Our weekend

Thank you for all of your messages on our good news last week.

I am continuously amazed at the generosity and support of the blogging community and it makes me so happy that I started my little blog and joined in.

After the big announcement on Friday I unintentionally stayed away from the laptop nearly all weekend. 

I did see emails coming through on my phone though :-)

We managed to get outside and get some more work done while the sun was shining.

We have had this horrible spot in our yard that has been waiting for a solution for years now. Yes we are still renovating almost 4 years on, it seems we just keep finding more to do.

Anyways....  this slope has been a big eye sore, we wanted to keep the slope to allow easier access to the back of the yard for garbage bins and wheelbarrows etc but nothing grows except weeds. 

 

We finally decided to concrete the path and finish it to match our crushed limestone courtyard. 

Nick was very inventive and poured the concrete then levelled and then added crushed limestone to the top and patted it in. I think it turned out really well and because the stone is set in the concrete it won't roll down the hill or end up anywhere it shouldn't. 

I went out more for moral support rather than any usefulness to Nick but I did manage to weed the veggie garden and mulch it. 

I have been so slack over the last few months that the garden was a bit of a mess. It is quite amazing that we have some veggies growing. 

I don't really know what I am doing in the garden but I am working on it 

We often find things growing that we haven't planted and usually they are weeds but sometimes they're not. If in doubt I let it grow for a bit to see what happens.

We had a very productive day, the path is finished but I didn't take a photo of the finished path because it was dark. Once spring comes around and the backyard looks prettier I will have to take some updated photos. 

There are a few projects I haven't really shared properly that I would like to.

One is our pizza oven, we love it. I love it the most I think. Nick cooks in the pizza oven which means I get the night off and there is no oven to clean,  yay!

Here he is getting it all ready for our roast chicken dinner on Saturday. Yum!!

We have chicken and chips most Saturday nights and cooking the chicken in the fire outside is quicker and it has a fantastic smoked flavour.

I am really looking forward to the weather warming up and getting outside a bit more. How about 

you?

xx

Count Your Blessings

Nick has just finished his second week of self employment. The last few weeks have been really exciting as well as really busy. I am not sure that we have been doing more but somehow because our routine is different we haven't been as organised as usual.

Having your own business and not knowing what your income will be for the week does have its trials and we have been really blessed by such a great response to Nick's work. Stepping out in faith helps remind you to be extremely grateful for every thing you have in life. This week I have been counting my blessings and I am indeed a very lucky girl.......

Photo source: McCarthys Designs

The Dog House

We picked Mac up on the weekend. He is so cute. Unfortunately I haven't got any new photos of him ready to post yet but I will get on to that soon as he is growing so quickly. It is amazing how much Mac has changed just in the few days we have had him home with us. He is learning things very quickly, like where his food and bed is, where he should go to the toilet (he hasn't learnt this as quickly as I would like but there is definately improvement). His coordination and eyesight have improved dramatically along with his sense of adventure and curiousity. He still sleeps way too much for my son Nicholas who wishes he could wrestle around with him but it won't take long, so I am all for enjoying this puppy time as much as possible.

Mac is still very young, about 5 weeks old, so he currently spends the majority of his time sleeping in the laundry, soon he will need a house of his own. The options are tempting..

Apparently Rachel Hunter's dogs live in style..

I didn't see the pool in Rachel's pooches place, this 'traditional' style house comes complete with a doggy paddling pool, perfect for keeping puppy cool during hot summer days.

What about matching homes....

Perhaps something more classic

or a country style house for quieter times of relaxation and slower paced life

Then there is always this beauty from 'Hello Kitty' retailing for $30k.

If I had have been able to choose the puppy I would have picked one that I could carry around with me in this house.

Poor Mac he will probably just end up with his bed on the back verandah.

We can only dream......

Photo Source

# 1 winewriterpress.com

# 2 doggydreamhomes.com

# 3 & # 5 Thisoldhouse

# 4 dogspoilingmadeeasy.com

# 6 & # 7 Trendhunters.com.au

Another day off...

I am so blessed, this week I have two days off and I am planning on doing some bargain hunting at second hand shops tomorrow. I thought I would refresh your memory of my last day out shopping for bargains..... Before: After: Before:

After: I really enjoy finding unsual items that I can use to create a point of interest in our home. I enjoy the challenge and the element of unknown, the unique and most of all getting something for a really good price. Hopefully I will have had a successful day tomorrow and I will have some interesting finds to share.Photo source: McCarthy Designs

Clean and Pretty

I had a great day off yesterday, It didn't turn out the way I planned however I was happy in the end. I wanted to get a few things done and cleaning the house was the first. I started and got carried away. The end result was a lovely clean house, I bleached every surface that could be bleached, I disinfected everything I could, I cleaned showers and toilets and scrubbed the floor and ended up with a nice clean house and a great sense of satisfaction. I didn't end up doing any study or shopping for pre-loved bargains but I was happy at the end of the day and I managed to relax in a nice hot bath with a magazine before the boys got home.

I had another feel good moment today when I got home and waiting for me was my marked assignment. I received a 'high distinction'. Yay!!!!

Photo source: McCarthy Designs

More Before and After

Before

The paint job was so bad, on this wall the previous owners must have had a entertainment unit sitting against the wall and when they painted the skirting board they have painted up to a point on either side and left what they couldn't reach....

After

The pretty new wall with a proper paint job. It took me weeks/months to convince my husband that a photo wall would look good. He still likes to tease me about my need to cover every inch of wall space with stuff. He often looks up at the ceiling and wonders out loud how long it will be before I start putting things up there.

When we bought our house there were a few feature walls and one feature room that had been painted using a suede effect. While I have always liked the effect I didn't realise what a pain it was to remove when you wanted a change. The suede effect paint has a textured finish that requires sanding before you can repaint. Well that was fun, particularly in the 'blue room', every wall was painted in the suede paint and we had to sand it all and the undercoat the room as it was such a dark colour. What a mess, I had blue stuff coming out of my nose when I blew it. Yuck! Yes in the last photo I am vacuuming the wall....

Photos: McCarthy Designs

Blue, Hot Pink, Lime Green???????

We soon discovered why the house was taking so long to sell, the previous owners liked their colours and unfortunately their colour scheme wasn't to everyone's liking. Add to that the fact that the finish on everything was not done well (on one wall we discovered that rather than remove the masking tape they had used to get neater finshes on their edges they painted straight over it). Fortunately we could see past the bright colours and we knew that with a lot of hard work (the house was filthy too) we could make a huge improvement and create a welcoming comfortable house.

Buying our house

Before I start showing you all the work we have been doing on our house I thought I would show you the photos that made us go and check the house out. We actually saw the house advertised for sale months prior to us visiting it, but it was not really appealing from the outside and we assumed it was in an area that we weren't really keen on moving to. Anyway months later the house was relisted, curiousity got the better of us and we had a closer look. The advertising photos looked good and the description suited us, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, single garage and a carport. So we booked in a visit.