Front Garden.....

I am pleased to announce that we finally have something that resembles a front yard  :)

After 15 months we can now boast of a beautiful green lawn and a finished front path.

At this stage it is technically not complete but it will be added to over time but for now it is nice and neat...we actually had enough instant turf over to put some in front of the tool shed and a little bit in front of the dogs shed.
One day there will be a tree put in the lawn to give us some shade.

Love love love the way the front path came up....we were disappointed in the crushed brick...it didn't do what we thought it would, so in the end we decided to fill it in with pavers...how and what pattern took us awhile tho.

After many interruptions Tony finally finished it...he has a better eye for leveling the pavers than i do...mine were all wonky so he had to redo them...oops.

Holiday Gallery....

It took awhile but Tony and I finally went through the 2500 odd pics taken on our 07 European holiday...this was a mighty undertaking as we had to choose 22 pics to go into our frames in the hallway.

Sound easy...not really...as probably 95% of the pics taken were taken in Landscape, we needed only 6 landscape photos for the wall....so trying to decide which of the other pics would come up well as a portrait was daunting.

I'm a bit of an catagorising nut, so all our pics were sorted into countries, then into places...this actually made it easier to go through them......we sat down together and went through them, writing down the ones we liked and whether they were landscape or portrait.  This process took a few weeks, only cos we had days where we didn't look at them.....ended up with 95 photos...not bad......next we used our printers program and rotated the photos to see how they would come up as portrait photos...here, we had no say in the finished pic.

Then we made up folders....one for definates and one for possibilities.....actually ended up with 25 defs and 8 possibles....more decisions to make....finally ended up with our 22 pics.

So, last night while Tony was at work i printed them off and framed them...as i have said in a previous post, some of the bigger frames were not standard sizes, we ended up buying white cardboard and putting that behind the photos to fill in the gaps.  I also made up some name plates to say where the pic was taken and in what country.

Kell n I had the task of then deciding which photo went where....okay, so the largest pics were not a problem...it was all the little 4 x 6" ones, suprisingly we only ended up swapping two over...not bad.

Hanging them was interesting as the hooks in the back of the frames are all set at different heights...but...on the whole the frames line up pretty evenly.  It definately changes the look of the hallway...love it  :D

Clothesline.....

I don't normally get excited about a clothesline...but...after not having one for over 14 months I can now say....Woo Hoo......

So, here is  pic of our lovely line....trouble is i washed this morning before it went up, hopefully it will still be sunny next time i wash so i can hang it out.....now all I have to do is teach Nikki that she can't touch the clothes on it...mind you she has never seen clothes hanging on a line before...

More Bits n Pieces....

Over the last few weeks we have gradually been doing small things around the house to make it more a  home.

We ordered a set of 20 photo frames to go on the yellow wall in the hallway, these we have put up...now we just have to decied what photos to put in them.  We had planned to use pics from our overseas holidays till we realised that most of the photos Tony took he took in landscape, while 90% of the frames are in portrait, so, as yet we haven't decided what to do about it, also what we thought was an A4 frame in fact turns out to be slightly larger, the same thing happened with the next size down...the frame is slightly larger than a 5 x 7" photo....at least the bulk of the frames will support a 4 x 6" pic.

We have gradually been painting all the rooms with the semi gloss acrylic to go over the low sheen paint the house came with...its not something we are rushing to get done.
We have painted the ornate parts of the columns near the lounge...so now they are the same colour as the skirting boards and the architraves...looks so much better.

Also our wardrobe insert for the craft room finally arrived...this should be an easy job as this one was hanging space and 3 sets of shelves....hmmm...how wrong can you get.  Instead of having to go down to Warrnambool to pick up the pieces, they are now sending the jobs to other factories for you to pick up...depending on where you live.  Turns out that we were the first job for this factory and the cutting info they were sent was wrong. 
We built the robe only to have the shelves fall down as the dividers were not aligned...hmmmm, then the hanging rod was too long...so we remeasured...what the...the two end divisions were wrong...in fact they had made them the measurements of the other end????
Finally after dismantling the whole thing we realised that the top shelf (which holds it all together) had had its edging put on the back and not the front of the shelf.  Easy fixed, back to the factory we went and they put a new edge on for us....then it came together very easily.

The wall of Frames...lol

Before and after shots of the upper moulding

Before and after shots of the lower moulding

Our DIY robe in the Craft Room

Paths.....

Today Tony's brother Warren and his wife Jeanette came over to give us a hand in ripping up the path between the Alfresco and the Spa as well as the pebbled area between the garage and the alfresco.

Warren use the mattock while Jeanette and I shoveled the stone into the wheelbarrow while Tony wheeled it out the front to put in a neat pile of the nature strip.

We have replaced it with some of the crushed brick that was left over from the back paths....Jeanette and I had the ominous task of stomping on the bricks to help compact it...boring and tedious work...but the end result is worth it.

After a bbq lunch we tackled in front of the garage...so far all we have done is to remove the stones....during the wet weather the dogs were using this area to pee in...and boy, does it smell....so we will leave it for a couple of days before bringing the crushed brick in.

We finished in time to sit down and watch the Melbourne Cup....
poor Tony then had to get ready to go to work...boo.....never mind...nice overtime  :)

From this.....

....to this

And from this...

to the halfway stage

Study.....

Talk about a pain in the a**e.....what was supposed to be a one day undertaking ended up taking 5 days....grrrrr
Friday night Kelly and I cleared out the study in preperation for painting the following day...easy....
Saturday, Tony & I washed the walls and decided to do the entry way at the same time, thus giving the study more time to dry out before doing the feature wall.
Walls washed...check.....masking done...check......walls painted...wellll.....the entryway was done in a flash...after all we are only doing one coat in a semi gloss acrylic over the low sheen....entryway finished....
Study on the other hand...found out that this room had only had one coat of paint put on it...not a problem....did the three walls....went away and literally waited for the paint to dry (this is when we did the entryway)....
masked the feature wall and started painting...we had so much trouble finding a colour we liked for this room...ended up choosing a Taubmans Crimson Belle...which is a raspberry colour...when we bought the paint i commented to the sales guy that i thought it was too pink, so he put a dab onto the colour sample and dried it...okay...fine.
Put the first coat on the wall...hmmm...not a very good coverage, and yes, it still looked too pink..maybe it will look better when it dries....came back two hours later to do the next coat....still looked too pink, plus you could see the overlapping marks...darn! it will need a third coat.
Came back and did the third coat, using all the paint up...neither of us were happy about it and when you held the colour sample up against it, it still came up way to pink...
so off to Bunnings we trotted on the Sunday...found a slightly darker shade, so purchased 1 ltr of it, this one is called Ruby Flame...while we were purchasing it, the sales lady asked us if we had put a grey tint undercoat on first....ummmm, no, we're we supposed to? Yes, to stop the colour bleeding thru.  We decided that since we already had 3 coats on we wouldn't worry about the undercoat.....silly us, we could still see the overlapping marks BUT, the colour was perfect.
Monday, after waiting round nearly all day for a delivery that didn't turn up, I went back to Bunnings and bought some undercoat and some more paint...got home and applied the said undercoat...Hmmm...it covered the wall very well and did hide the appalling paint....by this time Tony had arrived home from work, so after dinner I applied the first coat..WOW!!! so much better, pity we didn't know about the undercoat from the beginning..excellent coverage...no overlapping marks visible...yay.  Waited for the appropriate amount of time to pass and did the final coat....
To say we are happy with the result is an understatement...we both love how its now turned out.  So this morning i have cleaned the carpet and the room will be put back together tonight when Tony gets home from work.

Stage 1...after 3 coats of the Crimson Belle

Stage 2, with the added coat of Ruby Flame

Stage 3, undercoat

Stage 4...finished wall

Busy, busy,busy....

Its been a productive week.  Tony's brother lent us his high pressure washer...and boy have we had some fun with it.
Firstly, Tony washed down the driveway, which did have some oil spills on it...must say the footpath and crossover are frightening how white they have come up.
Next, we used it to wash down the Spa Gazebo, after we decided to remove the windows and the bar from it...looks sooooo much better..Tony also jacked up one corner of the gazebo and straightened it...the installer had for some reason installed one corner lower than the others.
The next day i used the washer to clean the slab around the spa...professionally laid slab and it is not level...it has hollows and dips in it, and with the revolting weather we've had here it went slimy where the water was pooling...yuk!
Then today we cleaned down the alfresco area with the washer...6 months of 6 dogs on it had turned it brown..with all the mud they tracked onto it.

For the last two days i have been re-varnishing the gazebo, now its had 3 coats and looks a heap better, today i also started doing the steps and the bar stools, they will need a few more coats yet.

We also finally planted out the garden in the corner of the back yard with a Celtic Cascade and some Lavenders..now to put some type of topping on it ...more than likely it will be the crushed terracotta to match the front as we have a small amount left over....around this we put one of the dog fences, hopefully this will keep Nikki out of the garden and give it time to establish itself.

Tony washing out the Alfresco

In this one you can see how dirty the concrete is..

Newly planted garden bed

Gazebo, now minus the windows and the bar..and with its protective varnish on

12 month Rejuvination....

Last week Adrian and Ashleigh moved into their new home :)  The house took 8 months to build, which wasn't bad when you consider it was a double storey one.

So now we can finally put my craft room together...we have ordered the wardrobe inserts....and after the last fiasco we have measured and remeasured and remeasured again to make sure we have the correct measurements. I have decided that instead of getting shelving either end and drawer/shelving in the middle, we will get hanging space at one end with 3 sections of shelving, besides the fact that the drawer units are too expensive.
We ended up painting the room the same pale blue that was used in the ensuite...what a difference natural light makes to the colour, ended up only doing the one coat so it wouldn't be to dark.
Into the room went the blue striped chair and otterman that have been sitting in our parents retreat for the last 11 months...the ironing board finally has a home and we also put one of the table we bought from Borders when they closed down, this is for the sewing machine and overlocker...somewhere, in one of the many boxes still in the garage is the electrics for the overlocker...hopefully we will find it.

Hallway....well...you will either love the colour or hate it...bright yellow.  We wanted something to brighten up the hallway which tends to get a bit dark...I would really hate to see it if we didn't have the 3 niches in the family room wall to let the light in.

We also bought paint to do the rest of the house....we will start with the other wall in the hallway and move on into the bathroom, loo and laundry before tackling the remainder of the house.  There is nothing wrong with the paint that we originally chose but it was a low sheen paint and we prefer a semi acryillic paint.

Trees....

After being in our house for 12 months, the estate is finally doing something about beautifying the estate....yes!...they have finally started planting the trees on the nature strips.
To say i'm happy is an understatement....not about the trees, but about the type of tree that has been planted, my biggest concern was that they were going to plant Gum Trees....I hate gum trees with a passion!!
So, I hear you ask...what did you get??.....White Cedar Trees.
The Unit next door to us in Moonee Ponds had one of these and it shaded our unit beautifully, mind you, i would have thought that they are too big to be on a nature strip but, they will look gorgeous when they flower.

And as you can see in the background they have fenced off the park, so hopefully it will be completed soon

Up the Garden Path...part II.....

Well, today while dodging the rain, the sideway of the house also had its path done...trouble is, cos it rained last night and quite heavily at that, the ground underneath was soaked, so as the crushed brick was layed and compacted it had the effect of making the ground spongy...or more like you were walking across a sway bridge...the compacted brick was firm, it was the clay/ground underneath that wasn't...hopefully with the next four or five days of sunshine the ground will dry out and become firm.
The pile of crushed brick out the front is probably 2/3rds gone now.  After Adrian has moved out the plan is to dig out the current sandstone path from the Alfresco to the Spa and replace it with crushed brick.

As promised pics from both today and yesterday

Path to the dog shed

from the dog shed back towards the  house

this area will have the clothes line eventually installed

back yard looking towards the front of the house

from the front looking back towards the back of the house...just inside the gate you can see where the water is seeping up through the clay

One day i will get around to finishing painting the side fence...one day.

Must say....Tony has worked like a trojan to get the paths done...THANK YOU dear  :)

Up the Garden Path....

Finally, work restarted on the paths in the back yard.
Boy! was it hard work.
Firstly the paths had to raked to try and level them out....then it was off to the front yard to shovel the crushed brick that has been sitting there since Feb into the barrow...back to the back yard...empty the barrow...numerous times...rake the bricks out...level it...water it...then use the wacker on it.  Repeat this process multiple times....argghhhh...back breaking work...
This was started at 8.45am...stopped at 4.45 (due to the fact that is was about to rain)....and yes...tomorrow is more of the same, even tho it is supposed to be showers all day.
Also got some dirt for the corner garden, now to buy some vegitation to put in there.

Pics will be posted tomorrow after the sideway has been done.
 :)

Kelly's Rm.....

Kelly received her wall art on Monday in the post...she had ordered a 5 piece set off e-bay...it had to be framed before being sent....all up it was supposed to take just over a month, so you can imagine her delight when it turned up after 10 days.
It really makes a difference to the wall area...once Adrian and Ash leave, they will take their TV unit which is currently residing in Kells room, so then we will be able to reassess her space and finish off the sitting room properly.

Dining Room....

It has taken us 3 days to get the Dining room done....the biggest job was emptying the Buffet of all the glassware.

The first thing we wanted to do was to to put up the mirror that i bought off my step-brother nearly two years ago...for all this time it has been at my mums.
Suprisingly it wasn't that hard to put up...not when you consider that it is 8' long and about 3' high..darn thing weighs a ton too.
I must say...love. love. love the way it looks  :)

So, while the buffet was out of the way I painted both the window wall and the sliding door wall, both in the brilliant red that i used in the family room... ( I mean, what else do you do with left over paint?)...this required 3 coats...so it was a bit time consuming...but, teamed with the dark grey/black blinds it looks stunning.
What did i hate the most...putting all the stuff back into the buffet...
I also used the opportunity to move the wine cabinet out of the dining room and into the family room.  Looks much better.

Mirror with Buffet...we had the buffet build longer to accommodate the mirror

the finished dining room

Family room