The House that bank built

We're baa-aaacckkkkk

2010-01-15T08:15:00.002+11:00

Mmmm ... well yes, it has been a very long time since we posted.

It does however give you an indication of the lack of work that has been done around the house!! The few garden beds that I have worked on are now covered in weeds and it makes me sad everytime I look at it. The water feature is still not finished and of course ... still no pavers.

However ... this is all about to change.

This weekend I am on a gardening expedition to finish off as much as I possibly can, with the limited skills I have. It's so embarassing, almost 3 years on, that we STILL do not have everything finished.

As for the front garden .. don't even want to talk about it! That will be re-done when the paving has been done out the back.

Speaking of paving .... I'm selling my motorbike (poor Scarlett .. she was so lovely) so that I can buy pavers. That's not the only reason I'm selling mind you .... I have gone onto my full license so I now ride the CBR1000 (named Charlie) so there is no point having 3 bikes in the garage!!

Well ... I'm going to post the embarassing before photos ... and then hopefully some nicer 'after' photos following the weekend.

Wish me luck!!!!

No, we havent disappeared

2009-07-07T11:05:00.003+10:00

Howdi,

J here Just letting you guys out there in cyberspace land that we havent disappeared or lost interest in the blog.

Im still over here in Adelaide, attempting to earn enough to pay the bills, A is back in melbourne still holding the fort.

So with all of this and the recent wet weather, we havent been able to make any further improvements to the aforementioned fort, so therefore no blog entries.

But stay tuned :)

Garden beds underway

2009-05-25T07:51:00.004+10:00

Yesterday was a busy day in the backyard putting some of the garden beds in.

Unfortunately my brilliant maths mind was unable to calculate how much soil & mulch we needed so of course ..... I fell short!! D'oh. Due to Sarah's birthday completely wiping me out of cash, unfortunately I couldn't order more to finish. Oh well .. there's always next pay :-))

I would have been VERY happy if it was finished, but at this stage I'm just mildly pleased with how it is looking. EXACTLY as I wanted it to :-)

Sarah's birthday

2009-05-18T08:14:00.005+10:00

Well a little bit of 'non house stuff'. Sarah turns 12 on the 23 May but we had a birthday celebration yesterday for her as she will be with her dad next weekend.

Saturday was shopping day and she was given a budget so that she could buy whatever she wanted. Twilight is the big 'thing' at the moment so you'll see by the pics below that a lot of things were Twilight related!!

Sunday was a low-key lunch with Poppy & Nana Liz, Aunty Min (Godmother) and the Ho (aka Kirstie). She's having a big birthday bash with her school friends next week so we didn't want to invite kids to 2 birthday parties. The day was a good one though and she seemed to enjoy herself.

Another year closer to becoming a teenager!! Yikes.

Sarah

Me and Kirstie (aka the Ho)

Sarah in her much beloved Twilight t-shirt

Aunty Min (my BF), Nana Liz (step mum) & Poppy (my dad)

Paving ... harder than it looks on TV!

2009-05-01T07:44:00.004+10:00

Well yesterday was a very productive day. The weather was absolutely beautiful so it was time to give these pavers a go. After this experience, all I can say is tradies are a god send (if we could afford one!!). Laying the pavers was easy ... it's getting the bed of sand perfectly flat that is the impossible task. We decided that when it comes time to do the main patio area, we will definitely hire somebody qualified to do it.

So our path is almost done .. we didn't quite get finished yesterday so hopefully John can finish today or tomorrow.

It's not perfect .. but neither are we. And I figure that when the water feature is done and garden beds are planted, you won't notice how wonky the paving is (let's hope not anyway).

Pics below to tell the story of the day.

Oh Mr Hart - what a mess!!

This sucks - why can't I pay a little man to do this!!!

Well I've done that bit ... now what will I do!

It's dodgy ... but it's ours. The larger area on the left sits outside the formal lounge.
The paving will be surrounded by plants and will be a a seating area.

Looking from the water feature

My only backyard plant! Magnolia Kay Parris - 2 flowers soon to bloom.

Is that a light at the end of the tunnel I see?

2009-04-23T07:53:00.002+10:00

Yesterday was officially 'Wacker Packer Wednesday' at our house.

I decided to 'work from home' (read: help John in the backyard) as he is in Tassie this weekend so we wanted to keep progress going.

We managed to get all of the road base layed for the path and then hired a compactor (we call it a wacker packer). We also took the opportunity to get the road base laid properly in path at the back of the house next to the grass.

The pond is also in... that was a pain in the *ss trying to get that level I can assure you. It's out of level by about 1-2mm but we figure nobody is really going to notice. I sure hope not anyway!

J's off to Tassie this afternoon so his jobs this morning are:

1. Bring sand in to make a bed for the pond to sit on
2. Attach sheets to the side of the pond
3. Sand join in feature wall

If this gets done I will hopefully be able to at least get the sealer on to the boards over the weekend (well, Sunday is going to be horrible weather so I'll aim for Saturday).

Then if all goes to plan, J will start laying the pavers next week.

Then it's just a matter of painting, bringing in some good soil and mulch and that will be all we can do for now until we save some more money. I've picked out the urn I want that will sit in the water feature and I know what plants I want as well. Ideally I'd like to have all this done by winter but $$$ will play a big factor.

Anyway ... it's all going really well and looking just how we planned it. Very exciting!!

Forgot to take photos yesterday so will do so on the weekend.

Our own Backyard Blitz

2009-04-20T07:47:00.005+10:00

It seems that Backyard Blitz has come to Lyndhurst.

Unfortunately not the TV show but our own little "non-handy-man" version of it!!

We were going to commence works on Tuesday (following Easter) however given that the weather was too perfect we decided that a bike ride was far more important.

So the real work began on Wednesday. A few trips to Mitre 10 and Bunnings throughout the week to pick up wood, nails, screws, woops ... wrong nails, go back and get the right ones ... you get the picture ... has resulted in some great progress.

The backyard looks a bit like a bomb site (you'll see below) but it really is starting to come together.

We were actually waiting on a couple of things to be delivered before we could move into the backyard so a lot of the work was done in the shed. The poor bikes copped a beating of sawdust on day 1 & 2 but the result is a pretty sturdy frame for the pond insert. John did a great job of the frame and you'll see over the next few posts how it all comes together.

By the way .. the pond isn't actually going to be a pond .. it will be a water feature.

The pavers arrived on Friday morning (woo hoo) and I am really really happy with them. They are perfect for what I wanted. Frickin' heavy though!!! They are 20kgs each paver and I moved about 1400kgs of them into the backyard. Boy was I in a world of pain that night!

These 2 pics show the mess that is currently our backyard although the dogs are loving having lots of new things to smell every day. They certainly enjoyed us being outside for the week.

Yesterday we headed to Bunnings to get some sample pots for the screen and the water feature sides. This is the bit I like ..... seeing some colour! We had originally decided that we would have a red feature wall behind the water feature however I think I'm going to go for this plum colour. Kind of hard to see but it's a lovely deep plum and then the walls of the pond will be the green (as you can see below). We went with green on the sides because we already have a green screen in the BBQ area (you can see that screen in the photo above).

Zach wouldn't get out of the way for the pic below so you can just see the top of his head!

For those that have been following our blog for a while you will know that J & I tend to have some ripper discussion/arguments when doing stuff in the backyard .... generally we can laugh about them after. You'll be pleased to know that there was only one major meltdown .... quite good I think!!

Stay tuned for more pics!!

New benchtop, an ass groove and finally some landscaping

2009-03-23T07:15:00.002+11:00

Well after my 'negative nancy' post not so long ago, I thought I'd post again with some better news.

No, unfortunately J still doesn't have a job.

The couch however, is getting an awesome workout so much so, I have to keep asking him to sit in different seats each day so that we don't get an ass groove in one seat (and yes, it would be the chaise!!).

The new benchtop FINALLY got installed last week and it's nice to have a benchtop that has no scratches on it!!! It's been in for 5 days now and not a scratch on it so the last one was definitely a dodgy bit of manufaturing.

And the other good news (well good for me, not so good for J because we know how much he loves landscaping with me) ... our Easter break will involve laying a path, building a water feature and moving in some mulch!!! I'm very excited.

How did this come about?? Well I was fortunate enough to get a little bit (and I mean 'little') of a bonus from work. So I figured 'screw it'. It's a bonus ... it's not effecting any bills or anything else so I'm going to spend it on some landscaping. I've made a deal with J that I will budget so that we can do as much as possible in the little area from the side gate to the patio area. This will involve a path, build a water feature and put some mulch down. Unfortunately I don't think there is going to be any money left for plants but we'll wait and see! I dragged both J and the child down to Pots Galore and Garden World yesterday and I think we found the pot for the water feature. The pavers will be ordered this week (hopefully) so that they arrive by Easter.

So while the main patio area is still not finished with the paving, at least the weed infested area next to the patio should like nice.

Stay tuned for photos and the arguments that will come out of this little exercise!!!!! lol

2009 ... going downhil!!

2009-03-10T07:20:00.005+11:00

Yep - it's been a LOOOONNNGGG time since I posted.

Basically, since we arrived back from Tassie after the Christmas break life has been a blur of work ... go home... have dinner ... sleep .. and start the cycle all over again. My work is flat out and I've been putting in 11 or 12 hour days which as you all know, becomes very tiring after a while.

J lost his job a couple of weeks after we got back from Tassie and has still been unable to find work. It's a really bizarre feeling having the economic crisis hit us (which probably sounds bizarre in itself) but generally, we just keep on going and feel sorry for all of those that it effects. Now it is actually effecting us. Because of the type of work J does (and in the mining sector) he's struggling to even find work interstate.

So, with just one salary, child support to 3 children, mortgage and the other bills, you guessed it .... no pavers ... no more plants ... no landscaping. Sigh.

On a positive note however, the new couch did arrive. We were considering cancelling the delivery when J lost his job however it would have cost at least 50% of the cost of the couch so we just figure 'stuff it' (much harsher word used mind you). It is unbelievably comfortable so we figure when we have no money, we can close the blinds to block out the lack of landscaping and eat baked beans on our lovely couch. Ha ha.

I don't have Sarah this weekend and John will be sailing on Saturday so I'm going to use some of the day to catch up on everybody's blog!!! I can just imagine what I've been missing out on seeing!!!

New year ... new couch

2009-01-13T17:36:00.003+11:00

OK .. so a long time between posts... but also there has been nothing of note to report on over the christmas break!!

Our lawn looked very sad when we got home from holidays however a little bit of water and a mow it has picked up and looks lovely again.

The garden beds held up well with no love or water over the holiday break, to the point that I need to prune some back as some are looking a bit tatty. My brown thumb has definitely turned a very light shade of green.

One very exciting thing that has happened is that we ordered our couch for the family room!! Woo hoo. We had been looking at it for a few months and always anticipated to order it around March/April but for whatever reason (and who am I to question the reason!!), we went into Freedom on the 28th and placed the order. I think the 10 week delivery got us across the line because we figured that if we were to order in April it would be middle of the year before we get it.

And my (very large) backside cannot bear to sit on the old blue couch for much longer I can assure you!!

The old couch has been good to us however (Sarah's dad and I bought it about 12 years ago) so it's time to go somewhere else. I'll give it to the Salvos and maybe somebody will be able to use it. For an old couch it is still in pretty good condition ... really only needs new cushions to make it comfortable again.

So why don't we just do that I hear you ask? Well, it's blue ... and there is nothing blue in the house.

So other than that .. nothing to report. We haven't heard from the carpenter about the kitchen benchtop replacement yet so hopefully that will get done sooner rather than later.

Andy out.

Merry Christmas to one and all

2008-12-23T08:18:00.002+11:00

Well, almost another year over. Boy I hate getting old!! The years just seem to roll on and I never seem to do half the things I wanted to do.

2009 is going to be a great year for us.

Sarah starts at a new school next year (Grade 6) in preparation for high school in 2010. She's growing up to be quite the young lady. Like any spoilt, only child, she has a rotten attitude at times and gives us all a lot of grief - but she's a pretty good kid (bias mum talking probably).

My job is changing and I am looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Economically, just like most other businesses, we will see some tough challenges but I'm pretty happy to be here and to work through the tough times with my team mates.

J continues to work at the same place (yay!!) although he has warned me he may be off to Perth for a few months next year. Hoping that doesn't happen but will wait and see.

Tim & Chris (J's kids) are growing up fast and we are hoping to see more of them next year. Although Hobart isn't too far on the plane (takes longer sometimes to get to work in the morning!!) he still continues to have issues with his ex so we can't always arrange for the things we'd like to do with them. The kids arrive tonight for 8 or 9 days so J is pretty excited.

And finally, my 2009 wish is to purchase our pavers. Yes yes ... I had to say something didn't I!!!! I'm hoping that once the patio area gets done, we can complete the rest of the backyard and then finish off the front yard. I imagine this is going to take most of 2009 but my goal is to have all landscaping done by christmas 2010 (with the exception of the pergola which should get done in 2011).

So to those friends and loved ones that read our blog because distance keeps us apart ... and to those cyber friends that we have met throughout the year and continue to build friendships, we wish you a spectacularly merry Christmas ..... joyous New Year celebrations ..... and a 2009 that brings you love, prosperity and happiness.

xxx

A new benchtop ... eventually

2008-12-11T08:30:00.002+11:00

At our 1 year inspection (waaaaay back in June) we asked PD to replace the kitchen benchtop.

Why? Because it showed up every tiny little mark and you couldn't even put a bottle of wine on the bench without it leaving a ring.

After the first few months I thought that maybe it was because we chose black and it just shows every mark, however I was assured that regardless of the colour, it shouldn't be doing it.

So after 5 or 6 visits (can't remember now) ... from 5 or 6 different people .... ranging from PD, to the cabinet maker, to Parbury, to Parbury's boss to the uncle of the man that knew the guy ...... anyway .. you get the picture. Everybody that looked at it said "yeah .. it shouldn't be doing that". Then I would go through the pain of explaining that I don't cut things on the benchtop, I don't clean it with bleach .. blah blah blah.

Anyway .. I was starting to think that it would never get fixed and I'd have to put up with a horribly marked looking benchtop for the next 10 years ... but yay ... we finally had approval that they would replace the whole thing and they will give us a call after we get back from holidays. Should take 2 days at the most apparently.

I did try to be a bit cheeky and ask for an upgrade to the benchtop and to add the waterfall bits that everybody has now (love love LOVE those) but I was very quickly told no. I said I was happy to pay for the upgraded bit but the phrase 'tell her you're dreaming' comes to mind.

You have to try don't you!!!

Christmas is almost here

2008-12-02T07:54:00.002+11:00

Well after my little meltdown yesterday, I thought I'd post some christmas cheer.

Our christmas tree is up!! Yes, I'm one of those people that puts the tree up as early as possible and the carols start piping through the house for weeks on end.

While I'm still very disappointed that the paving area won't be done by Christmas, I figure if that's the worst thing that is going wrong right now ... I'm doing OK.

And of course J's consoling efforts last night consisted of the phrase "Don't worry too much about the pavers darling, at least I can ride my bike".

One day Alice ... pow ... right in the kisser!!!! :-))

Not bloody happy Jan

2008-12-01T10:01:00.000+11:00

Just rang to order the pavers.

None available until January.

Am I pissed off? Too bloody right I am.

Where's Jan so I can smack her in the head.

007 Movie review

2008-11-28T07:31:00.002+11:00

So firstly, we get stuck in the storm yesterday afternoon heading to the cinemas. Fortunately I had bought my wet weather pants a couple of weeks earlier so I was completely dry when I got there .... poor Scarlett copped a thrashing by the weather.

Note to pant manufacturers ... when you add an 'x' to the size, it doesn't just mean that the person is getting taller!!!!

So we arrive ... pick up our tickets and head into Gold Class lounge. Greeted by a lovely young lass who gives us a table and the menu.

They had a deal .. 3 course for $40 so it actually worked out cheaper to do that because 2 courses was only just under that by a dollar or so. There was the first mistake ... I was so full at the end of the movie I could barely move. Felt like I'd already eaten christmas lunch!!!

Anyway ... I'm digressing.

Movie starts (mind you we didn't know it was the movie, thought it was a trailer).

Now I'm not going to give anything away other than this:

1. The man is so completely sexy it's ridiculous
2. One major flaw of the movie is that he only takes his shirt off once
3. The writers seem to be moving away from the typical Bond traits (ie. bombs in the wheel arches of the car, a hat that turns into a grenade .. you know, all that sort of stuff).

Personally I didn't think it was as good as Casino Royale, but it was still a good flick. Loads of action and the bad guys seem to be getting uglier and creepier so that's all good.

So in my very humble opinion ... if you love action films, go and see it. If you love the traditional Bond movies, then you may be a little disappointed.

Still .... beats 2 hours of laying pavers. Oh that's right ... we have none to lay.

:-)

Insert drool here .....

2008-11-27T07:48:00.001+11:00

Tonight ......

Gold Class .......

James Bond .......

No more to be said. :-)

'Boral' has arrived

2008-11-24T09:49:00.003+11:00

Well she's here. John picked up his new love on Friday afternoon and went up to the Dandenongs with my dad to celebrate.

Unfortunately the weather here in Melbourne on Friday night/Saturday was somewhat similar to a Hollywood verison of really bad weather, so he couldn't get back on and ride her until yesterday.

We went out for breakfast, picked up Dad and headed to Marysville, through the Spur and back home again.

John on his baby

The bikes at Marysville

The 3 bikes - Dads (BMW), Scarlett and John's beast

So in keeping with tradition, John decided that he should name the bike.

My suggestion was Boral or Austral Bricks so that it continually reminds him that everyday he rides what should be, my pavers!!!!

Sorry husband ... the public have a right to know

2008-11-19T08:07:00.006+11:00

Dear friends, I have been banned from posting this particular post today ... however ... I'm going to do it anyway because it still makes me laugh (some 14 or so hours later).

So J tells me that we need to leave work early on Tuesday so that he can collect his bike. No problems. Discussions about how he would need to drop me off to work in the morning took precedence over the usual discussions such as "what do you want for lunch today", "can you please pick up your shoes" and "oh my god, that stinks .. what the hell have you been eating".

We decided that Scarlett wouldn't be able to hold two tubs of lard such as ourselves, so the only reasonable option was for me to ride the Honda back home again once he'd collected the ZX. Never mind that the poor car sits in the driveway day after day, feeling lonely and left out.

Tuesday arrives and throughout the day numerous emails and phone calls end with 'I'm so excited' and 'T-x hours to go before I collect my bike'.

J arrives at work to collect me ... off we go.

Arrive at the shop (that coincidentally doesn't look anything like a landscaping shop with pavers), sign some pieces of paper, have a chat to Steve (the bike guy) and he says "OK mate, thanks for that ... I'll send the paperwork in tonight".

There is a brief silence ............... awkward ................... and J asks "so .....can I have my bike".

Now at this point ..... J's face replicates the happiness of the face below:

Steve then says "nah mate .. we have to wait until the finance company sends the settlement certificate through. You should have your bike by the weekend though".

Cue face below:

I don't think I've laughed so much in a long time. Nothing like a good belly laugh to finish the day off.

A post for Carolyn

2008-11-18T08:07:00.003+11:00

Boy was it hard finding a pic of our bathroom!! Had to go WAAAAAAY back to when the house was first being built. This pic was taken while the house was still being built which is why you can see writing on the glass!!

On another unrelated house point, the paver bike is being collected today. Pics to follow tomorrow no doubt :-)

The BBQ works ... and 2009 has come very early

2008-11-17T08:20:00.005+11:00

As J posted last week, we were held the inaugural BBQ for some of our friends on Thursday night. Yes that's right ... the night the storms were due in Melbourne.

We're not too bright really.

I forgot to take some pics just before people arrived - ie. when the cushions were on the chairs, candles lit etc etc. so I've posted the 'pre' photos. You get the idea anyway.

Before it rained, it was very very pleasant being outside. We had whacked down the crushed rock with the machine thing from Bunnings so although the top layer of stones was loose, you didn't sink into the ground or anything. Feels quite solid. Dad reckons it is good for us to walk on it and let it settle for a few weeks anyway to give it a really good base for the pavers.

J did a great job at his very first BBQ, only burning a couple of rissoles (which we decided to use as hockey pucs the next day).

When the rain hit everybody did a great job at picking everything up and bringing it inside in record time. Only wish I had the camera handy when J was outside in the rain, in his sailing jacket cooking the meat while we were inside enjoying lots of laughs and wine, champers and beer. Was a very funny sight.

Now you may be wondering what the title of my post means .. '2009 has come very early'. It's come very early for the man of the house ....... see below. Delivery is hopefully on Friday.

Zen, high finance and the art of BBQ assembly

2008-11-10T11:08:00.004+11:00

Howdi Folks, J here,
I don't know what came over me last weekend but in a fit of marital bliss I went and signed away my soul to G.E. money for a BBQ. It is apparently 'interest free' for 12 months, but I will be paying it out well before then thus avoiding the opportunity for them to charge me 1 years interest on day 365 + 1 at the highway robbery rate of 29.45% !!

The really good bit is that I got 'pre approved' for a limit of $10,000 and am expecting a card in the mail any day now that will allow me to pull that limit out of an ATM machine (again at 29.45% + a 3% withdrawal fee!!)

Pigs arse !! I got bitten by this sort of thing once before as a lad and came to within a hair breadth of bankruptcy..... so thanks for the offer Mr G.E. money but no thank you.

Anywhooo, having gotten that rave out of the way A and I consulted the astrological and biorhythm charts, called a meeting and decided that we would put the BBQ together on Sunday arvo after a good shag, going out for breakfast and a quick ride through the dandenongs on Sunday morning to make sure we were both feeling happy with each other, thus minimising the chance of any arguments during the assembly process.

Such was my commitment to the cause that I even let her ride my bike for part of the ride!!

As a result of this preparation and my masters degree in Ikea furniture assembly from the university of Stockholm (Cranbourne campus) the assembly of the BBQ went well (as did the turf laying once I mastered the concept of 'brown side down, green side up'), with the exception of one 'I told you so' moment from A and a slight hole misalgnment problem, the sort you would expect to get from a chinese guy who is getting paid 50c a day to build BBQ's for some capitalist.

As it turns out Getting A to 'help' me put the BBQ together was a good Idea because we had a heap of nuts and bolts left over and if she hadnt supervised the job and if I hadnt put together the BBQ as per the instructions of A, I would have been accused of doing a shonky job of it.

As for pictures, well there are none, but it looks like every other trolley BBQ in the world apart from the cross threaded screw at the bottom of the left hand side but that only adds charm. So look out for a picture of it when we get our pavers down.

The BBQ christening is set for thursday night when we have people over for dinner and yes of course, rain is forcast ..........

Cheers

J

Bike porn and a new lawn

2008-11-05T08:02:00.006+11:00

Our extra long weekend started on Friday afernoon when we headed to the Motorcycle Expo at Jeff's Shed. J calls it 'bike porn' as we drool over the things we can't have!!!!

His mission was to find his Kawasaki ZX14 which he wants to move on to ... ha ha, did I laugh when I saw that it was in the very back corner therefore it would be one of the last stands we looked at!!!

My goal was to check out my upgrade ... the Honda VFR800.

So here they are ....

John on his new 2009 baby

Andy's upgrade (hopefully)

So, on to all things 'house'.

Saturday morning saw us up at 6:00am to move the last cubic metre of dirt into the backyard before the grass arrived ... which was due at 7:15am. Dad was then to arrive at around 8:00am to help us level the dirt and lay the turf.

Well the turf arrived at 7:00am ... loads of noise just for the neighbours!! How they must love us. Then when the guy left again at about 7:20am, J decided to shout "it's OK neighbours .. you can go back to sleep now". oh the shame ... the shame!!! :-)) (Cathy from across the road did have a giggle about it on Sunday when she told me that she heard him). It's a good thing I love him hey!!

I have also decided that the TV shows like Backyard Blitz, that have 20 minutes to spare and no turf laid .. and then all of a sudden it is done in time ... is more bullsh*t than I first realised. There is absolutely no way in the world they can lay turf as quickly as they reckon they do. Not properly anyway.

We finished just after lunch .. and our lawn area is really quite small!!!

Anyway ... the first hour or so was preparing the soil. Dad bought his contraption down that levelled the soil really well ... we then put the 'starter fertilizer' they give you (I think it's a mixture of fertilizer and water crystals) and then it was time for the turf.

Progress pics below. The first pic is to remind you what it was a month ago.....

The lawn area 1 month ago

Soil levelled and fertilized ... first rolls of turf ready to go

Brickwork pattern working well

Da daaaa ....... all in. J making sure the lawn gets a good drink

Another shot ....

and a close up shot

We were completely knackered on Saturday night ... those rolls of turf are dam heavy, but we both agree that the work was worth the effort.

Can't wait for some plants to go in the garden bed and the path to be done!!!

Next time on the 'Adventures of J & A in the backyard', hear how J puts together his new BBQ with a screwdriver, a Bundy and lots of nagging from A.

The front garden

2008-10-22T07:54:00.004+11:00

Well all of our attention of late is on the backyard and my poor little front yard is feeling very neglected.

So ... I thought I'd show you how my plants are doing. Now, please excuse all the mess around these beds as we have to re-do the path to the front door and fix other parts of the front as well ... so don't focus on the mess. Just focus on the healthy plants :-))

More progress ... 2 weekends in a row!!!!

2008-10-20T07:41:00.004+11:00

I'm very pleased to report another very successful weekend of progress in the backyard, and you may not believe it, but all of it was done WITHOUT the help of Dad. His back is most grateful for the break I'm sure!!!

Jobs this weekend were:

1. Paint retaining wall - DONE
2. Paint inside of garden beds with that thick black stuff that stops water from getting through the bricks - DONE
3. Paint garden beds - 90% DONE
4. Paint blueboard - DONE
5. Move 8 tonnes of dirt into the garden beds at the back - 50% done

Not sure if you've ever had 8 tonnes of dirt delivered to your nature strip .. and then had to move it out the back by the barrow load .... but it's pretty hard work. J had this job and by about 4 tonnes (approx) he was really starting to feel it. So he had some X-Box playing time to give his arms and back a rest. Good thing his controller fingers weren't aching!!

And yes ... there were 'differences of opinion' aired on how things should be done :-). Wouldn't be landscaping without these would it!!!!

In the second picture down you can just make out a paver on the right hand side. We think the creamy paver will look really nice against the other colours.

Now I know that green is not everybody's cup of tea (nor was it husband's) but he even likes the colour. Can't wait to get some plants in there. Should look ace!! I've decided to go with my first choice in the garden beds .. yuccas. I love them and after looking around at a billion different plants, I still keep going back to them so I'm taking that as a sign.

Our 'faux' rendering was done by Dulux Full Texture paint. What a great invention this stuff is for the DIY'er. We have done 2 coats (first coat colour was too light) but we think we got it right with the 2nd coat. There are a couple of patches that don't look so great, so we are going to give it a 3rd coat to see if we can even it up. It looks good - but we want to get it as perfect as possible.

Next weekend the backyard will take a breather as J is in Hobart and I am going to have a lazy 2 days at home. Yay.

First coat of texture paint on bricks

2nd coat of texture paint on bricks

Everything painted - probably need one more coat on the bricks to make it look a bit better

Retaining wall painted

Sssssh... don't tell my boss!!

2008-10-16T07:40:00.004+11:00

Yesterday (Wednesday), Dad was dropping off my brother's new BBQ (brother only lives 10 mins away from me) so he thought he'd swing by our place and sand the blueboard ready for the topcoat. He knew we didn't have a ladder so couldn't reach the top bit. I asked him what time he'd be at our place so I could leave work and meet him ... his response (earlier in the week) was "don't know but probably late afternoon".

So I decided to leave work at lunch time, then do work at home for the afternoon while waiting for Dad. Lo and behold, when I got home at about 1:00 he was already there, and had started sanding!!!

Oh well .. good one, I still had every intention of working.

When we put one of the sleepers up the previous evening, we'd stuffed it up a bit and it wasn't levelling properly, so I asked Dad if he could take a look and see how we could fix it. No problems was the reply.

Well ... 3 hours later and this is what we finished!!! No work done for my actual paid job, but the retaining wall is now complete. John (very timely) arrived home just as we were packing up the tools.

This weekend's job is to start painting the retaining wall (and fence), paint blueboard and brickwork. We are also going to get some soil for the garden bed and bring that in.

Going to be a busy weekend I think!!!

Backyard progress ... mega photo warning

2008-10-13T19:41:00.011+11:00

Firstly, lots of photos in this post so my apologies if it bores you (just don't look I guess!!).

The weekend was an extremely productive one. We didn't even go for a bike ride on Sunday when it was perfect weather!!! Insane? Possibly, but when somebody offers to come and help, you don't turn it down.

Anyway ... for those that are interested .... photos below show the progress of the weekend.

Site Supervisor - Zach

Site Supervisor Andy (with Zach)

What you looking at?? Roxy

Dad arrives ... construction zone gets set up

First posts in (that's Dad .. Andy's Dad)

John and Dad covering up the joins

All done - ready for sanding

John sanding the joins ... and a bit of painting to test the colour

So still to do .... second coat of 'joining stuff' on the blue board then another lot of sanding back. Brickwork to be rendered and painted and the blueboard to be fully painted once John has done his thing (the sanding thing).

The other job started on the weekend was the posts for the garden bed at the back. Just 1 sleeper high but enough to make a bit of a garden at the back.

Good one huh!!

Digger's gone .. and a hole in the fence

2008-10-09T15:52:00.005+11:00

To copy Perry's comment 'wow - two posts in one day!!'.

The backyard is virtually flat ... just some tufts of grass/weeds that I need to get rid of around the boundary and it will be quite barron. Not for long hopefully!

The plan is to get the retaining wall (just one sleeper high) along the back fence done this weekend. Frank is coming back on the 24 October to bring in the dirt for the grass and the crushed rock for the patio area. Lazy? Yes but at $60 an hour it's much better for our marriage than barrowing it all in for 2 days.

The only mishap was a small hole put into the paling fence (in the gate). There was a star picket in the dirt that Frank didn't see and as he went through the gate it pierced the wood. Oh well ... worst things could have happened.

Getting very excited about this area now. I can visualise how I want it to look .. just hope it comes out that way.

Looking onto patio area

Looking from gate to back

Alcove area outside the formal lounge - this will be a lush garden one day (hopefully)

Back - the bit that will have a small garden bed and grass

Back - can you imagine the grass there and trees along the fence??

Backyard progress

2008-10-09T11:33:00.006+11:00

Well our dingo guy is here (Frank) and he's doing an excellent job. He postponed from Tuesday because of the heavy rain that we had on the Monday. So today the sun is shining and he is flying through the job.

Progress photos below ... I reckon he'll be done in another couple of hours!!! Finished photos to follow later today.

Looking from family room onto patio area (OK .. try and visualise a patio area)

Looking from patio to side gate

Looking the other way .. from gate to back

Digger having a bit of a rest at the back

Back of house

Sleepers ... how many???

2008-10-06T08:00:00.002+11:00

Our garage currently looks like a small Bunnings trade area!!! Yesterday we headed down to the local Bunnings to pick up the sleepers and concrete we need for the retaining walls.

I'm super excited ... the guy is coming tomorrow with his little Dingo to clear the backyard. He's going to remove the top layer of weeds and flatten the area. Next weekend we will put up the retaining wall for the garden bed and then once that is done, in comes the dirt and the grass.

Pavers have been putt off for about a month as my car needed repair (which took all of my paving money ... dam car) but we will get the area ready with crushed rock. Unfortuantely that money tree that I planted last year seems to have died!!

Dad will also come down this weekend to build the frames behind the brick garden beds. Poor old fella' has Shingles at the moment so he's in a whole lot of pain, but the trooper that he is, he'll still come and help us. What a guy!!

The Coffee Table

2008-09-18T07:36:00.004+10:00

Lights dim .... queue background music ......

Toni - this post is for you....

Lamp Tables

And to anybody else reading this post you may think I've gone quite mad!! Well, I may have but it appears that Toni (H2B) and I have the same wooden furniture!!!!!

Sorry sir .. how many cushions???

2008-09-16T14:50:00.003+10:00

Well ... the couches have arrived for the formal lounge. YAY!!! Don't know how all the cushions are supposed to fit across the back but I've done my best. Not sure about the green ones yet ... they were a gift from a friend so I'll try one day with .. one day without ... and see how I go.

Anyway .... I am absolutely ecstatic about this room. It is exactly how I'd pictured it when we built the house. Just need to find some really nice prints for the walls and that room is done!!

I think it will be a lovely spot to sit and read and look out on the garden (when it gets done).

Hi .. I'm Bruce

2008-09-08T08:24:00.004+10:00

Hi there humans ... my name is Bruce and I am a Blue Tongue Lizard. I live under the deck of some people called John & Andy. Some days, there is even a little person that comes and stays for a few days at a time. She is pretty noisy and she scares me sometimes because she bounces a ball right above my house. Very annoying!!

I quite like my new home as I can hide from other humans and animals but when they are all working, I sun myself on the garden bed or on the driveway. It's very warm there sometimes.

I think the humans quite like me as they tried to feed me some strange meat the other day. I didn't really like it so I hope they don't try to do that again.

The lady human (Andy) got a bit cross with me yesterday because I decided to play in the front garden bed as it was such a lovely day .. but apparently I put all of the red bark into the white pebbles, and that really annoyed her. I heard her say something about making me into a small handbag!!

I'm not sure how long I will be able to stay here as the people were talking about fixing up the pathway leading to the deck. It didn't sound like a very good plan to me as that's where the hole is for me to crawl into my home.

I'll cross my claws and hope they don't block me in when they fix the path!!

See ya,

Bruce

Couch MIA and a new tree

2008-09-04T07:37:00.002+10:00

Where the hell are MY... sorry .... OUR new couches???!!!!!! Who knows. We were told 3-4 weeks, and I'm sure it has now been closer to 5 weeks since we ordered them. A stern phone call to Freedom is in order today I think.

John's two little snodgers arrive on Sunday for a week (from Hobart) and I wanted the lounge room to be done for when they get here. Not that they can use that room of course ......... only kidding. Ha ha ... I'm so funny.

Anyway ... we arrived home last night to find that the council had been and has planted trees in everybody's nature strip. Nice. Pity we haven't done the nature strip yet but I guess now we'll just work around the tree that's there!!

Not sure what type of tree it is and I'll take a photo on the weekend. It's decidious so looks quite ugly and bare at the moment but I'm sure it will be lovely.

A new bench, some lounge room furniture and a lizard

2008-09-01T08:01:00.004+10:00

After 14 months of the dryer sitting on the laundry bench, Dad came around on the weekend and put it up on the wall!!!

It is nice to actually see how the laundry was supposed to look for a change!!!

Now all we're waiting for is the weather to fine up so the dogs can go back outside and my laundry floor can be clean for a change, rather than paw prints and mud all over my tiles!!!

Note to self: if we ever build again, get the builder to concrete down the 'wasted' side of the house.

Also, some of the lounge room furniture was delivered on Friday and we are anxiously awaiting a phone call to say that our couches are ready for delivery. The coffee table & two lamp tables are quite 'chunky' (a bit like their owners really) so all of a sudden the room looks like it won't fit the couches .... but I'm assured that they will!!

Work on the backyard will also re-commence shortly. Stay tuned for arguments .. I mean, progress by J and I.

We also have a few visitors in our garden .... the noisy frogs are back (which annoy me at 3:00am but I'm told that it's a good sign of how healthy the backyard is) and we have a lovely Blue Tongue Lizard (whom we have named Bruce) living under the deck at the front. He kept me company on Saturday when I was weeding the garden.

Furniture joy .... DVD major bummer

2008-08-11T07:43:00.002+10:00

We braved the freezing weather yesterday so that I could show J the couches I had been looking at for the formal lounge room. They are more expensive than I had originally anticipated to spend, but I figure this room won't be used as much as the family room so they should last us a good 15-20 years!! Here's hoping anyway.

Fortunately J liked them too so we ordered them ... due in 4 weeks. Yay!!

We have also chosen the wooden furniture (coffee table, lamp tables etc) for that room so the only hard thing will be choosing a nice rug to go under the coffee table. I doubt J really cares that much about a rug so I'll enjoy looking around for one.

And for those that know me .... yes, a bit disappointed that the lounge room will be done before the backyard but I have every confidence that the back yard will be done by christmas.

So happiness all round for how the lounge room is going to look.

We also FINALLY bought some new cordless phones. Friends and family are getting sick of ringing the home phone because we only had one handset .. in the bedroom .... and it used to kick in to the answering machine before you could get to the bedroom and answer it. So most of the time we would just let it ring.

Well loved ones, you'll be pleased to know that we now have 3 handsets so too much wine will be the only reason we can't answer the phone!!

We were also very excited to purchase 'Contiuum' .. the final movie of the Stargate saga. Again, for those that know us, you'll know that Stargate is a big hit in our house and we have watched with delight as Jack, Sam, Daniel Jackson (mmm yummy) & Teal'c have fought all kinds of strange & evil creatures.

So you would think the final movie would have been pretty awesome ...............

Wouldn't you???

Well ... I can assure you that it wasn't!

Very disappointing. Shame on you Stargate writers. If this is all you were going to deliver you shouldn't have bothered!!!!

They're finished!!

2008-07-18T07:52:00.004+10:00

Matt has had this week off and been coming down every day to finish off the garden beds.

Slow .. yes but he has done a great job. Matt - you're a legend!!!

Just so you know what you're looking at ..... the 2 garden beds will be rendered (have been looking for a good colour and I may have just found it by stealing Bern & Perry's front render colour!!) ... the pavers are a cream colour, but more 'yellow' cream than 'pink' cream (that makes much more sense when you see the differences) so it's going to be important to get that right.

Anyway ... I'm rambling .. where was I ... oh yes, rendered garden beds which will have a bamboo panel behind each bed. Plants of choice ... yukka heads with some other plants at the bottom (can't remember their name but they are purple and green ... common name is 'moses in a cradle' or something similar).

The gap in between the 2 beds will be a blueboard panel ... again colour is important but I'm thinking green or red .... and that area will be where the BBQ will sit.

All the bit in front (where the rubbish & weeds/grass is) will obviously be paved.

So there you go ... one job done ... 593 to go!! Can't wait to try and render ... should be fun!!

Bedroom update & backyard mess

2008-07-16T07:35:00.004+10:00

OK .... I have been feeling very guilty about my lack of 'love' for the house blog, and my fellow house bloggers have shamed me into posting something!!!

So a few things have happened around the house.

We ordered the entertainment unit for the bedroom while we were in Brisvegas and it got delivered upon our return. We absolutely love it and it's perfect for the room.... the colour of the wood is almost identical to our bed!!! I say that our bedroom is now complete however J says 'it will be complete when we get the bundy fridge'.

The other very slow changes are to the backyard. As you may recall, we had to build the bricked garden beds (which will be rendered) before we could flatten the area and pave it. Unfortunately 99% of the brickies in Melbourne wouldn't do it because it was such a small job and the one guy we did find, fell off the scaffold the day before he was due to come over and broke his hand so couldn't work for 6 weeks!!

In hind sight ... waiting for him for 6 weeks may have been a better option as they would now be done and the paving would also be done!!!!!

I shouldn't complain though ... one of our great neighbours (man it's good to have tradies in the street) agreed to do the beds for us for a few hundred dollars!! Great, cheap as. He's a lovely guy but slow ... boy, you have no idea.

In all fairness to him however he is not a bricky so I can't expect him to get it done as quickly as a bricky would ... but it doesn't help my desire to get it all done before the big rains come (yes .. I'm sure they will come!!!).

So about 6 weeks into the project and he is ALMOST finished. I noticed last night that he had been down during the day and on one of the beds, he has almost completed the top row ... just needs another couple of rows on the other one.

I took a photo a few weeks ago so you could see the start .... and took a photo last night (not a good pic) to show what has been completed so far.

And now to the bike :-)))

No .. won't bore you with bike stories on this blog but I thought I'd post a pic anyway!!! After all .... you can never have too many pics (isn't that right Perry!!!).

And just for your info ... her name is Scarlett :-)

Distraction...................

2008-07-08T13:31:00.003+10:00

J here,
I dont know if we have any loyal readers left out there but on the off chance we still do I would like to apologise for the lack of blogg action of late.
A, (also known as geek girl) has been somewhat distracted the last few weeks by something shiny........ Her new Motorcycle.
Just in case you folks havent clicked on the new blog page listed to the right of this post. I will attempt to update you.
I have been away quite a bit of late (weve been married about 10 months and 5 of those I have been in Brisvegas and I thought it was time I got the girlie something nice for being so understanding.
A has always wanted to ride a bike and a couple of years ago year 'grumpy santa' got her a voucher for some riding gear that so after a bunch of research on line while I should have been working I Brought her a suzuki GS500F.
We picked up the bike last thursday and I have had it surrounded by razor wire in the Garage until such time as she can ride it. Come to think of it A did have some rather suspicious cuts on her hands the other night and when questioned about them she told me she got them '...... cooking your tea you bastard !!'
So Today A is off with her dad doing her learners course so that we can go for our first ride together on the weekend.
Ok.... On the house front. The new entertainment unit has arrived for the bedroom and the garden beds for the outside bbq area are taking shape.
Hang in there dear reader and Im sure her ladyship will update you all with pictures when she eventually gets her licence.
J

Syonara Brisvegas

2008-06-20T13:58:00.001+10:00

Well my 2 weeks stay in Brisbane has finally come to an end! Has been a good 2 weeks but very glad to be getting back home. Husband will be staying for another week however.

Not sure how much rain has been in Melbourne but it will be interesting to see how my garden is looking and how the drain in the back yard is holding up.

Things I'm looking forward to when I get home:

- sleeping in my own bed
- watching our TV (getting a bit sick of watching a 52cm screen)
- seeing the puppies
- cooking in my own kitchen, not the electric hot plates in the apartment!!

Matt from up the road was supposed to build the garden beds out the back while we were gone but I haven't had any reports from Sarah that there has been any movement in the backyard. Oh well ... it's been this long now, what's another few weeks!!

Things I'll miss in Brisbane:

- not having to wear scarf, hat, gloves and overcoat to brave the outside world

- cheap petrol

- our beautiful niece Grace .. now 9 months old.

Where else but Queensland

2008-06-12T10:03:00.002+10:00

Where else do you find muggy weather, frizzy hair and unhelpful people!!!

I think the folk in the hospitality industry have forgotten the meaning of the word 'hospitality'!!

Experiences so far have been:

1. We go to Brisbane Botanical Gardens, have a coffee in the garden restaurant and ask them how to get to Mt Tamborine.

Us: Hi - can you tell us how to get to Mt Tamborine?
Brisbane-ite (insert stereo-typical blonde voice here and tilt head to one side): Noooo ... that's on the Gold Coast
Us: Yes we are aware it's near the Coast however can you tell us how to get there:
Brisbane-ite: Noooo ... we don't go to the Gold Coast
Us: Thanks for your help

2. Had a meeting in Mansfield yesterday (about 14km away from where our office is) so I caught a taxi.

Taxi driver (insert stereo-typical italian taxi driver who wouldn't turn on air conditioner but windows down): Where to
Me: [give him address]
Taxi driver: do you know where that is
Me: No .. but I'm guessing in Mansfield
Taxi driver: Do you know how to get there
Me: No ... that's why I am catching a taxi
Taxi driver: Do you know what the name of the building is
Me : No ... I'm from interstate .. I've never been there before
Taxi driver: [insert heavy sigh and tut-tutting as he has to look up Melways for directions]

3. I get on a bus last night to get back to apartment, but got on wrong bus. Got off at first stop I could and walked to a street I was familiar with. A bus comes along so I ask the driver:

Me: Do you go anywhere near Turbot Street
Bus Driver: I go straight down Adelaide Street
Me: Yes I know you go down Adelaide Street but does it go far enough to be in the vicinity of Turbot Street
Bus Driver: I go straight down Adelaide Street
Me: I am trying to get to the corner of Bowen & Turbot Street .... will this bus take me within a 4 block radius
Bus Driver: I go straight down Adelaide Street

Where else but Queensland indeed!!

2008-06-06T21:14:00.005+10:00

My darling A called me tonight to tell me that tonight might be the last night we were married cause she was gunna run away with some sawn off bloody Canadian who reckons he can sing

Well unlike her I reckon there is something to say......... but Im a firm believer in the addage that a picture is worth a thousand words.................

Im thinking about career in graphic design....................... waddayareckon :)

J

No title post

2008-06-06T16:51:00.001+10:00

This post has no title because there is nothing I could even say to live up to the standard of this man. Off to the concert tonight..... have been looking forward to it for 3 months.

It's finally here .....

2008-06-05T08:41:00.003+10:00

No, not the paving ... not the entertainment unit ... and certainly not the grand piano.

Finally, the long awaited premiere of 'Sex and the City'!!!

We're off for a girls night tonight to see it and then dinner and de-brief after the flick. I'm told to take the tissues because it's a bit of a tear jerker in parts!!!!

I almost got in trouble from the compliance leader in our business when I sent an email offering sex in the city to all the girls in the office :-))

New curtains and a birthday party

2008-06-02T09:24:00.004+10:00

Phase 3 of the bedroom makeover has been complete. Curtains .... for those that can't pick what the change has been :-)

Sarah also had her 11th birthday party on Saturday (bowling) with a sleepover on Saturday night. Surprisingly the girls were very responsible and were in bed by 10:30pm!!

Inspection complete .... and new chair arrived

2008-05-30T10:28:00.003+10:00

12 month inspection completed. For PD builders, keep in mind that this inspection is for 'structural' items only, so if anything is not right with appliances or other bits and pieces, they won't care about it!!

I only had a few items for them to look at .... the kitchen benchtop, the electrical work in the bathroom and Sarah's room (every now and then zaps and light turns off ... I'm no electrician but I'm tipping this is not good), and the glass on the shower screen. There were a couple of other items but he wasn't interested as they were not considered structural and I should have 'raised the issue' at the 3 month inspection!! Yes, I did have a bit of a go at him about that.

Another issue I was a bit annoyed about was our roof tiles. We've had 2 tradies over the last 6 months go up on the roof and both of them said 'there are a lot of broken tiles'. I raised this with the inspector and all he said was "you should have bought this up at the 3 month inspection" (I clearly forgot to check the roof all those times I went up on to the roof) ... and then the next comment was "how do we know that your tradies didn't break the tiles".

It was an argument I wasn't going to win so I just said "whatever".

I was also a bit annoyed about the issue of the bench top. There is one area that the join in the laminate has become a bit more noticeable than the other joins. There is also a tiny bit of 'bubbling' in the laminate in this area (not sure how to describe it) so I pointed it out to him .. and again his comment was "how do we know you haven't left water on the bench for a long period of time or put something hot on the laminate".

Again ... I wasn't going to win the argument so again just made him write it on the inspection sheet anyway but I'm not putting any bets on that we'll get it looked at.

So that's kind of annoying.

The other annoying thing is that John is back up in Brisbane for a month. Left on Monday morning. The next 2 weeks will be horrible but I'm going up to work in our Brisvegas office for 2 weeks to keep an eye on him!! Looking forward to the warmer weather (but not the rain that is going to make my hair frizzy!!).

The positive this week however has been the arrival of my new chair (we'll call this the 'reading chair').

This is our little retreat area in the bedroom :-))

Only 2 more things needed for the room then we're done ... swags & tails which are coming end of June/early July and still looking for a low line entertainment unit to put the x-box on and put the DVDs etc away.

Did find one the other day but was in the wrong colour!! Isn't it always the way!!!

The X-Box couch is enjoying the rest. John decided to take Need for Speed with him (good one) so there are no good games for me to play. His comment was "you can play Feroza". For anybody that has an X-Box 360 you'll know that it's a pretty lame game!!!

Thanks husband.

Is that 12 months already???

2008-05-12T10:45:00.002+10:00

Can you believe that it is almost 12 months since we moved into the house??? I certainly can't. Well probably because it's only been 11 months and 2 weeks but let's not dwell on the detail.

What an unbelievable 12 months it has been. New house, married and new jobs for both of us.

I asked J to phone PD the other day to try and get a date for the 12 month inspection (those that have built with PD know that you have to request this inspection, they won't automatically book one in for you). I figured that they would mess around with dates and it would take a long time so I wasn't expecting any sort of response. Within a couple of hours of my request to aforementioned husband, he had emailed me telling me to work from home next Friday (16 May) and somebody would be out to do the inspection.

Wow! Now just have to put a list together .. mind you, it's not a long list but fairly important things (ie. electricals are a bit dodgy and one of the joins in the kitchen bench looks like it won't last much more than a couple of years). Other than that, we'll see if they pick up anything we haven't noticed.

The X-Box couch had a very good run over the weekend with lots of Need for Speed & Gears of War playing. J thinks the 'couch shit' and the 'bed shit' are a bit much for him to deal with but he'll get over it I'm sure :-))

We had some quotes done on Saturday as well for some blinds and stuff ..... swags/tails for the master bedroom and a holland blind (I think that was it) for the sliding door out onto the patio.

The only downer of the weekend was on Saturday when the bricky didn't show up to build the garden beds. I was REALLY annoyed as I was looking forward to seeing some more work done out the back, and we had lost his number so couldn't even ring to see what was going on.

Anyway ... get a call from him on Sunday apologising for not having phoned however he was in hospital after a fall from some scaffolding on Friday where he broke two fingers in his hand and also broke his phone, therefore couldn't get ring when he wanted to. He is now out of action for 6 weeks.

We felt pretty bad for cursing him after hearing that!

The cost of happiness

2008-05-08T15:26:00.002+10:00

One cheap, unremarkable looking couch: $500

Cushions to try and brighten it up: $100

A husband's happiness because he has his own place to sit and play computer games: Priceless

Do the happy dance

2008-05-07T16:23:00.001+10:00

X-Box couch has arrived

Gorgeous trees

2008-05-06T07:10:00.005+10:00

On Sunday I dragged Sarah to the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens. Not sure how Royal they are but that word is thrown in there as well. As a typical 10 year old this was a very lame thing for her mother to make her do and of course I heard all about it for a while ... until she got there and she had a great time!!!

Anyway .. I digress ..... if you are a fan of Aussie natives, then this is the place for you. It's a lovely way to spend an hour or two of your day just walking around the gardens. I came across a few plants that I would like to put in my garden .... this silver plant one of them. The photo actually doesn't do it justice and planted on mass, it looks simply stunning.

The other highlight in the garden are the grass trees. These are just awesome looking trees and I wish we had a place for one!! Some of them are 400 years old. Amazing.

It's coming

2008-05-05T09:51:00.001+10:00

X-Box couch has been made and due to arrive at the store on Wednesday.

Of course my chair isn't coming at the same time (why would it) because the material was not in stock. Sigh.

But as long as the big boy is happy ... apparently that's all that matters. I'm sure that trials will begin on Sunday to test it out.

Dave made a very apt comment .... if he gets an ass groove in the chair too quickly, he's sitting on it far too often.

1 job finished ... turns into 3 still to do

2008-04-28T16:57:00.003+10:00

Why is it that when one thing gets done, it starts a chain of follow up jobs that need to be completed to make it all look the way you want!!

We were able to get the second step to the front done over the weekend. Our friendly neighbour, Dave the deck builder, took time out of his busy schedule to get it done for us.

We left the original deck too long before we oiled it so now we are going to have to wait a few months for the new wood to age and then we will oil it so it looks the same (that's the plan anyway).

Now that this has been finished I can also pull up the original paving and get it done properly. I'm going to put large format pavers (same as the ones out the back) and get rid of the pebbles. It annoys me to have the bark fall into the pebbles all the time and it never looks neat.

Also need to re-plant the cordyline in the black pot.

Once this is all done ... the path to the front door will be done.

Just in time for our 12 month inspection!!

Boy this stuff takes a long time.

More exciting however ... should only be 10 days or so away before the X-Box couch arrives. You know who is never going to move out of the bedroom every Sunday don't you!!!

2 weeks till the xbox 360 couch arrives

2008-04-24T09:45:00.000+10:00

....... I cant wait......

J

A weekend of activity

2008-04-21T08:04:00.005+10:00

While I'm a big fan of the lazy weekend, I'm also becoming a huge fan of weekends that are full of activity and productivity. The last 2 days can be counted in the latter category.

Bright and early Saturday morning, Dad and Damian showed up to box up the second garden bed ready for the concrete to be delivered at 10:30am. I love watching builders work. It's amazing what they achieve and it's confirmed that my dad is an absolute superstar. Bear in mind that the boxing up will be removed next week, some of the things dad did to make sure it was all perfect was amazing. His eye for detail is second to none and for an old fella, I reckon he still puts the young guys to shame.

Sunday we got up early again and oiled the deck (finally). It came up really lovely and I will do the second coat this afternoon. We also had a friend come down and pull through the cabling for the security system and he will finish that off on Thursday. So little things around the place are starting to get done which is great.

So all in all ... a very productive weekend. The backyard especially is starting to take shape. Although from the photos it still looks like a war zone, I think that is a very faint light I can see in the distance.

By the way ... the countdown is on for the x-box couch. Apparently about 35 days to go.

Successful shopping weekend

2008-04-14T08:14:00.003+10:00

As you may have read from J's post on Friday, on the weekend we ventured out to look at a couch for the bedroom.

Of course, while the mission was a complete success, it was not without drama.

Let me firstly, re-cap on what the big man wrote last week:

"While I am after the pure functionality of a couch, A will be coming along with me to ensure that I dont buy anything that is too big, too small, too high backed, the wrong colour, wrong style, or worst of all, something that buggers up the feung shui of the room."

We were waiting for a friend to arrive for breakfast on Saturday morning and thought we would look at a couple of furniture places to see if anything captured our eye. The brief was as follows:

- something simple
- no wider than bed or higher than foot of bed
- no bulky furniture
- must be dark blue (due to our feature wall)

It was pretty easy to rule out most of the 2 seaters and we both laid eyes on a very slimline, square looking 2 seater couch ..... perfect. We both sat ... agreed that it was comfortable enough for a few hours sitting at a time and we both practised the 'X-Box controller' position to ensure that we would have enough room for both of us to sit. 3 prices ... 3 fabric choices. No problems. Off we go to the fabric section.

At this point, John lost complete interest and wandered off to look at other furniture in the store.

A very helpful sales assistant found me and after explaining what couch we chose and the colours of the bedroom I found a fabric and colour I was happy with. It's pretty hard choosing a colour to match our dark blue wall but I think it will be OK. With some pretty cushions and maybe a throw rug it should all blend in nicely.

Next I found my chair (single chair for the corner of the bedroom) and I wanted this to be in complete contrast to the couch so I chose a bit of a way out, dotty material. J wasn't too thrilled with it I don't think but as he said 'as long as he has his x-box couch, he doesn't care'.

Sounds great doesn't it .... fairly seamless process, no arguing, agreement virtually straight away .... life is good.

Cue the sound of man finding the perfect lazy man's couch.

A tap on my shoulder and a pointed finger at the couch that J has now decided is THE perfect couch for the bedroom.

A 2 seater theatre couch no less!!! Big fat chunky arms, recliner on both chairs, 2 drink holders and another section to hold food and whatever else you want to hide in there.

A quick re-cap on the conversation:

A: No
J: But look at it, it's perfect

A: No
J: But it can hold my Bundy

A: No
J: Look how comfortable it is

A: No
J: You're a biatch

I love being married :-))

Anyway ... while breakfast was lovely with only a few complaints about not being allowed to have the couch he wanted, J then headed off to a day of sailing while I did some more shopping around (just to make sure there wasn't anything else around at a better price). After looking at a few stores, went back and put a deposit on the chair and couch ... delivery in 4-6 weeks.

So all in all, it was a reasonably successful shopping trip.

So while we're on a positive note .. I won't even give you the run down of Sunday's landscaping day. For those that have read our blog from the start you will know that when J&A work together in the back yard ...... sparks fly!!!!

I love being married :-))))))

A mans cave

2008-04-11T15:13:00.004+10:00

J here,
I am very excited at the moment because this sunday we are going shopping for 'the xbox couch'

This piece of furniture will be placed at the end of the bed and will enable me to play the xbox 360 on our 42" plasma without sitting on the bed and disrupting the slightly OCD yet tasteful arrangement of pillows, cushions and soft toys thereon.

I call this collection of bits and pieces 'the bed shit'. It is removed of an evening and replaced by A every morning with nanometer precision, but I really cant complain, we have very few 'absolutes' in our relationship ie 'you will absolutely NOT do this' and 'you will absolutely NOT do that', but 'you will absolutely NOT sit on the bed while the bed shit is in place' is one of them.

Experience has taught me fellas that you dont mess with this sort of stuff, you work with it and besides which, you never know when those Home Beautiful judges are going to launch a home invasion and inspect the place, so its best to be prepared :)

While I am after the pure functionality of a couch, A will be coming along with me to ensure that I dont buy anything that is too big, too small, too high backed, the wrong colour, wrong style, or worst of all, something that buggers up the feung shui of the room.

All the effort involved in the purchase will pay off as the couch will go to form part of 'the cave', a 2 year plan which includes a bar fridge and slot in the door through which A will be able to push my meals when Im having a little 'cave time'.

To quote the movie The Castle

"hours of serenity........"

J

Aaaaah ... progress

2008-04-07T07:59:00.005+10:00

God bless Big Kev and his catch phrase 'I'm excited' .... I've decided to use it as the backyard eventually starts to look like a workman's area.

Dad came down yesterday and helped with the retaining walls and John busily continued to dig out the trench for the drainage. You will see by one of the photos that the drainage stuff has been installed ... next weekend we will do the remaining length of the backyard.

Our natural weed garden is looking superb in the photos.

I've also put a photo up to show how well our wobbly hedge is doing. You'll see that the path isn't finished but we are waiting to complete the patio area first before finishing that off. Don't want to be driving the dingo over new pavers and cracking them.

It was a pretty exciting day yesterday ... although it still looks like a disaster zone out there, work is happening and over the next 4-6 weeks, we'll see some huge improvements.

I'm excited!!!!

First winter flower and pavers are chosen

2008-04-01T18:40:00.002+11:00

They say that spring bulbs flowering are one of the first signs of spring ... so based on that theory I'm going with the phrase 'the first camellia flower is the first sign of winter'.

I was thrilled to see my little camellia bush loaded with buds and that one of them has actually flowered!! Go the Seasol!!

Also doing well is my lily .. which unfortunately is now ending it's life but I'm hoping it pops up again in the spring.

Today was a most successful day when it comes to choosing pavers. I don't know how many show rooms and paving display places I have visited but today I went down to Mornington and stopped at a place just in the hope that they had something I would like.

Bingo .. paver chosen. It's a 500 x 500 and the colour is so close to the gutters that you would think it has been made for our area. It has a lovely grain through it (very subtle) that you can't see in the picture but it makes it just gives it a bit of a feature.

The dogs had a bit of a sniff and then decided they would like to sit on it ... you can see the paw print from the mud!!!

The Kids

2008-03-28T07:47:00.004+11:00

I was going to post a couple of photos of the backyard (before pic of course) so that when the work starts around the place you can see what we have achieved.

Unfortunately after looking at the pics on the camera I am so embarassed about the amount of weeds I'll wait until I've done some culling this weekend.

It's amazing to see how much they have taken over in a couple of months - unless you are completely on top of it they just take over the whole ground and somehow you just get used to it and don't do a thing about it!!!

On the landscaping front, John went back over the old drainage trench as it had filled in a little bit due to the rain and weather we have had since then. Next weekend we'll at least fill one section of it (road base, pipe etc) and then start on the next section.

Dad will hopefully be down next weekend to lay the foundations for the garden beds so the backyard should be full of workers - the puppies will love having people in their domain!!

On the camera I also found some pics of the kids from christmas that I had forgotten were on there ... so figured I'll show them instead as they are a much better thing to look at than our weedy back yard!!!!

The Tasmanians arrived

2008-03-18T12:19:00.004+11:00

On Saturday our little estate didn't know what hit them when 3 mean, rough bikies headed down our street.

Ok .. so mean and rough is completely over exaggerated.

More like 4, over middle aged people in the prime of their lives spending their children's inheritance and enjoying the good life!!!

It was very cool to see John's dad and his partner Marly with 2 friends (Viv & Connie) get on their bikes and take a trip down the Great Ocean Road for a week. Who knows where they will end up after the navigation by Tony to even get to our place, but I guess that will be the fun of it all.

As I write this they are probably wreaking havoc and having a bloody good time while they do it!!

I hope I do cool stuff like that when I'm old :-)))

Some new plants

2008-03-17T08:07:00.004+11:00

Well I couldn't help myself ... I've been very good for such a long time but the itch to get some new plants in the front garden was killing me. With no child and no husband, the weekend was the perfect time to wander in and out of nurseries with no complaining.

Because I have my eye on the bigger prize (back patio getting done) I didn't want to go overboard so I just bought enough to finish off the little garden bed around the letterbox.

The photo is not so good as I took it with my phone but it looks quite lovely.

I'm hoping the effect around the bed of the driveway will be a two step hedge ... you can't see them very well on this pic but there are little hedge plants (same as the ones at the front windows) next to the driveway, then there is another plant behind it that will hedge as well to about 40cm. The ground was awful so I spent some time hitting it with claybreaker and putting some new soil in there.

Fingers crossed the little plants survive!!

I'm here to paint ze' fence

2008-03-12T08:04:00.002+11:00

Before work commences on the paving area, I figured now is the perfect opportunity to paint the fence (and also before it starts turning grey and ugly).

The only question is ... what colour!!! I have absolutely no intention of painting it again so I have to get it right the first time.

My thought is to go a darker colour as the pavers will be a light colour and I don't want to much 'cream' colourings out the back but then again will a dark colour look too dull.

Anyway ... the choice is endless I guess so it's off to Dulux on Friday to check it all out.

Can't wait .... things are slowly starting to happen out the back and I'm so excited to think that once John gets home the work will really get started.

Bring it on!!!

Happy Friday

2008-03-07T08:01:00.001+11:00

I've learnt the secret of getting over a bad day .... champagne.

Does wonders for your soul :-)

Happy Friday dear friends

:-)

What a day

2008-03-06T15:12:00.002+11:00

Ever had one of those days??

Today I'm having one ... a mixture of anger, frustration, tears, joy, disbelief ... every bloody emotion you can think of.

So the day starts out fairly normally ... had a wee bit of a hangover from last night but nothing that a good cup of coffee wouldn't fix.

The boys in the office frustrated the life out of me ... sometimes I just don't get their logic. Hello frustration.

Later after an email had a flashback moment of a dreadful time of my life that has caused me the most pain I have ever experienced and hope to never again. Bring on tears.

This bought on some very real fears and concerns and had them brushed aside as if they mean absolutely nothing. Where are you anger ... aaah there you are.

Out of the blue get a call from a dear old friend who seems to be very grown up and is taking life very seriously. But it was awesome to hear from him and hear how he and his family are doing. There are a lot of people that come and go throughout your life (some you remember more fondly than others) but this person is somebody that will stay in my heart forever. You're a champ .. you know who you are :-))

So .. joy replaces anger and tears.

Work goes on and more frustration with the men in the office!!

But the best news of the day is that my husband is finally coming home to work in Melbourne. For how long? who knows, but the great thing is that will be home for a while at least.

Maybe not so joyful for him when he reads that he now has to get the backyard done before winter (insert evil laugh here).

Calling all geeks and nerds

2008-03-04T07:41:00.002+11:00

Hold on to your hats for this news may send you into a minor meltdown ....

The Stargate movie is due out very soon!!!!

Sad, but true ..... we love it.

I'm looking forward to finding out whether Daniel & Vala ever 'get it on' and how much bigger T'ealc's arms really have gotten over the last few years.

These are exciting times my friends ... exciting times indeed.

:-)

How to decide

2008-03-03T12:21:00.002+11:00

I've just come back from a lovely weekend in Hobart seeing hubby and my two wicked step children. Had an awesome time (mainly because I hadn't seen John for almost 3 weeks) but also hadn't seen the kids since christmas.

As much as the little buggers drive me mad, I love them just as much as they annoy me so it all balances out!!!

As you all know, I'm itching to get my bike licence (given my hissy fit in January and decision not to go for it then) and I always look longingly at the bikes that race past me ... generally murming the comment "lucky bastard".

Yesterday my heart skipped a beat when John pointed out a Suzuki GS500. "what do you think of that?" was the question. What do you say .. it look just like the sort of bike I wanted but figured I wasn't allowed to have it as a learner.

I answered with the standard "yeah looks way cool" and kept walking.

John proceeded to talk to the owner and came back a few minutes later. It is a bike that I could possibly get under the new learner system, enabling me to get a bigger bike and not ride around on a 250!!!

I took a quick look at the Suzuki website this morning when I arrived and sent the link to John with the statement .... 'and only $7,990 brand new!!' (with smiley face for good measure).

The response .....

"If you want it I'll buy you one but there is a trade off ... I'll be working away for longer".

What to say oh what to say!

Of course I want him home soon but hey ... what's another few months away compared with the absolute joy I would get out of riding a bike to work every day.

AND the colours I like would match my helmet.

Surely it's a no brainer :-)))

ADSL .... finally

2008-02-22T07:38:00.002+11:00

Well folks ... we have finally moved into the modern era and today I pick up the modem that will connect us to ADSL Broadband. I think we may even be lucky enough to have a port that is ADSL2 enabled!!

So goodbye dial up .... you have been a good friend however it's time for us to part ways. This time, forever.

Happy Valentines Day

2008-02-14T08:55:00.002+11:00

Happy Valentines Day,
A lot of people poo-poo valentines day, saying that that the whole idea is to boost the profits of the profits of greeting card manufacturers, florists and those companies that make soft toy teddy bears with 'I love you' written on their bellies.

Today like any other day is a day where you can appreciate your partner and how they enrich your life. The only difference is that today all the hype and commercialization gives you the chance to either focus on it, or it gives you an excuse to dismiss it all as a load of bunk.

When we were married, I spoke to our guests about how the ancient Greeks had muses who were the beautiful daughters of the gods and inspired them to write, paint and make music. In that same way I felt my wife Andrea was a gift from above, sent to take the slobby, thoughtless bogan that I am and inspire me to be a better person.

And inspire me she does...... Every day, not just today

Happy Valentines day Bubs

J

Wow it's started

2008-02-12T07:46:00.000+11:00

We have some movement in the backyard!!!!

Dad came over last weekend and started to put up the retaining walls for the paved area. The land drops away a fair bit (which we knew) but it's a bit higher than I anticipated so I have to rethink the other bits around the paving now.

I've started to plan out what we need to do and I think it's going to look fantastic. I'm keen to get the paving done because then I can finish the front yard!! Why are they even connected you ask? Well we need to deliver stuff out the front and then barrow it around to the back. I don't want to do a nice front lawn with trees and plants and then be running over it with the barrow every 10 minutes.

Question for you men out there ........ something I found quite perplexing yesterday.

As you know, John sails every weekend. While he's been in Brisbane he hasn't been able to get out and sail as much as he would have liked to. As you know by his previous post, he spent 3 days at Geelong sailing on the Australia Day weekend so this week he said to me that he wouldn't be sailing on Saturday so that he could spend the weekend with me.

Noble .. lovely .... quite sweet.

Yesterday I then said to him that he could go sailing if he really wanted to as I had to go to the hairdresser and could use the opportunity to do some other stuff that he is not interested in and then we would go out for a nice dinner Saturday night.

Lovely??? Apparently not.

I get an email from him saying that his mates at work wanted to know what I'm softening him up for to allow him to go sailing ......

What is with you men???? If we are naggy bitches that tell you you can't do something, you complain. When we happily say 'please go out and do something' you complain.

And you reckon we're high maintenance :-)

DUI (Dialling Under the Influence)

2008-02-07T13:46:00.000+11:00

J here,
Dont you think it would be a great idea if someone invented a Phone that had a breath tester in it that detected your B.A.C (blood alchohol content) through the microphone and if it was more than a preset level, locked out the phone so that you couldnt SMS and the only number you could dial would be for a cab ??

In addition to you not being able to make embarassing texts or calls your Ex to tell them what a bastard/bitch they are or telling them that you still loved them, it would also prevent your current signifigant other waking you in the middle of the night !!

A has been off to a 'sales conference' this week and as part of this week long Gab fest there is a boozy dinner at the end of each day. All in the interests of 'team building' of course.

At 23:11 hrs I was woken from my slumber by the buzzing of my phone on the bedside table in my hellishly hot apartment bedroom.

There was a message from the bestest wife in the world saying 'I love you' followed by 3 kisses.
A fine sentiment indeed, but wouldnt it have been better if she had sent this earlier in the evening ??

Still its nice to know shes out enjoying herself while Im away .........

I'm off to write an email to Nokia

J

It's official ...

2008-02-01T08:15:00.001+11:00

We have the coolest house in the world .... .temperature wise that is !!!

Yes the long awaited air conditioning system finally went in yesterday. After a lot of frustration with the installers mind you.

So now I'm just sitting around patiently waiting for a hot day.

Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ITS OFFICIAL...............

2008-01-30T15:43:00.000+11:00

I have the bestest wife in the world,

I mean who else but the bestest wife in the world would put up with her husband (who she hadnt seen for 2 weeks) coming home from Brisbane, spending the night with her then buggering off for 3 whole days sailing, drinking and generally having a good time with is mates and not with her ?

Yet that is precisely what happened last weekend.

Dancin to a bit of Jimmy Buffet

Yup there I was, celebrating Australia day, feeling a little 'tired and emotional' after the passage race from williamstown down to Royal Geelong yacht club. that race we came 20th out of 51 boats in our division, but all up there was a little over 400 boats there for the weekend.

SOME of the yachts

The race the following day was going well until we buggered up, leaving the shipping channel and winding up 'on the bricks' (read run aground), needing yours truely to do his best 3 toed sloth impersonation hanging from the underside of the boom while the rest of the crew pushed the boom (the horizontal sticky bit that hits you in the head) out over the water, thus tilting the boat and lifting the keel off the bottom. But despite this we wound up 15th out of 31 starters, so we would have been a shoe in for a top 10 place if we hadnt made our 'navigational error'.

The 'A' Team in action (Im in the blue hat)

The final day was light and we all wanted to get home early, but we started the race and again did really well until the wind died completely. When we worked out that there wuld be no way we could finishe the race in the alloted time we dropped the sails, fired up the engine and went home.

To add to my wifes already legendary status I came home to a lamb roast followed by a few drinks and an early night. Certainly not the meal of 'hot tongue and cold shoulder' you would think I would be in for after such a weekend.

But Tueday morning as I got ready to go catch my plane back to Brisbane my wife came up to me, put her arms around me, kissed me softly and said 'it was nice to see you for the few hours that you were actually here, maybe next time we can build it up a bit until eventually we might even spend a whole day together..........'

Message received and understood

Shes such a treasure

J

Andrea ... aka whinging cow

2008-01-23T07:52:00.000+11:00

To my friends, family and cyber-friends ... I am SO sorry for having a huge blowout on here.

A. It's got nothing to do with the house
B. Makes me sound like a pathetic loser
C. People simply aren't interested in hearing about my troubles

So .. sorry folks. Happy face is on .... no more complaining unless it's the house I'm complaining about :-))

Birthday day got WAY better after a couple of drinks at lunch time with friends from work. Got a beautiful bunch of flowers delivered from hubby then friends came over for dinner ... where more wine was consumed.

I became the plant lady for my birthday .... receiving 4 lovely natives and 5 or 6 other plants (agave, cordylines, lilirope and aloe vera).

Unfortunately all of these plants will be for out the back yard so they'll have to live in pots for a while yet.

So .. once again ... sorry for the rant and rave. It was a minor meltdown but hopefully shouldn't happen again.

Love ya's all

A

Happy birthday to me

2008-01-21T07:44:00.000+11:00

(to be sung to the tune of Happy Birthday)

Happy Birthday to me

Squashed bananas and wee

Don't waste it just taste it

Happy Birthday to me

Yay for me ... 37 today.

If you haven't picked up the sarcasm in that last line entry I'll just let you know that it is there!!!

Feeling even crappier today than I did last Wednesday (meltdown of the year day) .... everything really sucks at the moment.

Anyway .... no point whining about it all the time hey ..... nobody gives a crap and it just makes me feel even worse.

So ... happy face on ...... going out for lunch today with the guys from work and a couple of friends are coming over tonight for dinner (a 'la Bridge Jones birthday dinner ... minus the blue soup).

Hip hip .... hooray

Too much work & getting old

2008-01-17T13:21:00.000+11:00

What a crappy week. Good thing it hasn't been that hot because otherwise the heat would have sent me over the edge!!

I worked until 3:00am on Monday morning to get a tender in on time (due Monday morning) and since then haven't really been able to catch up on sleep. I hit the wall yesterday and was a mess - wanted to cry everytime somebody spoke to me, everybody and everything was annoying me and all I wanted to do was shoot everybody fair and square in the head.

So a combination of my tiredness, missing hubby, and my 37th birthday fast approaching all culminated in a minor meltdown yesterday. To top it off I got home and for no particular reason (as nothing has changed in the last 6 months),I got really really sh*tty that the backyard still looked like something out of a Stargate episode when all life has been wiped from a planet for 30,000 years. Huge holes ... some pieces of wood sticking out of the ground and big ugly nasty weeds.

The completely insane part of me then starts questioning all of the decisions we have made and the major one was should we have spent so much money on our honeymoon when we could have had all of the landscaping done with that money???

Well I answered my own question by looking at the pictures of the honeymoon .... even while the weeds grow at an alarming rate and the dogs are in fear of their lives due to the large craters they may fall into ..... if I had my time over again .. I wouldn't change a thing.

So today .. I'm much happier ... I've had a lot of sleep ... and some additional good news is that my man will be home at the end of February.

Life is good.

The sun

2008-01-10T17:57:00.001+11:00

Man it's hot

Be careful what you wish for

2008-01-07T17:37:00.000+11:00

Welcome to 2008!!!

I've finally got a chance to sit down ... take a deep breath ... and reflect on what seems like a whilrwind few weeks.

The silly season has come and gone as quickly as it took to spend my whole month's salary!! Fortunately having a hubby that gets paid weekly helps the situation however on the weekend he misplaced his eftpos card therefore the promised trip to the movies with the children was put on hold as we had no way of getting any money out of the ATM and since my money tree hasn't arrived from the Garden shop yet ... well .... you can just imagine the result.

Good thing I had some beans in the cupboard to eat :-))

Anyway ... that was a minor hiccup in what was a fantastic few weeks with the family.

Tim & Chris (John's terrors .. I mean ... lovely little boys) headed back home on Sunday morning after spending a week at our place. They seemed to enjoy their room that we had made in our house just for them and there didn't seem to be any arguments about who had the top bunk. I think the week gave Sarah a taste of what it would be like to have brothers and sisters ... at times I think she would love some siblings but at other times I think she was pretty glad she is an only child!!!

but in general all 3 kids got along great. Sarah is the bossy one and took on the role of 'mothering' the boys when John and I weren't saying anything. Tim is a typical video game nut and as long as the X-Box was playing Need for Speed, he seemed to be in his element. Chris is far more imaginative but can't sit still for more than 3 minutes (has the attention span of a house brick) so entertaining him was a little bit more difficult but fortunately there weren't too many times we were just sitting around doing nothing.

The Gumbuyah Park toboggan got a great workout from myself and John .. unfortunately the 2 boys were too young to go on it ... so we had their turns for them!!! what a cool ride that is. And for those that haven't been .. you don't even have to walk back up the hill ... a neat pulley system brings you back up to the top!!! Some lazy ass man invented that I reckon :-))

As for the house ... well it seemed to endure the myriad of guests we had over the 2 weeks however at times was a bit squishy. Christmas lunch we had 13 people .... we have a 6 seater table ... you do the maths.

So it was a good lesson to us that the patio area really does need to be finished by Christmas 2008!!

We picked up a lovely outdoor table (8 seater) in the post christmas sales ( half of it paid for dad as a wedding present) so now we just have to hurry up and get this jolly paving done.

As for the heat ... well I think I lost 5kgs in sweat alone and on Saturday I had had just about enough so we signed up for Evap Cooling. Installation is 3-4 weeks away however knowing Melbourne in February, it will get used quite a lot before the weather starts to cool down. And I guess we would have to put it in next year anyway so may as well do it before another price increase (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

The down side is that by being lovely and cool, I don't get a motorbike at the moment but I'm willing to sacrifice being cool on a bike to being cool in the house.

The front garden has been left to fend for itself and unfortunately I paid the price yesterday by having to dig up a billion weeds. I'll stick to what I was doing previously I think ... a little bit of gardening every second or third day is a hell of a lot easier than a whole day in the garden every few weeks!!!!

Anyway .... lots and lots happened that was pretty fun and exciting but I can't bore you all with the nitty gritty's of it all. Needless to say, we had a fantastic christmas and new year.

We are looking forward to the year ahead. My new job is going great and I'm busier now than ever. John also seems to be enjoying his job in Brisvegas (although he's not enjoying the weather ... who ever said Qld has the best weather should be shot). Fingers crossed he heads back to Melbourne at the end of March as his contract states. Wouldn't put money on it mind you but here's hoping!!!

I'm looking forward to updating you with lovely patio pics and a finished front yard soon.

Merry Christmas one and all

2007-12-20T13:29:00.001+11:00

Dear readers,

Just signing off for the next week or so while I prepare for the festivities ahead.

The new house will be packed with visitors so we are looking forward to seeing how the house will cope with so many people in it!!!

John will be home over christmas and Tim & Chris (John's kids) will be over for a week before they all go their separate ways again. Sarah, Tim & Chris are now officially step-children so the beatings and brain washing is completely legal now :-))

To all our friends out there in cyberspace, have a very very safe and happy christmas. Eat and drink far too much but more importantly, enjoy the time with those people that you love the most.

2007 has been a stellar year for us .... here's hoping 2008 will be just as great.

Love to you all,
Andy

Editors note

2007-12-19T17:39:00.000+11:00

To our readers ... please let it be known that grumpy Santa is not really grumpy and a miserable old thing who won't buy his wife something she really wants :-)

It's just Mrs Clause having a minor hissy fit because she can't get something she wants right now.

Santa is truly, still ace.

:-)

Half way there

2007-12-19T08:19:00.001+11:00

Well last night I had my 2 hour 'pre learner' course with Ride-Tek. They are accredited to run these courses and they will also be the people testing me for my licence.

There were 3 of us doing the course... me and 2 guys. They were both in their mid 20's and I had a horrible feeling that the next 2 hours was going to be me watching my back for them hooning around me.

The trainer asked us what our intentions were for riding and why we wanted our licence ... I said that I wanted to commute to work as well as do rides with hubby (even though I wouldn't be able to keep up with his bike for the moment). The next guy had it all planned out to get to a Harley ...... then the second guy ........ wants to ride a scooter to work. Boy did I feel better after that. I figured that perhaps all young guys aren't 'hoons' and I was going to enjoy my 2 hours after all.

We rode the Honda CB 250 ... nice little bike and I felt pretty comfortable on it.

Anyway ... without boring you too much it went really well.

I was booked in to do my test on Friday ... but after chatting with 'santa' I've got a better chance of wearing a size 8 pair of jeans than getting a bike this side of 2010 so I'm reconsidering the whole thing.

Pretty flowers

2007-12-17T18:39:00.000+11:00

Well hubby is only 4 sleeps away from coming home ... but this is what greeted me at the reception desk when I returned from lunch today .....

how lovely :-)

Houses are boring

2007-12-11T13:34:00.000+11:00

OMG ... did I say that????

Well yeah I did ... and it's only boring because my husband isn't here with me [insert awwwwww here].

So to pick my mood up, I am getting very excited about next week's events ..... going for my motorbike Learners.

Woo hoo!!!!

Bit nervous but very excited at the same time. Tuesday night I am attending a 2 hour pre-learner course at the riding school where they will teach me all the things I need to know to pass the test. Then if all goes well I will go for my test on Thursday.

This is my christmas present to myself :-))

Being a rider from way back, John wants to make sure my first couple of years is on a 'safe' bike (read: boring) so I have a couple of choices ....

The Honda CB 250 ...
or the Yamaha Virago 250

If I pass my test, I just need Santa to buy me one for Christmas.

And I've been very very good ....

Yay for the concretor

2007-12-10T10:05:00.000+11:00

Well the concretor was in my bad books for a while. The scenario went something like this:

1. Coloured the concrete with the base colour - which also went all over my deck and the plants
2. Next day top colour goes on and there are some areas that look terrible (like a junior concretor has done it and didn't give a toss).
3. Ask him to look at it but he says he can't do anything about it but the sealer should even it out
4. Sealer gets put on and it doesn't even out the crappy bits but now that it is sealed, he again says can't do anything about it
5. Get home that evening and there are bubbles all over the driveway and the sealer has dried

Not happy Jan!!

Fortunately John got on the phone to him straight away and said that I could have lived with the other bad bits but I wasn't going to pay for it with bubbles all over it.

So concretor bad.

However on a quick trip home yesterday (have been away at a friend's place for a couple of days) I notice that the driveway is all shiny again (from new sealer) and he has also re-coloured it so there are no crappy bits!!

So concretor good!!!

It looks really great and I am so pleased with the end result. It's quite different to everybody elses in the street so we are pleased that we don't look the same!!!

So next weekend it will be re-doing the garden bed around the letterbox as I need to extend it out. Will have to say farewell to my hedge as it just isn't growing very well .. think I need to improve the soil a bit more before I replant stuff.

And you know what that means ... I can go to the nursery and spend some money!!!

Yipeeeeeee!!!!!

We have driveway

2007-12-05T08:58:00.001+11:00

Well I think as I was writing about not having a driveway .. they were laying it yesterday!!

They have to come back today and put the sealer etc on it and hopefully clean up the mess they have made!! Was a bit annoyed as the colour they sprayed on is now all over our deck and over the plants. grrrrrrrr

I'm happy with the way it's turned out .... but of course now it makes the portico colour look even crappier (if that was possible). So the re-painting has definitely been moved up the priority list!!

New job .. no husband

2007-12-04T08:19:00.001+11:00

Yesterday (Monday) was a bit of a mixed emotions day. Started back at my old employer and it was so nice to hear everybody pleased that I was back. Certainly was a boost to my self esteem with one person commenting 'everything is better now that you're back'.

On the down side, I had to take John to the airport to start his job in Brisbane. Was determined not to get sooky about it as he will be back for 2 weeks over christmas ... but .... as much as he annoys the crap out of me sometimes I love him to bits and the house is very lonely without him.

Driveway still hasn't been done ... and we had a knock on the door from the lady on behalf of the developer of the area to tell us that solicitors letters are going out within the next 2 weeks to people that haven't done their front yard as per the contract!! Eeek. Unfortunately terrential rain down our way yesterday meant that bugger all was going to get done. Let's hope when I get home today there has been some action.

So other than that, the lead up to christmas is going well. The tree is up and looks beautiful ... I bought myself a present on the weekend (which will be from Santa) and is under the tree. Official shopping starts on the 17th December (after pay day!!!).

Only 20 days to go!! Woo hoo.

It's the final countdown

2007-11-27T16:39:00.000+11:00

da da da daaaa ..... da da da da daaaaaa..... da da da daaaa daaa ... da da da da da

yeah go on admit it .. you sung along didn't you?? (if you are old enough to know the song).

Well it's Tuesday afternoon ... and I figure that although there are officially 3 days left in the week, I only have half a day left of work.

Andynomics working again??

No .... I'm going to work from home tomorrow and Thursday .. then pop in to the office on Friday to drop off my laptop and other bits and pieces then that's me done for this 6 month prison sentence!!

Of course my first day back at the old employer is going to be an easy one as I have to leave at lunch time to take Johnno to the airport!!!

Some people have it easy hey :-))

Greetings from Mt Black - nothing to do with the house..... sorry girls

2007-11-23T11:31:00.000+11:00

Howdi all,

Greetings from Mt Black, My office in Rosebery Tasmania. If you think the place looks like a hole in the ground well your dead right...... it is, a bloody big, bloody deep hole in the ground that extends over 4ooo meters deep and they pull all the good stuff out of it. They mine some Copper, lead, and even some gold (between 30 and 50 kg/month, enough to cover payroll Im told), but by far the biggest product they mine here is zinc, some 660,000 tonnes of it last year. my job here is to look at a mine expension that will involve a new flotation line, a SAG mill and a ball mill that will boost the mines output to 1,000,000 tonnes of zinc a year. So the last couple of days I have been involved in a site survey of the mines HV electricity distribution and to finalize the location of several substations as well look at various other bits and pieces for different projects.

Ive been staying in a place called 'top pub', the local hotel where I have been meeting a few of the locals. Good, honest (mostly) straight talking folks that pretty much call it as they see it. The food here has been absolutely magnificent. You can get beautiful tender piece of scotch fillet for $22 bucks, great stuff.

The only bad thing is that this morning I was woken at 5am by the sound of the beer truck reversing, then the sound of the guy firing up the fork lift to unload it. Apparently I should count myself lucky that the guy slept in........ the beer usually arrives at 4am most weeks !!

Well its been a great trip, Ive finished all the stuff that I came here to do, had my trip down memory lane (I was last working here 17 years ago) and had a few good steaks as well, so all there is to do now is to drive back to Burnie, jump on the plane and be back in Melbourne for dinner with the ol ball and chain :)

I love this time of year

2007-11-23T11:25:00.000+11:00

It's scary to think that Christmas is only 5 weeks away. Why is it that the older you get, the quicker life seems to go by?

2007 has been an awesome year for us. We have built a beautiful house and got married. No, there won't be hearing the pitter patter of tiny feet in the new house so it's a good thing that John's niece was born this year ... that's the closest we'll ever get!!

Sarah is in Grade 5 next year and before I know it she'll be off to high school.

Christmas is my all time favourite time of the year. I love the carols ... the decorations .. copious amounts of food and alcohol .... but more importantly, spending time with the people you love the most.

While there are some disappointments at this time (John going to Brisbane, paving area not done, front landscaping not finished) the joys of the silly season will far outweigh the negative stuff.

So deck the halls and joy to the world ..... heat, famine or flood could not ruin my good mood for the next 6 weeks!!!

A new driveway ... and a runaway husband

2007-11-20T09:21:00.001+11:00

So I'll start with the good news.

Driveway has been cleared ready for the concretor to come in next week. Can't wait!!!! Although I've gotten so used to looking at it the way it is, it will take a while for me to get used to having something that looks good (fingers crossed anyway).

We are having stencilled concrete and the pic below is the pattern we have decided on. Colour will be Uluru Red. Bit worried about the colour as I'm sure a printed brochure is somewhat different to the colour the actual concrete will be .. but I'm putting my trust in the concretor that the colour comes out the way we want it.

I guess at the end of the day it's a driveway ... as long as it isn't pink or purple, it's not going to be such a big deal.

So on to the bad news .... my husband of just 3 months has decided that digging holes and building a paving area is far too difficult so he is going to work in Brisbane for 3-4 months to try and get out of it!! :-))

Just kidding about the 'getting out of work' bit ... not kidding about working in Brisbane.

He's off to work on some sort of gold mine or something like that and I'm hoping that he is back by March at the latest.

Pro's:

1. Only have to cook and clean up after myself
2. I can watch all the Seinfeld, Simpsons and Gardening Australia episodes I want to without a smart ass comment
3. I might be able to get my motorbike a little quicker if he doesn't spend his money on booze and hookers

Con's:

1. Will get lonely
2. Paving won't get done until mid next year
3. Who will I nag?
4. With no internet connection at the moment, how will I download the guide onto the Media Centre??
5. Will have to purchase another X-Box 360 to act as a media extender as he will take the current X-Box with him (mind you this one is also a positive because then when he gets back Sarah gets the X-Box in her room as another extender).

Unfortunately the nature of John's work is that this will be happening for the next 20 years or so, so I've learnt to just suck it up and deal with it.

He's off to Tassie this week for work and as he was packing he said "When I go to Brisbane, can I send you a load of washing each week?".

Good thing I wasn't holding something very sharp and pointy at the time.

:-)

Ok .. so stop your winging

2007-11-19T16:16:00.000+11:00

OK ... I had my vent before regarding the heat and our lack of air conditioning. Hoping to gain some sympathy from my cyberspace buddies, I was quick to learn that my women friends are far more willing to empathise.

The men however ... [scoffs loudly]

So, I have decided to post a good news story instead.

As most of you know, my job for the last 6 months has allowed me to 'work from home' (or as John tenderly puts it 'shirk from home'). This has enabled me to visit loads of nurseries and do work in the garden!!! (I'm pretty certain none of my bosses read the blog so I've no worries about getting sprung).

On the down side of course, is the fact that for 40 hours a week I have been going slowly insane due to the lack of work and I think some of my brain cells have even died off with lack of use.

OK OK ...... I'll give you time to have a giggle to yourself about the fact that:

a. you didn't think I could lose any more brain cells
b. why is the last 6 months any different to the rest of my working life
c. insert own comment here

Anyway .... I have been lured back to my old employer. Something I am very pleased about. Won't go into the detail about why I left to start with but basically it was a BAD move. So at the prospect at going back and starting a new career is very exciting. It is also only 20 mins from home (although I have to tackle the Monash car park in the morning) but if I can leave early enough in the morning, I should avoid most of the traffic.

Of course the downside is that I will actually have to work quite hard and unfortunately visits to nurseries will be postponed to weekends ... but, it's a price I'm willing to pay.

Oh .. and the other cool thing (no, not the weather ... literally) is that I have been given permission by my other half (yes ... he actually wears the pants in the relationship ... except for 'pants off Friday') to get my motorbike licence and buy a motorbike.. which I will do by this time next year.

So .. woo hoo!!! Very very excited about that as I have wanted one since I was a kid.

So for those in south east Melbourne ... I'll give you plenty of warning when I get on the road. :-)

#1 Regret

2007-11-19T09:06:00.000+11:00

For those that have previously built or in the process of building a house, there are always the 'I wish we had thought of that' or 'Dam, I wish we put an extra one of those in there'.

While there are a few of those niggly, not very important regrets, there is a HUGE one that has to be rated as the number 1 regret of this decade.

NO AIRCONDITIONING!!!

[insert angry face here with a gutteral growling sound]

'We'll be fine' we said ... 'we've lived with no air con for years now' ....

Well dam it ... I want air conditioning!!! I'm getting older and crankier and a bad night's sleep due to the heat doesn't help the situation at all.

Quite simply, for the saving of a few thousand dollars during the build ... I can only say 'We're idiots'.

Must be off now ... my sweaty fingers are causing concern for the laptop.

A cute baby and a cool looking deck

2007-11-13T17:49:00.001+11:00

Some piccies!

And here is the reason for our trip to Brisbane ... our gorgeous new niece, Grace. Got to be the 4th cutest kid in the world (behind Sarah, Tim and Chris of course).

The deck fairy

2007-11-13T09:26:00.000+11:00

We have just spent a lovely 4 days in Brisvegas (although the weather was crap) attending a christening.

Arriving home very bleary eyed and tired at about 11:15pm last night, we pulled up out the front of the house and I admired how beautiful my petunias were growing ... how many roses have come out over the weekend .... and then the front step/deck caught my eye. It was finished!!!!

I pointed it out to John and he said "oh great .. the deck fairy has been".

It was a great surprise but we still can't work out how our fairy got into the shed to get the wood and finish it off!!!

It looks absolutely fantastic .. he has done a brilliant job. Can't wait for the driveway to be done now... hurry up concretor!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now if we only had a paving fairy, life would be almost perfect.

Winged Rats, The tale of stumpy the Pigeon

2007-11-07T09:38:00.001+11:00

Howdi,

I was sitting at the train station the other day, watching a nearby asian couple fed a growing flock of pigeons on the platform. When I sat down, a group of them came over to me looking for a feed.

Now I hate pigeons, they befoul the cities statues, they carry diseases, they are in effect winged rats and I feel more should be done to get rid of them. The only thing that stops us is that they are perceived by many as 'cute' with people feeding them at every oppurtunity (sorry bout the spelling F7). Its weird because you wouldnt see people feeding rats now would you?

I was just contemplating stoving the boot into one of them when I noticed one of them was different and was hobbling about. Closer inspection revealed that the bird had lost all the toes on one foot, leaving only a stump where his toes would have branched out from his leg.

I christened him 'Stumpy'

As much as hate pigeons I couldnt bring myself to inflict further injury to a disabled pigeon, I figured life was tough enough for him already.

So I kicked one of his mates instead.

It's finally happening ....

2007-11-03T17:39:00.000+11:00

the driveway is going in mid November.

Woo freakin' hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cannot wait to finally get this done. I think it will really make the front look better and hopefully compliment the garden and paths.

Of course our 'fly by the seat of our pants landscaping techniques' have made it all come undone yet again when I realised that my little garden bed around the letterbox will need to be extended to the deck area. Of course the plus is that I get to go to the nursery and buy some more plants!! Just hoping that my little hedge plants will survive a move .... lots of seasol, love and talking to should do the trick.

Show us ya' deck

2007-11-02T08:56:00.000+11:00

Not quite finished ... but almost there.

Not dead yet

2007-10-30T14:25:00.000+11:00

I was just checking on my plants and was very excited to see that the Bird of Paradise that was on it's last leaf, is actually looking a bit healthy.

It has some new growth and fingers crossed it is going to come back.

I also noticed that we are about to get our first bottle brush flower (Purple Cloud Calistemon) which is pretty exciting!!

Yes, small things make me happy :-)

Haemorrhaging Money

2007-10-24T12:11:00.000+10:00

Andy is 'shirking' at home yet again today..............

As many of you are aware I sail on Saturdays and one of members of the crew is soon to be Andys boss again. After the race on Saturday I said to him 'for gods sake Seppo (he's an american from some place called n'york), get andy back to work with you ASAP as she is running about 'doing' lunch with her mates and boosting the profits of the local nurseries spending money while she is supposedly 'working' at home !!

As she dropped me off at the train station this morning I asked her what she had to buy today. She correctly answered 'wood for the deck........ ' , but then followed it up with '......but I also might just pop into a nursery just for a look'

Dear reader, Andy going into a nursery for a look, is like an alchoholic popping into a bar ........ just for a look

But then again its also like me going on ebay 'just for a look'

Peace out :)

J

Stage 6 started

2007-10-23T10:44:00.000+10:00

8:00am Saturday morning and John jumped out of bed, quickly finding something to wear because Dave was coming to help put the posts in for the front entrance deck thingo.

Of course there was a tight deadline to adhere to ... 23 degrees, slight breeze and he was going sailing for the day so there was much to be done before he left!!

So step 1 complete and we have 3 pink posts at the entrance (pink so we didn't run into them and knock them while the concrete was setting).

I'm at home tomorrow (working .. ha ha) so after lunching with a friend I'll head down to Mitre 10 to pick up the wood that we need for the bearers. Then stage 2 will be complete on Monday then it's Dave on the job to finish off the deck.

I did get a giggle when we were talking about what needed to be done though .... Dave was trying to be extremely polite about John's 'lack of knowledge with deck building' and made it blatantly clear that as he wanted the job done 'properly', he didn't want John to participate in Stage 3. All I could do was giggle. Of course it was me that received the middle finger :-)

Photos of the front ... at Stage 5

2007-10-18T18:16:00.000+10:00

Stage 5 complete

2007-10-18T13:11:00.000+10:00

Well yesterday I worked from home (read: worked in the garden). I enjoyed the morning driving around various nurseries, working out who had the best plants and were reasonably priced. Ended up going to my favourite nursery on Blackburn Road.

I also had a delivery of river pebbles for the garden beds and the path. As opposed to the black pebbles that were trialled and then painstakingly removed, I will NOT be removing these pebbles. Not that I want to .. they really look great.

So Stage 5 is now complete (photos to follow when hubby sends them to me).

Stage 6 is the entry deck ... we are relying on a neighbour to help us so we have to fit that in when he is able to. He is the king of the decks (that's decks with an 'e'). :-)

On an unhappy note however, I think one of my Birds of Paradise plants is going to die. He is looking very brown and unhappy and I have been told that no matter what I do it won't come back to life. I'll try cutting off the bad leaves and see if that helps. :-((