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