Bathrooms

Well it seems to be the general consensus of real estate agents that kitchens and bathrooms sell homes. We aren't planning to sell our house anytime soon, but we certainly wanted bathrooms that would suit the period of the house and be an elegant style that wouldn't date. We hadn't intended to have three bathrooms originally however, given the upstairs/downstairs layout and our desire for an ensuite, it would seem that we're destined to be cleaning bathrooms frequently. That said, I'm very much in love with the bathrooms so I'm not sure it will be so much of a chore to spend some extra time in there admiring the finishes and tiles!

Ensuite: As I may have already mentioned, having an ensuite is basically considered a standard inclusion for most new homes and it really is more of a "necessity" than a luxury if you have more than two people living in a house! Our ensuite fit nicely into the enclosed verandah but this did pose some issues. The raked ceiling with no roof enclosure meant that a wall exhaust fan was needed (more expensive and less effective but better than none at all) and that the down lights had to be tilted. It also meant we had to change the window we had intended to use so that the toilet could fit beneath the window and not jut out above it. The narrow bathroom also had little room for storage therefore we built three small niches into the wall alongside the pedestal bath. These allowed for high use items such as toothbrushes and cosmetics to be nearby but out of sight when looking in from the dressing room. We're going to use a small freestanding cupboard under the window to store other items such as toilet paper etc.

Main bathroom: The other upstairs bathroom is really the "show" bathroom in the sense that it would be the powder room used most when entertaining as it only really services the occupant of bedroom 2. It was thus the place we splurged and bought a gorgeous bath set with diverter (with the porcelain handles) as the bathtub is viewed from the doorway and it sits nicely under the reclaimed hopscotch casement windows and their green and port wine glass panels. A small room divider (thanks to the architect) provides the side to the hallway linen cupboard and extends a little further so the toilet can't be viewed from the hallway. As someone enters the room, they therefore see the bathtub, then the pedestal sink (complete with antique mirror), frameless shower panel and then the toilet. After all, first impressions count!

Downstairs bathroom: The downstairs bathroom was not to be left out, however. As this was the most likely children's and guest bathroom, a bathtub was still a necessity but I couldn't bring myself to get a built-in tub as I think it would have made the room look smaller and the old fashioned bathtubs with claw legs are still easy to get a mop under and around. Again the bathtub sits at the door entrance so it is the first thing you see as you walk past the door (it is after all more often open than shut) and sits under the lovely hopscotch casement window. Storage was once again an issue so we found an Australian manufacturer who specialises in making art deco style mirror cabinets that can be recessed into the wall. Much more expensive than buying a mirror like the other two bathrooms, but it does mean that the bulk of storage needs are met without needing to clutter the room. Given that our children are to use this bathroom we opted for an enclosed but frameless shower cubicle to limit the spread of water spray around the room!

In all bathrooms we used windows that had old fashioned arctic or obscure glass. This glass allows light in, but as the name suggests, obscures the view so it really is impossible to see detail through the window. It also means we don't need window treatments which in a bathroom is a good thing. Less cleaning...and I'm all about methods to reduce cleaning! It might surprise renovators to know that it is still available (though you might have to hunt around a bit) many years after it first came into production.  But do beware, it doesn't meet new standards in glass safety so check with your council / certifier that the dimensions are smaller than the window pane size which requires safety glass if you are putting in a new window and not just repairing an existing window.

The bathrooms are not yet finished but I've put in a few photos to show you the work in progress until the rooms are finished! The bathtubs still need to be installed as do the towel racks, mirrors etc...

Bathroom finish details are as follows:

Items found in all three bathrooms unless otherwise stated, were supplied by Vogue Spas and Bathrooms. Bathroom finishes are:

• Pedestal sink / basin: McKinley 70 ceramic wash basin H: 875 x W: 675 x D: 550mm
• Pedestal sink tapware: Brodware Neu England Basin set w/ country spout, metal levers & ceramic disc (B80.00.T2.L)
• Toilets: Posh Canterbury low level toilet (Supplier: Reece)
• Frameless showers (Supplier: Stegbar)
• Encaustic tiles: See tile post (Supplier: Jatana Interiors)
• Wall tiles: See tile post (Supplier: Affordable Tiles, Burleigh Heads)
• Towel rails, towel rings, toilet roll holder, glass shelf in shower and floor grates: Brodware Neu England
• Luggage racks: (Ebay & Gumtree)

Ensuite:

• Mirror (Supplier: Ebay)
• Shower set: Brodware Neu England 140mm with cross handles & ceramic disc (B80.11)
• Shower channel: Stormtech 900mm punched stainless steel grate + channel 65PS125

Upstairs bathroom:

• Mirror (Supplier: Gumtree)
• Shower set: Brodware Neu England exposed with 140mm shower head (B1.8013.00.1.01)
• Bathtub: Victoria & Albert Richmond Bath w/ white feet L:1670 x W: 745 x H: 603mm
• Bathtub tapware: Neu England Wall Bath Set w/diverter & hand shower, cross handles w/ ceramic disc
• Shower channel: Stormtech 900mm punched stainless steel grate + channel 65PS125

Downstairs Bathroom:

• Shaving mirror cabinet: Single door cabinet Superior 750 x 600 x 120mm (Supplier: Deco Mirrors)
• Shower set: Brodware Neu England 140mm with cross handles & ceramic disc (B80.11)
• Bathtub: Victoria & Albert Wessex Bath w/ white feet L: 1520 x W: 765 x H: 600 mm

Original Bathrooms

Original downstairs bathroom

Upstairs toilet next to the back door exit!

Main bathroom

Exposed shower head looks great I think

Richmond bathtub

Pedestal sink and antique mirror in place

Upstairs bathroom finished!

Downstairs bathroom

Lights and power outlets in the bathrooms

Ensuite

Lights and lighting

There have been quite a few days where I've cursed the fact that there are thousands of lights to choose from, and all the ones we liked were in the UK and US. Despite spending day, hours and weeks looking at lights in Australia we found that the majority for designed for modern homes and didn't capture the look we were going for - basically a good quality, simply designed light that would suit the period features of the house, but not be excessively ornate or brass/gold in colour. Choosing lights is not that easy - particularly when the room doesn't exist yet! We are particularly happy with the pendant lights and the bathroom wall lights as we weren't sure how they would look in the space but hopefully you'll agree, they look pretty schmick! A big thank you to our electrician, Shaun from EzyAs Electrical, who went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the spacing was exact and who tirelessly responded in great detail to our emails and phone calls about so many electrical questions (we were abroad when he was doing the installation). My advice, get a good electrician who is as pedantic as you are. It really helps!

Here is some more information on our lights and light switches:

Downlights:  Installing ceiling fans meant pendant lights were not really suitable for the bedrooms so we chose recessed down lights that would hopefully 'disappear' into the ceiling. We also wanted to try and avoid the 'startled animal' effect of having very bright modern down lights that would limit the diminish the capacity for mood lighting and ability to highlight shadows from the high ceilings. Fortunately, we had a friend who was former electrician, now electrical engineer, with a panache for lights to guide us through the overwhelming downlight options available. On his advice, we chose recessed lights with a 60 degree beam angle that would create more shadows and titled down lights to match. Thanks Grant - they look great!

Hallway and Stairwell lights:  The hallway and the stairwell are very traditional areas of the house full of period features. Our objective was thus to find pendant lights that were sympathetic to the era of the house and would complement the period features. That sounds easy enough in principle. In practice, a lot of the traditional lights were too ornate, were of relatively poor quality or were in finishes (e.g. antique brass) that wouldn't match with the chrome deco door knobs we had already selected. After a great deal of online searching into styles available, we ended up selecting hallway lights that were made from a milk / opaline style glass that had a simple deco style pattern - very similar to the door knob backing plates. As the stairwell light would be in relatively close proximity to the hallway lights we selected a light made from the same type of glass but chose a more dramatic deco skyscraper style light. While the stairwell is some 4.5m above the landing, there was plenty of space for a large pendant, however, we decided that this would be a great wall for a large painting etc so we didn't want to cover up too much of the wall. The skylight also limited the positioning of the light so it had to sit directly above the end of the balustrade above the landing. Chrome rods and galleries were the obvious choice to match in with the chrome light switches, window and door fixtures etc.

Dining Room pendant lights:  The dining room has two pendant lights that will hang directly over the dining table and no downlights (mood lighting is better when eating in my humble opinion!). We wanted these lights to be more formal, in order to reflect the use of that space, and designate it as a separate eating area from the nearby kitchen bench. We also wanted to tie back in with the hallway and stairwell lights, so we chose another deco influenced style of light with a white dish held in place by three chrome "arms". Hmmm hard to describe, I'd refer to the attached pictures. Hopefully it will give the dining room some simple grandeur above a large dining table and floor lamps in the corners of the room.

Kitchen pendant lights: Seeing as the majority of people spend a great deal of their family time around a kitchen bench, we wanted to get 'schmick' lights that would blend in with the era of the other lights, but be a bit more funky. After choosing vintage steeped glass lights, a colossal stuff around with the supplier meant that we had to cancel this order and choose lights in one night in order to have them delivered in time for the electrician to do his final fit out. Talk about pressure! In the end we chose vintage / industrial style chrome bell shaped pendants that would provide directed lighting to the timber bench top (the down lights would provide additional lighting if necessary). Since nearly everything in the kitchen is white with chrome drawer handles, chrome was the obvious choice. That said, the same light came with a white bell body with chrome finishings, and we had a long night deliberating the pro's and con's of each colour option. In the end we decided there was already enough white in the house and chrome would help show off the kitchen and match the other chrome finishes throughout the house.

Bathroom / Dressing Room Wall lights: My husband did a quick internet search and found the style of light he loved. A great deal of time was subsequently spent trying to find a replica of this style of tubular deco light in Australia. It wasn't possible. In the end we rang the only British supplier of the light we could find (thank you Pinterest), who's website said the light was no longer in stock, and took the decision to import six lights. British lights have the same voltage and hertz as Australian lights but do have to meet Australian standards and i'd strongly recommend you check that the light does meet Australian standards, and check with your electrician, before you buy. Fortunately ours did, and we now have 6 lovely lights in the downstairs / main bathroom (on either side of the mirror above the pedestal sinks) and the dressing room (on either side of the doorway). There was insufficient room to install the tubular lights on either side of the ensuite mirror and allow unaided access to the built in niche shelves so we had to choose an over mirror style light. Again this was not easy to find a deco style light and I think we'll probably end up replacing it one day with another light from the UK when we aren't so pressed for time.

Ceiling Fans: What can I say, I found a gorgeous chrome fan I still hope to install one day but the prohibitive cost meant that simple white ceiling fans made from plastic (the house is still close enough to the beach to mean that rust build up was possible) were the right option for now. We really just wanted fans that would blend into the ceiling as much as possible while cooling the room without the use of air conditioners.

Outdoor lights: Another mission in light finding and supplier issues, on our third attempt at procuring an outdoor light we both liked that would match the house and account for the coastal location, we settled upon a lovely and simple french (?) style galvanised gooseneck barn light that was vintage in era yet simple.

Sensor lights: We installed three sets of sensor lights and really just chose lights we hoped would blend into the wall as much as possible. Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of options to choose so we did the best we could! Enough said.

Garden lights: The house is on a gradient of about 4m from the top NW corner to the bottom SE corner so retaining walls were necessary as part of the house build and the landscaping. The feature retaining wall in the garden has dark charcoal grey 'bricks' that have a formal stairway down from the top garden to the lower (or sunken style garden as we call it) garden and lawn areas. We decided to put lighting in before the backfill covered up the fence, and had the option of either bollard, post or wall lights. In the end we went with wall lights (to sit on either side of the steps) that were made from 316 marine grade stainless steel (to factor in the coastal weather conditions). This gave us more options with regards to landscaping at the top of the stairs, and the look of the bunker lights tied in with the outdoor lights, decking and the beach house style garden.

Lightswitches: I love our light switches! If it is possible to be seduced by a lightswitch then head over heels in love with mine. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I look at the chrome switch on the white timber gang that makes me smile :) While the house had a couple of brown bakelite switches left, given that all other trimmings in the house were chrome it seemed worth the extra expense to upgrade and get chrome lightswitches that were in the same style as the original bakelite switches. That said, we had to draw the line somewhere so we went with modern GPO's (power sockets) and traditional light switches - except in a two bathrooms where insufficient space meant the old and new would be in very close proximity and we decided that it would look much better with the traditional socket as well. One day we might upgrade some more of the GPO's but the downside of the traditional ones is that you need a separate switch to activate the power socket which takes up a lot of space. It is also protrudes quite a way off the wall - something to keep in mind if you want the socket 'tucked' away.

Phew...no more lights to choose! Not for awhile anyway!

Lighting details are as follows:

• Downlights: Domus Deep 10W Deepset Warm White LED downlights 3000K (Supplier: Ozlighting)
• Downlights (tilted): Domus 13W Deco Satin White Tilt LED downlight (Supplier: Electrician)
• Hallway lights: Rockafella Shade with cosmopolitan rod set (Supplier: Restoration Station, Brisbane)
• Stairwell light: Rockafella Shade with cosmopolitan rod set (Supplier: Restoration Station)
• Dining Room pendant lights: Tomanx light chain suspension with Bernie Shade (Supplier: Restoration Station)
• Kitchen Pendant lights: Gelos Classic Chrome pendant light (Supplier: SheLights)
• Bathroom Wall / Dressing room lights: 
• Ceiling Fans: Futura 122cm fans in white (Supplier: Beacon Lighting)
• Outdoor lights: Mercator - Elly 1 light exterior wall bracket galvanised (Supplier: Ozlighting)
• Sensor lights: (Suppliers: Beacon lighting and Ozlighting)
• Garden lights: Cougar Bermuda bunker grill wall light stainless steel 316 (Supplier: Ozlighting)
• Lightswitches: Traditional Hardware, Chrome Traditional Single light switch and chrome traditional single power point with a white socket (Supplier: Finlaysons). Note you can also get the socket in bakelite brown but I think the white looks smarter.
• Timber gangs: Traditional Hardware, Traditional profile pine gangs that we painted Dulux Vivid White (Supplier: Finlaysons)

Here are a few photos so you can see what the light looked like in the shop and what it looked like installed. We still have a few finishing touches to go (e.g. the hallway light shades will be installed once the painters are finished and the ladders aren't in danger of breaking them) but we're very happy! I'll put up the final pictures shortly.

Original dining room light

Original hallway light bulb feature!

Light feature?

Dining room lights in the shop!

Our substitute ensuite mirror light. One day we will replace with the one we really wanted that can only be found in the UK!

Hallway light

Stairwell light

Recessed down lights in place

Bathroom light switches and power socket

Upstairs bathroom lights

Hallway lights

Stairwell light

Hardwood floors

When we first bought the house we knew that there were hardwood tongue and groove (T&G) floorboards, however, they were covered by layers of vinyl and carpet (including vinyl tacted over carpet) so it was hard to gauge what condition the timber floorboards were in. The only way to gauge the condition and type of timber was looking at the floorboards from beneath the house.

While the timber looked to be in a relatively good condition it was near impossible to tell what species of timber they were until the floor coverings were lifted and samples were taken up, planed and taken to a timber supplier for identification. While we suspected the floors were Queensland Spotted Gum, it turned out that they were actually a mix of hardwoods - Spotted Gum, Black Butt and Ironbark. Interestingly, two of the rooms had Ironbark floorboards only, while the rest of the house was a blend of the three. Clearly the floorboards were intended to be covered and it was lovely that we would be the first owners in some eighty plus years to see them sanded and polished.

The floorboards were not without issues however. There were quite a few damaged boards in the old kitchen and the old verandah boards were a different width, direction and height to the T&G floorboards in the main house. While trying to preserve as much as possible, we had to be practical. Particularly as the Master bedroom was now half the old verandah and half the main house so boards on differing levels was not going to work. We therefore lifted up the salvageable boards from the kitchen and used this to finish the master bedroom, dressing room and hallway entry (which had also been part of the original verandah) so that the boards all flowed in one direction and were all the same height. We ran short of a few boards in the master bedroom but rather than use new boards for the whole room, we found a local reclamation supplier (Keber's in Murwillumbah) who were able to supply matching second hand boards to finish off the room.

Now that we had an open plan living, kitchen and dining area, we also had to decide where the old and new boards would meet keeping in mind that new in stock timbers, are a different width to the old timbers (slightly narrower) and that the old boards have shrunk and warped a little which meant wider gaps. The logical place was to keep the old boards in the kitchen and pantry and start the new boards at the entry to the kitchen (the join is under the kitchen) bench and the end of the hallway. On the advice of the builder and timber supplier we go new Qld Spotted Gum floorboards which had enough variation to best match the original floors, whilst also matching the Qld Spotted Gum decking boards. We got raw samples, put water on them to try to replicate the darkening of the timber during the polishing stage, and hoped for the best. Picking a floorboard based on one sample is not ideal as the variation in colour and grain between batches can be significant. Our timber supplier had done a great job with the decking boards, however, so we were relatively confident it would all work out!

The floor sander came and spent a few days cleaning the boards up, punching nail holes and getting the boards ready for several coats of polish before having to dash of to his wedding and honeymoon! Alas, he didn't get time to finish the boards before his wedding, so we're waiting upon his return and the installation of the cabinetry before we can finish off the boards. Final photos are still to come.

The transition from the main house to the decking boards

Raw timber samples

Raw timber samples (wet) to mimic the effect of polishing

New Spotted Gum boards

The old meet the new boards

Old boards in the kitchen run under the kitchen bench (to be installed)

Reclaimed / second hand boards were used in the dressing room to make sure we had enough timber

Downstairs hallway - new boards being laid

Old meets new at the end of the upstairs hallway

Final matte finish complete.

The old meets the new and blends very nicely

The only room that wasn't mixed hardwood. This is polished ironbark and looks lovely...

The reclaimed board in the dressing room (top of photo) are a great match to the original bedroom floors. Just a fraction narrower.

The old boards came up a treat in the master bedroom.