roadtripping and a house crash

The last few weeks have flown by! Right now I should be writing reports (2000 words this morning and counting), but thought I would have a break and show you my last weekend.
It was big, it was exhausting, and so much fun!

Friday-I worked and then drove with friends to our home town in Northern NSW. We got in at 11 at night to the FREEZING cold. 

Saturday-Woken up at 6.45 by my gorgeous nephew climbing into bed with me. Played with him, caught up with family, then borrowed mum's car to drive an hour and a half to my old uni town for a college reunion. Long lunch/catch up then to the hotel to get ready for the dinner. Too much BAD wine, lots of laughs and memories, off to the pub, walk a km home in the freezing cold in a skirt and heels. And by freezing I mean literally- it was minus 5!

Ice on the cars at 1.30!

Sunday-wake up feeling (surprisingly) good, drive an hour and a half home after the goodbyes, have a cup of tea and a play, get picked up and drive the 7 hours home-luckily I had a sneaky snooze or two on the back seat. Get home at 7 to a yummy dinner cooked by L.

Country driving

Very busy, very rushed, but I would do it over again in a second!! Love my friends and family-I hate that they all live so far away. But I couldn't live in the cold anymore-I have gone very soft living in SE Qld!

Somehow I managed to grab a few minutes to take some photos at mum's. She has such a lovely house, and lots of beautiful things-mostly antiques that have been in the family for a few generations. It actually reminds me a lot of our blue house (or what I hope our blue house will one day be!!) Very quick photos, and mum does family day care (including for my nephew, so ignore any toys and artworks!)

Dining room

The table and chairs were originally my great grand) (as was the little china cabinet you can see), and were painted in a dark paint. They were stripped back and reupholstered. 

Lounge room

 Empty shelved due to little people...

 Freedom lounge, tables made by my grandfather, blankets made by mum.

A little grandmother clock

Hall stand

 A lovely old desk and chair, again from my great grandmother's house, and again stripped of he dark paint.

Kitchen sideboard in the back room

Another reupholstered chair

So many lovely old pieces of furniture and bits and pieces!

back into painting

It's amazing how a deadline makes you work-even when it is an artificial one. We painted and painted downstairs over Easter, getting the walls and ceiling done. We just had the skirtings, and a bit over the stairs to do. But no motivation. And we ran out of paint for the stairs, and hadn't bought the gloss paint yet. So it was hanging over us.

Then last weekend friends asked if they could stay with us for a few weeks-they are in the process of buying a place, but their lease is up and they couldn't extend it for a few weeks while they settle. We decided to put them downstairs so we both have a bit of privacy and a bathroom. Which meant we had one week to paint the trim. As L had had his wisdoms out we had nothing planned, so I spent Saturday afternoon sanding the skirtings, and Sunday morning taping and painting.

Before

I freehanded the top, but wanted to protect the floors, so went through almost a roll of tape

They already had water based paint on there, and we wanted a white white, so they stood out against the Antique White USA walls (more upstairs where we have original wide floorboards), so put on Aqua-enamal from Dulux. After spending a huge amount of time looking at swatches I asked the guy at the paint shop what was the closest white to ceiling white (I liked the contrast, and it didn't make the walls look dirty). He said it was basically Lexicon Quarter-a drop of black, so that's what I went with.  In the end we only went with 1 coat. The were in quite good condition initially, and really just needed freshening up, and we put a whiter white on them.

Not much green left anymore

So happy with how they turned out, and how much better the room looks. We still have a bit at the top of the stairs to finish, as L wasn't up to painting, and I refuse to do that bit, but people staying wont affect that.

Here's a before... so much better now.

it's ok

I've been a bit stuck with my blogging lately, and I think I've realised part of the reason why. I keep thinking-that's not good enough, I haven't finished that, there is no furniture, the garden is a bomb... Well that and dealing with a patient who had his wisdom teeth removed, along with general life, work and wedding craziness!
We bought our house knowing there was lots to do, even if most of it is fairly superficial surface stuff. It was the only way we could afford it, and it is a work in progress. Some rooms have no furniture, some are missing furniture, and some have the wrong furniture, we have rusty lights, chipped paint, missing putty, a jungle garden and no fences-and that's ok. We have holes in the eaves, a purple checkerboard kitchen, and I don't always clean as often as I should. We have had leaks, and have made mistakes, and learnt along the way.
Without further ado...

Empty walls and STILL no bedsides

Rusty lightS and multicoloured

Steep jungle garden-it's worse from up close-6 foot high...

Chipped, flaking, broken windows

Painting needed

Roundup starting to wrk

Weeds will grow-lawn won't

Holes and different rusty lights

Can you count the four wall colours

More dying jungle

Sometime L or I will feel overwhelmed with everything we have to do, and wish we had bought a nice new house in a subdivision somewhere, but it never lasts long-our house has heart, it has history, and we literally fell in love with it the first time we saw it. It will be all the more special once we have made it ours, because we will have done it ourselves.
I guess sometimes I look at perfect houses in perfect blogs and feel a bit down. Hopefully this does the opposite for you!

It's all ok. I'm happy to wait to find the right thing, I'm happy to wait to buy something that I love, we don;t have heaps of extra money lying around at the moment (ahem, wedding...), and all of our little jobs will get done.

What are you happily living with at the moment?

home alone

Sorry I've been quiet for the last week or so!!

L went back home for a week leaving me home alone. I had big plans to get heaps of things done, including lots of blogging, and none of it happened! Between work, 2 nights at yoga, 2 nights at friends' houses and a fun filled night and weekend of laminating, cutting and velcroing while watching Mad Men (meanwhile-this season feels so different-dark and not as nice. I also prefer the 60s!) my week disappeared!

I've also been knocking over a lot of little and boring wedding jobs, that all take time-buses and wording and accommodation....

I'm getting to the end of my hundreds of pages of laminating (I'm redoing how I do my literacy and numeracy work to build independence and better cater for the individual needs of my kids), so will be back with a proper post in the next few days!