Bits and Pieces

Work in the garden has been continuing in its gentle way. It's a never ending process, luckily I have good helpers.

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I was laid up yesterday with a headache, which gave me ample time to admire the breezeways. I'll admit, I'd noticed the two weren't the same but hadn't observed them closely enough to notice that they would once have been the same, had someone not snapped two pieces out of the right one. Another thing to fix.

On Friday, we had an early morning start at the Marburg Show, where I watched my neighbour's boy while she competed in the equestrian events.

And on Thursday, we had breakfast at the Forest Hill Store. I love this place. It has lots of great clothes, great food and coffee and Forest Hill is the loveliest little town to have explore.

It makes me so happy to know that we may have moved out of the city, but we can still find good cafes and little shops nearby.

Forest Hill Store


Mimmi's, also in Forest Hill. Gorgeous gifts and homewares.

Another example is Potato Studio in Laidley. It was one of the first places I landed during our first week in the Lockyer Valley when I poured my heart out to the owner, Nicole, over the counter in a gush of fatigue and stress. Lu and I have been regular visitors ever since, although I usually manage not to get quite so emotional now. Unless I am particularly moved by the gorgeous things for sale, of course.

Now it's Monday, and there's something exciting happening this week: a woman who grew up in our area and remembers our house as it once looked will be coming out for coffee on Thursday to tell me about its original appearance and the history of the neighbourhood. She's been hunting for some photos for us but no luck yet.

Still, I can't wait to get some of her stories down on paper. Exciting times!

Plans for the Big House

Were we, perhaps, less masochistic people, Dan and I would probably have worked towards renovating the little house then lived in it while we did the big one.

Logical.

As it is, though, we did not take that course of action, and we are now at a point where we have a massive amount of very dirty work to do in our house and nowhere to live while we do it.

We have come up with a solution, and I've drawn some highly technical floor plans to help explain it.

This is our floor plan as it is now. It is not at all to scale.

Basically, what we're going to do is convert our back verandah into a kitchen for the process of the restoration of the main kitchen and dining areas, as it already has a sink which we can use - plus plenty of open space for our temporary benches and cupboards (which is all we have in our actual kitchen currently, so moving it is relatively simple).

We're going to block access to half the house by putting up temporary fencing on the front verandah and keeping the door at the top of the hall closed.

And, we're going to have to  remove some VJs from wall that separates the bathroom and the back verandah. In the bottom right of the bathroom (on this drawing, anyway) is an airing cupboard. Access to the bathroom and boot room will be through the airing cupboard.

Quirky, no?

Everything else - kitchen, pantry, dining, hallway, post office room and most of the front verandah - will be out of bounds until the messy work on the left hand side of the house is done.

Here's another quick scribble showing the floor plan we've decided on for the house - but this is very much the long-term plan. The main changes are the opening of the kitchen into the rooms either side of it, the conversion of the bathroom and bootroom into a laundry, the conversion of the back verandah and third bedroom into a master suite, and the installation of a family bathroom around the existing loo.



Where possible, we've tried to keep plumbed-in rooms where there is already plumbing to keep costs down.

So, now I've got a few minor things to do to try and get the back verandah feeling clean and functional enough to be a space we are happy to cook and eat in for the next few months.

And Dan has a lot of major things to do to start working on the left-hand side of our house. He's come home from the local salvage yard with a ute-load of VJs today, so I think he's getting geared up.

The Study

One of the things I'm most looking forward to with the renovation of the Big House is having an office/study to work from.

This is the room as it looks now. It's a junk room/pantry/ironing room.  It's where the post office was, originally. It's also a complete mess.

It's at the end of the verandah and can only be accessed from there. The locals used to queue on the verandah to get in, apparently.

This wall between the study and the kitchen will be mostly removed, so the two spaces are connected. 

I'm really keeping things real with the photos today. I probably could have cleaned up a little. 

If men have their sheds, what space do women have? I think it depends on the woman. For me, a study with my computers and books and gadgets is the ultimate indulgent space. I'll also have a little corner for my sewing stuff. 

Do you have a room or space of your own? What kind of room?

Pairs

The other day, I realised I was a bit stressed out. There's a lot going on in our little world right now - new jobs, new commitments, new things-that-shan't-be-discussed-on-the-internet-but-are-a-big-deal-to-us.

{No, I'm not pregnant}

I thought of my camera - my actual, proper, not-an-iPhone-camera - sitting in a dusty pile in the corner of our bedroom and decided to have a go, because it's undoubtedly something that forces me to take on a stillness and be calm for a while - more so than snapping a photo with my phone and uploading it to Instagram, anyway.

I realised I was shooting things in the theme of pairs. Ladybugs ( I caught them at an intimate moment, as you can see), birds, flowers. 

Every time you step outside here, there's something gorgeous to look at. Nearly every day we meet a new creature - a turtle on the road, an echidna, a little lost goat, a Rosella, a kookaburra, horses, one of a procession of the beautiful butterflies that hovers here daily.

This one, for example, spent a while sitting on the stair landing the other day. It was so tame I almost wanted to reach out and pat it.

We have snakes, oh yes we do, but they're part of a much bigger and ever-so-fascinating eco-system.

For every snake we've seen (and, bizarrely, the snakes are increasingly earning our compassion too - our very, very wary and cautious compassion), we've seen a thousand more welcome animals.

We feel so very lucky to live here.

Inspire me - what do you do to relax?

Sunday Bits and Pieces

I've decided to start doing a regular Sunday round up of little bits and pieces from through the week that aren't really part of any bigger story.

On Friday afternoon, we received a shipment of goodies my mother packed up and sent from Hobart. Among them was this chest of drawers, which was mine as a girl. Actually, now I see this photo - do you see the tail end of a grey toy horse in Lucinda's cot? That was mine too. 

You can move across the country but hand-me-downs always find you... which is a good thing, when they're as nice as these drawers. 

One of our routines now is to make scrambled eggs with herbs and cheese every morning. It's something Lu can help with, and she loves the results afterwards. As the mornings are getting incredibly chilly already in this old, drafty house, watching the steam rise off a plate of hot eggs is a nice start to the day.

Brrrrr....

And here's a few shots from the garden. This rose was left here by the previous owner. I've never been mad about roses, but maybe I could change my mind.

This photo featured in that slideshow I put up last week, but I like it. So here it is again. 

And the beginnings of a plant I am hoping to put in the ground soon... a loofah/luffa vine. Fresh loofahs for the shower, coming right up (one day...)!

Anyone else grown/growing loofahs? Any pointers?

Four Months In

Today marks the four month anniversary of taking possession of this house. I really can't believe it's only been four months. 

We're pretty proud of what we've achieved so far, but know the tough work is still around the corner. 

Anyway, we're all sick with colds at the moment and I was feeling tired and sentimental, so I put together a photo slideshow to commemorate this notable anniversary and recap our journey so far....

Before and After - Little House Renovation

I am so very happy to announce the renovation of Little House is just about done. Our tenant, Louise, moves in today and I think she'll be happy that she's getting the 'after' not the 'before'.

These photos were taken the day we arrived here. GULP.

And the afters:

The total spend was $18,000. The cost was pushed up by the short time frame. Dan did most of it in six weeks, around his job - so we had about a week's worth of paying extra labour to help him get it done.

Other trades jobs that have been done include plumbing and electrics (both about $2,500 each) and the floor sanding (about $1,600).

Also, we had planned to use a second-hand, freebie kitchen but it didn't end up fitting - so we bought this one.

Still, price-wise, we're pretty happy.

The kitchen is a Bunnings kitchen with their 'country' style of doors. The benchtops are bamboo and Dan used a two-pack product to seal them so they're hard wearing.

The wall cladding is a MDF VJ knock-off. Dan loves using it because it means he doesn't have to do any plastering, which makes it much quicker to install.

The paint is leftovers from our last house - I think it's actually an exterior paint, but it was just sitting in the shed so we figured we may as well use it.

Pretty much everything we've used is from Bunnings, except the two-pack product for the benches (the only option I could find there cost $50 a square metre - no thanks)

There's a few little jobs to do. I'm waiting on blinds which are being cut and there is some repairs to be done to the roof and gutters.

But, mostly, for now - it's done. And we can take a few weeks off before we get ramped up on Big House.