mid year round up

I can't believe we are half way through the year. It really goes SO fast!

In January we made some plans for the house this year, and now is a pretty good time to check in to see how we're going. Like I said then, things happen, life gets in the way, things move up and down priority lists for a whole range of reasons. While I love lists, and find them really useful, I'm not totally attached to them either!

How we put in last weekend-painting our front verandah

    -Build raised vegie beds in the side garden-Done, and we love our veggies! 
    -Build a small retaining wall under the front of the house, (and dig out a whole heap of dirt!) 
     to put in at least 1 water tank for our garden-The digging and wall is done, we will get a 
     tank after the painting is finished and before summer
    -Build another 'feature fence' on the other side of the house near the garage-No
    -Fence the northern side of the block (currently unfenced)-No
    -Built some retaining walls in the back yard-No
    -Turf the back yard-No
    -Paint the rest of the railings-Slowly getting there, the top verandah is done. We will finish the 
     walls, and then get into trim and railings.
    -Refinish the other french doors- No, We will do these in the coming months
    -Fix up some of the windows (peeling paint and putty needing replacing) -Done. Our painters 
     did it! YAY!
    -Look at painting the exterior -Big done! Look at, and actually do it (well, we have the back 
     two verandahs to go, but almost there!)

    -I'd also like to paint the purple lounge and dining rooms, but this may or may not happen this 
     year.
    -I also hope to spend some more time doing some DIYs, including some more sewing, and hang 
    some more art on the walls. A bit less renovating, and a bit more decorating!

Plus, we went on our honeymoon to beautiful Sri Lanka. Love, love, loved it!
Looking like that-it looks like a lot of red. But we moved the house painting up, so the backyard has been put on the back burner. The back yard and the painting were two big and expensive jobs we knew we had to do when we bought. When we looked into it, the paint was still in ok condition, but was starting to dry out and feel dusty. If we had left it another year or two, and done the yard now, it would have needed a lot more prep when we got to it. 

Hopefully we will get to the purple paint this year, but we may be a bit painted out! And, slowly, slowly, I think the decorating is happening. Starting with the downstairs spare room, and we now have our hallway art too. I also have my eye on a few things at the Freedom Sale, and have been sewing this holidays!! I'll show you when I'm done (if it all works out!)! 

How are your plans for the year going?

sunday thoughts 23/2

A perfect late afternoon swim at the end of last week
Heaven.

Blogger ate this post from last week, and reverted my draft to an old copy. I didn't realise until mid week (crazy week-and oh so hot up here!) Annoying.... Try again this week :) 

read: the latest Home Beautiful. I found something I loved on every page! Sometimes I can be a bit meh, but there were some beautiful houses that were exactly the style I'm aiming for.

create: Order in some of our closed off areas-behind cupboards and in drawers. 

see: our new (second hand) bedside tables. At last! 

taste:  a delicious salad I've eaten about 3 times this week- chickpeas, cucumber, red onion, goats cheese, and best of all-home grown basil and lettuce-with a olive oil and balsamic dressing. Yum!

hear: the wind roaring through the trees

learn: To do things in the mornings. It's my most productive time of day, and if I spend it on the net, or in front of morning tv my day disappears. If I get up, and get on a roll in the morning, I tick so many things off my list of to dos quickly and easily, and I don't feel guilty about having downtime later in the day.

feel: cool at last

smell: rain, not much, but it smells soooo good!

think: that the year is flying. Trying to slow it down by being more present and in the moment. 

watch: Hart of Dixie-so cute and sweet and light. But I am surprisingly emotionally involved in the characters. I was going to wait and watch all of Season 3 when it finished, but after finally catching up on Season 3 of Game of Thrones last weekend, I needed something happy and fluffy and girly-I was numb.

plan: On making a bed head in the near future. Just nutting it all out.

sunday thoughts

read: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. I'll be sad when this one is finished. He writes amazing characters and beautiful descriptions

create: Curtains for the back shelves in my classroom. Braving the sewing machine again

taste: Homemade banana bread-so good. Plus it really is almost healthy-gluten, dairy and refined suger free! I use coconut oil, and add some protein powder too. Plus sometimes some berries!

see: A grey, misty, enveloping day. So calming

touch: Soft doona, comfortable bed

hear: The Olympics in the background, and L chopping vegies for lunch

learn: To take time out for me after I lost my voice this week

feel: Relaxed after a quiet weekend to rest and rejuvenate

smell: A native gardenia in a bud vase beside my bed. Just amazing

think:  Of the week ahead and of watching a movie this afternoon-perfect weather for it

watch: The Block Fans vs Faves. What an amazing building. Looking forward to the first reveal tonight

plan: Our Sri Lanka honeymoon trip at Easter-any tips? Plus a few days in Singapore. Plus 10 week plans at school

what's on for this year?

I wrote about how our list went last year a few days ago, so thought I would fill you in on what we have in the works for this year.

We spent a bit of time on New Years Eve reflecting, and planning our year, and we have dubbed it "The Year of Outside". This year is shaping up to be a bit less hectic than last year with no wedding, but we will be going on our  honeymoon to Sri Lanka for 3-4 weeks. Again, things will probably change as we go along-priorities change, things pop up that need doing, other things happen that mean some stuff isn't viable at the moment for whatever reason. Plus everything always takes more time and more money than you expect! This is a pretty flexible list, and writing it down looks quite optimistic...

-Build raised vegie beds in the side garden

-Built a small retaining wall under the front of the house, (and dig out a whole heap of dirt!) to put in at least 1 water tank for our gardens

-Build another 'feature fence' on the other side of the house near the garage

-Fence the northern side of the block (currently unfenced)

-Built some retaining walls in the back yard

-Turf the back yard

-Paint the rest of the railings

-Refinish the other french doors

-Fix up some of the windows (peeling paint and putty needing replacing)

-Look at painting the exterior

I'd also like to paint the purple lounge and dining rooms, but this may or may not happen this year.

I also hope to spend some more time doing some DIYs, including some more sewing, and hang some more art on the walls. A bit less renovating, and a bit more decorating!

We had planned to renovate the laundry this year, but we have decided to put it off. We can live with the laundry we have for the time being, even though it isn't ideal, but we want to get outside sorted, plants and trees growing, and the outside looking good. We will save the plans for another time.

Have you got a bit of a plan for what you would like to achieve in the year ahead? I'd love to hear about it!

a new year, and looking back

Sorry for the blog silence. Things were a bit crazy here for awhile, with work being full on, family health issues, commitments and a general need to retreat and rest and recover. Last year was insane-both of us work massive hours, we planned a wedding, we lived and socialised, we painted and built and decorated and I think we were both worn out. House improvements and blogging very much took a back seat for awhile, and even when we started up again it seemed as though it was just long, dirty, boring projects, like digging out retaining walls!. I almost considered shutting it down. Things seem ok at the moment, so I'm back and I missed you!

We've started up on some improvements again, inside and outside, and I can't wait to show you!

I'll be a little more gentle with myself, and not push myself to blog or force myself to do things to put on the blog. Sometimes when pressure makes me dig my heels in-even when it's my own pressure!

Anyway, this was our list from the start of last year. We got through most of it, but life happens, priorities change, and things pop up. 
-Blinds for 2 upstairs bedrooms-Nope, still blankets in the blue room and none in ours. I love waking up naturally to the sun, and they aren't clear glass so privacy isn't an issue. 
-Blinds for sunroom-Nope. 
-Refinish french doors-We did the front one, and the others are on the cards soon. 
-Paint lounge room and dining room (and maybe kitchen?), including trims and ceiling
-Nope, but we did paint all of downstairs, so we will count that as done :) 
-Paint the railings on the veranda white - Yes, the front verandah anyway!
-Re-cover the outdoor furniture-nope
-Sand the decks, and oil-another tick!
-Kill the awful plants in the side garden, and do something with it - we are well on the way
-Varnish the outdoor chairs-nope

Things we did that weren't on the list:
-painted the built-in doors in the bedrooms
-built a fence for the side garden and a gate
-built a pot veggie patch
-fixed the leak in the front verandah, and repaired the hole
-fixed the leak in the back verandah (but didn't repair the hole)
-added more solar panels
-had a wedding
-made some wedding DIYs-a guestbook, bunting, favours
-built some garage storage
-hosted Christmas

if you need me you can find me painting

A friend asked me what I was up to this weekend, and I replied painting. Then I realised that I cannot see a time in the next few years when that wont be on the cards.

Purple walls and ceilings-be gone!

Our immediate painting plans for the next year or so include 2 more sets of verandah railings and a set of exterior stairs, our the walls and ceilings of our purple lounge and dining rooms and probably the kitchen too, all the trim in those rooms and the exterior of our house (with at least some done by a painter).

Three verandahs worth of railings to become white, and repaint the house grey
(I should find a spare weekend to sew some new covers for this free furniture!)

So you'll find me in my sweaty paint splattered clothes and hat, with a paintbrush in hand or at the paint shop handing over money.
Hopefully I'll have some afters for you after the weekend!!I will finish these front railings (if the rain and wind stays away!!)

**My current negativity toward painting may be due to my hatred of painting verandah railings. Walls and trim and cutting in I don't mind, the railings are doing my head in... :)

garage storage

We are really lucky to have a big garage, but it was one big mess. We had one set of shelves we bought from Bunnings, but they weren't organised, and everything else was on the floor. At times it was tricky to get the car in there, or get out of, and around the car. For awhile we actually gave up trying. I wish I was kidding. It totally stressed me out-even though it's a boy zone primarily, I hated knowing what it was like!

Well, that's all changed. L has DIYed three storage solutions that have made such a difference! We aren't quite done yet, and have some more big plans for down here (not these ones!) that I'll tell you about in the next post.

First was a surfboard rack. L got a length of wood, screwed some dowel into it, and covered the dowel with pipe insulation. There are eyelet hooks to link the jockey strap through.

A massive improvement on this... 

Where our camping and beach stuff
used to live

Next was some wall hooks for tools. Again, he screwed a long piece of wood into the wall (so the hook placement could be where we wanted, rather than in the studs). The hooks are from Bunnings. 

Next we will be put a work bench next to the door (where the lawnmower is) with a peg board on the wall behind for tools. We will probably look on Gumtree for some kitchen benches, so we can have cupboards underneath, or L might DIY something. 

I'll give you our shameful befores, so you can really see the difference. This was at it's worst, when we were midway through building our side fence. Sorry for the crappy iphone pictures. There was no car getting in there. 

But now-shelves! Made entirely by L, with my help to hold things steady. 

It has meant we can get almost everything up off the floor. They aren't properly organised yet, I want some more storage boxes so that everything has a place, and all the paint tools are together, all the sanding stuff is together etc. But we will get there. Not only do the shelves have all our DIY type stuff up there, they also contain our camping gear, our fold up chairs, L's fishing stuff, beach stuff-like cricket sets and umbrellas. 

Don't mind the empty paint tin drying out-the car still fit, and the tin has now
 been disposed of

It's made such a difference!

christmas planning

Did you know that yesterday marked 3 months until Christmas?

We will be hosting our first Christmas this year, which is exciting and a bit nerve-wracking! L is a shift worker in the health field, and in addition to some early morning starts (4 o'clock wake up this morning), late night finishes (one shift finishes at 11pm), middle of the night call outs to work, and regular weekend work, they have to cover public holidays. He has last Christmas off, so he'll have to work at some stage over Christmas this year.

For Christmas 2011 I left him alone up here, and I felt awful, despite cooking him a ham and shortbread, and driving back early on Boxing Day, and the knowledge that I would have been alone on Christmas while he was at work.

We've had a tree the last few Christmases, but it's only been small. Our ornaments have been mostly glass, white, silver and a little gold, and I think I'll stick with that kind of theme again this year-I'm not massive on lots of red and green, and with our purple lounge room, kitchen and dining room, and blue exterior it will keep it from being a colour explosion!
Here are some of my inspiration ideas, mostly to DIY (which is the ONLY reason I'm already thinking of Christmas!!!)

Wall bunting:

link

link- a fun Sydney blog-this is her DIY take on tassel streamers

link

The next two are from the same etsy shop, but look easy enough to DIY

link

link

Table decorations:

link

link

The Happy Home Blog 

link

link

link

we have a gate

Thanks for the wedding love! I thought I would break it up a bit (while I wait for my professional photos) and get back to the side area we have been working on.

Our fence is finally finished-we have a gate!

 I'm actually really happy with how this area is coming along, especially because we still have quite a bit to do to it.

**

Despite the carpets of rocks down there it is feeling quite green at the moment, now that spring has definitely sprung.

Our next steps down here are 

-build some raised garden beds down near the bottom of the garden for some veggie patches

-hire a jackhammer to break up and remove the big rocks

-remove the small white rocks (we will use some to fill out the bottom of our garden beds to provide drainage, but might put an ad on gumtree giving them away if someone else removes them!!)

-lay grass

-plant out the gap between the rock retaining wall and the fence **see photo above

Currently our veggie patch is a pot setup, until we get around to building our beds. Most of the pots you see in the photos are fruit trees-a chilli bush, a lemon tree, a lime tree, and lots of smaller pots, but we were given a climbing jasmine, and L put in some eyelets and wires for it so it can grow. 

Here is a quick before, so you can really appreciate the difference down in this little area. I didn't even photograph this area in all of it's original glory-I must have been too horrified!

This is the closest we came to having a photo  of the green lamandra. It is also the only photo we have that shows the monstrous fig tree we had growing within meters of our house, and the neighbours'. We removed it within a week of getting the keys.  The below photo is when it was all dying off with the help of a considerable amount of roundup.

I'll leave you with one more after to remove that image from your memory! Have you been getting out into the garden lately??

wedding DIY

We had our wedding on the 31st of August, and it was the most incredible day.

Some of our DIY to take to the reception

We had a mix of DIY and having suppliers do things at our wedding. We tried to keep costs down where we could, and we paid for most of it ourselves, with some gifts from our parents, but neither of us could comprehend spending 10s of thousands of dollars on one day. Mum said a few times that she wished she could win the lottery to help us more, but before, and definitely after our wedding we both agreed that we wouldn't change a thing.

It was important to us that we didn't have to call in too many favours on the day to set things up, or stress ourselves out to do it ourselves. L and I also work long hours so didn't want to put too much pressure on ourselves in the lead up-and by that I mean myself. I'm a perfectionist, I don't like people coming over unannounced because my house mightn't be clean, so I was already stressed about the wedding, without adding extra stress!

Often I have great ideas, or see something on the net that looks amazing and easy, but it doesn't always turn out like I hoped (quite a few of the art and craft projects I do with the kids at school!). I'm definitely aware of my limitations, and big on the keeping it simple principal!!

I can't wait to show you all of the things I made!

on the fence

I'm back again-with time now!

Our wedding on the weekend was AMAZING. It was honestly just perfect! L and I had the best, most amazing day. It was everything we ever could have hoped for. I will post a few pictures when we get them back, and will have a few posts of some of the DIY I did. We had a 'mini-moon' at Little Cove in Noosa for a few nights, and are going away next year for our proper honeymoon-probably to Sri Lanka, but that may change. 

The boys worked so hard to finish off our fence in the lead up to the wedding, and it looks so good! 

It wasn't without problems though, and it was a bigger job than expected (aren't they all in DIY land??)

The fence was to run from the side of the house to the pole (needing the clothes line moved down a set of poles), then panels between the poles running up alongside the path. Then a gate over the path, and panels across to the fence. 

You can probably already see two of our problems. We needed to have the tap moved to the second pole. Another was the giant rock in between our post holes,

AND pipes running though a post hole.

But, nothing a jackhammer and sleeving the pipes, and a plumber couldn't fix! L had quite a few weekend shifts in the lead up to the wedding, so most of the work was done on midweek days off, meaning few progress shots, but I got a few in the early mornings before work (sorry for dodgy lighting!)

Broken up rock, and our cemented stirrups (bad i-phone pic!)

3 panels done, 1 coat of oil, still some finishing off to do

And here is the (almost) finished product! The boys still have to hang the gate (they were a few slats short), but it looks great! It blocks off the side of our house, gives us some privacy for our washing, and will be lovely a dog proof!

You can see how much our block drops off already here!

Here is our almost complete gate. We have a few more panels to build on the other side of the house now, and some 'normal' fences too. 

This amazing weather had made me so excited to get out into the garden, and we have some more plans in the works!