Always check the contents!!

Lesson learned ... always check the contents of your purchased project PRIOR to throwing out receipts.

The aforementioned clothes line that should have been in use by now ... is sitting lonely and unusable at the moment.

John worked out that some bits were missing ... I'd thrown out the receipt (der to me I guess) ... and our old friends at Bunnings wouldn't do anything without a receipt.

anyway ... after a bit of a sob story to the girl at Bunnings that his wife was going to nag him beyond recognition, she felt sorry for him and said we could take the bits out of another clothesline and they would deal with the manufacturer. God love them :-))

Andy's brown thumb

I may have a brown thumb, but if enthusiasm is an indicator, it far outweighs the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing in the garden!!

The weekend was a very successful one in terms of work around the house.

Now .. are you sitting down? I hope so because what I'm about to tell you will shock you. May even render you speechless for a moment.

John didn't go sailing on Saturday, and instead put up the clothesline and installed the doggy door in the laundry.

.........................................................................

Just giving you a minute to digest that piece of information. As unbelievable as it sounds, yes it did happen.

My darling husband did an excellent job installing the doggy door and while Zach and Roxy took a bit of time working out what it was for, they are now enjoying the warmth of the laundry whenever they feel the need to get out of the weather.

The posts of the clothesline are in, giving it the week to cure properly, and then we will put the rest of it up so I can stop using the dryer!! A lower electricity bill will be more than welcome.

While hubby was out the back, I got stuck into the garden bed down the left side of the house. I've decided that nurseries are my favourite places (the plant kind, not the baby kind) and I spent quite a long time choosing what are hopefully unkillable plants. I hear the Nandina's laughing at me now ... from their dirty grave.

Although the plants are quite small now, I'm hoping that they grow up well and the garden bed looks OK. Looks good at the moment anyway .. well, better than the mounds of dirt.

I planted some Kangaroo Paws (which i love) but am hoping that I did enough preparation of the soil as they need good drainage. There are also some other natives in there (the names escapes me right now) but they are pretty cool looking plants.

Photos will follow once the mulch is down this weekend.

Green thumb?? I think not

OK .. so let's pretend that gardening is all about trial and error. Having said that, I have made an error :-))

My lovely Nandina's that were planted under the front windows have died and slow, and possibly agonising death.

While a few plants dying is certainly not a huge concern, the fact that those plants are supposed to be 'unkillable' is my major concern right now. If I can't even keep a bamboo plant alive, how the heck am I supposed to keep anything else alive??!!!!

On a more positive note however, my wobbly hedge is looking great and growing very well and the roses seem to have a bit of growth on them so ... maybe it's the Nandina's fault??

Will be planting another species in their place over the weekend ... probably a dwarf Hebe. Will posts pics on the weekend.

This blog dedicated to the Nandina lying in the compost mound.

The clay .. that is now rock

Well, it feels like rock anyway!!

Because the weather was so sensational on the weekend, we decided to spend a day in the front garden. The plan was to level all of the mounds of dirt, and start to get the garden bed on the far side of the house ready for planting.

In accordance with the instruction from my newest friend on TV Peter Cundall, we bought some blood and bone, cow and chicken manure so that we could dig it through the garden bed.

I don't know if you have ever dug clay .. but it's a royal pain in the butt. Of course we appear to have had no rain over the last 3-4 weeks, and when we started to dig, it's as hard as a bloody rock so all it does now is break into smaller rock-like pieces.

Grrrrrrr.

So even though we levelled the dirt (sorry, levelled the rock-like pieces) and put the poo through, I'm struggling to believe that it is going to break down the dirt and make it lovely for the plants.

Not sure if I'm supposed to be watering the dirt/rock/compost/poo or if I just leave it to do whatever it is that it is supposed to do.

Double grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

What a frustrating process. Why oh why can't I win tattslotto and hire Jamie Durie to come and do my landscaping.

Sigh

3 month inspection ... and the road base .....

Well blow me down with a feather, we had our 3 month inspection by PD yesterday. It was actually overdue (on account of us enjoying a leisurely sail around the Whitsundays) and I just can't believe that we have been in the house for that amount of time. I still get excited every time I walk through the door!!

More scary is the fact that there are only 4 more pay checks before christmas!!!!!!! aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Anyway, we only had a couple of minor things we wanted them to fix, but by the end of the inspection, we had 13 things on the list!!! So glad that the guy knew what he was looking for. Most of it was external stuff (on the brick work) but there was also a couple of things in the tiling that he noticed. Thank you PD man!!!

Now ... on a far more exciting note. Remember the road base that has been sitting in the driveway (that I'm too embarassed to even look at a date to see when it was delivered) .... well ..... it's now down the side of the house!!! I spent all yesterday afternoon moving it (one dam wheelbarrow at a time) and have spread it down the side. Still need some more to get to the end of the house but it's starting to look like a path now. Will go looking at pavers on the weekend and will start calculating costs for getting this side done. Not going to do anything more than a path with some pebbles and will do some potted plants but it should look nicer than an uneven length of clay soil!

This weekend I am going to get back onto the front yard and start getting the soil ready for the garden bed down the side.

My little hedge plants are growing at a great rate of knots .... the Nandina plants however aren't doing so well .. poor little things. Might give them all some fertilizer on the weekend and give it a couple of weeks to see if they perk up. Otherwise .. I think it's off to Nandina heaven for them and I'll find something that I can't kill!!

Oh .. and I'll stop writing wedding stuff on here and update the wedding page. Will gradually update over the next couple of weeks with photos etc and the eventful day!!

The Deed of Power has been signed

Well it's done. I am now officially an old married woman :-)

I must say that it doesn't feel that different except when you have to remember what your new name is!!!

The wedding and honeymoon went brilliantly. Will bore you all with more detail over the next few days (change of venue, weather conditions etc) but we are so happy with how it all went. John is a huge spunk and looked gorgeous (as he always does) and both Min and Sarah looked fantastic. There were a few other weddings at Daydream Island on the day and we got lots of comments about how great the colour of the dresses were.

The guests had a great time and we had a lot of laughs throughout the day. Fortunately not many tears were shed .. just enough to make their speech sound sincere :-))

Looking forward to seeing the professional pics but I have put some on here that we got from one of the guests.

And as much as we enjoyed being away, it was lovely to come home to our beautiful house ... with everything still where we left it!!!!

Single one minute ...

Nagging bitchy wife the next!!!

Amazingly this is not John blogging .. this is Andy!! I've come to realise that as much as I never wanted to be, I'm just as painful as any other wife ... 'pick up this', 'do that', 'don't do that'. :-))

Anyway ... I just hope that these moments of naginess don't send him packing in a few years time!!

Today is my last day of work ... well, last 'day' is an overstatement. Last couple of hours more like it :-)). Tomorrow is cleaning house day, finalising the packing and lunching with friends then we head off to the Whitsundays on Wednesday morning.

The road base is still in a pile in the driveway and the backyard is once again full of tiny swimming pools, but never fear, upon our return this is the first thing we will get sorted out.

So I bid blogging farewell for a couple of weeks, in preparation for an inundation of crap upon my return.

Catch ya later alligator

Progress is slooooowwwwwwwww

Well I think I posted a pic a couple of weeks ago that showed a pile of road base in the driveway that needed to be moved to the side of the house.

Aaah yes .. I recall now that I posted when my beloved was FAR too ill to move from the bed with the only movement being his hands (to enable him to play X-Box 360) and his mouth to call for refreshments.

Anyway .... or ... anyhoo for some people ....... I'm embarassed to say that the road base is still in the driveway and we have done nothing about it! This weekend we are going to have to get off our ample rear ends and get it moved before we go on holidays.

Now ... at this point in the posting, I would advise all men to stop reading and to look away as the next section is wedding related. .................

(pause)

OK .. I think the boys have gone ... amazing how the word 'wedding' can scatter the male species.

I thought I'd post some pics from the lead up to the wedding day (which is now only 13 days away).

Here is Sarah in her outfit ... I call her a junior bridesmaid but I keep being corrected and told that she is a 'flower girl'. personally I think she's too old (10) to be a flower girl so I'm sticking to Junior BM. How gorgeous is she?? She's really looking grown up. I'm not sure if she actually looks anything like me (I think she looks more like her dad) but probably a good thing if she doesn't have any of my looks as she gets older!!!!

This next shot is me at the hairdresser getting my hair done ready for a hair trial (before and after shot)

This last shot is of Melinda's dress (my BF and BM). She made the dress herself and I'm so impressed!!! I must admit that I was very nervous as I didn't want it to look like it was hand made, but she has done a fantastic job. I think the colours are beautiful and against the beach, they should look awesome!!!

And here is Min and I .......

Sing it with me ...

Spider pig, spider pig
Does whatever a spider pig does
Can he swing
From a web
No he can't
He's a pig
Look ooooouuuuuttttttt
He is a spider pig

See what I put up with?

Now you see why I haven't let him add blog messages previously!!!

Well the path is ready to be paved ... well, almost. Just need to lay some paving sand and then the pavers and pebbles. At least you can walk on it now without getting muddy feet.

This sunshine has been fantastic and has dried out our multiple pools in the backyard. I just hope that when we get back from the honeymoon the ground is still quite soft to dig!!!

FYI - 3 weeks today we will have arrived at Airlie Beach!! woo hoo

hehehehe - revenge is a dish best served cold :)

Hi there everyone, its John here, Andys other half.

I managed to get a hold of geek girls password and thougth I might have a crack of putting up a bit of a blog entry myself.

I started to suffer the effects of the flu on Friday. It got so bad that I was wearing my motorcycle dryrider jacket and a beanie in the office and I was still shivering. I rang Andy and told her of my intentions to go home. She said she would come home to as she had the car and house keys and I met her on the train home.

BOY did I some crap on the train. Aparently Andy told a work mate (another woman) that she was going home to look after me. This other girl says 'is he sick sick or is he man sick?' to which The love of my life replied 'hes man sick' and and the first woman replied, well youd better go home and look after the poor dear.

But was I looked after dear reader ???

Oh no. Instead of the call bell, sponging of my feverish brow and general pampering I was expecting, she threw some cold and flu caps at me brought me a jug of water and a glass and left me to it....... all afternoon.

On saturday I wasnt much better. I was berated again for being 'man sick' and I stayed in bed feeling guilty as hell while Andy boxed a path in front of the front garden bed and shifted about a meter of road base. I had to make do watching double impact, a movie where the only thing dodgier than Jean Claude Van Dammes acting was the 80's hair styles and fashion

Sunday I was feeling quite a bit better and I was still feeling guilty for not being able to help her on saturday so I took her out for breakfast at your fav breakfast place, sassy's in nunawading.

Anyway Sunday night Andy started to feel a bit off colour herself, we were sitting on the couch when she told me so I gave her a list of symptoms, headache, limb pain, back pain, 'frozen' eye balls etc and she nodded to each of them. I told her that I thought she wouldnt be getting up in the morning to go to work. 'bullshit' was the reply and I was given a run down about how she was a healthy as a horse and hadnt taken a day off in 3-4 years through something as minor as the flu.

Well the alarm went off this morning at 5:45am, I got up, showered got ready and said to Andy 'well what are you doing?' and she told me to take her car.

I couldnt resist and said 'whats the problem, feeling a little man sick this morning are we?'

I didnt receive an answer, but in the half light from the ensuite, I saw a hand snake out from under the doona, and a middle finger thrust straight up towards the ceiling before going limp flopping on the bed and retreating back beneath the covers.

:)

Poor dear, I hope shes ok when I get home tonight (she needs to cook my dinner).

Who needs Jamie??

Who needs Jamie Durie?? (well, other than for his biceps). I've been playing around with a garden design for the front and backyard. You'll see from my previous post that the front yard has started (hopefully it looks a little bit like the drawing!!)

The mini swimming pools we have in the backyard at the moment will have to dry out before we can make a start but I figure that if we have a plan before we start, it should make life a whole lot easier!!

I reckon the puppies are going to love running on the grass, ruining all my plants!!! :-))

Note; drawing not even remotely to scale!!

A garden bed, some roses and a wobbly hedge

The Gardening Guru

ok .. so I'm no gardening guru but I'm definitely loving this idea of having a garden to play with.

Made some great progress on Saturday while John was away finding his wedding outfit (duly noted that he did not return with a puffy shirt and an eye patch!!). I'll post photos when I can work out how to get them from the camera to here but it's starting to look really pretty in the front.

Next weekend we are going to complete the next pathway and I'll hopefully do the other garden bed .. then it's just getting the dirt ready for the grass and the garden bed along the side of the boundary and we are all done!

Fingers and toes are crossed that the plants grow now!!! After I had planted my roses I was told that they will not grow there as it is too windy, but, I'm going to leave them there and see how they go.

Planting the hedge was a pain in the a*s ... 40 tiny little plants that will take an eternity to grow!! The line that I have planted them in is a bit wobbly when you look at it down the side, but I'm hoping that when they grow you don't notice it so much :-))

Baby it's cold outside ...

But never fear ... in 38 days we will be here ..................



And then flying into Whitehaven Beach by this ......



Then honeymooning on this ....




i can feel the warmth now :-))

Aaah stuff it .. it's only money!

Well ... all is not lost! We've come to the conclusion that it's only money and you can't take it with you when you go, so it looks like the driveway might be getting done!! Woo hoo.

Actually, I won't woo hoo too quickly just in case it doesn't happen. John's job is about to come to and end which means he has to look for something else (being a contractor and all). Very bad timing due to upcoming nuptials and I am just hoping that he doesn't head interstate for work. This is a strong possibility as there is loads of work for him in Queensland at much better rates than here in Melbourne. Anyway .. cross your fingers in the hope that he doesn't go away again! Imagine coming back from my honeymoon with no husband!!!!!!!!! One that I hadn't killed anyway :-))

It was a beautiful day in Melbourne today and I was working from home (yeah right .. 'working' from home) so I took the puppies out for a walk in the sunshine. Had to drop off some gardening tools to Sarah so she could help out in their garden and I was amazed to see how everybody's front yards are changing. Some people have really put effort (and money) into their front landscaping and they look fantastic. Even those that have simple front gardens look fantastic so it bummed me out a bit that it's going to be at least 2 months before ours is looking decent. Good thing we are at the end of the street I guess!!! The plus side is that we get to see what plants do well in the area and what plants don't (although I've pretty much decided what I want .. I can always be persuaded to do something different!!).

The estate is looking really busy though with more and more houses popping up every day. It really is a lovely place to live.

:-))

39 days to the wedding

Need a second job!!!

40 days to go :-))

I promise I won't count down every day until the wedding!!

Well the minister for finance has put the kybosh on all spending on the house until after the wedding. Where is that never ending money tree when you need it??!!!

I have permission to put some garden edging into the front garden bed so that it doesn't collapse into the path we have dug out, but that's about it!!! Boooooooo.

So will just have to bore you with wedding plans until the big day ... :-))

Always remember to plan!!!

OK - so normally I am pretty organised, have a plan in place before I commence anything and do a lot of research before purchasing stuff (from previously living with a 'research king' for 10 years :-)).

As you know ... we were sick of the mud so made a little path to the front door. Decided on black polished pebbles in between the pavers etc etc. On the weekend we started to dig out the next stage of the path (that will run across the front of the house and around to the gate at the side).

Big mistake .. HUGE ... getting these black pebbles that is. It's going to cost around $800 just in pebbles if we continue with these black ones.

So ... plan B.

I'm going to pick up all the black pebbles that are currently in the path (yep ... that's going to be a great job) ... and we will use them out the back for the feature that is going to go around the paving area. Once we've dug out the path completely at the front we'll have to go for something a little more budget conscious. Not sure what yet. Maybe those browny coloured river pebbles?? Will start investigating that next weekend.

After learning the hard way yesterday we watched Backyard Blitz (why was this show cancelled?? I watched it for years when I had no garden to tend to .. now that I need some ideas the blasted thing isn't on anymore!!!). Anyway .... BB stated last night "it's important to plan ahead ... don't just do a bit .. then decide to do a bit more'. Yeah OK, maybe they saw what we were doing!!!!

Anyway ... we made fairly good progress yesterday. Saturday it was raining virtually
all day so nothing got done. Just had a very lazy day indoors.

41 days to the wedding!!!

:-))

44 days ....

UNTIL I GET MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!

Correction ................ before WE get married :-))

I know that this isn't a house related blog but this afternoon has been about googling plants and finalise wedding arrangements. Wedding arrangements have won out!!

On a more housey front however, this weekend we will be starting the horrible job of digging an 18m drain ready to put some pipe and bits and pieces so that there are no more pools of water for the puppies to drown in!!

we have started the planning of the backyard which is pretty exciting .. now it's just the hard work of getting in and doing it!!

And because it's so cold here in Melbourne, I thought I'd warm everybody up by showing the location of where we are getting married (in 44 days ....) :-))

The gardening bug has bitten

While our front yard will not win any awards, we are pleased with our efforts so far and can definitely picture how it's going to look.

The money tree has run out this week so I was unable to get the pebbles to finish off the path (probably a good thing anyway as the plumbing association is going to check the depth of the water pipes as we believe they are way to high up).

I have started to dig up the garden bed under the windows and have added gypsum and mushroom compost to get the soil ready. Hopefully in a couple of weeks (ie. after pay day) this area will look better.

There is a small 'black' strip down the left of the pathway .. that is a compost/gypsum bed at the moment and in a few weeks will add some topsoil and plant some mondo grass down that side.

Still wondering what to put in the black pots by the front door ... you can see that they are a bit wonky!! i need to level out the ground there a bit. Don't want to muck around too much in that area as that is where John will make a little deck/step type thing from the front door to the top of the pavers.

Anyway ... it's starting to come together. Would love a driveway but ... want to get married more!!!