Most polished concrete floors are actually a thin layer of concrete poured over the existing floor (often with colour, dye or other effects mixed into it). But ours is quite unique (we’re so special).

Our concrete floors are the actual original slab of the house, complete with faults, chips and oil stains (you can see where the previous owners used to park their cars). New sections were added where it was necessary to reinforce the structure, or to cut into the slab to insert plumbing and pipes and the kitchen island bench.

The guy who did the actual polishing commented on the aggregate (the little tiny stones embedded in the cement to make it stronger), saying that it was rare these days to get aggregate that looked like that (we think it was poured in the 1950′s).

But how does it wear as a floor? Well, we love it. It’s easy to keep clean (just vaccuum, mop with warm soapy water, occasionally it needs a coat of protecting sealant). I never worry about spilling anything on it, since it doesn’t stain and everything just wipes off. It’s especially awesome with kids. We have the concrete floors across the whole bottom storey of the Box – kitchen, dining and living areas.

In summer, it’s cool to walk on, and keeps the temperature of the house just lovely. We rarely have to use the air conditioner in summer (upstairs where we have carpeted it’s a different story). But we truly believe the concrete keeps the overall temperature of the Box down.

In winter, it’s quite cold. We do need to put the heaters on, and it takes a while to heat up the concrete (I would say a few days). Once the concrete has warmed up a bit, and as long as you don’t let it get too cold again, you’re pretty right. But we have needed to buy a few rugs to cover as much of the floor area as possible (we take these rugs up in summer).

It also doesn’t help that one whole wall of the downstairs living area is floor to ceiling glass bi-fold doors. Well, again, it’s great in summer when we can open up the whole house to let the beautiful cool breezes flow through the whole Box. But it sucks in winter (as the warm air escapes straight through the glass). So we have curtains to pull across in winter to add some insulation.

If we had the funds, there are things we could easily do to increase the heat-efficiency of the Box (like double glazed windows). But overall, we love our polished concrete floors, and we would definitely have them in any future house.

(See what we wrote about our concrete flooring during the actual reno process here).

Our collection has turned into a bit of a novelty at home: every time we have an asian dish for dinner, there’s a little moment where we carefully select which set of chopsticks we will eat with for that meal. It’s goofy but it’s just a thing we do.

So the chopsticks are currently sitting in a container on the kitchen counter, which looks fine. But I have always hoped that I would magically come up with some other genius idea for displaying them. Well, it seems that someone has done the thinking for me.

(from The Kitchn)

I saw this brilliant idea over at The Kitchn (Apartment Therapy) and I am sure we could implement something similar at the Box. Even if we don’t screw the little eyelet things directly into the wall, maybe into a plank of wood which then gets mounted on the wall. Or onto a flat surface that you could then frame? We’ll see.

One of the problems with a reno that isn’t discussed (publically at least) is the casualties that stack up for every day of the reno.

For us it started with the usual. Our blinds were broken when we took them off the wall. We broke three glasses packing away the kitchen (what can i say – the wife is clumsy…) and numerous things were damaged from the bucket loads of rain that fell when all of our stuff was sitting wrapped in tarp on our front deck.

Fast forward five months of reno. The wife and I are enjoying are first morning in our new house, and I, being the model husband, rise early to make the wife some breaky. The breakfast would include toast with a smattering of butter and a milky coffee, experted brewed by yours truly. I approached the machine, turned it on and….nothing. Again, turned it on….and nothing. The constant pressing of buttons did nothing to alleviate the situation…

Yes the coffee machine is dead….the reno claims another one…

Now its personal..

We added to the same IKEA kitchen that we bought in 2004 and used it to build off for our new space. We had customize the kitchen a far bit to make it fit and look integrated with the design of the house. A few people have asked what appliances we used – our cooktop is a Fisher and Paykel CT560X, oven is a Fisher and Paykel BI603E .

We still have the little matter of a dining table – size and where to put it….

Originally we decided that a rangehood was something that we didn’t need. We didn’t have one in our old kitchen…so why in our new one? I admit their was occasions I was lulled and seduced by those sexy showrooms which feature kitchens so sleek you would feel out of place cooking in it. In particular, the large expanses of stainless steel made me drool homer style. But I had resisted, simply because I couldn’t visualise this big (albeit beautiful) thing hanging down in a space I wanted to keep open and uncluttered because the of the low roof.

However one dry January afternoon, our builder Ben, while discussing the layout of the kitchen kept at me.
“So you’re not having a rangehood?”
“And the rangehood…oh you aren’t having one are you?”
“You are sure you don’t want to duct over your hotplate – perhaps a rangehood…?”

These subtle questions kept at me and shortly after this conversation, while flipping through an old copy of InsideOut I saw a picture of boxy looking kitchen, with a shallow, undermount rangehood set into a box which only hung slightly lower than the kitchen. This box was clad with a oak panelling like the featured kitchen, but I liked the idea, thinking that something like that set into gyprock (you know how I love my gyprock) and set about trying to find something that fit. We looked around at a few brands, and it was hard to find what we were after. Most were the usual pull out types or giant stainless steel ones I had sworn off. We finally found ‘the one’ in Harvey Norman – pretty much sitting above the same cooktop we purchased 6 months earlier. It was interesting because we were quizzed far more asutely by sales assisstant about how we ‘use’ the stove so he could gauge whether the rangehood would be powerful enought to suck out what we wanted. Luckily, this on the beefier side of suction, but other, more expensive brands promised to suck the paint off the wall if needed.

So we purchased the Smeg p52/2 model. A tidy unit that has some nice halogen lighting which will work a treat with the copious wok based dishes I will cook.

For those wondering how we are ducting the rangehood. We boxed in the beam with gyprock and a duct runs along the beam and outside. You can see the end of it in the top right of the first picture.

The kitchen is starting to come together with the island bench (aptly named ‘Straya’) installed over the weekend. Indeed much like our fair continent – the middle of the bench will be a great source of heat when properly warmed- where a fisher & paykel ceramic cooktop will be installed.

I would indulge in a metaphoric comparison of the rest of our kitchen with our northern continental neighbours (Fridge being north western Russia, Oven being the Gobi, Cupboards being the eastern bloc and so on) but I can’t be bothered….

…nobody is home? Well it does feel that way. Jo and I have been relative strangers in our own house over the past few weeks as we have feasted and rested in other venues (parents house and local restaurants before politely being told to go home) before returning to The Box to sleep and bathe. We have no bananas – nor do we have any food for that matter. No fridge, no cupboard, in fact no kitchen equals no food. So lights have been on (more of them recently)- but the builders have been home.

And busy they have been. Plastering was completed today with a fine mist of power over everything (and the two days of drizzle has turned it into a fine mud – awesome!). The kitchen is taking shape too. More on the design later – but Bryan and co have successfully put the upstairs kitchen back together downstairs in a far more strengthened and one might say, square way.

Halogens were installed downstairs today too – which certainly sheds new light on our downstairs area.

Go Team!

and shortly after, open and emtpy Dec2003

with stuff but no kitchen… Feb2004

with kitchen and wife—Dec2005