And so it continues..............

Well, after the wettest April in 25 years, we have now had a very wet May, in the space of 3 days we had 1/3 of our annual rainfall, the consequence of that is that the front yard is still not finished, but it is close!! (its is also quite muddy in some parts) Hooray! Most of the pavers are down, just a few edge ones that need to be cut tomorrow (weather being fine, of course). The wall is so close to being finished, it may as well be and now the tap has to be installed and the electricity joined up and then the rest is up to us. We are still not sure what plants we will put in but that is half the fun, going around the nursery and deciding. Whatever we put in will have to be drought and flood proof, the way this weather is going!!

Jack and Jake, our adorable grandsons!

The continuing saga of the front yard!

Well, the yard finally dried up enough for the work to begin properly. The footings are down, the retaining wall blocks delivered and the first 3 rows of the bottom wall are in place, plumbing and electrical are also done and now the rain has begun in earnest!! At this rate it is going to take longer for the front yard to be completed than it did for the whole house!! The weather forecast is for rain for the next 4 days at least and then of course it has to once again dry out. I am so sick of wet weather!!

The 3rd photo is one of 3 decorative pavers that we have for our path, it is a gecko! We really liked the idea of just a few in amongst the pavers to break it up a bit.

Jack

Jack is now walking so I thought I would share with you a little video of him.

Our latest efforts

Well, what have we been up to? We have begun 2 gardens, one has plants the other hopefully will get some plants next weekend. The side passage still needs to be finished but that will be done once the courtyard is complete.

We have also had a start made on our courtyard out the front of the house. This unfortunately has been slow going, thanks mainly to cyclone Hamish!! More work was done yesterday, but after last nights storm, we now have very nice water views in the front yard!!So no work today! Go away wet weather!!

for you Carol

Here are some of the latest photos from the house. Note the new rug, curtains and the railing on the deck.

this is our bedroom

Well, I told you in my last post that Derek was having a go at the suede paint and this is the result. We love it. He has done a terrific job and the effect is brilliant!! It is so much deeper in shade than the living area but that is because he used 2 coats and the other walls only had 1 coat. What do you think?

New furniture

Our new lounges arrived today and they look really good, apart from the fact one of the cushions has a big dirty mark on it, and that is after we have paid to have stain remover applied, the shop tells me I have to ring back on Sunday when the manager will be in to organise another cushion. Fingers crossed they don`t give us any grief!! They fill the big empty space very nicely!!
Derek is out doing the first mowing of our grass, since we first planted it. We have had so much rain it has grown beautifully and is very thick and lush!! All the patches that looked like they might have died when we first put it in have well and truly recovered.
Another bit of news, we are painting the feature wall in our bedroom this weekend so fingers crossed we don`t mess it up, we have never used suede paint before so it will be an adventure!!

the new garage door!!

Finally our new garage door arrived and was put in, so it now all matches, though Derek tells me he can`t see the difference. I think he must be colour blind!!

The deck

Well, finally we have our deck, no railings yet, but the deck is done!! Hooray!! The railings will go up in about 3 weeks as we ordered them today (glass fencing). This was a bigger drama than the whole house, we tried to get 4 quotes and only ended up with 2 and the cost was $2000, yes that's right, $2000 dearer on one than the other!! One couldn't`t be bothered to come out and one came and seemed to be a bit of a nut and then sent back the quote saying they only do pool fences!! People just don`t seem to want your money. Anyway its all ordered and we now sit out there every day, breakfast and dinner!! The dog still can`t work it all out but I guess that's a good thing as when we put him on it his nails make such a racket it kept us awake so now he will have to stay on the grass, where it`s quieter.

You will also notice in the pictures that we have our new outside furniture all together now and it looks great. I don`t think Derek and I are a big fan of this new trend in put it together yourself furniture. This was so much work especially when the holes don`t line up!!

Sir Walter has arrived!!

The turf is here and has been laid! What a mammoth effort that was. Derek, Wayne and I spent all day Tuesday shovelling dirt from the front yard to the back ( and I mean all day!!). Then Derek and I laid all the turf on Wednesday and it still looks good, hooray!! We have a few little spots where it is looking a little sad but for the most part it looks terrific and just in time for us laying turf the council stopped all the water restrictions so we can water it as much as we like at any time of the day, what a bonus that is!!
The deck is progressing slowly but should be finished by Friday and then we have to get someone in to do the railing. Derek and I laid weed mat all over the dirt under it today to stop the dirt blowing up through it (we hope). Poor Max doesn`t know what to make of all the activity but he sure does love having grass again!!

we are in!!

So sorry for the delay in writing but it has been a hectic few weeks. Finally we are in, 6 days before Xmas and with all my family descending on us- somehow we managed it and all had a great time. The move went well and Adenbrook gave us a very nice little gift basket to say thanks for spending all this money with us!! Only a few minor problems to be fixed- a small water leak in the en suite toilet and in the laundry and a problem with the water tank and of course we are waiting for the garage door to be replaced, but as they have all been shut for Xmas none of this so far has been a huge problem. Now the hard work begins with all the yard work, out with the dirt and in with the gardens and the turf!!