Boulton Leigh

I love Toowoomba. It's so pretty. It's how Brisbane could have looked had we protected our heritage buildings and spent some money on beautification not just tunnels and roads.
The houses are 'maintained' rather than tricked up and contorted into crazy Frankenhauses, or worse still, burnt to the ground by property developers who aren't allowed to knock them down.

Let's now focus on the pretty lil' shacks of T-ba.

By the way, I think this one pictured above is currently for sale. Asking price $1,500,000.

 

 

We recently bought our own little piece of Toowoomba. Not quite like these ones above,  but cute, cosy and old.

 

 

Boulton-Leigh was built in 1864 and celebrated her 150th birthday this year. She is one of four houses, all still standing, which formed Toowoomba's first gated community. It's near the hospital and was apparently where the doctors and surgeons lived. Our little house is the smallest by far of the four houses. It's in a beautiful camphor laurel lined terrace.

 

 

The house is made from double cavity brick, and was extended in the 1930s. It now has three bedrooms, two living areas, sleepouts, bathroom, kitchen and laundry. It's surprisingly roomy for a cottage and it has a good feeling about it - definitely no bad spirits here.

 

 

Over the next couple of weeks, the house will undergo what we call a 'tart-up'; fresh paint, a front fence, some new light fittings and some more planting in the garden. Then it will be put up for rent for the time being.

 

Next time you have a spare day, take a trip up to the Darling Downs and have a look around. It' a spectacular time of year. Happy Easter!

 



Milton Moon

I may not have made much progress with this blog lately, but elsewhere, I'm doing ok. My husband (I'm not even going to pretend I had anything to do with it) has finished the main room downstairs and now it's up to me to do the finishing bits; furniture, rug, sideboard, mirror...
Last update, we had a thousand colour swatches on the wall. We went from white to blue, grey to green. Nothing was happening and in the end we had to put the anchors on the airy fairy swatches and get ourselves to the paint shop and make a decision. A bit of pressure can work wonders with procrastination.
After a few minutes we laid our peter pointers on a wee square of colour called Milton Moon and walked out with 10 litres of it.

The cane is a recent purchase and another work in progress. The covers are off getting made, hopefully as we speak and should be here in a week or two.

Originally when that light was hung the room wasn't painted and we weren't so keen on it, but now it seems to fit in a lot better. The outdoor lights on the other side of the French doors are a very similar style, plain glass with a black metal frame.

How's that grey? We are also happy with the oyster lights in the coffered ceiling. They were also quite the decision.

 

Both the girls have these el cheapo, yet a la pretty lights in their rooms. I got them on sale at Recollections.

It was my birthday recently. My people gave me this jardinière which I'd spotted up at Paddo Antiques. It will roost downstairs, maybe with an orchid or fern in it.

Riddle me this. Why is it that all the best television shows aren't on television or they are shown at 2.30am? Arrested Development, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, 30 Rock.

One more thing. I'm reading a great book at the moment called The Baroness by Hannah Rothschild. It's about her great aunt Nica who ran away from the Rothschild lifestyle to live in New York with her African American jazz musician boyfriend. Those Rothschilds were a wacky bunch.