A few questions about bills???

Just a couple of questions today...

Where do you store your bills? Do you file them, lay them out over the kitchen, or have a simple system? And for that matter - if you DO have a system, does that make it easy to pay them on time and juggle what needs paying when? Let's face it, not many of us these days find it easy to pay all our bills at once...

This is Katrina's system....

Yep, chuck them all in here.. so no it's really not a system - more of an "out of sight out of mind" approach. Don't think it works too well though as I am HOPELESS with bookwork or paying bills... (this is probably why the bank runs for cover when they see my name hahaha!).

Then I came across this photo:

Really? Check. it. out. There were some serious hours that went into that drawer! Shesh... could I do this? Hmmm... doubt it!

This is the best system I have ever heard of- it's from Lanne on the Decorating Forum.

What do you do with your bills?

Ready, Set, Dissect: Master Bedroom

Our friend Lanne from the Decorating Forum sent in this picture. She sent an email saying this was perfect for me- What???. The second email clarified it would be perfect for our game lol.

So are your Ready to Get Set and Dissect?

Pop on over and join in the chat on the Decorating Forum- be warned- we are known to have quite a giggle over there:)

Wednesday's Walk-through {on a Tuesday} Katrina's Sisters Home

Today we are sharing Katrina's sisters home...

There are so many nice features, that is was hard to narrow it down, so we decided to throw a mixed bag in there for you to look at. If you have been reading Katrina's blog for a while, you may have seen some of these pictures before.

Katrina's sister, Amie, built this massive home about 12 months ago. It's an ongoing project for them as the house in on half an acre. Like Katrina, Amie is a project junkie so since these photo's were taken some bits have changed! I think we all need to rally together and get this house in a magazine! Who is with us on this one??

What a beautiful home. I particularly loved the kitchen.

Do you love white kitchens? Have a look at what was the most popular colour for kitchens on the Decorating Forum.

Only a few tickets left for the BHG Live show- first in is a winner.

Ready, Set, Dissect: Nursery

This is a little boys nursery I found on Decorpad. What do you think? I wasn't sure that it was meant to be a boys nursery, but I read it twice.

Personally I think it's pretty cool, but then again I am a fan of colour in kiddies rooms. Maybe the pink mat might be a little crazy... too much stimulation? Love the wall sticker though!

Hope you are all having a great week. Thanks for coming by and visiting us.

Have you seen our GIVEAWAY?

Katrina xo.

Who has a white lounge/sofa?

If you were into white lounges/sofas, would you go washable covers or leather or faux suede?

Remember Katrina has 3 snotty nosed, strawberry eating, mud wrestling little dudes...which white sofa would you have?

We had quite a chat about our favourite colour for a sofa on the Decorating Forum. Come and let us know what is yours on the Decorating Forum.

Ready, Set, Dissect: Bathroom

This would have to be one of Katrina's favourite bathroom's ever! I think it's just the dreamy whites, the lighting & the little tv over there on the right. I had to show 2 pictures, just so you got the idea of the whole room.

What do you think?

Did you see our GIVEAWAY?? Pop over to have a look!

Also get yourself over to the Decorating Forum to enter yourself again.

Have a fab day!

Competition- Free tickets to Better Homes & Garden Live

Exciting news - we have 25 free tickets to give away to the Better Homes and Gardens LIVE at the Sydney Showground, Olympic Park, October 15-17th.

Australia’s most loved brand, Better Homes and Gardens is now going LIVE!

This fantastic event will be held at Sydney Showground, Olympic Park 15 to 17 October and will feature inspiring talks and demonstrations hosted by your favourite Better Homes and Gardens personalities; Graham Ross, Tara Dennis, Rob Palmer, Jason Hodges, ‘Fast’ Ed Halmagyi and Dr Harry. There will be thousands of products for your home and garden to try and buy and plenty of activities for the kids, to make this a great day out for all the family!

Better shopping – At the event, you’ll find hundreds of new products and services to try and buy for your home and garden.

Better advice – Pick up top tips from the experts at one of the three FREE seminar stages, or join one of the workshops for one-to-one hands-on advice.

Better ideas – Wander around beautifully designed room sets and show gardens to pick up inspirational new ideas for you to recreate in your home.

Better experience – Enjoy a fabulous family day out with live entertainment and plenty of activities for the kids.

Better Entertainment – See your favourite faces from the Better Homes and Gardens, including Graham Ross, Tara Dennis, Rob Palmer, Jason Hodges, ‘Fast’ Ed Halmagyi and Dr Harry live on stage!

So come along and be inspired! To enter all you need to do is leave a comment here on A Very Fine House or on the Decorating Forum.

But don't worry if you miss out on winning - you can book your tickets in advance and save $5 at www.bhglive.com.au or buy at the door. Tickets at the event will be $15 for adults and $10 for concession tickets.

Gorgeous Red Bedrooms!

Today we are featuring our lovely friend Mel again. She featured back here too. I had to quickly share this home with you one more time as she is moving out of it in a week! She is starting a new and exciting adventure.

Click on her blog here to follow her new journey... she is moving into a beach house!

In the meantime enjoy these pictures of the bedroom's in her house (and her love for the colour red!)....

Mel isn't the only one fond of using Red when decorating. Pop over to the Decorating Forum to see Katrina's addiction to Red.

A question to our readers: What do you want to see more of on our blog? Love to hear your thoughts!

Oh, and if you have something you would like to share with us, please email us...we would love you to feature on our blog.... after all it's not a blog about us, but about all of you!

Ready, Set - Dissect: Luxury Dining

rI have had this picture on my files for ages. There's so much I like but so much I couldn't live with. Come and play Ready, Set - Dissect and tell us what you think:)

We have also been chatting on the Decorating Forum about these Ghost and Eames dining chairs- come and share your thoughts with us there too.

A Very Organised Office

Lanne is one of the most organised people I have ever met (or because of the internet world - never met). Followers on the Decorating Forum will know what I mean:).

Lanne runs a successful photography business - Painted With Light- and has shown us the odd glimpse of her office set-up on the Decorating Forum but today she reveals to us her Media Room for clients.

"We have a couple of rooms for clients and this one is our media room. It is used for client viewing and ordering appointments. We have tried to keep it to our brand and style, but not make it into a traditional sales area. Clients watch their slideshow and make selections over either morning tea or if it is an evening appointment a cheese platter or dessert.
The colours stick to our branding of 60% white, 30% grey and 10% school bus yellow. The room has a dark grey carpet and blinds and the furniture is simple and mostly ikea. It is simple, minimalist and functional.

The candy is a must. Clients tell us it is like going to the movies.. so we added M&Ms.. very popular. The second image is of our storage cupboard. We keep the dishes and serving items in a white 'billy' bookcase from ikea with glass front doors. We added a large photographic print to the doors. Each door is approx 20 x 40 inches.

This desk is a recent purchase from Officeworks. The Sierra desk is awesome value and it gives us a place for clients to sign EFTPOS receipts and sign off on orders etc. There is a 30 x 40 canvas on the wall above it and some brochures/business cards stored in a Kikki stationery holder.

YUMMY snacks for client viewings. We keep a record of all of our clients preferred snacks and ensure we have them ready for appointments. Clients also love T2 teas and sugar cubes. The yellow cups were from Freedom and we use them to hold spoons, bags etc. Our Painted with Light letterpress business cards. We bought the cushion from etsy.com and asked for a custom colour combo.

And the main event. We use a 32inch screen calibrated by our printer so that clients can see the images exactly as they will print. The media cabinet (Ikea) stores an apple macbook which runs our software and screen. We operate it with an Apple Wireless keyboard and bluetooth mouse. The glass fronted cabinet was perfect for this. We also have a large grey rug (an Ikea bargain) and a simple off white sofa and coffee table with storage underneath + side tables (lack from Ikea). We had the wall decal custom made to match our colour and branding. Our second brand Light + Love uses this same pattern on the back of the business cards. "

What an amazing Media Room. Now do you see what we meant by organised?

Join Lanne and all our other members over on the Decorating Forum to help get your office organised.

By the way I have told Lanne to record that I would like a nice Chardonnay & King Island Dairy Seal Bay Triple Brie and Maggie Beer's Spiced Pear Paste for when I visit:) Do let her know what your preference for nibbles will be when visiting her Media Room.

Replacing the oven - not so simple!

Deb from Two Cheeky Monkeys went to do a minor kitchen renovation that turned out to be a lot bigger than originally planned. This is how the story unfolded:


"We live in a house which is about 25 years old. All of the appliances were the same age as the house, so it wasn't a big surprise when our oven and cooktop unit started to fall apart. I was initially excited about replacing this old unit however, what we thought would be a simple replacement of our oven and cooktop turned into a bigger job than we had imagined.
Our old oven/cooktop unit was not the standard 60 or 90cm in width, but was 70cm wide. This really limited the range of new units we could investigate, so we decided it would be wiser to install a separate cooktop and oven rather than an all in one unit. We decided on a 70cm electric oven by Andi and ad 70cm gas cooktop by AEG-Electrolux.

The decision to buy separate cooking units meant that our builder would be building a cabinet for the oven as well as adding a new section of bench top where the previous oven/cooktop unit had lived. This didn't seem too complex until our builder couldn't find any laminate to even vaguely match our existing bench tops. His initial solution of replacing the laminate on all of our bench tops was way over our budget and meant too much disruption to our kitchen. After a few days, our builder came up with a suggestion of covering our new bench top and splashback with stainless steel. This was not only affordable, but would make cleaning a lot easier!
We weren't sure the stainless steel look would suit our rather retro kitchen, but we figured that we didn't really have much to lose so agreed with the new plan. The whole project took our builder, electrician and plumber 3 and a half days to finish due to a few problems which arose such as slight warping of our floor and cupboards due to the age of our house and also due to inaccuracies in the unit measurements supplied by the manufacturers of the oven.
Anyway, the work was finally completed and we are happy with the outcome. We have great new appliances to cook with and they don't stick out too much in our kitchen. And most of all, it was all within budget!"

This is not an unusual story. It is also very common when replacing wall ovens set directly into the wall. Older ovens are bigger than newer models.

Have you known someone to start what seemed to be a simple change in the kitchen but ended up with a major renovation?

What do you think of Deb's builder's creative solution?