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

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

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

J

A weekend of activity

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

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

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

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

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!!!