If you can post some pics and/or a sketch (with dimensions) it will make it easier to help.

I am sure the Kitchen Queen, MLDesign can take some time out from her esoteric discussion of black to offer some suggestions :)

mydesign0401 is this for you?

Are both sides of the u enclosed by wall, or does one side overlook the adjoining room?
Also, what finishes are featured on the current floor, walls as in splash back, and bench tops? I would like to know if this space is visible from any living spaces, and if so what light effects the kitchen during daytime?
And lastly, in a word what sums up the style of the house either as in the architecture or homeowners personal taste

Fiona_ab triple word score for esoteric!
Don't crown me prematurely, I'll do my best. :)

Thank you everyone for your support. I think it is all a bit too hard for me. Take care.

Carmeldaveson, I'm sorry you weren't able to find any helpful suggestions, or the inspiration to resolve some of your design issues. If you do check in again, I'd be happy to help with practical and simple ideas. From your summary, I got...
A minimal look with some character, the kitchen being a u shape can easily become messy, so I would integrate this kitchen, meaning many things behind doors as possible, that way the door you choose hides everything from your pantry storage, you ovens in a multiple tower even your laundry t the end as in a european laundry. Cever storage and simple clean surfaces are important if you don't want clutter, you need a home for everything really.
Gloss surfaces are also good for feeling of space, and light, omit handles in ca our of shadow lines so you don't get caught on knobs or handles walking past in a tight space, also looks more streamlined, low line overheads if any, and make the bench top opposite your oven as wide as possible in this space. Above your European laundry, which would really just look like a pantry, you could have open shelves to display objects to inject life or personality up high.
Sorry we couldn't help more.
Good luck. ML Design

@ Carmeldaveson.....what I wrote to mydesign0401 was for you too.
Do you think you could get someone to draw a floor plan of your kitchen showing its proximity to the other rooms around it...and do you think you could get help taking some digital photos that you could put up here to give Houzzers an idea of what your kitchen looks like? Then tell everyone what you would like your kitchen to be like?
It would be a great help! Help us to help you.

I love that you ladyrob1 have the willingness to give it all a go. I am a lot like you in that way. I know there's so much more to it than getting a design worked out, actually having the tradespeople firstly able to understand enou to quote your concepts and secondly, actually turning up to do it when required is a nightmare.
Carmeldaveson this is a lengthy process, but if it helps you I am happy to outline what the process is generally, and that way you can see if you're willing to tackle any of the stages one step at a time. That way no nasty surprises if you feel ive started something here I can't finish. Knowledge is definitely power, if you are clear of your goal and what you wNt this room to be at the end, and someone like me can explain how to get it, half the battles won when talking to a tradie, if they hear your confidence they will help you out, if they know other a little unsure, they can, not always, but can lead you up the green path, sometimes putting doubt into your mind or costing you unexpected money.
I completely understand your reluctance to start it. Perhaps the answer is to just renovate or facelift your kitchen. Bench top manufacturers will come to you and template your existing bench top and quote to install. Or cabinetmakers can do this. Also, depending on your kitchen, if the doors and drawer faces come off they can be replaced. Those clever wire ware products are smart storage space savers and can be retro fitted, even into old cabinets with the right carcass.
At the least, take some photos, and see what nous ers can come up with, you might get a nice surprise, and someone in your state could even assist you personally.

@mydesign0401.. Did you write the above to me or to Carmeldaveson or to both?

I was not trying to commit you to Carmeldaveson's reno and was not saying that she backed out because your ideas were too difficult....
I wanted simply to say not to give up, that as an oldrer lady myself I get it that it is probably very daunting for her.....sounds like such a big job for one seemingly on her own and not knowing where to start or even who to listen to.
I dentified with her and I thought it admirable that she had the courage to put her call for help up on HOUZZ.
TO CARMELDAVESON...
Many of us older ones are not so convinced anymore that old girls can do anything.... because, if we are truthful, on mnay fronts, many of us can't, not mentally and not physically.
I wanted you to take courage and I hoped someone who helped me might be able to inspire you....and if not, then somebody else might.
I wanted to let you know that if you're not giving up there are people who may be able to guide and assist.
Hope you give it a re-think. .

Just believe that Carmeldaveson deserves help just like the rest of us here.
75 is not a lifeless number in my book, just one that needs a bit of a boost.
You may not be a cheeky old DIYer like me who will not take "No" and who will shove if something starts to get all uphill...but being more of a lady and a little unsure is most certainly not groundsfor disqualification.

So - CARMELDAVESON , dear lady, just put out a bit more information about your kitchen and what you want and, as mydesign 0401 says...
."you might get a nice surprise and Houzzers in your state may even assist you in person".

Go on. Give it a go, You won't know until you try and if you don't make yourself heard nobody will know you are there!

Here, here! :) to you both.

Hi Carmel, you have clearly been putting a lot of thought into what you want for your kitchen, I have just looked at your ideabook. What I have got is you like shaker style cupboards, with long handles not knobs, you like the sink at the window so you can look out, you're a sucker for snazzy storage solutions (pull out pantry, spice racks, etc), you'd like an appliance cupboard. You want a euro style laundry, with stainless tub. You are also considering opening up one wall into the next room.

How did I do? We are happy to help you work out exactly what you want, so you can articulate what you want. I reckon you actually could just show a kitchen bod your ideabook and if they don't get what you want try someone else.

Is the problem loading up photos? We can help with that too!

Well well, Carmeldaveson is a dark horse, From "Thankyou all for your support, I think its all a bit too hard for me." and tearing at our good natures and compassion for a 75 yr old widow's dilemma, and fiona_ab crowning mydesign 0401 Queen of esoterics because she and I had long conversations about the effects of black ....seems the two have been really busy busy bees on Carmeldaveson's own page putting up heaps of wonderful kitchen pics with fiona_ab seemingly and presto in full charge of the whole project.
It looks like a Houzzer has taken it all on for Carmel well and truly and is even offering to put up Carmel's own photos as a service "they"...i.e. fiona_ab's company (I suppose) also offers!
How much more could a 75 yr old widow who initially found it all too daunting ever hope for? Fiona_ab certainly must have a heart of gold and an esoteric bent far reaching....enough to scoop Carmel and her admittedly overwhelming project up and become as "The wind beneath her wings!"
Flyin' high ladies, flyin' high, "....so high you almost reach the sky.! Its almost fantastic! Could this kitchen reno be the stellar project of Houzz 2014 if all the exquisite ideas come together.... justI can't wait to see how it all works out! Talk about the winds of fortune under the wings of hope and promise..it happened almost in an instant. Just goes to show who is out there ready to hop in....! Carmel is certainly a soul inspired and seems to have found the courage she professed on this site to lack. Amazing houzzer ladies...just amazing..Carmel's all fired up and nothing is too hard anymore!

Hmm, what to say about that. I guess were no longer needed here robin.. Back to the bat cave, I mean houzz DD lair in waiting for another design disaster, so we can put on anonymous masks and save the proverbial day!
I feel like your sidekick ladyrob1, if your robin, does that make me batman?
Fiona_ab, sounds like the works done, now easy to translate into reality for our elusive carmeldaveson. However, without pictures or a plan, well never know what could've so easily solved this dilemma.

I've learnt something....again! Oh for heaven's sake...you my sidekick? Maybe only because I am older..but by all appearances and idiosyncracies (SP)..certainly not wiser....and maybe you are too a bit to generous with your pearls. Back to HouzzDD lair...I too wonder how, without plan or actual pics can anything be achieved....but maybe our fiona_ab has spacial......ooops meant special insight.... I sincerely await the promising outcome..The project manager did allow for an out just in case the insight waned or wobbled on esoteric foundations..."I say old girl, isn't this one just a bit of fun?"

Just a thought. Megan...I keep a little book of...ehem....esoteric quotes and I write in any extras I discover here and there. Today's thought was. A: ."I often worry that I am on a wild goose chase." B: ":Why worry, that's what wild geese are for!"

Lady rob I actually chuckled at that, and almost spilt my tea. :) 'wobbled on esoteric foundations.' Clever wordsmiths. This has been like DD chess.
And I can only play checkers! Oh my.

Just keep the underpants on the inside!!

Ditto superman!

Lady Robin of Lochaber has the privilege of a cave of opal where to descend into the calming environment of an esoteric escape...underpants, work dacks, things with cracks abandoned at the surface with all Tools.
Oh...I need ideas for my underground kitchen! Any volunteers, Houzzers? Maybe a holiday in a cave for incentive?

I'm so there, underpants or no underpants! It feels like a headquarters me thinks.
Seriously though, what a spectacular place, I could imagine geometric cabinetry climbing and lining the walls up to the ceiling, and I'd mirror the floor.
Anyone else up for a game of tennis?

What do you mean by 'mirror the floor'? Literally? How about cabinetry...'growing out of the walls'? Something funky? Don't like geometric. Stll room for excavating....I must like hard work and making a mess! Need landscaping too....things that grow without too much water.

I did think literally, it would look beautiful with subtle lighting carting and reflecting shadows at night, and would reflect those walls beautifully. Please tell me this is not really your place? Im thinking this is just a fun hypothetical?

Its a lease...all places out there are leases.
The hypothetical was the romanticising about it being an "opal cave" and wanting to renovate it. Sorry. It satisfies my need to have a hideaway...like my plot in the Scottish highlands. No titles with a cave...but maybe Batman and Robin was a good suggestion of yours.
No opals either, the original excavators may have lucked out. It is in the opal fields and pretty remote. A life for the younger people and blokes who are fit, hale and hearty and can stand the work dreaming of riches..and can weather the "nothing" and the heat.
So, its sub leased out but I can still escape if I want to.
It was my dream as a four yr.old when on Nauru Island with my parents...Dad was an engineer working in the phosphate mines...suppose my days at work with him etched "cave" on my little mind.
Mum, the boss's wife, hosted the social evenings for... 'the Europeans'.
I had an intense dislike of her friends who, on seeing me drawing underground house plans and pictures of Hermit Crab would ask: "what do you want to be when you grow up?" For shock factor I said that I wanted to be a hermit and live in a cave!
Seems the most ardent of most of my childhood 'pronouncements' translated into material form along the years....some backfireing big time but I found a way to survive and make the best of adversity. Have hundreds of sketches of my underground house... from my younger years.
If the world comes to an end as foretold by seers and interpreters of portents such as a Blood Moon...I have a "Hidy Hole".
Still have fantasies about an indoor rock-faced shower bath with a natural water fall...

On HOUZZ... I actually came across a luxury modern shower room that had a water fall coming out of a stainless steel opening set in a rock-tiled face....the whole house was very earthy and very classy...would have bought it in an instant!

Rock Shower Room with hot water
Have friends at Charleville who built their own shower room out of collected rocks....in fact they built their whole house! They tapped into a warm underground spring and actually DO have a waterfall shower in a rock shower-room...No HWS needed..and only cost a bit of sweat and muscle power...proves that one does not need to spend millions if one has imagination and lives with nature.
There are some really wonderful natural habitats in the Western places.

If I had my way and the necessary wherewithall, I'd really not want to be a 'surface dweller'.
MIRRORS on the floor of the Batcave?
Did you just jump in with enthusiasm on that one Megan?
Had a chuckle with reference to the wearing of the underpants on the inside...and musing on that I have a girlfriend/ miner who wears none...under her jeans...but what if she wore skirts? What if lady visitors wore skirts walking on a mirror floor?! There would be far more to see than..."darting and reflecting light and shadows"...and blokes would have to be forbidden!
A Fantasy for the day.

Oh my goodness! I temporarily stopped reading when you said dreaming of rock shower exactly what I'm working on for my house, love the Sydney huge deposits of sandstone faces that so many have used in their homes, and I wanted my shower faced in rock, real rock, I have collected pics for early five yrs, soon to be a reality! Wow.
Now I'll continue my read.

Ohh how I'm laughing, your so clever that my mind tries to keep up with your witty banter at a hundred miles an hour, at the same time the either side of my mind is questioning the real and unreal of it all. I love caves too. Used to find myself climbing over them in sandringham and ocean grove at summer, thinking about how they got there, and whose home they were. Did you happen to meander through seaside villages on cliff faces whilst in Europe? My husbands from Croatia, and I spent quite some time with him, exploring seaside villages and fortified ports, Dubrovnik would be my last stop n this earth if I had a choice in it. These places made me think we humans could be as inventive as hermit crabs, making our house wherever we stop to admire the scenery, what a life! For most of us, for some reason, we don't, and live the rat race instead! City folk as rodents?.. Hermit crabs the coastal dwellers then what the rural runaways? I think that's why I've always been fascinated transforming homes with clever and cost effective ways that everyone can create their piece of fantasy in their home. I remember making outdoor showers with mm and dads banana lounges stacked o. Top of each other, and hanging a hose onto some outside stack work for a shower head. I was not yet in school, so about 4, now these things are sold. I wish I had the foresight and smarts to make some of my other fanciful ideas a reality. Sounds like you've don't a good job of it, your cave is somewhere I'd retreat to often. Ever watch Peter rabbit? Suppose not, we watch it each night with our daughter, and actually enjoy his adventures.

Fantasies for the day

No, not hypothetical, its a lease, all leases at White Cliffs. The hypothetical was about the opal, only the original excavators would have lucked out...maybe.
Its sub let now. I'm too old for the trip and the heat and the..."nothing". If I were not I would certainly not be a surface dweller.
As a tot going to work with Dad in the phosphate mines of Nauru Island just post WWII...before it was ever a Republic, I probably soaked up the 'cave' idea. Could not resist when a friend wanted to vacate their lease. Its nice down there!
On the drive out West Queensland there's a place called Possum Park. It used to be underground munition bunkers during WWII. Today the underground bunkers are made into tourist accomodation...its beautiful.
At Charleville out West I have friends who built their own house one rock at a time...incredible. They tapped into and underground warm spring and built their rock shower room so that the shower gushes out of the rockface. The the water is redirected with valves to the hand basin...also out of rock. The costs were for machinery and labour and a bit of cement and things.. No HWS. Self generated power...really COOL in summer and warm in winter even if aboveground. Underfloor heating from the warm water running through copper pipes under concrete floor sealed with a self levelling rubber material so bare feet inside, The whole place is surrounded by..well...shadecloth indoor-outdoor gardens of lush plants...its like living in the garden in a hidy hole...you'd never expect it to be there.

Amazing HOUZZES at hardly $150,,000.
Saw one on Houzz that had a shower room of rock tiles and a waterfall shower coming out of the rockface...and shiny taps to control the flow...MMMM. The rest of the house was so earthy...would have bought it in an instant, but why spend that kind of money...and who needs to when the same atmosphere can be achieved in the middle of nowhere? Guess that's the trade off....only a certain type can live in the wilderness....but we all "Need the tonic of wilderness..." (Thoreau)

Mirrors on the floor of the Batcave?
Did you just jump in enthusiastically there Megan?
Had a good giggle with reference to the wearing of underpants...Have a girfriend/miner who wears none...under her jeans, but what if she wore a skirt? What if lady visitors wore skirts? There'd be more to see than "darting and reflecting light and shadows"...and blokes would have to be banned! Seriously though...I'd do it!

OOPS repeated myself here....forgot what I wrote this morning but was off into the world of caves and the underground.
CROATIA? Oh MY! I'd love to go there and see what you saw. I've always wanted to go to visit the Labryinth of Knossos in Turkey...but its probably had the foundations of it bombed to dust these days!
ITALY? Caves? Me? No such luck...told you what happened to me at 16 and that I got mixed up with some nuns. That was NO holiday and no freedom to roam. I didn't even get to see the Catacombs in all the 7 yrs I was there and was not allowed to admire the massive nude sculptures and fountains...and the marble angels suspended from the ceiling of the Vatican's St. Peters...female angels...clad from the waist down...wearing no bras and flying low? OH! not allowed to look up! Since we are excitedly exchanging where we've been and what we've seen.....top this - Bet you haven't been to Hell on Earth!

im going to look into holidaying at that possum park, I would love that sort of escape. We all have a little adventure in us all. Very true about nature as tonic, it has real and lasting effects on us all. When I visited falling water in Pennsylvania, which was a birthday gift from my beloved, I cried to see it, not sad or even overwhelmed, it just connected with me on a level, that innately my senses let go, and the wisdom of living and innovating out of nature is such an inspired thing. Should seem like common sense.
As for the mirror, I did jump in while it was still a hypothetical, but in reality I would love to see it. Nothing on the interior really, just lighting and those wonderful walls wrapping you everywhere. It Croatia I went into what they call the blue caves, the water is literally iridescent, glowing because of light streaming onto the deep sea, and coming up into this beautiful lagoon. It was a magic only of movies, and to know it exists on this planter and requires no special effects, lighting, props or anything, and is effectively free to discover, it saddens me many will never see this wonder for themselves. I so badly want my daughter to see these wonders.
A mirror floor and perspex furniture, puts me in mind of those ice cave restaurants and hotels I'm sure they've caught your imagination too. Hadn't thought about underpants, very rarely think about them actually. Lol
Of course it would never be done because of that. But certainly would look great.

He'll on earth? Is there such a place, or is that a hypothetical too? I know your cave is real. But he'll on earth, isn't that relative to your beliefs?. Is earth he'll in the biblical sense? I had remembered your story of the nuns, I can't really imagine those times.
I know you saw the Vatican, but in a different light, I was awe struck, Michelangelo's Sistine chapel was ridiculous. It was almost forty degrees and I had to cover arms and legs, those days are still somewhat present. You mentioned Knossos, I've not been to turkey, but have friends from there, who Have stories of stunningly beautiful places too, I also love labyrinths and maze gardens, my aunt had one, it's that Alice in wonderland escapism I'm sure.
You know, I was the first in my family to ever travel, I sound well travelled, I am I'd say, because if my husband, we spent three months checking of a list of awe inspiring places in Europe, he is amazing. I still can picture every place. Before that, I never thought I'd ever see those things. I had a late start, but now I just want to go again and show my little Eva these places exist.
So where's hell on earth?

Seems we are fortunate in different ways to have achieved some of our innate visions. You said you write poetry...so do I ;though never published...just never been able to negotiate the ways of civilisation and commerce. My favourite poet is Wordsworth. My favourite poems that make me cry rivers are "Ode to Childhood" and "Lines"....both have so much of the deep longings I've always experienced. There has to be a blight on my life along with a blessing...either the one or the other triumphs and I'm left somewhere in the middle not really knowing who or what. You say I'm witty...yes, that's the life saver ring. When a person like me, meant to be a WIZ of some sort. gets shackled and taken away by people who think they can profit from the...excruciating intellect they see....what happens is..if the WIZ survives and escapes...he/she either goes completely of their head and is handed over to the brain disectors and the legal traffickers of mind drugs...or...the other side of the brain prevails and they become...Comedians! Did you watch anything on TV for Mental Health Week? And Robin Williams? And ...the Opera Pagliaccio...the crying Clown?
That"s how it goes. Sometimes the' rodents' prevail.....I call them PEEEEEPLE!
The only salvation is...underground in every respect and keep away from...well...the rodents....although some rodents are just lovely...Guiniea Pigs? (Squeakles is their real name.)
What to call the rural runnaways?
Maybe the Faeries? Willow- the -Whisps?
The ones I know have hearts of gold, are intelligent in the extreme, no Uni degrees neded to outsmart the smartest of rodents. They can turn soil into gems and make gardens grow where there's little water and no mammal animal will hurt them....different ones have an affinity with different animals, plants and creatures. They fear nothing and nothing fears them.
PETER RABBIT?
What channel is it on?
I have a thing for Llewis Caroll's "Alice Through the Lookinmg Glass" and the White Rabbit who is perpetually late for something. Much of the conversation in that story seems to translate to adult behaviour. I know they have to study it in Psychology...so guess it was written about people and life really..."Its all a pack of cards"? I think so. Everyone is dealt a hand and they have to work out how to live by it. Gets difficult when peeeeeple selfishly interfere.

Google Ex Pastorelle Sister Speaks Out and see where that takes you. Or just LadyRob.

I don't know that Possum Park has much of an internet site, it didn't when I was there coming home from Charleville, and since I was there about 21/2 years ago I understand they rented out some of the bunkers to the mining fraternity...lots of mining going on out West to the detriment of..."the nothing", But good luck. It was nothing fancy then but quite intriguing. It may have either become rejuvenated or a bit of a dump. Hope not. If memory serves me well it is near Miles in western Queensland. I did have a brochure but have filed it away = misplaced it.

Love your descriptions of the magical places you visited and the things you saw! Yes I've seen the ICE palaces and I've loved Travelogue movies and David Attenborough's Living Planet series. I don't get too excited about some of the grand houses people build and wonder why they would want to live like that and 'in' something like that. What excites me about a house is when it has brought the atmosphere of the outside inside or when it has amalgamated with the Earth in one way or another.
You described you beautiful house and your dream shower room...that's what I mean. My little old place is just that and it is the best I could salvage from what was left of me and any resources and strength I had at 30 yrs of age thrust into a strange world I'd not seen or been part of since a teenager. It was like finding my way around Mars and learning what the Martians did! When I first came across my cottage as if conjured up out of a Wordsworth poem that inspired me where to go as if by magic, friends had all the suggestions of how I should fix it and what colours to paint the bare walls that had been like that since they day it had been built. All I wanted was...a shell...like the Hermit Crab! Alll the years I've spent here have gradually moulded the little cottage into my shell.
I believe that houses are, as well as what we make them, also WHO we are...just as you express in other words.
I would love to have the wherewithall to really take this little place back to what it should have been had the original owners and builders had the funds to put into it everything a place of its time could have had.
But not to be. A friend gave me a litle verse one day:

"My house is small.
No mansion for a millionnaire
But there is room for love
And there is room for friends...
That's all I care."

Its wonderful that you've had the fortune to see and experience all those beautiful natural things. It is no mystery that you have such wonderful flair for translating that beauty into living modern environments.... of course all the mod cons make life easier and free up our time to...enjoy..and that's what we should be doing...its all here for our enjoyment.
I do not understand why people who could do otherwise choose to live in .. that kind of civilisation that is so very alien to the higher part of us....I've never understood why the Faeries have to...break rocks with their bare hands so to speak...in order to have just a little of what reflects nature, but I guess its their willingness and their ardour for the life that they have that allows them to confront tempests without faltering, without losing the real part of themselves that inspires them to keep on keeping on.
To mind a stanza from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and then off to tend my domestic creatures and to my own needs....

"Love is not love which alters when alteration finds,
Nor bends with the remover to remove,
Ah no, it is an ever fixed mark
That looks on tempests and never falters."

We'll meet here again.

Lady Robin, a lady like no other, I am at a loss for words after reading your responses. Each one teaches me things I should know, lessons I had forgotten, and things I will not ever forget. I can't articulate as beautifully as you, and I have only just started reading through your referenced google topic. That alone has left me wondering how on earth I have been lucky enough to share a conversation with you. I'm saddened and angered by what happened to you and you family as a result. You must have the salt of he earth in friends around you, surely they were put there for you to happen across as some sort of compensation, though not nearly enough.
I hope my travel anecdotes aren't making me sound self important, I still spew out my stories with childlike enthusiasm, like design, I can't help myself, it is absolutely who i Am not what I do. As you once mentioned, perhaps a little too generous with my pearls. I'd rather that than end up like my grans pearls, dusty in a eloquent velvet box! If she had any.
Your home sounds wonderful, rustic and timeworn, with every board having been touched by a dusty hand, and absorbed the days breaths. My house is also wooden, the interior walls are all timber, and I constantly run my fingers over the doorways, and wonder whose have done so before. The nice thing is that before they were a house, they were trees, and where on the planet did they grow. So I feel connected to the ground being surrounded by them.
I did write poetry, not so much nowadays, and studied classic poetry only briefly in school. Your Wordsworth poems are not ones I know but have looked them up. I am charmed and humbled by your quick reference to them and their ability to reconcile memories for you, how lovely, poetic in itself.
When my daughter w as born, I was given a gift by a friend, would be a kindred spirit of yours if you met, his gift was a poem by Khalil Gibran, called children. More a philosophy than a poem, but this gift was a learning, and is eternal wisdom, it was unlike any gift anyone had ever given me. I framed it and it sits on my girls bedside table.
You give me too much credit in thinking I can easily create modern design so easily, in fact although modern design is common practice, my skillets in period architecture. I specialized in heritage architecture, and design elements, my kitchens more often provincial and extremely decorative. Very different to my own aesthetic, prairie and craftsman bungalows. They remind me of gingerbread houses. And I love them.
That's why I adore frank Lloyd wright.
Touching on why people who could live as we would dare to dream; don't, because the rodents make the money close to their continual wheel, and treat nature as an escape, not realizing or taking for granted that getting back to earth would provide everything they need, and satisfy every want. Where I live we often drive through blue gorge or frequent bush nurseries just because it feels beautiful. Lucky I am only 20 minutes from there at most. When we bout out old house, we wanted an established yard one befitting the house, so we went near mt bawbaw, to a tree nursery and wandered through looking for old trees, found some and paid stupid amounts to bring some home and crane them in, our neighbors thought it a waste of effort, they buy plants to create controlled artificial environments, and they don't represent nature at all. Ok I too have hedges, not be cue I need to control them, but because I love the hours trimming and shaping them.
I could talk all night, but will sketch soon.
I did not see the story on robin Williams, though very sad such a comic genius was so saddened, absolutely a crying clown. I get the sense that most genius is.
I hope you Are not. Writing to you is like a journal entry, although everyone on houzz is wondering why so esoteric?
Goodnight.

'Rest, and be thankful' - Wordsworth.
Thank you lady rob!

Ohhh, that's why you would be a hermit crab!

William Wordsworth's

LINES WRITTEN A FEW MILES ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY

Lastly, for the night. I mentioned earlier how visiting falling water I had tears but for no other reason than I was understood and all was understood just looking at it. Without knowing why, everything I am responded to it.
And like another gift from a far away friend, you have gifted me this from your much loved 'lines'.
Wordsworth could put it just as it was.
Thank you.


In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,110
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.

"A House is not a home if there's no-one there".... this means that a house is part of its inhabitants and of those who created it with their minds, then with their hearts, their toil and finally with their lives and even with their passings.
Esoterics is pulling something precious out of a storage chest.... like "Seeing into the life of things" and reminding oneself what it is that is important..(.if you like, also a bit like putting your underpants on ..on the outside)...as one bemused Houzzer commented, telling us to put ours on the underneath....maybe because they were unimpressed with our esoterics!

Esoterics woven in with conversation about practical things helps to get to know others interested in..... decor for one thing, and especially about what drives them.... and, if they are advisers, why they make the suggestions they do ... is just as much part of decorating as is talking about...knobs on cupboards or colours on walls!

I did not expect to meet a person like Megan mydesigm0401 here either, but I am so glad I did. Talking HOUZZ and talking house and life has been inspiring. I thought I was alone in my love for an old house that I first longed for as a little kid then came across as an adult, and in my intrigue for caves and underground dwellings...and the Earth from which all life and living comes. At Houzz I've found I am not alone and in no way nuts because so besotted and involved with "making house"...its such a rewarding persuit for me, and I've discovered. for others. Its not something extra to one's life and interests and intrigues but it incorporates all of those, collects them, .puts the person who belongs with them "in" the house so the house becomes a Home.
This site, for me, is much, much more than just a place where to get decor tips. Its where to learn about ..."being at home"!

well said.
I have painted this old saw blade and think it could be right at home at your place. Just some place made up in my mind. Notice my burning out camp fire, with embers fading but leaving a mark on the earth. A gift from me to you :)

That's quite a dear old saw blade and an accomplished painting! Thankyou! Every time I see a rural scene depicting an old house I wonder who lived there and what their story was. This painting brings to mind the Wordsworth poem Lines where he writes..."...dwellers in the vagrant woods..wreathes of smoke from among the trees.....where by his fire the hermit sits alone." The reality is so much harsher than the romanticism of it but the 'unclutteredness' was good for the soul. . I'd sit on the falling off back steps in the morning sun surveying my vacant 1016M2 to the creek at the end of my land.....no idea how I was going to develop it.
Neighbours living in cottages just a poor would pass on the road and nod and smile knowing what my life was...just as poor as theirs. When I had the ground turned I unearthed 'finds' of old mining implements, clydesdale horse shoes and a few little treasures...even gemstones...but no saw blades! That Spring the whole paddock came alive with a field of red opium poppies.....seeds that had lain dormant for many tens of years planted by the Chinese who'd come to mine the tin and the gems so they said. Its all changed now and civilisation has taken over.
This scene you've painted is very nostalgic wrapped in the mists of time. It could be from days ago along the creek when it was still rather "bushy". Where did you find that blade? There used to be many of them around here and, as you have done, the local artists would paint on them and sell them at the markets. The saw blades are hard to find now but there is still an old man with a shed full of treasures from the past on the old highway. Its nice to go out there sometimes to buy back memories. Council wanted a Park for the Bicentennial and since that was not a valid reason to legally accquire freehold lands they set about trying to get landowners to .."donate" their creek frontages and a good portion of their land. The battle raged for nine years and since I was on the corner I had to stand and fight right to the Supreme Court. I hadn't a clue. All I knew was that my title took my holding right to the middle of the creek. It cost me literally everything except the old house and most of the land and I kept my water rights which were later annexed to the title. I won the battle and lost the war. Civilisation prevailed...so your painting is rather provocative too....paradise lost? AH...making HOUZZ! Its not always as easy or as pleasant as one would think.

Lovely compliment. I worked for a joiner cabbie, and the factory foreman who was retiring had been around since the 50s je collected australiana and particularly stuff from a saw mill, as he was a real tradesman. He bought this to me to see if I could maybe try to paint on it. Funny enough, he had never seen me paint and didn't know if I could or just thought I could. So when he came to see it, I scribbled a doodle on the back with some effort to look like I spent some time, and showed him this, I wanted to see his reaction, he was still graciously impressed, although obviously lying, I appreciated it and turned it to reveal. He loved it and was pleasantly surprised. I did most with my hands, and didn't spend much time on it. To be honest the perspective is off, and perhaps a little rushed, but it does what it's supposed to, it hangs on his fence leading up to his shed,in yarrawonga. Apparently he's always asked by locals 'where'd you get that'.
I'm sure this place exists somewhere. I have painted old milk vats for letterboxes too, just things people love. More often I have done canvases for large interiors, modern in contrast, but I don't care, I dabble in a bit of everything. Sketching is my joy though.

I can't quite read that article, but get the gist of it. I don't understand why councils have issues with people improving the local landscape, I with my friendly neighbor ( who gifted me children's philosophy) are guerilla gardeners, love to pretty up roundabouts and public spaces, I'm one for removing runners from nature strip trees, in attempts to contribute to tomorrows landscape. I can understand it can cause issues in bushland with introduction of invasive plants, but really, mostly it's for the better.

Ohh. Too right, they don't give any when it's their land, but you should give up a little of yours you toiled away in. Not in a million.

On a much brighter side 30 yrs down the track...I am trying to decide what to do about covering or waterproofing the T&G wall boards above the pressed metal of my bath surround that is only 2fth or about 70cm high above the bath around the wall. I've put in a new vintage style rose shower over the bath...so more water up the walls than before. Initially I wanted to style the bathroom to resemble one of those timber SPA rooms but it didn't seem right. I'm keeping the old cast iron bath. The basin looks vintage so I've gone with taking the bathroom back to what it could have been.
I have four ideas for the walls.
1. leave the timber,..bleach and stain and apply a waterproofing agent or...polyurethane.
2. Match the pressed metal and continue this further up the wall....but what to do with the bit up to the 10ft ceiling?
3. Clad the wall around the bath with lamipanel or something similar that 'fits in'
4. Clad the wall with random stone...like I did around the fireplace or maybe some really sculptural wavy tiles...and not try to match anything...rather create another feature.
What do you think...since I am trying to keep the place looking as if it has never been renovated...as if it had everyting iut could have had as far as decorative finishes when it was built..in the style it was built rather than be just a basic miner's cottage.
OK the current basin is not 'vintage' but it works and is very functional...maybe change the fittings at some stage to something more in the style of the 1900s.
Not a good pic of the bathroom...but hope it gives an idea

A couple more of bathroom

I can't see the metal press in these pictures, but I do love it, only it's expensive. But I would like to see the bath surround and shower recess lined in a metal, maybe mini orb corrugated sheet, that way any new chrome fittings like taps or hardware will freshen up the space for you. I love lining boards, and would leave them, only I'd paint them gloss white. I know you love the timber, as do I, but white bright bathrooms are so invigorating, especially if you can hear the birds chirping while the sun streams in.
I would put my efforts into a large fixed window panel like a picture window to the outside if possible. I also love that mint green you mentioned once before, I'm thinking this mint will be the next big thing. The collective consciousness is starting to pick up on it.
Perhaps the top lining boards could be this mint green, and bring in some hanging plants at one end of you corrugated shower recess, maiden hare ferns are having a r revival, and this could green up your space well. Nothing too modern in that, but cant see your floor. I know its difficult to just do these things, but imagine a random paved stone floor!,, then it would feel like you were showering outside.

And maybe an old ladder as a towel rail in the corner. Add some luxury and comforts in lush new towels for you, and essential oil candles. They'll also keep the mozzies away.

As always your ideas are lovely.....I will probably need to take some better pics..its a bit of a squeeze in that bathroom..maybe just focussed on things like the timber wall, the pressed metal, the new rose shower over the bath...its not a shower recess...no room! I'll try.

The bathroom has a tall silky oak and frosted glass door leading out onto a northern slatted, roofed verandah...full of hanging baskets and flowering vines creeping in through the slats from the gardens outside.
Where you see that old chair is actually the doorway...to the garden verandah..I dry off out there. I can see out but nobody can see in. I can loll in the plunge bath with the door open and see the garden and the plants so its already like bathing outside.
If my mastiff is inside I have to close the door or he'll get in the bath with me!
I used to bathe him with me when he was a 15 week old puppy the size of a 1yr old baby. His reward was ..the plug..replaced so many plugs..then we'd both dry off on the verandah. He misses his baths with me but he is now 76K.

PRESSED METAL ....Maybe pressed metal higher up the wall behind the bath is the answer...and paint the remainder of the wall peppermint...mmmm? That was sort of a colour in the kitchen when I bought it..only it was smoke dirty.

The shade of mint I like is too cold for the bathroom and somehow I "feel" it to be a bit insubstantial as a colour..not enough body...just how I feel about it. Good for a loo though.

What do you think of a pale Olive rather than Mint green and a washable matt rather than shiny? .
When I think of Olive I can feel my hand running over it as if it were a suede.
You've led me to recall a range of paint I came across ages ago...RESENE...it has some beautiful metallics...maybe worth considering.
A pale Olive would go with the Shell pink colour already in the bathroom which I really do love and, WHEN I get the pressed metal all of that will be Shell.( Hermit Crab's bathroom?) Don't like mini orb for the bathroom.
.,So, pressed,metal it is although$$$....all comes to those who wait and know what they want! Maybe I'll go to town and do the ceiling in pressed metal too...and maybe continue the Olive into the ceiling...it won't feel so high and so cold....mmmm need to do a sample of that weird colour scheme I think....You've go me thinking!
Funny that - I did paint the boards white initially but ended up stripping it all off, it just didn't look right and felt fake...silly isn't it?
FLOOR - currently its the poor man's version...(thick vinol) of large Shell, marble tiles. with light grey grout. Like it. Its soft underfoot and safe....(not so steady on my feet now). I'd love a random stone paved floor but maybe a bit impractical...but...if I did a random stone up the wall behind the bath rather than the pressed metal, I would do the floor and would choose natural ribbonstone as it is a bit sandy-feeling and not slippery. Many years ago a friend and I put up a ribbon stone wall behind the fireplace....it has a pinky hue...of course. PIC here. if that came to pass I'd grout it in grey.
How am I doing bouncing off your suggestions in all directions?

FOUND SOMETHING online....textured, waterproof, paintable wallpaper! Tempting! Cheaper than pressed metal!
I'd love the old ladder idea but sadly there's nowhere to put it. Fluffy towels...OH YES! And candles...that's not too hard...and want one of those heatlamp/lights.
Clean towels and some bath essentials have a shelf at the back of the bath.
Towels in use each have their own antique brass or copper. mini rail...( long plain handles from an old chest of drawers). Brass clothes hooks for robe and clothes.....and, with the house came an antique pine slatted chair with a seat curved at the fron under the knees and a high curved back. It is designed for inside the bath for someone who needs to sit under the shower rather than stand. The bottoms of the legs where they stand in the bath have been curved to fit the curve of the inside of the tub! Some dill painted it white. I am going to strip it back to the pine and oil and seal it...Strangely, it can also be used outside the bath and stands on the floor without juggling.

SO.. mydesign 1401 you've given me an overall atmospheric idea of my bathroom and I'll hang out for the pressed metal...might need to re-do the old stuff around the bath and the strip around the wall above the bath because cannot find a match...its very plain. Just squares separated with rounded edges and a circle in each corner of all the squares. Its not even very pretty... but it isthe poor man's pressed galvanised iron metal.

*****Tell me what you think of the colour OLIVE...for the boards above the metal and maybe continuing into the ceiling...maybe too much?

Oh wanted to show you my ribbin stone wall around the fire place..maaybe for the bathroom?