Dogs, House and Garden

A brief update on some of the things that have been happening around our house.

We've had our French Roquefort posters framed and they're now hanging in the dining room.

We gave the dogs bones recently. We've held off doing this because of an allergy to red meat, but they really need them for their teeth. They've been a little itchy since the last bones, so we might have to make them less frequent and maybe supplement with antihistamines.

Myf, in true princess Myf style, didn't want to get her paws dirty.

Morgan, however, was happy to get stuck in with both paws.

We've had some success in our vegie patch. We've got some small beetroots and and baby leeks. 

That pretty much sums up all the basic around the house news. Stay tuned to read about Stephen's visit, the new car and other social events.

The Transformation of the Courtyard

When we bought the house, the back garden (courtyard) was full of lillypilly trees. I guess they were planted as a screen to soften the back wall and shield the space from the neighbours. However, years of neglect meant that the trees were overgrown and thus blocked out all sunlight. Here's a picture of the garden before we moved in.

The trees outside the kitchen window were the first things to go. I like natural light while I'm cooking!!

The rest of the trees followed soon afterwards.

The next step in the revival of the courtyard was the building of the deck. Up until now, Paul and I had managed almost on our own (with the help of family and friends). But we decided that a professional was required for the deck.

The post holes are in...

Now the frame's up...

The deck is underway...

All finished! With Myf's seal of approval.

We'll plant herbs in the planter box and succulents in the boxes on the wall. We're having a landscaper come through soon to add the finishing touches.

Photos of the Progress

It's 9:30 and I'm tired and my laptop is in need of charging, so I'm going to be brief. I discussed the double glazing and the courtyard in my previous posts so here are the photos.

The french doors in the master bedroom with a temporary set of curtains from Spotlight.


The window at the bottom of the stairs, which is now opaque, so it lets light in, but you can't see through it, so we don't need to hang a blind there anymore.


The kitchen window - yes, there is light coming in!


The sliding door in the lounge room looking out onto the treeless courtyard.


The clean slate (aka courtyard) all ready for the real transformation to begin.

Looking Good

We're really starting to get somewhere with the house. The painting has fallen by the wayside as other things have taken priority. The double glazing is in and is looking good. It's also been fantastic for noise levels. We can barely hear the traffic noise from our bedroom now.

We have had a minor setback in our planning though. The guys who came to install the windows discovered there was water damage to the flooring inside the french doors in the bedroom. Fortunately we had a chippy coming over to quote on the decking out the back and he said he could fix it, so he's adding that to his quote, which we should receive soon.

We've finally got rid of all the trees in our backyard. Well, we've removed them and we'd scheduled someone to collect them, but because of the bad weather, they've been delayed until Wednesday. So we currently have a whole garden of lilypilly trees in our garage.

Now that we can see all of the garden and it's a blank canvas, I'm so excited to get cracking on it. I really hope that the chippy is able to fit us in before Christmas!!!

I guess I should probably post some photos of the windows and the garden. I'll try and remember to take some tomorrow morning.

Back home and busy again

I need another holiday. We've been back less than a week and I'm already feeling the stress. Okay, it's not quite that bad, but we certainly are busy. Work hasn't been too bad for me, but Paul seems to have had meeting after meeting since getting back. Tonight will be another late night for him. I could go to the AGM at my company after work, but I think I'll go home and sort through the holiday photos instead.

The main event at home is the double glazing that's going in tomorrow. Just the master bedroom, living, kitchen and dining this time and then after we've saved up a bit more cash, we'll do the bathroom, study and spare bedroom.

We've booked the puppies in for a full day assessment at doggy day care, tomorrow so we can still head off to work and they'll be looked after. If they pass their assessment, it means that we can send them off there for some play time and grooming every now and again, if we get busy and don't have time to walk them in the morning or when other things start to happen around the house.

Tomorrow morning, we're also having a chippy come out to quote us for some decking in the backyard. We were hoping we'd be able to get that done before Christmas, but it's coming around too quickly and I dare say it'll be difficult to get it booked in before then.

The master bedroom

We've just about finished our bedroom, so I thought I'd do a set of before and almost after shots, so we/you can see the progress.
Before:

Almost After:

All moved in!

Thanks to Mum and Dad, the move went very smoothly and we were all unpacked after 3 days. Not everything has found a home yet, but we're getting closer!

We're still making improvements to the house and will probably continue to do so for quite some time. It's fun to plan what we'll save for next. Today we signed up for and paid the deposit on double glazing, which will hopefully be ready to install in 6 weeks.

Now onto the photos...

On Thursday night the old house was all packed into boxes.


On Friday night we were still in boxes, but in a different house.


We celebrated the new house in style - well the beverage was stylish even if we weren't!



On the Saturday, we bought new furniture as we needed more storage space for kitchen items. Dad and Paul put together the new display case and buffet. The buffet was quite complicated and they even needed to look at the instructions.

Finally they're finished!

And now it's full of plates, glasses, platters and bowls.


Dad and Paul also took down a couple of trees outside the kitchen to a) let in more light and b) prevent them doing any more damage to the window frame.



Morgan helped to get rid of some of the debris.



And both dogs helped with the packing material. Myf wanted to nest in it, but Morgan was more interested in playing in it.


We finally started to see some progress once the kitchen had been unpacked.


So we decided to celebrate with a trip to the local park


One week later and we're almost finished downstairs.