The fence dilemma

We have a temporary side fence up so the builders can get through and build the house next door.

Apart from the mess the trades have made on our new pavers with blobs of render and paint all over the place, they keep moving the fence and letting the 'doodle out to play.

The 'doodle (as we affectionately call her) is a large, woolly labradoodle who loves to muck about in wet cement and anything extremely smelly ... like sewer drains. So the people across the road who just finished laying their new driveway and perimeter cement are not overly pleased with said 'doodle, who clomped and pawed her way across their pristine wet cement not once but TWICE.

I think we will have to send a bottle of wine over there when they move in. She must think she is a doggie starlet ... after all the breeder named her after Nicole Kidman.

Growing menagerie ... snail country

Mia decided to bring home a plastic container full of snails the other day she called 'snail country'. She said she felt sorry for them because the other kids at school were stepping on them. The other kids were teasing her affinity for grubs and bugs, but I could tell she was really worried about the baby ones.

I told her snails are nomads and prefer the great outdoors, because I wasn't too keen on them living in our veggie patch. With a few tears ... she released them to the wild, knowing they'd have a fine house to retreat to if it rained.


Update: today we purchased a few snails from the local petshop that can live in the pond instead of the veggie patch. So everyone is happy. They are biggies so hope they don't eat the fish!

Textiles

I'm looking for some fabric to cover an antique chair in our lounge room. Something a bit startling would be nice. I've found some great botanical prints but they are overseas. So the hunt is on for local, or at least on this continent, textiles for our room.

Here are a few from Red Seed Studio - I like the chair a lot. I think it would look really nice in our bedroom or on the balcony. Might have to hunt through ebay and auction rooms for something similar.

















Galbraith and Paul

What we've been up to ...

First the bad news:
We had a car accident the other day and Michael cracked his vertebrae, 12th rib and tore a hole in his stomach lining. He was in hospital for 5 nights poor thing. We missed him terribly but he is home now and we are driving him nuts overwhelming him with love and affection.

You can't please everyone.

And the rest:
I've been trawling sites looking for homewares and textiles. Found a great artist from Melbourne who is doing some lovely work. Purchased some prints from Etsy which I'll frame and put up on the stairwell along with the new pics from Tsk tsk.

Now we are working on our garden which is a blessing as we both enjoy working in the rain!!!

We have built up the back yard with a red gum sleeper raised garden bed along the back fence and will bring it along the sides as well. Still thinking about how to screen our fences ... at this stage we are thinking that perhaps bamboo or nature reed is a goer.

Right now the Magnolias are starting to bloom and they smell delicious. The front yard is definitely Aussie native and we are trying to use plants out the front that are indigenous to the area.

We saw some great ponds the other day ... would love to have a billabong in the back yard ... Miss 6 would love it as well!!

New Pics

After a new table, buffet and the rest the house is starting to come together. We planted a series of 10 Little Gem Magnolias out the back and I can't wait for spring/summer when they bloom. Seriously beautiful plants.

Few pics

some feature walls and blinds

a few more pics of the feature walls and blinds ... work in progress

Few of the lastest pics

We are working hard to finish off the house but there is still a lot to do.








What we'd like to create in the front yard ... Aussie native garden





current facade

Moved in

We've moved in not without hassles at the end. Here are some pics of the house. There are a few things that still need to be done by the builder but they are being done slowly.
kitchen .. still waiting on black powerpoints

Pics prior to handover

Latest pics of the house follow. Handover is set for Tuesday 2nd September, floors will be done immediately ... they've already laid the spotted gum. Thumbs up for Adi who has installed our wooden floors... he has done a beautiful job. We've had wooden floors before but he really is a great installer and very easy to work with.

Also had our granite benchtops installed by Apex Glass. Highly recommend him for all stone and glass splashbacks. Terrific guy who provides exceptional advice and value for money. He recommended granite in the kitchen (Absolute Black) as opposed to the Ceasarstone Nova Aurora and I have to say it has paid off. Kitchen is far better than it would have been with the C/S.

kitchen




floors and deck

latest news from our money pit

We drove past tonight and saw that the stainless steel ballustrade on the balcony is in the process of being installed. Inside the house the painting is almost finished and they've also installed the s/s ballustrade on the stairs.

Its looking much closer to completion and we've started to design the front garden and think about the landscaping both back and front.

Most of the items have been purchased for the house and we're looking at having roller blinds and panel glides on the front windows to offer some privacy and stay consistent with the modernist appearance of the house.

Plantation shutters would have been nice but maybe next time 'round, lol.

We're pretty happy with the finish so far. All the tradies have been fairly good to date and they seem to take pride in their craft. Given we designed the house from scratch and 'borrowed' the facade from Seville's display, the build has progressed fairly well.

Would we build again ... probably not. Living out of boxes for over 12 months since selling our last house has been a trial and I wouldn't do it again unless we could keep the house and build at the same time i.e. no pressure to move in.

We'd like to give the builders an opportunity to complete the build at their own pace so that the finish is good and up to the standard of the bones of the house. Unfortunately at this point we are hanging out to get in. It's not easy holding back and just letting them move at a steady pace. It seems that not much is happening compared to the first part of the build, when the big ticket items such as framing, rendering and plastering change the appearance markedly.

This stage is no less important but because the finishing touches are more subtle and less obvious, it doesn't seem that there is as much progress. But we keep telling each other to be patient and hang in there a bit longer as the finished product is really going to be fantastic and just what we have dreamt of.

painting has started

inside of the house is in the process of being painted, external facade is almost finished, door was installed and plumbing/toilets/showers installed.