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?

Fame

Seems our landscaper has updated his website home page, and guess whose backyard features very prominently? Check it out:

Planned Landscape Constructions

*ahem* It's about time I gave them a plug...

A piece of history

Last night I was browsing through the real estate section of the local paper and came across a photo of a house that I knew immediately was by the same builder who constructed our first home. I can pick one of their houses from a mile away - they had a portfolio of about six or seven floorplans and would buy up blocks of land in a street and knock up a row of spec homes.

This one caught my eye and I had to have a squiz online at the photos, because I could see from the teeny pic in the paper, that they had the same kitchen colour scheme we originally had. The layout is different, but the colour, materials and quality are exactly what we endured for about 14 years before we ripped the whole thing out and had a new kitchen installed:



What do you think? Classy, eh? No overhead cupboards (I was so jealous of our neighbour who had the cupboard above the oven like this one; we had nothing but plaster....), no rangehood, and the colours! Those cheap plastic grip thingies on the cupboards (which were solid chipboard inside; nice!), the stylish brown plastic tap handles, and those TILES. I can't believe this house still has the original oven....

Oh, you should have seen the bathroom. Wait, I'll show you:



We didn't have anything as flash as this - no cupboard under our basin, just air, and no vanity top extending over the bath. (Again, I was jealous of the neighbour who had this house).

I'd somehow forgotten how bad it was, since we renovated kitchen and bathroom back in 2001. But looking at these photos, I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry....


The hilarious thing is, this house is advertised as "renovated". Apart from the floor tiles in the living rooms, which look to be c. 1990, and the addition of evaporative cooling, I can't see a single sign of renovation here. Unless that's now real estate speak for "had a paint job in the last five years".

Oh, my aching EVERYTHING!

I am completely exhausted, after yet another weekend of slogging away outdoors, and Bike Boy is feeling the same. I don't even want to imagine how we'd feel if we hadn't had the bulk of our landscaping professionally done. All we're doing is the planting, plus adding some finishing touches.

It's all come together beautifully, so here are a few photos of some of what we've been up to.

A screen to provide a support for some Chinese Star Jasmine to grow on and give us something more attractive to look at than the fence from the lounge windows:





The perfect planters for a herb garden. I'm going to add one more, but I'll wait till Spring when new plant stock is available in the nurseries:



Another screen. This one is just to provide a backdrop for the tall pot and give us a focal point at the end of the path. I think it makes you want to go down there to see what's around the corner:



The difference a few plants makes. Before:



After:



We've actually done a lot more over the past month than these few photos show, but it was mostly planting, painting and small but necessary bits and pieces that aren't very interesting.

We still have to add a pergola outside the sliding door to filter out the western sun in summer, build the water feature we want and eventually get a thatched hut-type shelter built to provide a peaceful and private seating area. But we're really happy with what we've achieved, especially the fact that there's a "view" from almost every window now.



And Mrs B, I haven't forgotten about your lovely blog award.... I'll get to it soon, I promise!

Seriously?

Here's a funny thing: numerous people have asked us whether we're going to enclose our alfresco room, with cafe blinds or windows or something. WTF? We have four (indoor) living rooms - why on earth would we want another?

The outdoors is exactly that - OUTDOORS. I know Melbourne's climate means that we won't get an enormous amount of use out of it throughout winter, but hey; that's life. And thinking about it, the covered deck at our old house got used probably nine months of the year. That was open on two sides; this has three sides enclosed, plus a fairly protected area immediately outside. And we have the gas patio heater....

I'm not one for hanging up blinds, putting down carpet (outdoor rugs? What is THAT about?) and sticking a bloody great plasma TV on the wall. I don't get it - why try to turn the outdoors into a clone of the indoors? Beats me.

I just want to sit out there with a drink in hand, maybe some music playing softly, and enjoy the sight of the garden, the sounds of birds and frogs, and comment, a la Darryl Kerrigan: "How's the serenity?"

At last

I feel like it's finished. Even though it isn't quite....

Long time coming!!


Ignore the neighbour's house poking over the fence there - I haven't finished planting yet. That's going to become invisible soon.

Loving it!

I think I've barely been indoors for the past five or six days. Barbecued something is on the menu every night, because who wants to spend time in the kitchen when you can be out here in these beautiful surroundings?

We're making the most of the good weather while it lasts. Winter will be here soon enough. Bleurgh. Although.... then I can turn my attention back to furnishing and decorating the inside of the house.

I'm steadily working at the planting, and it's all coming along nicely. After tossing up between tiled feature, urn, garden art and other options, we've finally decided on a water feature for our bare bit of wall in the middle of the planter. We've even found a design that Bike Boy can DIY a copy of....we just have to agree on the materials. It's an Asian-influenced trickling spout, and if we ever get it done, it's going to be perfect.