Ladder Love - Meet My New Best Friend

Hello gorgeous ones. How ya doing?  Hope all's well  at your end.  Over here at the Beach House there has been a very exciting development.  I have a new best friend.  Sorry Lib, Jules Les, Sarah, Cath, Nic, Lisa and Jen you've been bumped.........you probably don't like me much anymore,  but I had to do it. Because....... burried in the deep dark depths of Mr Beach House's man cave, otherwise known as the  boat building factory, I found this beautiful wooden vintage ladder.

Now I never enter that dirty dusty cesspit unless I absolutely have to.  You can so tell from that last sentence that Mr Beach House doesn't read me, can't you!!!!!  He is one of Australia's last manufacturers and it's pretty rough in there, as you can see from the state of the ladder.  Sure hope the inside of his lungs don't look like this!!!! 

Actually I didn't discover this ladder by stumbling upon it.  Knowledge of its existence came to me in a passing conversation I had with Mr Beach House last week.  He had locked himself out of the factory.  Well actually, he had lent the factory keys to a mate so he could work on his own boat.  The friend failed to return the keys to the agreed hiding spot.  No wonder we are going out backwards.  His friends treat the factory as their own personal boat locker free of charge.  Every New Year Mr Beach House's resolution is 'No More Mr Nice Guy' but there is never much follow through on that one.

Anyway he had to break in through a window.  He was describing how clever he was cause it was 'up so high'.  Then he said it, words that will change my life forever, out on the deck anyway.  He said 'Lucky the ladder lives next to the window'.  'Aren't you a clever boy' I said stroking his ego momentarily, but all the while bursting inside at the possibility of a vintage ladder.  I have been looking for a vintage one, for a very long time.  I saw one in Melbourne for sale in a junk shop, but as you know my dear thrift loving friends, 'junk'  now has a hefty price tag, so it didn't fit within my 'Has  to Be  Almost Free' decorating policy.

'Yes ladder' he said in response to my query. 'An old, crappy, wooden one I found by the side of the road years ago.'

Mmmmmm,  'Old ! Crappy! Wooden! Side of the road!' I mused, 'Can I have it?'  'You're kidding!  No it's yuck, what do you want that for? We've got a perfectly good aluminium one under the house".  'Please can you just bring it home?' I said.  'No' was the reply.

Well if the Mountain won't come to Mohammad!!!!!

 I had an hour to kill this morning.  I have been asking him for a week to bring it home, with no results so I had to attend the man cave and take things into my own hands.  I run a 'can do' corporation round here and the slightest whiff of a vintage ladder has to be explored, don't you think?.  His mates were there as I arrived at smoko.  They thought I was a maniac.  I had to do some fast talking to get Mr Beach House to tie it on the roof racks.  People were coming out of neighbouring factories to see what all the laughter and commotion was about, but God love him, he did it.  It needs lots of work, but we cleaned it up a little, sawed off the really dangerous split, chippy bits and decided its ultimately going to get some Beach House White love.  Just like this vintage cane lounge it will live next to on my deck, that is currently, ever so slowly, having a love in with my white paint brush.

So  now that I have finished my Little Girls Bedroom Make over, I thought I'd give you a sports update on my front deck re do, by way of a mood board.

This vintage map cushion I picked up at IKEA last week, ($20) has pretty much dictated to colour palette of my outdoor room.  I already had the hemp cushions and as they work with the map, it's black and taupe.  I could ultimately throw a pop of colour in later if the need arises.

I am going for a kind of vintage, tropical, Caribbean, India Hicks, adventurer style here.  I haven't quite nailed it, but hopefully the finished result will make Mr Beach House accept any future vision I have for old junk I want to incorporate, into the decorating of the Beach House.

I saw a similar gentleman's tin locker to this red one at Rust this morning for $295.  I got this one from a garbage dump junk shop 10 years ago for $10.  My mum threw the one my father had out.   Arrrgh!!!!! Still love ya mum!!!!

So not all this stuff will be going into the re do, but one thing is for sure, it will be pretty much be stuff I already have.  I love to gather it all in one spot, just to see how it all pulls together for inspiration.

The garden seat will definitely be replaced by the cane lounge......and as it's white the whole thing will lighten up somewhat!!!!

This surfboard foam blank, a freebie from one of Mr Beach House's factory neighbours, is going to be made into an art work to hang above the cane lounge I think.

Oh and the little mat hanging on the ladder was something I picked up at IKEA $(5) and it will definitely be in the completed re do.

So that's it for the update, except for a funny/crazy thing that happened yesterday.  There was a message on the answering service, when I got home  yesterday.  It was from my daughter's new kindergarten, enquiring as to where she was on her first day.  Yes that's right I missed taking my daughter's to her first day ever of real kindy.  So what do you think? Bad mother?  The answer is clearly a big fat yes!!!!  I just assumed they started next week, when school goes back!!!  Happy to report we got there today and she had a ball.  So her first/second day of kindy was thankfully a good one.  I took photos of her today and as the years go by, today will be remembered as her first day of kindy.  Told you I was a great mum until I had kids.

Today I am partying here

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