the missing wide boards) seem to have a little more spring in them than required.

It is the smallest of all the bedrooms, however the high ceiling certainly gives the space a capacious feel. Number 1, who is seven years old, can fit a king single bed and good size desk in his room. There is also a narrow built-in cupboard with again just hanging space for his clothes.

Another ugly cupboard

Due to its poor condition, this bedroom will be the first to be re-painted and repaired.

Number 1 is asking for colour on the walls. Blue. Mmmmm....now that has put a spanner in the works of the simple white house plan.

Bedrooms - son #2 and son #3

Ceiling rose with plastic light fitting

I have been putting off taking photos of the bedrooms because they are never tidy - ever. If  I was paid to do house-keeping, I would have got the sack. Lucky for me, it is an unpaid role and Jason has tolerated my indifference to house work (he is very tidy!).

But back to the topic of this post...the bedrooms. Son #2 and Son #3 share a room. They are ages 4 years and 16 months respectively. We think their room may have been the original master bedroom as it is at the front end of the house; its door opening out into the lounge room.

It is also very large allowing us to put in a cot, change table and king size single bed. It has built-in cupboards but it only allows for hanging space - no shelving.

I kind of made the bed in this shot - half-baked, isn't it?

Mmmm...as bad as they look, the built-in cupboards are very handy

My favourite things about this room, apart from its occupants, are the lovely ceiling rose (but not that hideous shade) and how it gets the morning sun (but not how the kids wake up at the crack of dawn).

As you can see, there is much to do. Mostly cosmetic. We will probably wait until Son #3 progresses to a bed.  Luckily they are not too discerning.

The occupants

How could you?

Sidedoor knob in sunroom
Window handles in the sunroom

Although Jason and I differ on a range of topics (brass vs. chrome, Queenslander vs. modernist, reproduction vs. old), there is one thing we always agree on in terms of renovating – painting over light switches, door knobs, hinges, window hardware and glass is unacceptable.

The Sow’s Ear is the third house we have owned – and this poor house has been over-painted to within an inch of its life. Nothing was spared in the Sow’s Ear and I mean nothing - brass, chrome, nickel, plastic and glass.

What is it with people who paint over stuff like light switches? We just don’t understand it.

Each night at the dinner table, I gaze forlornly at the seven sets of windows with their handles and cock spurs painted in an unfortunate shade of vanilla custard gloss paint. Luckily these windows will eventually be replaced to match the original window profile in the Sow's Ear. Sadly, that will be later rather than sooner...

Jason is very keen to replace all the original door knobs. I said "over my dead body". This may not be the house of my dreams, but it does have a lot of character which are in its original features.

So the ironic twist to this tale is that as a temporary fix we have painted over the door knobs in a gloss black to contrast the sharp white we have painted the vjs. I know, I know - it's not ideal.

Do you think when we move on from this house someone will rant about the black painted door knobs?

Study door knob

Cupboard and art

The two words in the subject heading are totally unrelated to each other, but I thought I'd share with you our next small project and my arty Sunday.

Arty Sunday life-drawing session

The crack in the cupboard

We have a built-in broom cupboard at one end of our sun room next to the bathroom. It has one top shelf which hosts the bath towels and below is space to put the vacuum cleaner, ironing board and broom.

The cupboard is starting to crack apart - the vjs are splitting quite visibly. The door clasp has long disappeared and it closes with a dodgy hook and eye contraption. It really is in a sad state and Jason is coming to its rescue...

It is only a small job - hopefully Jason can save it before it falls down completely. He will also attempt to put in an additional shelf or two, so we have extra linen storage (we currently have none).

And to change the subject completely, my life-drawing session on Sunday was great (the experience more so than the art I produced). Such a pleasant way to unwind for a few hours! Chris and Susan organised the session at their house with ten people sketching or painting the life-model. The bonus was the delicious lunch provided to the artists and model!

My attempt is in the fore-ground

I adored all our different interpretations of the same subject. It amazes me how individual we all are.

The collection of art from one sitting

What's the plan, Stan?

Vintage framed stations of the cross

The aftermath of the dust storm means a weekend of cleaning the house and cars.

The prolific bindi in the front lawn will also need attention. I dislike spraying but may have to resort to that if it is not too windy.

I plan to re-hang the artwork on the walls because it looks too haphazard. Jason hung a couple of our old art gallery prints from our overseas travels in the kitchen and they look good. Now we need to hang up the collection of canvases and framed work - thank God for VJ walls because they are very forgiving to the fickle hanger.

On Sunday I'm going to a life-drawing session so I need to look for my cartridge pad, graphite and charcoal sticks. It's been a while since I did some drawing, so it will be interesting to see how my perception has changed.

Jason is having a break from the painting - for now. Last week he experimented with casement window stays (brass ones - he won the brass vs chrome battle) and that turned out very well.

Anyway, here's to a productive weekend!