Mancave wet bar

Our bar is finally finished! Just in time for hubby's birthday party. I've just been really slack with updating this blog.

This is the empty space we started with.

Some of the carcass and panels prior to installation. 

Then we fitted the LED lights on the outside of the bar. The lights can change colour or stay fixed on a colour. 

LED lights were also put on the inside of the bar to illuminate the bench at night. There is a spot for hubby's laptop and mixer. 

Mirror back and glass shelves installed, along with a black glass splash back. We did buy some tiles to use but our glazier friend convinced us to go with black glass for the splash back instead of the tiles. We also installed two downlights above the bar, otherwise that area was really dark. We need to be able to accurately measure our drinks after all 😉

Our bar fridge with LED lights. We usually have these turned off unless we are using the space. The fridge is disgustingly empty. I plan to fix that very soon!

I adore this matt black sink mixer. I went to Bunnings with intention on purchasing another mixer but when I saw this I loved it and knew it would suit the dark coloured theme my hubby was wanting to achieve. Lucky he loved it too!

Entrance artwork & indoor plant

It's been a very long time since I've updated this blog. Since my last update we have done more work on the front garden, had a bar designed for the man cave (will be installed in a few weeks), had solar panels installed and bought some artwork for the house.

We bought these two framed prints from Ikea for our entrance. Don't mind the warped images, I'm not too good with the panorama function on my iPhone 😉

The below photo was taken from near the front door. I still don't know whether to put some art in that niche or another picture. I guess there is no hurry to decide. Again, please excuse my poor use of the panorama feature. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated 😊

I have a huge framed vintage print that will hang on the hallway wall just as you turn right in the above picture. I've had the print for a few weeks now but we've been super busy so haven't had a chance to hang it. 

I finally bought a plant stand for my indoor plant. Love the look of yellow against the grey wall. 

Garden, solar panel & bar updates will come shortly. 

Outdoor spa and deck - build and installation

This weekend our spa area was finally completed. The glass pool fence is now up so now we are ready to have it all inspected by the surveyor. This is what it looks like viewed from our bedroom window. The sides of the deck still have to be dressed and we are considering what to do here. I want to avoid having more merbau and it needs to be easily removable in case we need to access the sides of the spa.

Below are photos of the build progress. Deck built by hubby, spa is from Spa-Rite and pool fencing by Peninsula Glass Balustrading.

The spa slab all boxed up. They put a lot of steel in there but I didn't get a photo of that. 

The slab. 

The spa being delivered. 

Our deck timber and concrete delivery. The truck had to offload it at the top of the vacant block next door and we had to carry it all down the hill - approx 45m downhill! So much timber and so many bags of concrete - 50 bags in total. 

The stumps for the deck. I didn't get photos of the footings. 

Deck construction continues. 

Merbau decking was laid. 

Glass pool fence was installed today and now we have to phone the surveyor to inspect and hopefully sign off on the permit. 

The finished product! 

I'm looking forward to wasting many days and nights in this spa :)

Front retaining walls

We had two concrete retaining walls constructed at the front of the house to make two levels of garden bed. We had had those large rocks placed at the side of the walls. I only have a couple of plants planted at the moment. Next thing to do is put in more plants then some tan bark. After that I have to get some top soil and get a lawn started at the top.

During moving around of the soil

Rock my world

This weekend hubby and I visited Rocks Plus in Bayswater North to choose some rocks to be placed around the retaining wall that is getting built this week.

We were given a can of spray paint and had to spray a mark on the rocks that we wanted. After choosing the rocks they were loaded up onto a truck and they delivered them to us the same morning. It doesn't look like it but we have a total of 11 rocks. We chose honeycomb rocks of varying sizes and shapes. I can't wait to see these in place by the end of the week. 

Zebras are.... well hung?

I finally purchased our first picture for the house. I didn't know exactly what I wanted but I knew it had to have hints of green and orange. When I stumbled across this zebra canvas artwork I couldn't resist it. 

We hung it in on the wall between the front spare room and theatre room. It's visible from the kitchen/meals/family area. At 120cm x 90cm it's the perfect size - or I thought so. 

Now I have to finally get some pieces for the hallway niches. 

I'll be floored!

I haven't updated much the last 4 four weeks but we have had little bits and pieces happening. The floor in the man cave is finally finished! We used Gerflor brand vinyl planks for one side of the man cave plus the games area. We chose the Pecan colour from their Senso Rustic range. I love how they look like timber but are easy to maintain. The planks are only 2mm thick and have a self adhesive back and stick right down onto the sealed concrete slab. Hubby put the skirting board back down on top of the planks and now I have to paint the bits where the nails were shot through.

For the lounge side of the man cave we laid carpet tiles. Photos for another post :)

In other news we have had our spa delivered **yay!!** but we can't use it until the deck and fence is built. Permits have all been approved so now it's down to construction. 

We have also booked the retaining walls for the front yard next week and hubby has started the small garden bed retaining wall between the house and driveway. 

Hopefully several more updates with pictures soon!