My Creative Space - Starting on the New House

Any spare days I have now are being spent at the new house.  We're so keen to get in there but it is nice to have a bit of time to do a few things before it is filled with furniture and a three year old.

Inside the house, the first priority is the Little One's room.  Her favourite colour is blue, so I've gone with a pretty sky blue.  It's been many years since I've painted a room and I had forgotten just how long all the preparation takes.  I hope to get the walls finished on my next trip up, but already I can get a feel for how it's going to look.

Her window has a shade cloth in front to cut down the afternoon sun but it blocks the amazing mountain view, so I'd like to get something adjustable put up in its place soon.

In our bedroom I want to pull up the carpet to make the most of the gorgeous hardwood floors underneath... now if I could just convince someone to do all the sanding and polishing for me....

The (asbestos containing) sheeting on the old shed has gone and now we just need to knock this down to make way for the new studio...

It's slow work and I'm not sure how much we'll get done before we move in, but I'm sure it will be considered a work-in-progress for about the next ten years.

Oh Where Oh Where Has This Blogger Been..?

Life has been rather quite on the Kimono Reincarnate blog of late... 

But now I can tell you the secret I've been bursting to reveal for a while...

As some long time readers may recall, I've been talking for the last couple of years about our Treechange dreams and how the Glass House Mountains made my heart sing....

Well... we've done it!  We finally found and bought a new home tucked away in this sweet little rural township. The first photo is taken from our backyard where we can see three of the mountains the town takes its name from... from the front yard, another.

We're planning a new studio, work that we'd like to do on the little house and what to plant in the large yard.  To encourage birds, they'll be lots of native Australian trees as well as fruit trees and a large vegetable patch (the second two which we'll try to encourage the birds to save for us).  The little one is very excited about having a yard for the first time and the puppy dog we'll adopt.  She and I will be able to walk to her kindergarten and then school everyday.  

We'll be moving in just before Christmas and really can't think of a better way to begin a new year, with the new, slower life we've been dreaming of for years.

Treechange and Dream House

We've been talking about it for years, last year it nearly happened, but we're getting closer and closer to our Treechange.

On the weekend we took a (what's becoming a semi-regular) drive up to the gorgeous little township of Glasshouse Mountains.  We inspected a few more houses and are just continuing to fall more in love with the little rural town.

It's funny looking at the houses, I love looking at a space and imagining what I would do in it, to it to make it our own.  Dreams of paint brushes and power tools dance in my head.

Over on Pinterest, I've been collecting images of things I dream for my new space...

Image taken from here

A little cabin in the backyard for a studio... one house we found had one already built, but alas, someone had already bought it ahead of us....

Image taken from here

I'd love to paint the house interiors white and then add in pops of colour...

after living with small pokey kitchens for the last six years, I dream of a light airy space to cook in and somewhere that my teapots and teacups can come out and play....

Image taken from here

A bathtub for long bubble-filled soaks is a must and I think I'd be in heaven if it looked onto tiles like this...

Image taken from here

The little one has asked if her room could be blue, we talked about putting some white fluffy clouds on the walls too...

Image taken from here

Of course I also dream of the things I could make for the house... the kimono yoyo quilt is slowly making progress and I think these little tea towel curtains would be so sweet in a kitchen...

Image taken from here

And then last, but certainly not least, is the yard or land that we're on.  Given that we're looking for a treechange, we certainly want lots of trees.  One place we seriously considered making an offer on had well established mango, macadamia nut, citrus, banana and guava trees.  While all those would be great, we're also looking for a good space for a very active toddler to run around with a dog, space for a vege garden and some chickens.




Of course, many of these things will take years to happen but it will be so great to have a place to get started on.

What would be in your dream house?  Do you have an inspiration folder you keep on Pinterest (I'd love a link to yours if you do)  or old school cutouts?  I have both.

Treechange Almost Within Reach...

For a while now I've been talking about our treechange dreams.  Now, they seem to be getting closer and closer.  Today we went for a drive north to inspect a house.  I got rather teary driving down the street the house is on, feeling like I was home already.  I spoke to a few locals, all who gushed about what a great place it was to live.  It's rural and they have fought to keep it that way, but all the city conveniences are not too far away.  A mother told me that the local school is wonderful.

These views are from just down the road from the house we were looking at... 

Mt Tibrogargan, which has always been my favourite of the Glasshouse Mountains... it's surrounded by national parks and bushwalks.

Beautiful farmland on the other side. 

The house we looked at just seemed right.  Large enough for the family, a guest room, a man cave, a big powered shed for a gym (for the personal trainer Man) and a large studio.  I'd like to do some renovations later down the track, but other than needing air conditioning in the studio and figuring out how to fit our extra wide fridge in the kitchen, it's all ready to be moved into.

The back yard is well fenced and big enough for an active toddler, a dog, some chickens and a vegetable garden.  There's a large mango tree already there for us and bore water (a bit like a well) to keep the garden green and to save using precious town water for laundry.  We even get a view of the mountains and there's a swing hanging in the tree out the front.

We're now on the emotional roller coaster of trying to get the property.  A family that viewed the house right after us has put in an offer and we also need to do so on Monday if we're to have a chance.  Please keep your fingers crossed for us!  If we're lucky we'll be starting the new year in this beautiful place and beginning that treechange life we've always dreamed of.