40 weeks to go... and Christmas musings

Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel as walls are reconfigured, I am starting to get a little bit excited about what the rooms might look like when they are finished

Isn't this Mary McDonald attic room divine? I am using it as the inspiration for my office, although currently it looks like this

But it definitely has potential! Especially the exposing of the brick fireplace.



and just look at the trap door now in the roof for my widow's walk (also known informally by me as the new location of the  Friday at Four drinks rooftop bar!)

I love the view from this floor of the city between the HH roofs

 

and Churchie looks good too, especially as Brisbane is abloom with the purple of the jacaranda trees

In fact, maybe I will refer to the new HH logo as jacaranda purple - since it was developed in October when I believe the jacaranda trees in Brisbane are at their most spectacular

Just look at these shots of Brisbane awash with jacaranda purple

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?s=76474ea5a021ce6c2823c40e34dc2360&p=66968795

The attic dormers are receiving lots of love and attention too

As the week wore on, it was becoming increasingly clear to me that the Mary McDonald dream may, in fact, be just a perfect inspiration for my favourite room in the house - see

and in a sad look back, this was the room after the fire

I went on a Houzz rampage (got to love that website) and was inspired by many other study and attic areas too

 www.houzz.com

the possibilities are endless, if only the budget was too! I am not the million dollar decorator unfortunately!  But I digress, let's go back to the reality check of Week 40 (and counting down) and what things looked like at the beautiful HH 

Rendering the fire damaged walls which had been stripped to their brick bones was serious work

But very productive

Of course, with all the action about the house, Superstar Tea Cosy could not stay away and decided to pay a site visit just to see what everyone was up to - she checked in on the builder boys during their morning tea break

She disrupted the very diligent Lauren at work 

and made a nuisance of herself with our very new staff member - meet Michelle

she fraternised with the archive files

and did an audit of the newly re-painted bedrooms

She paid a personal visit to the demolition zones

and even donned protective clothing to ensure safety first!

She enjoyed a random toilet stop on a toilet which simply appeared in the middle of the garden!

but her particular interest was the render and plaster team and she spent many an hour with them

She became the welcoming committee for the newly arrived on site insulation

and provided the farewell committee for the wrought iron railings which were dispatched for repair

but in highly exciting news - she finally found someone on site who would give her some time of day - Thanks Kev, I hope you and STC will be eternally happy together - just don't get too attached as she is as flighty as they come and when the next worker bee walks in who gives her the eye, you bet she will run off again - that is just the kind of girl she is!

In other HH news - We were thrown out of our office to make way for a verandah

These now demolished cupboards were the very ones PA HH painstakingly contacted on her first week at HH

now gone!

The price of progress!

In other planning news, I'm thinking HH needs a Christmas tree so I spent some of the week planning - and handpicked this pine in the front garden as the tree of choice

My inspiration is this beautiful bundle of light fantastic

This is the gorgeous Christmas tree outside the Palace Hotel  in New York (also known by Miss HH as the Gossip Girl hotel)  - it is spectacular

This photo was taken at Christmas 2011 with our friends the family Higgins - all the girls were channelling Blair and Serena from the Gossip Girls series!

and I was channelling their mum (and failing!) Anyway, I love the tree and I think there should be a Palace version at HH this Christmas - so I am onto it - stay tuned!

 http://www.storybookchristmastrees.com/2010/07/outdoor-led-christmas-lights.html

 It is only 10 weeks until Christmas! So I had better hotfoot this decision!
Have to go and do my leg of the 40km walk to help autism and AEIOU - Check out our WANTZ team on the AEIOU walk here

x HH