through my new house.
Step up through the brick columns that were handbuilt by my husband over weeks and months. Pause and look left as you see the line that is the fence he built travel towards the corner and snake around it to the fence line. As you step through peek to the left and see the beautifully landscaped garden that we have nurtured. You are early, take some time and follow the stones to our berry garden. Thats right, step step step, as you walk alongside the bed of rose bushes that hug the brick fence. Careful, do not bump into the rock wall that we have built to hold in the garden bed in which we gaze through the study window while working or playing. Walk a little further, take in the splendor that is our large rectanglar garden bed in the front yard, full of strawberry, rasberry...all the berries you could think of growing, producing, sustaining. Along the rim of the sleeper bid confining it is mosaic tile border, smashed and conformed to make a million berries picture, a tribute to the space we have created. If you so wish, slip you shoe off for a moment, let your toes sink into the lush green grass we lovely sustain with tank water.
Look at your watch, it is time to arrive. Walk back up the stones if you will, you will discover our black concrete path, glistening in the sun after the sunshower we had not an hour prior. Careful of the slight step up, we wouldn't want you to trip. Please ring the bell, we will know it is you through the video setup attached to it.
The door opens and you are facing a brown tiled entrance. To the side of the door is a shoe basket, please take a complimentary pair of slippers for your use while you visit us. As you bend down to place them on your feet your eyes rove to the study, open and just left of the door. Here you see a wrap around mahogany desk. Atop it sits shelving, a mix of open and closed, rods on which twirl ribbon reels, stamps, papers and embellishments carefully stacked and all in their place. At the end of the desk stands a bookshelf, unlike the norm, this has boxes and shelves of many different sizes. Some big enough to house the sewing machine and overlocker. Others to stand rolls of material while the smaller has neatly folded stacks of material yet to be created with, intermingled with an extensive reading collection. Gaze on the photos on the wall to the right as you take in the armchair in which the light of the day coming through the wall windows can transport your soul to another destination once you sit and being reading. Lost in the moment, time forgotten.
As your gaze exits the study it becomes still on the open double doors leading to the main bedroom. You wander in, your feet sinking into the soft brown, grey carpet. At first your gaze is focused straight ahead as you notice the two tall windows with their timber venetians ajar slightly letting in the afternoon light. They flank an old chest, history abounds in the Italian/English writing on the lid, the leather flaked and worn, the stamping fading and the lid creaky when opened. It makes you curious and you can't help but ask..it is the chest of M's great grandmother..in it held all the families possessions that they brought with them from Italy to start their new life. Upon it is the stamp of the destination in which they would be arriving, a mixture of Italian and English writing. Above the chest is a photo wall, unlike that of the study this is only of two people. The couple of the house, old and new mixed with significant and everyday snaps of a life shared, a life loved. To the right is the main bed, flanked either side with matching nightstands, painstakingly sanded and stained during the summer sweltering heat while beads of sweat ran down the skin and breathing became shallow in the humid air.
Above the bed hangs a handmade quilt. Unlike those that have been seen before this held many pictures of sprintcars intermingled with pinks and purples and yellows, patchwork and stipes, circles and squares. Truly unique and truly them.
The walk in robe immaculate, shelving to hold shoes and clothes in place, clothes hung in order, in symmetry. Family treasures stacked on shelves up high, all clean and tidy and fresh. The ensuite with its 1.5 shower glistening, the bottles of shampoo, conditioner and soap stacked neatly on the inbuilt shelf. The whole room glistened in the full size mirror reflecting the double sinks and jars of soap and moisturiser.
Having taken in the scene you make your way back to the hallway. As you stand at the front door once more and look in to the house the hallway seems to go for miles. Glistening floors of brown tiles grouted in cream/white. The garage door is flanked to the right side of the first set of columns. The door is open as you peek in to see the specially made shoe rack that has enough holes for all the families shoes, plus guests. The shelf on top a home for school bags, childcare bags and work bags, while overhanging them are the coats of the family which hang from the handcrafter coat rack. To the right is a sight, a fridge and freezer a cupboard for stuff, and a workbench, right along the garage wall. Speaking of the wall, look at the amount of tools hanging up there, anything that you can dream of making can easily be created here, the primal urge to saw and hammer and make washes over you, but this is not the time, today you are a guest. Your eyes skim over the two cars in the garage as you exit into the house once more.
When entering this way your eyes are instantly drawn to the family pictures adorning the wall. They show the progression in time when 2 became 3 and then 4 and then 5. All different sizes, all different times, all special in their own right. As you turn right you are entering the main area of our house. Peeking out the left of your vision is the enormous silver beauty that is our fridge. GO ahead and open it.
Inside you find treats and treasures that have been baked and made by our own hands, on our stone top benches. You find crispers filled with home grown fruit and vegetables. Dough in a bowl ready for the next bread batch to fill the house with an aroma akin to love. Water, milk, juice, rice milk, cordial all swing to your side as they are placed above the sauces and condiments. You will have to try our homemade tomato sauce one day, you will never go back once you try it. The freezer is stocked with pre-prepared meals all ready for consumption on those days when cooking is unbearable due to heat or tiredness or lack of time. As you close the freezer door your eyes are magnetized to the firey red splashback that runs the length of the kitchen wall..in it glistens the silver of the massive oven that feeds our hungry tribe and brings to life the succulent flavours of the meals we serve to friends. The dishwasher hums to the left below the gleeming sink, where many a dish a day is rinsed and drained in preparation for re-use. Our cupboards are unique you will grant us that, with stripey grey, red, blue lines, it's really sublime. Your overhead cupboards are different? you exclaim, well yes they are. It is on purpose we like it, it adds a little charm.
As you walk through the kitchen you come to double doors. " so this is the pantry?" you wrongly question. Open them we say and we await with glee. You push the handles down and the doors glide inwards. Your feet sink into the red carpet as you take in the sight behind the doors. A hidden haven of fun and relaxation. Walking into our home theatre your eyes take a second to adjust to the darkness. A flick of the light switch reveals the reason for this...black walls and ceiling adorn this room, a heavy drape shields any light from outside with its red interior/ black exterior. Come sit down for a moment in the reclining lounges, put you feet up relax as I get you a drink. You sit and recline, sinking into the leather exterior the faint smell of the new leather alighting your senses. As you turn in your chair you look at the bar in the corner..stools sit up against it, you make your way across. From the bar fridge we serve you a drink, beside you sits the arcade game. Once a shell of broken electronics it is now a game featuring a 1000 mame games for your arcading pleasure. But you wonder what the chairs are facing, what the main point of this room is. AS the remote button is pressed the lights dim the screen unfolds. The music slowly increases in volume as the screen comes to life. Home theatre for 6, with beanbags for 4 more. Popcorn anyone?
Just as swiftly as the remote is turned on it is off again, light bathes the room as the tour goes on. As you step off the red carpet you are in our dining area. Large table with 8 chair placings and a homemade tablecloth to prevent it staining. In the middle sits a large vase of roses..they look familiar no?
At the end of the table is a long roller blind..you are curious as to what lays behind it but then a glittering catches your eye and your attention is diverted to the open fire that is raging on the wall to the side. Beside it are couches, soft and large, one part in which to lay and watch the 50 inch t.v that is surrounded by a cabinet of history and love. The cabinet was a 3rd wedding anniversary present given to one another, it holds treasures dear, placed ontop are photos of those we love most, memories we treasure. Below is the wii which brings us together on occasion in healthy family competition and teamwork. As you get up from the couch you walk through the large shaggy red rug that keeps feet warm from the cold tiles at night.
Where are the children you ask? well keep on going, to the right of the fireplace is a doorway please enter if you will. A futon takes up one wall a space for our guests when they stay the night. The wall to your right has a sliding door, easy access from their bedrooms and also the showcase for their many wonderful pieces of art as they hang from corner to doorway on brightly coloured paper clips. Above their artwork are their photos, baby, toddler, child all displayed lovingly to remind us of the times that have passed. When you turn to the left, you lose breath for a moment. It is a dream we have created, do you like it?
The large window looks out to the world outside, and underneath it is a window seat that stretches out wide. Beneath it are shelves with stacked, long boxes of toys and sets for their fun and wonder. To the sides of the window seat, from floor to ceiling are tall bookshelves filled with reading material, classics, picture books, novels and plays. Everything that you could want to read, they send your imagination soaring, your heart filled with joy as you escape on the homemade cushion top of the window seat, blanket on your legs, light shining through the window onto the book you devour.
On the wall is a t.v attached to a hidden dvd player, for the times when they want to escape with their friends, to have their own space, their own viewing pleasure. Come with us now through the sliding door, to the left is Grand Master K's room. His cupboard has shelving and also a lego table, easily pulled out for use when he needs to escape, where his creations can remain made and safe when it is pack up time, where pieces will not get embedded in the soft carpet and vacummed up at whim. The decorations which begin as pirate stickers and sprintcar posters change as his age grows, it is his domain and his space to change when he pleases.
Ashman's is next, look in if you will. The cupboard used to be mine, it was made by my Pa when I was a baby, it is special, it holds more value than anything that could be bought in a shop. He room is a train theme, which surfs the wall above the wooden cot in which all our children have slept, cried and played up to the point when they are too big to need to any longer.
As we walk down the hallway we bypass the bathroom, the large white bath surrounded by small rectangular tiles, with the window wall background bringing the outside garden sculpture inside in its see through vision, is something you will experience for yourself once hand washing is required. The toilet is pointed out as we walk past, nothing interesting there, its clean, its functional. The laundry door is open as we walk on past, a shelf for folding, baskets neatly below as the washing machine is still, drier sitting above. Overhead cupboards house the dangerous items for things that need to be out of small hands reach. It is functional and an easy space to achieve the work that needs doing to keep life going. The linen cupboard is to the right of the laundry, sadly nothing much to see, the linen and towels of the household, with the top shelf a little present haven for all the bargains that are picked up and coveted until the time in which invites are received and presents are needed and it is then raided, no full price shopping ever needed doing again.
What is this room at the end? why it belongs to the princess of the house. Please step inside, it is a sight to behold. Light comes through pink curtains causing a lovely glow on the white cupboards and shelving that takes up one wall and corner of her room. They match perfectly with her white iron bed and white bedside table. Sure you can open the cupboards, the double doors reveal a small space of shelving sitting fixed next to the homemade dolls house with extra storage below for Barbie and her extensive wardrobes. Dresses hang above it, mostly handmade by me, she loves beautiful things, they fill her with glee.
That concludes our tour, please come to the kitchen, sit on down. I will make you a coffee while you take in the smell of the freshly baked banana and choc chip muffins I have made for your visit. As you sit at the table and devour the muffin, a little steam still wafting off it, your gaze once more rests on the large rollerblind to the left of your chair. What does this lead to? you finally ask. How silly of us, we exclaim the tour has not come to an end.
With a pull of the string the blind goes right up, revealing brown/red stained bi fold doors which we open up completely bringing outside in. As you step out the doorway you step onto wood flooring, or a pergola more aptly put, which is large and shiny. It has an outdoor setting, a water fountain and plastic blinds all around, to the left it continues round, hugging the house and the windows as its walkway leads to the front fence. The pergola area has a heater and fan and a gate at the end. If you stand on the side you look down at the backyard and what a sight it is. At the far end of the yard is a tanbark area, from here you can see the swing set, the trampolene and the cubby house. Can you see the little garden leading to the doorway of the cubby house, the sandpit beside it. Whats that on the fence behind? trellis? is that a grape vine? The water tank in the corner is a wonderful eyesore, painted halfway with a rainbow of colours and pictures that could only have been painted by the children of the house.
As you gaze along the back fenceline you are struck by the wonder that is the staggered fruit trees placed before them. And weaved through their pattern is a compacted rock path, a road for bikes for fun and laughs. In the middle of the yard is the vegie patch...large, long and filled with plants. Sustaining us mostly year round. The gate in the fence is useful for parking extra cars, now come through the small pergola gate with us, lets go down to the ground. But wait what is this to the right here? you ask. Well we open the gate (yes another, we like to partition) and go see but be careful...here she comes, jumps up and licks, she loves company. She is a gentle giant, wouldn't hurt a soul. Black concrete eaves our way around the back and side of the house. Large clothes line above on the wall that folds out. Dodge the watertank, yes another, but this one is for internal use, it gives us toilet and laundry water for the whole house. Don't bump into our solar hot water unit, or the wood casing around it. As you come around you can see Ashman and Little Miss A's bedroom windows up high, at the end is a single roller door to come straight through the garage and to the side of this is Bella's kennel, she likes the shelter of the sideway at night but during the day she has free reign to wander throughout the whole yard.
Lets go down to the backyard, whats this under the pergola you ask? well storage of course for our garden implements, our bikes and outside toys. Now beneath our wraparound path, is a retaining wall ensuring it stays up there and infront of that is the best of M's creations. The handmade pizza oven, sitting right next to the family barbeque..so many nights of cooking saved by this beauty I can tell you. The most delicious creations that you could savour have been cooked in this beauty, wonderfully devine.
And with that the tour is at a completion, as we bring out the food and the drinks and we sit together, we hope that you have enjoyed visiting our home...Please come again~
Which then gave me an hours peace when they did this...
(and such pride at his writing skills now! wow!)
But you must be wondering, why did I use my voucher for a childs toy? well for now it also doubles as an easel for my sketching and painting:
