What I’m going to miss about our forever home
As moving date has come and passed it has given me a moment to reflect on the beauty that we created at James St, a home that we loved, was uniquely ours and that we didn’t really intend to sell – until we did.
So, I thought you might enjoy a little wrap up of the things that I have loved and will miss the most. Possibly this list will grow over time – but for now I’m trying not to think too hard – as leaving her is both a great adventure and a little sad all at once.
1. LIGHTING
Ohh, the joy of a great lighting design. Now by this I don’t mean expensive or fancy fittings, but Danielle from Lights Lights Lights helped us create the perfect lighting plan. One where up lighters lit the ceiling, there are transitional lights for different uses and where there was never any glare of a ceiling littered with downlights.
If you are building or renovating – do yourself a favour and learn about uplighters and how lighting a ceiling can give light to rooms, mixed with beautiful purpose lighting, it is way nicer to be in and a super easy way to level up your home!
2. LAUNDRY
Geeez, I’m hitting with the important things here! But, the laundry set up was so great! We had our laundry located near the kids bedrooms and main bathroom and as a two sided room it had plenty of linen presses for the towels and sheets, but also a great series of hampers for: clean not folded clothes (it drives me nuts seeing piles of laundry!), dirty general clothing, whites and delicates, and a final one which was mean for towels, but often had bulky items like blankets, that needed laundering.
A big bench on the other side to fold and sort was also amazing and I loved the no fuss, indestructible Silestone by Cosentino for this space.
3. GARDEN
This home was all about the garden. A landscaped garden adds so, so much to the home. Especially where all the windows look out on it. The design was originally by Plume Studio and plantings evolved over time, but there was something so nice about the continuation of the flooring from inside to outside and the transitional areas. I have loved creating this garden and she will be missed!
4. BUTLERS PANTRY
Oh, the joy of a butler’s pantry when you have many children and somehow haven’t trained any of them to put dishes in the dishwasher. I love having a working area of a kitchen and to always have my benches clear and de-cluttered. It has also meant there is a home for the less than beautiful items that now adorn my workspaces in our new kitchen.
I am actually not sure how to incorporate it into the kitchen of our new home – so watch this space and if all else fails John might need to teach the children how to stack a dishwasher the right way.
5. JOINERY
In general, having a home for everything and joinery to store things in has been so amazing, but it has been most useful in our playroom/tv/family room. A wall of joinery has meant toy cupboards and six sets of drawers that can house toys and books for children spanning 8 years of age difference. All the Lego, LOL’s, Duplo, cars, Paw Patrols, soft toys, babies and dress ups have been a breeze to just throw back in their drawers at the end of the day – meaning I am never overwhelmed by kids clutter in our living space.
6. STAIRCASE
I have a love hate relationship with our staircase, I love how beautiful and sculptural it is! I love that John was on board and built it with me and I love the terrazzo tile runner that connected downstairs to upstairs and the beautiful sun that would stream into this space.
I was worried one of the kids would muck around on the stair and push another down it – in which case it would be a really hard bounce all the way down.
But I will miss how pretty she is.
7. TERRAZZO TILES
Bringing me to those Fibonacci Terrazzo tiles. 4 years later from selecting them and I still LOVE them – not only are they warm and cool at the same time but they hide a multitude of sins! We are living with timber boards in a high lacquer cherry wood now and gosh there is a lot of sweeping.
The terrazzo was almost bomb proof, the kids could and did ride scooters, bikes and cars in the house (especially during lockdowns) and the floor would always look perfect, as if I had just swept.
For family living this was a good decision for us and even though they were an investment – it was one that paid itself back in spades!
8. AUTOMATED BLINDS
How La Di Da! All our lovely curtains and blinds were from DIY Blinds, and I loved the sheers and rollers for this home, but I was a reluctant starter at needing any automation on them! I am so glad I was convinced and with a click of a button all the blinds in the home could be opened and better yet they opened at the same rate so I never had wonky donkey half up half down blinds to contend with – which you could see from all angles of the home!
Good call Evan. Now – they also installed a voice automated Somfy ‘Hey Google’ wizz bang system, but after one round of updates I gave up (I didn’t actually try) and went back to my trusty beloved button. So, I didn’t quite make it into the future – but it is fair to say I am 100% convert on the automation upgrade to this area.
9. MY OFFICE
To John from Beirin Projects (also my hubby) who built me the most wonderful office in the garden – where I could see but not hear the kids in the home – please, please can you do that again. My little brick room was paradise, I could see clients who didn’t need to come into the home, I could be close for all the things I needed and I could store about a bazillion samples which we use on our interior design projects (yes, we do interior design and lots of it, but more for developers and developments)
My little room also became our podcasting studio, co-working space and had many more uses! This is a space that I will miss A LOT and am yet to work out how to live without.
10. IN-BUILT FURNITURE
Currently we haven’t been able to replace our gorgeous and huge couch by Habro Furniture which created seating for around a dozen people and created the best flexible space! When the footprints are tight it is often an amazing solution to have the perfect piece of furniture and this inbuilt couch was it!
A ‘u’ shape it wrapped three sides of the room and was a super practical statement.
It is fair to say I am sulking a little, but more because we are in a ‘halfway’ house before we embark on the next project (which is very lovely, and I am grateful for) but I cannot wait to get stuck into our next adventure.
Will we end up in our forever home in Ivanhoe, where we have designed it from scratch to be perfect for our family (with a bedroom for each child this time) right near the kids’ school, or will we fall in love with the farm life, the 80’s McMansion in Panton Hill, where we can have ponies and goats and 20 acres to roam?
We actually don’t know which one is right for us, but we are excited for the adventure – and to those who constantly ask what our plan is, for now we will build, and we will let you know when we do, which is right for us.
CHECK OUT OUR JAMES STREET MAG FOR ALL THE DETAILS
If you loved our home as much as we did, and would like to take a closer look, download The James Street Mag HERE.
