liatonhome-blog

[liatonhome-blog]

Summer abruptly left us! We welcomed the long awaited rain and gathered around the fire! By the end of a weekend by the fire, books, magazines, newspapers, board games and lego litter the shaggy carpet .

 A place for bonding and relaxing. 

When planning our new home, there was no question that we would be installing a fireplace. It was something we always felt was missing in our first home. With a large open-plan area to heat we had to be sensible about how to sustainably keep our home warm through the wet winters in Cape Town.

After some research, some excellent advice and compromise (aesthetic and financial), we achieved an excellent result. A result that saw our electricity usage remain fairly constant through the first winter in the house. 

What work for us? 

While doing our research we came across a guy who had worked for a large retailer, who had broken away to join/co-found (i stand corrected on this story, but it was something like this) a specialist fire/ heating solutions business, Italfire. Giovanni Errera delivered great pre-sale advice, clear quoting, including installation, managed the installation process and then supported us with great after-sales service. 

We selected 2 fireplaces which are installed on opposite side of our open-plan area.  

The first is a closed, freestanding wood log fireplace. The original plan included a stunning open fireplace with a beautifully designed flue. The fireplace was to sit open on the concrete bench in the lounge. Changing to a closed fireplace, meant leaving behind a big feature from our lounge. I have never been a big fan of closed fireplaces. I thought the romance was lost. However, after some gentle convincing, I came to understand that the warmth we were trying to create in the area would be quickly lost with an open fire. This is the fireplace pictured above. 

At this point I also want to add that everything happens for a reason. And one aesthetic loss lead to another aesthetic win. When we tested the fireplaces after installation, we had some plaster cracking, because of the heat, behind the fireplace. We now had to tile the area. Feeling frustrated and disappointed, as I waited for a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg, I opened an issue of Home & Leisure magazine, to find the stunning tile that now creep up the wall behind the fire place. They landed up tying up the entire look of the room, with there beautiful mix of warm colours, soft flowers and incomplete edges. Tiles are by Douglas Jones, supplied by Pudlo in Salt River. 

I also want to add that the flue goes straight through our bedroom and is encased by an outer-layer that prevents one from burning if they happen to touch the flue. This was essential in our bedroom, as the flue runs floor to ceiling. 

I also want to add that the fireplace came with a log-holder below, which Italfire removed for us, in order to stand on the concrete bench.  

The 2nd fireplace was a huge commitment to our instance that we needed an energy efficient way to warm, not only downstairs, but upstairs too. Here it was my careful planning of the dining room and knowledge of the furniture we had and hope to bring in that directed our final choice to build this wood pellet fireplace into the wall. 

So perhaps the best way to explain how works is to take a look at this: https://italfire.co.za/italfire-installation-in-higgovale/ 

What is a pellet fireplace, in laypersons words: 

It is a clever fireplace, that you”feed” small wood pellets that look something like rabbit food. They are compressed wood chips that you pour into a “tank”. Once full you ignite the fire, control the room temperature, and the fan power, all by remote control. Not only is it as simple a pressing the power button to get the fire going, but you can set a timer for your fire to go on early in the morning before you wake up, so you wake up to a warm home, or in the evening, when you are preparing supper, you don’t have to worry about building (or igniting) a fire, once programmed. You can set this up for weekdays and weekends. The next super cool thing that this does is warm or bedrooms upstairs. 

So we were certain that we didn’t want underfloor heating and running heaters in 3-4 bedrooms isn’t energy or cost effective. So, whilst it is costly to install a ducting system, the benefits have been great. 3 out of 4 bedrooms really benefit from this. The last being our main bedroom, which is furthest from the downstairs pellet fire, and as such doesn’t receive the full benefit. However each of our kids rooms have vents, below their cupboards, behind their doors. Heat from the fire downstairs is pumped upstairs via a ducting system, by a fan, and heats the upstairs rooms. The vents can be opened and closed as desired. I have to admit that they do seem to dry the air a little in a closed room. 

All that said, we are delighted with our choices, both from an aesthetic and warmth perspective. 

 I highly recommend Italfire. Please refer to us if you use them or get them to quote :) 

Stay warm. We will be. 

[liatonhome-blog]

Beautiful bathrooms

I don’t know about you but when I think about all the beautiful spaces one can create in one’s home, bathrooms were the least exciting prospect. After all, what’s there to really worry about in a bathroom?

Well, that’s what I thought!

As we headed into the initial stages of your build, one of the first tasks set for me was bathroom fittings. We had barely started breaking through walls in the house and I was being asked about wall or counter-mounted taps and under-slung sinks and style baths. I had no idea where to begin. So while I had a good idea of how I wanted our living area to look, I had no picture in my mind of what I wanted out bathrooms to look like.

So I began the visits to the bathroom shops: Lavo, Still Bathrooms, Bathroom Bizarre, Exquisite Bathrooms, On-Tap and even Builders Warehouse. Aimlessly looking at the range baths, toilets, Geberits, taps. The cheap ones and the most expensive ones. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as slow closing toilets (although having seen a little boy come off second best when a regular toilet lid closed on his crown jewel, I was easily convinced that this was the right choice). I was still no closer to knowing what choices to make, aside from realising the staggering variety of baths available, and the high price tags that they come with!

I needed direction and focus. I needed to find a way to clarify what we were going to put into our bathrooms and remain in budget. And then came my moment of clarity. For months I had been creating a Pinterest board called “New House Thinking Board”. It was growing all the time and lacked and real structure, just a bunch of ideas. I began to sift through the images, creating “sub-folders”:

Bathrooms Kitchen Living-rooms Dining-rooms Kids rooms Wallpaper Paint colours Stairs Gardens and pools Furniture Lighting

All of a sudden my ideas had structure. My “likes” became clear. My rooms had vision. And my bathrooms had a distinctive look. Without evening realising what it was I liked, the pattern was clear. Regardless of the finish of the bathrooms I was Pinning they followed a clear trend: Counter-mounted basins; wall-mounted taps in the main bathroom; counter mounted taps in the others; toilets are functional and you generally have little choice on how to flush these days! Even the style bath I preferred seem to come through.

And so my shopping trips became more structured, with a clear focus on the budget. Constantly working out where I could compromise on one element to buy something I simply loved and felt would make a difference to the aesthetic of the room. I made big concessions for our guest loo (sometimes stealing out of my furniture budget), to create a room that is visible and well used.

After receiving excellent customer service at a few places, price still won the day, and we finally settled on Still Bathrooms for all the bathroom fittings. Whilst they were difficult to engage initially, once we got the ball rolling, Martina provided great service and advice. From the start she made sure that EVERYTHING we were going to need was included in the quote, so there were no surprises. There was plenty that we hadn’t thought of, from shower traps, to piping and drainage requirements. So whilst your plumber will fit all this, you need to buy everything at some point. It was fantastic (whilst sill being surprising), that this was itemised and included in their quotes, right from the start.

What started off an a tedious, and un-sexy part of the build, slowly became a very creative process. I designed unconventional bathroom vanities and worked with our incredible carpenter (Crallan Potgieter of Hot-Orange, www.hot-orange.co.za) to make these dreams a reality. Together we bought colour into the sea of white porcelain, with some 50’s quirk and a modern twist.

The thing about choosing those fixtures and fittings is that you need to have a vision for the space they will occupy. With 4 full bathrooms and a guest loo in question I needed to lose my disinterest in bathrooms and find a way to pull it all together. After spending countless afternoons at ALL the tile shops in Paarden Eiland, and going in and out of Pudlo (www.pudlo.co.za) in Woodstock, I found myself stuck on some mosaics. The thing is, I couldn’t begin to imagine our rather large bathrooms fully mosaiced. Them, one afternoon I was blessed to be in Pudlo talking with their very helped sales staff, asking all sorts of questions when Nicole De Freitas, Director of Pudlo, happened to be in the store. We got chatting about what I was thinking of doing with the mosaics. She was able to offer great advice and direction on where we needed to tile and where we could tone down a bit.

It was in the same conversation that I mentioned my idea for the main en-suite bathroom. It was easy in theory: I wanted plain white tiles, thin, rectangular shaped tiles to create a herringbone pattern. And whilst this doesn’t some to complicated, I had been to every tile shop I could think of and hadn’t found found them. I had even found someone who is a professional tile-cutter to take a plain white, rectangle normal size tile and cut them into 3 narrow tiles for us. But this was taking me out of budget. Nicole told me to leave it to her, and by them end of the afternoon, she had sourced the tiles for me. And, with her help, Crallans great eye for the grain in large piece of wood, and the meticulous hand of the tilers from Fraser-Jones builders, we got our dream bathroom.

Each of the other bathrooms follow the same formula as each other, each one with its spark of colour giving them their own, individual feel. For me, this was easier that making 4 completely different choices. So many decisions to make, so we decided to keep those simple.

And lastly the guest loo. The smallest room in the house and one of my favourites .I love everything about this little space. I love the wallpaper (http://www.carasavenphotography.com/), the basin (Moroccan Warehouse), and the mixer (our most extravagant in the house!).

First orders were in. And now we could get on with the other fun stuff.

1 year later and our main en-suite was featured in the House & Leisure Before and After issue, in the top 6 for renovation ideas.

For these images and other ideas, flick through my gallery.

[liatonhome-blog]

Big words. Big ideas. Before I get to all the lovely fluffy stuff about inspiration and imagination, it is important to know that every decision made when renovating or building house has a price tag and consequence. Around the time we were deciding on an architects, we went out for dinner with a friend and architect, Tarryn Cohen from Perutin Architects.She gave us some invaluable advice, that I didn't fully understand at the time. She said we must employ a QS. A Q what I hear you ask? A QS- Quantity Surveyor. Big words. Quantity Surveyor. In layman's terms the individual who can quantify all building costs you are likely to incur during the building process. So they can tell you how much the build will cost based on the plans (provided that you don't make changes along the way, and use the same building material that they recommend). Order of Magnitude. No pun intended- an incredibly huge, itemized document that lays out your building costs before you begin building. By this I mean, the cost of every brick and roughly how many will be used. Every bit of cement. Pipes for water. Taps. Plugs. Facets. Light switches.Light fittings. Panes of glass. Window frames. Door frames. Kitchen counters. I could go on and on. But look around you and think about how every fitting and fixture, surface and floor cost something. So at the point where you have loosely (or very specifically) given your architect your budget and then gone ahead and worked with them to design your dream home, you hand over the grand plan to the QS, who goes back to the office and, based on the plans and brief provided by the architect and you the client, begins to break this down into minute detail, before handing back to you an Order of Magnitude. This is the point where you gasp and turn back to your architect and say you need to re-work some of the original ideas you had, because you know that in reality this dream won't be so dreamy if you can't pay for it! Order of Magnitude. A spectacular document. One that left me in awe. One that also made me feel empowered to make decisions within clear boundaries. And, we do boundaries well in our relationship and family. I am deeply grateful for the nurturing, quite fatherly way that our QS- the late Billy Steele- gently guided us into the building stage of the project. He enabled us to make realistic (and creative) decisions by knowing where where we could "win on the swings, what we lost on the roundabouts". Billy sadly passed away during the time we were building our house. Tender. The process of comparing the cost of various builders against each other, based on the specifications as drawn up by the QS. At the end of the day you want a reputable builder that can build your dream home, hopefully on time and within budget. Budget. This is the money you have available to spend on building (and possibly interiors and furnishing). Be clear on what that number is and plan accordingly. In general we all over-extend ourselves while building in some way. Some people extend themselves much more than others. Know your limits, your real limits and make smart decisions accordingly. If you choose to do something in your build that is more expensive than you were hoping, but you feel is non-negotiable or select an irresistible fitting that you simply adore, make sure you balance these choices by dropping something else that you would like to do but could live without. Contingencies. Yip, you need to budget for Plan B or account for the unknown. For example, we live in Cape Town on the slopes of Table Mountain. Digging in these parts of the world means you may or may not hit granite rock as soon as you begin to excavate. So while the cost of laying new foundations carries a certain cost, your might want to factor in what cost would be if you do hit rock and need to blast it out (in some way or another). Project Manager. There are no rules on who this should be. It could be your architect. It could be your builder. It could be an independent project manager. Whoever that person is, it is highly recommended that they understand the building process and have a good eye for detail. They should be confident in their technical knowledge to ask the right questions and ensure the project stays on track (time-wise). This requires regular site visits and communication with the builder and engineer. Seems obvious, I know, but so many people go off-track because their project isn't being closely managed and they don't know what is reasonable or not. It's similar to when you take your car in for a service and they tell you that you need to do a whole lot of additional things that are not a standard part of the service. You accept it, because you simply do not have any real idea of what they are talking about. Building can be much the same. Jargon and technicalities. We we very fortunate to have an excellent project manager in Ana, an architect from our architects office, teaming up with a whip-cracking engineer, and a meticulous husband. We were onsite everyday to check on the progress and pushed the builder to account for what had been done daily. At the end of the day, this is your home you are building and your money you are spending. You need to keep tight control over the situation, regardless of the professionals you have appointed. And now, go build that dream!

[liatonhome-blog]

Begin with the end in mind In November 2013, weeks away from the arrival of our 3rd child. We were taken, by an estate agent, to see a little 50’s house perched on a hill on the slops of Table Mountain. It was everything we weren’t looking for- 3 bedrooms, a garage on street level with many stairs to access the house, no pool and in dire need of a renovation. What we wanted was a house with 4 bedrooms, a garage with access to the house (for those rainy winter days) and a garden with a pool. We wanted a house that need grooming rather than renovating. And we definitely did not what to build a house. But, as we stepped though the front door, I knew in my heart and soul that this was the house for us. As I walked around, I immediately started to plan what I would do if we bought this house. 2 weeks later we owned that little house and our baby was born. We had simple plan. It was aligned to the vision I had when I first walked in. We would remove some walls, open up the space downstairs, and put the bedrooms upstairs. We would keep the kitchen and bathrooms in the same place to avoid the cost of re-routing the plumbing. And the existing parquet would definitely stay. The main thing we were struggling with was how this house would look on the outside. The house lacked character and so there was no need to retain its exterior appearance, and we had never thought about how our dream home should look. After all, we were not going to be building a house, just doing a small renovation, and even that was not in the original new house plan. So we began chatting to a few architects, telling them our ideas and letting them draw up a plan. And as the year drew to a close we were feeling quite uninspired by what we were seeing. So, I called a friend-of-a-friend who lived in a stunning art-deco house that I had been fortunate to visit once. I wanted to know who their architect was. The conversation lead to a discussion about 2 or 3 other architects that they had heard about, who had similar style and vision. One name rang a bell. After that conversation I went back to an “inspiration” file I had been keeping from when we did a very small renovation on our 1st home. There I found an article from a 2009 Elle Decoration, featuring a house I loved for its style and features- parquet floors, concrete features and old steel frame windows. The architect- Antonio Zaninovic. Tip #1: Create a file for tear-outs. File away the magazine clipping of the things you love. Save them for a future date. Remember, it magazine cutting from 2009 that inspired me. It gave me a clear vision of what a beautiful home looked like to me. This file was started before Pinterest was available. That said, I still have both on the go: A file for magazine cuttings, cards and leaflets (from decor shows, shops and events), AND a Pinterest board that morphs and changes all the time . So whilst I believed that it was not going to be feasible to use an architect who was being featured in magazines, we decided to at least meet him and see what he was like. That changed everything. He was our guy. He loved the space and energy of the house and shared our vision of what it could be. Presenting to us his first ideas of what he thought we could do with the space, and a fair amount of great negotiating by my husband, our home finally had a face. And we had an architect. (www.antoniozaninovic.com) Tip #2: If you don’t ask you don’t get. Reach for the dream and negotiate your way to achieving it. There will be many choices to make along the way. Know when you are willing to compromise and know when to go for gold! And so the dream began.

[liatonhome-blog]

[liatonhome-blog]

Begin with the end in mind

In November 2013, weeks away from the arrival of our 3rd child. We were taken, by an estate agent, to see a little 50's house perched on a hill on the slops of Table Mountain. It was everything we weren't looking for- 3 bedrooms, a garage on street level with many stairs to access the house, no pool and in dire need of a renovation. What we wanted was a house with 4 bedrooms, a garage with access to the house (for those rainy winter days) and a garden with a pool. We wanted a house that need grooming rather than renovating. And we definitely did not what to build a house. But, as we stepped though the front door, I knew in my heart and soul that this was the house for us. As I walked around, I immediately started to plan what I would do if we bought this house. 2 weeks later we owned that little house and our baby was born. We had simple plan. It was aligned to the vision I had when I first walked in. We would remove some walls, open up the space downstairs, and put the bedrooms upstairs. We would keep the kitchen and bathrooms in the same place to avoid the cost of re-routing the plumbing. And the existing parquet would definitely stay. The main thing we were struggling with was how this house would look on the outside. The house lacked character and so there was no need to retain its exterior appearance, and we had never thought about how our dream home should look. After all, we were not going to be building a house, just doing a small renovation, and even that was not in the original new house plan. So we began chatting to a few architects, telling them our ideas and letting them draw up a plan. And as the year drew to a close we were feeling quite uninspired by what we were seeing. So, I called a friend-of-a-friend who lived in a stunning art-deco house that I had been fortunate to visit once. I wanted to know who their architect was. The conversation lead to a discussion about 2 or 3 other architects that they had heard about, who had similar style and vision. One name rang a bell. After that conversation I went back to an "inspiration" file I had been keeping from when we did a very small renovation on our 1st home. There I found an article from a 2009 Elle Decoration, featuring a house I loved for its style and features- parquet floors, concrete features and old steel frame windows. The architect- Antonio Zaninovic. Tip #1: Create a file for tear-outs. File away the magazine clipping of the things you love. Save them for a future date. Remember, it magazine cutting from 2009 that inspired me. It gave me a clear vision of what a beautiful home looked like to me. This file was started before Pinterest was available. That said, I still have both on the go: A file for magazine cuttings, cards and leaflets (from decor shows, shops and events), AND a Pinterest board that morphs and changes all the time . So whilst I believed that it was not going to be feasible to use an architect who was being featured in magazines, we decided to at least meet him and see what he was like. That changed everything. He was our guy. He loved the space and energy of the house and shared our vision of what it could be. Presenting to us his first ideas of what he thought we could do with the space, and a fair amount of great negotiating by my husband, our home finally had a face. And we had an architect. (www.antoniozaninovic.com) Tip #2: If you don't ask you don't get. Reach for the dream and negotiate your way to achieving it. There will be many choices to make along the way. Know when you are willing to compromise and know when to go for gold! And so dream began.

[liatonhome-blog]

Not much more than 1 year ago we moved into our beautifully designed and renovated home. For the first few months I simply relished being in the space. Everyday felt like I was playing house. My greatest joys came from the satisfaction of knowing that we (and when I say “we” I kind of mean “I”) had researched and sourced every switch, swatch, tap and tile, that now surround us. I have decided to share some of that journey and the inspirations behind the decisions. This is just the beginning ❤️