Flood relief - on a personal level

Blogger A-M lives in Brisbane, in one of the flood-affected areas near the river. She and her boys were extraordinarily lucky in that their ground floor apartment was untouched by the floodwaters. They have spent quite some time with no power or hot water and various other inconveniences, but A-M considers herself fortunate and has been out and about helping others who were not so lucky, like 73-year-old Ken.




Please go and read A-M's post about Ken, who is in desperate need of some help. His townhouse was completely flooded and is now just a shell, with no walls, floor coverings, cabinets or power, and not a stick of furniture. You can help Ken directly by using the Paypal "donate" button that A-M has set up on her blog.

Also, if you're in Brissie and you know a generous plumber who may be able to spare some time to help Ken get a new kitchen installed, please leave A-M a comment on her blog.

I know that bloggers are a generous lot and I'm sure we can help Ken get back on his feet.

x

P.S.

Also? This afternoon I got to spend some time with Kristine from The Painted Hive. I probably talked her ear off, the poor thing, but she was lovely and full of brilliant ideas.

More on that later!

Better late than never

Mrs B awarded me this an embarrassingly long time ago, but I kind of lost the blogging plot for a while there, so I've shamefully neglected to do anything with it.

I'm supposed to pass this award onto some other bloggers, but I'm going to skip that part for now and reserve it for some future time. I need to give it some thought, since I've been a bit out of touch with blogs in general recently. I have put my thinking cap on though and come up with "six things about me", which was the other requirement for recipients of this prestigious award. ;o)

I'm keeping them (sort of) house-related:

1. I hate flannelette sheets with a passion, much preferring cool smooth cotton. I don't care how cold the weather, if I'm ever your house guest, don't dare give me flannie sheets to sleep on. Ugh.

2. I love cooking shows, but can't stand Masterchef. Reality TV, yuk! I prefer "real" cooking shows, where it's all about the food. Except when it's that simpering idiot, Nigella, in front of the camera. She makes me want to throw things at the TV.

3. One of my favourite smells is vanilla. Not the artificial air freshener type of thing, but real vanilla. I love to have a subtle yet homey, fresh and welcoming smell in my house, so my secret weapon is a spray bottle of McClintock's vanilla fridge wipe. I spray it on bench tops and wipe over it with a cloth and have been known to spray it into corners of rooms as well.

4. I have a thing about labels. My pantry is full of labelled containers, my filing cabinet organised with labelled folders and now the linen cupboard has labels on the shelves too.

5. I'm mad about cushions and throw rugs. The male members of my family don't get the cushion thing at all. They can't figure out how to sit on the couch without chucking most of them on the floor. The rugs are a hit though, especially at the moment. There's nothing nicer on a cold night than to snuggle up under a blanket on the couch.

6. After a year and half in this house, we still have framed pictures propped on the floor against walls. I wonder if that's a record?

Oh Lordy! Not ANOTHER blog?!

To prevent my fitness/life blog from becoming a whiney, woe-is-me, house-building blog, I thought I'd create a new one where I can rant, grizzle, post photos and generally drone on about stuff that probably bores the pants off most people. You know, like colour schemes, appliances, landscaping and so on...

***************

So -why did we decide to sell our home of 21 years and embark on the insanity of building? Uh... two parents, three sons, a business, umpteen hobbies, over 2 decades of accumulated crap - and a 12-square house. Doesn't quite add up, does it?

We investigated extending, buying a bigger existing house, extending, (did I mention extending?), but couldn't quite find the perfect solution.

So after years of procrastinating and a fair bit of renovating, we (oh, alright - I) fell in love with the Bridgeport 35 and the rollercoaster ride began....