Stop!

Whoa!!! We have one very very sick kid. Hospital stay sick.  Nothing like a dose of reality to knock some perspective into you.  Reilly, and these kids......are everything.

Gardening is bliss

This picture sums up how i spent my day off. Sitting around drinking, eating. walking around in a bit of a daze.  Jammies until 11.  I saw my sister in law, she said 'wow, your hair looks great' - i was like 'Yeah, i had time to brush it today'.  I put on a cute dress.  I cooked a nice dinner.  It was pretty legit.






After a day off i felt like it had been forever since i had been at the house.
Ive had a wee swap around of jobs, I'm keeping on keeping on with the gardening.

I didn't always love gardening, when i was younger my father made us dig in a communal garden, it was huge, not kid huge (where everything seems big), just HUGE.  100m x 100m with multiple garden beds.

Anyway, at the time i swore i would NEVER garden ever again, que dramatic gone with the wind music.

But over the last few years, I've come to really love planting. Now,  I'm not that good at it really, a lot of stuff dies, i don't know what anything is called - green flaxey thing - or green grassy thing - is about as technical as i get.  But theres something about digging in the dirt, it just feels good.  I would rather buy plants and trees than shoes - no kidding.  So more grasses along the front of the deck (Reilly doesn't know about those grasses - guess he's finding out now) - olive trees along our side of the front fence.  A lawn mow today and I've started to take down our base camp out the back.  Summer is at an end and down comes the pool. Sad!

OH REILLY!!!

Bloody hell. Rest Day my ASS!!! we ended up doing "one quick job" today - hours and hours later, i was ready to throw my toys.  it got to 2pm and i was all 'thats it, I've had enough, I'm DONE (walked off the job)'  We went home about 4pm.

SO - officially - day off tomorrow. I'm not going there. i REFUSE! 

Meanwhile, as it is Birthday Princess time soon - my family got me an amazing amazing birthday present. They all pitched in and now i have my very very own very very first compound drop saw.  

This is a big deal for me,  i LOVE this saw. No kidding. 

Ive named her Dyllis which means "perfect; true, reliable". She's joining my boy band.  Dyllis is a feminist, she likes to chop wood.  

Dyllis is my friend, Reilly better watch his step..... just saying.

Tired... so tired

We are jumping with joy (or maybe hopping?) - we are finished. as in... all done. Completeo.  3 days, start to finish. Fastest Fence in the West.

We are SO tired. Reilly is red and tired, so tired, he's stopped talking.  He's such a hard worker, we were lucky again with my brother coming to help, he just turns up, gets stuck in. Awesome.

Long Side

This fence is everything we wanted it to be, its so private and solid and wonderful.  Photo Action follows, IM calling day off tomorrow, i allowed two weekends for fence, we have definitely worked hard enough for a home day.

The Back!

From inside looking out. 

Easter Egg Hunting!!

Off the Rails!

Its all hot and humid here.  Even my shins were sweating today. That makes me one dehydrated girl.

We have been having a grand time today, we have railed the fence! Its very very cool!

We even managed to get pails on the front as well. Boom! Privacy!!!!


The kids have been earning iPad time by working hard pulling out all of that bracing.  Good kids!

The front fence took us a bit longer, Reilly wanted to notch the rails into the posts, he has this fandangled toy - its a mortice safe -  an attachment for the chainsaw to stop it kicking back so he can do a plunge cut.  it was so cool!  The back of the fence (which we look at when sitting on the deck) is very tidy.

Tomorrow = pailings, which we are SO excited about, its the big deal day where all this hard work pays off!!

Fence 101

Fence action is non-stop - apparently.
We started at 0830..... i had a quick stop to play Easter Egg Hunt with the kids and my family at the park - Reilly carried on.  We were in the car heading home at 1800.  With only two short stops today, it was a pretty massive effort.

We were very lucky with our neighbours who were able to take down the old fence for us, this saved us HEAPS of time.

The posts are ALL SET! holes dug, posts in, cement mixed, all braced up and going off as i write.

Good Stuff!

Rail action tomorrow - plus maybe some pails going on!!

Front Fence

Road View

Its a very long side...

Side Fence

Back Fence - also quite long

EASTER!!!

I love Easter, its my favourite holiday.  Ive completely gone off Christmas, so Easter is it! Plus its always Princess Birthday time (its my birthday) AND theres Chocolate everywhere and its okay to eat it every day!  Autumn is the best best best.  Great weather, leaves turning, love it!

This is the first Easter in YEARS that we are not going away somewhere, this morning Reilly made me breakfast - he's good like that, we sat down to eat together and remembered this time last year we were doing the Tongariro Crossing! Thats a pretty quick year.  This time next year we will be remembering ...... FENCE!

The wood arrived yesterday in the rain.... GREAT!  what wasn't so great was that crap old tree blocking the big truck from getting down the driveway.  So - out comes the ladder and the hand saw and i was up the ladder in the rain hand sawing down the big branches.  What a workout!  Was worth it, the woods arrived, concrete mixer, cement, everything ready and so are WE!!

I PUT IN THIS BLIND BY MYSELF! BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS - ACTUAL!

Getting ready for the weekend

This week is flying by.  In fact its gone so fast i think I'm losing a day somewhere, but i guess thats going to be two days on either side of Easter.


So - I've gone crazy with the sander, preparing the edging and the fireplace ready for danish oil.  Im happy with how thats all going.  Ive also had a go at cleaning the floor up to see what its like under 50years of gunk, its going to be gorgeous.

Today i had to visit two of my usual places, Bunnings and Mitre 10.  We go to Bunnings mainly because they have pretty great prices, their service is horrible, as in .... terrible. But when its saving us hundreds of dollars... well, i can put up with a bit of horrible.

Then i went to Mitre 10, where its service heaven.  Kathryn Ryan was talking about employment as you near retirement. she says that older people as a workforce are reliable, hard working and perceptive.   Now i don't know how any one else finds the service at Mitre 10, but i know that when i go there, i always get amazing service from the people who look like they're around retirement age.

In fact, these two great men rang the manufacturer to make sure a power tool was going to do the job i wanted it to do, then they opened up the box, found the right nails for it and made sure i had everything i would need to do my project.  BEST service ever!




So i have 40 posts in the back yard, and the rest of the timber is being delivered tomorrow morning, i was able to bring home some tile slate for the laundry floor which is down and ready for tiling.

Thats going to have to wait until next week.

Its the little things

Ive had a chance to sit down and write a long(ish) list of small jobs that need tidying up.  So I'm getting at it.  I am obsessed with lists - or crossing things off lists really.  Ive also planned out my next four weeks because thats all i have left. Just four weeks left.  Thats almost sad.

Today was a grouting day.  There was a lot to grout.  I also managed to do a lot of the finishing on the fireplace, just needs a quick sand and an oil.

Fence plans are in progress.  110m worth of fence.  Thats quite a bit of timber.

Tidying Up

Today was all about tidying up those edges, doing all the fiddly finishings.  It went fast and well.

There are a few more planks to put on - they weren't obvious until we had packed up - so we will work on that this week. Overall = pretty happy.

Its so easy to walk outside onto the deck.

Check out this GORGEOUS door!

Steps concreted in!

This week is a bit of a mixed bag, tidying up some painting bits and pieces and looking at the floor! Reilly has some laundry things to catch up on and then we will be hitting the exterior windows and the FENCE! Fence debates are in progress.  Plans need to be nailed down by Thursday this week.  I had forgotten that Easter Weekend means more time with Reilly - We can TOTALLY get Fence business going on an extra long weekend.

Whenever i think of Easter i only think of Chocolate!

Living in a goldfish bowl

I know what its like to live in a goldfish bowl, since we have been working outside - circa french doors - neighbourhood interest is at peak levels.  Im not sure i like it so much, but next on the list is 1.8m fence so thats going to sort us out!

HOW TO BUILD A DECK 101 

1. Draw a picture (or two)

2. Get some wood and nails

3. Do some hammering and the like (with help from a brother) 

How does Reilly go from THIS - to Deck???

Hopefully - hopefully - hopefully all the finishing will be done tomorrow!
The indoor outdoor flow is BEA - U - T - FULL

Thursday Madness

Its been a mad day.  So much so that i had to stop at lunch and have a shower and a change of clothes before carrying on! Thats a hard out day right there!  Well, to be fair, i was covered in tile dust, not sweat, but it sounds pretty legit anyway.

Im all about upcycling, in fact - i LOVE it.  but i think i may have taken it a bit far in this room.  Its like i ate the left overs of all the rest of the house and threw it all up in here.  ah well, the art of spending no money in this room. priceless.  

Getting paint everywhere

Another day, another step closer to finishing up the inside.  Laundry paint is going on the walls.  Today i got a LOT of paint on myself, and thats saying something coming from me.  I'm going to have to throw these clothes out!
Im excited about tomorrow, tiling and wallpapering. Ive also found some floor tiles which I'm going to pick up tomorrow.  Thats going to be pretty cool!