In the past few weeks, I have had several people ask how I am managing a newborn baby and a house renovation. And due to a whole lot of good fortune, I am happy to report that it has been relatively stress-free.
Firstly, we aren’t living in the house while building it, we are living with my parents. Secondly, my mum cooks dinner most nights, and sings ridiculously cute songs to our little Jack while I order bathroom vanities over the phone. Thirdly, we have a great builder who says yes to everything we ask, and does highly-skilled work. And finally, I somehow managed to get a baby who sleeps. WIN!
BUT… we still have our challenges. The main one stems from the fact that my husband is male, and I am female. I always opt for practical and he always opts for the aesthetically-pleasing. I love an old-style home, he loves a modern one.
Since renovating is all about problem-solving and decision-making, we are constantly debating details of our reno! We debate while eating dinner, bathing the baby, brushing our teeth and during commercial-breaks while watching the Block. Decisions have to be made daily, often very quickly, as things change all the time when tradies are on site.
The latest debate is about bathrooms. The time has come to pick tiles for our en-suite, so we took ourselves off to Beaumont Tiles on Sunday for a little browse… and another big debate.
- I’m still smiling at this point… this must have been taken place before the long debate.
Our house is over 100 years old, so I am trying to ensure our new finishes fit in with the old style of the house. However, when it comes to making style decisions, this can often be problematic, as Matt loves modern design and finishes.
If I had my way, this is the kind of bathroom I want…
If Matt had his way, he would chose this bathroom…
I actually love both bathrooms, it’s just a matter of making sure the style fits in with the rest of the house. So after much discussion, we have come to a compromise…
The ground floor of the house is original, built in the early 1900s. The downstairs bathroom will be in this area, alongside the original floorboards and hallway arches. Therefore the design of this bathroom will be in keeping with the old-style of the house, AKA my style.
The second floor of the house is all newly-built, and is separated from the old part of the house by a new living room and staircase. Therefore, we will go with a more modern design for our upstairs en-suite, AKA Matt’s style.
We need to keep in mind that this is a small house, so we can’t have completely different bathrooms, they still need to have some elements that fit in with each other… and we are doing that… but that’s for another blog post!
