Life!

2011-12-22T11:50:00.000+10:30

I am hoping to convince my daughter to do the Mothers and Daughters class. It's the same price no matter how many Daughters you have and I think it would be a lovely way of really SEEing each other.

Take Care

something special is happening

2011-06-28T21:00:00.000+09:30

Some Christmas Cheer for those in need of smiles

2010-11-30T20:46:00.003+10:30

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Merry Christmas

Here again

2010-05-16T22:00:00.002+09:30

I am constantly amazed as I wander around the streets at peoples creativity and how they express it so openly. I wish that I had that strength, My art is still an extremely personal thing that very few people have ever seen. I worry about being judged so I've set myself a personal challenge to be more accepting of me and more confident in sharing my heartfelt creations. In saying that I have nothing to share right now. lol however I have been inspired to ummmm express myself on the ramp which is about to be constructed for our front door...after only 2 1/2 years!
Now that I've decided to do it I'm really getting excited so keep an eye out for photos in the next month or so.

Take care

Oh dear!

2010-01-02T14:55:00.003+10:30

oops didn't realize just how long it had been! What a slacker lol

Hmmm how can I make it up to you? Maybe a photo from my not so new new camera?

This Dumbo imitator is Jackie our (eek not so new) new puppy. She is a beagle/spaniel mix and the best puppy in the world. Sorry for being such a bad blogger, life has been busy and I'm not on the computer as much as I used to be.
I will try to get back in the habit of posting this year.

Take care

Bags

2009-02-22T23:06:00.002+10:30

This is to help you remember your bags next time you go shopping.

It's a song called Canvas Bags from comedian Tim Minchin ( Thanks Liesha)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVh15aUt8-c&feature=related

Pam

Things that make me smile

2009-02-05T23:33:00.002+10:30

Yes my new aircon makes me smile. We have been having a serious heatwave and I really do smile whenever I look at it. Sad but true.

Ahhhh a New Year

2009-01-10T00:26:00.003+10:30

Here it is a new year and a fresh start.

What is it about the new year? I try not to make it a big deal or make any resolutions but then you have that fateful day when you have to write the date and you hesitate at the year and think '09 sigh what happened to 08??? As soon as I do that I have this overwhelming urge to consider my life, think where I have been and where i am going.

I have been wanting to change things on here for a while but just didn't get around to it. I want to put more emphasis on being happy.... finding something everyday that makes me smile.... things that make my family smile .... things that make YOU smile!

So I am going to start posting photos and things that make me smile. Is there anything that really makes your heart smile? Go out and look for things in your daily life that make you happy! It will make you happy and that is bound to spread to those around you.

Silly things that make me happy number 1. Playing with my camera

A boring night drive made me smile when I decided to play with my camera settings.

Have a great day and remember to smile!

The following week...

2008-11-30T00:14:00.003+10:30

Well I guess thats what you get for coming home on a Motor bike!

Yep one week later and look what my Dear husband came home with!

Saturday night

2008-11-02T11:50:00.003+10:30

You've had a few drinks and can't pick me up?

Thats ok honey i'll find my own way home!

Thanks Gavin you made my Day!
(for the rest of the story http://madebymandy.blogspot.com/)

Welcome to the world little man

2008-10-17T11:30:00.003+10:30

I am happy to announce the safe arrival of Brodie!

Here's to a long and happy life little fella.

Big hugs to all of the very proud family.

This time last year...

2008-10-09T11:43:00.002+10:30

Where were we...it seems like yesterday.

This time last year the bathroom floor was being laid. We were so worried about getting everything done by Christmas. I can't believe how fast the time has flown by and yet here I am trying to get things done again with a Christmas deadline in mind!

We are about to have hard rubbish pickup so I guess that will be the next big thing to get organised. I still need to put the pelmets that we snagged last time the was a pick up. Oops guess that should be on the list with the curtains?

Oh well we will get there!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Slowly but surely!

2008-09-22T23:49:00.002+09:30

Things are going along nicely at the moment. We have had 3 switches fail which is annoying but fixable.
We are patching and moving things around in the old part of the house now which is good. My room is starting to take shape which is fanfreakingtastic :^D Even the laundry is getting better... it has been storage central for so long I forgot how big it was!

Well thats about all I have to say for now so take care of yourselves.

Bit by bit

2008-08-17T14:24:00.005+09:30

Well we have achieved a few small bit and pieces around the place and it seems we are working up to a big project. We might finally do something about the naked bathroom!!! (Look down to the very first picture I posted)
I have been hanging out for a bath, our new shower is nice enough but all bath dovotees know there is nothing like a nice hot bath on a cold winter night. The reason I can't have a nice hot bath is .....

My darling husband has offered to stand it up so I can use it but since it's in the front yard I have decided not to accept his kind offer.

Thats it for now. Have a great day!

Banking grrrrrr

2008-07-08T23:12:00.003+09:30

Ok first thing you should know is that this is very out of character for me as I consider banking a personal thing. Saying that, nearly everyone I know is in the same financial situation as us, there really isn't a lot of room to move these days with interest rates, petrol, food and everything else going through the roof.

The reason that i'm writing this is because I just received a letter from our credit union. In their wisdom and GREED they have changed their entire fee structure. Over the years we have set things up so that we rarely have to pay fees. To achieve this we have arranged direct debits for our mortgage and use bpay for other bills, we do the majority of our banking online, signed up for a visa debit card and really go out of our way to avoid anything that could cost us money.

In the letter they state and I quote in bold capital letters as in the letter

Dear Member

"BECAUSE WE KNOW EVERY CENT COUNTS

At ******** we believe our members should have the opportunity to conduct banking without paying excessive fees. Thats why we only charge what's needed for us to remain financially sound."

Bottom line is that the absolute minimum we can pay to recieve the same service we currently get is 2.50 a week. Now if you have money to spare this may not seem like much but for us it's just another straw. Some of you may already pay more than this....we used to thats why we changed to a credit union all those years ago. Over the years they have sneaked this in and that in but they have always offered a way through savings or changing the way you bank to keep fees down. Now it dosn't matter how good I am with money there is absolutely no way that I can pay my mortgage and get money out even once a month without incurring fees.

This is just so unfair to me, how can they get away with this and what is next? I mean this isn't just "hey we are going to charge you extra starting next month" this is an unbelievable price hike!

To rub salt into the wound they are currently running advertisments that go on about how they are the fasted growing credit union in Australia.....WELL NOT ANYMORE GUYS!!!!!!!!! You are about to be the fastest SHRINKING! Everyone I know who is in this credit union is reeling and NOT ONE OF THEM is planning to stay.

So that brings me to a queston for you all.... who do you bank with?

Thankyou for reading climbing off my soapbox now

Creative Alert

2008-06-03T18:43:00.002+09:30

To all my creative friends a few links to free emags!

http://www.forkeepscreativescrapbooking.com.au/

This link will take you to a free 6 month subscription to an online Magazine. http://www.creativelivingmedia.com.au/newsletter/ There are a few to choose from.

Emma! Emma! there is a beading one!!!

Enjoy!

no 1

2008-06-01T20:41:00.003+09:30

Job no 1 is underway! Thought I would share some pics.

Hopefully it will all be ready soon. Take care

Where did the time go???

2008-05-26T19:04:00.002+09:30

Hello all ! How are you?
go on answer me thats what the comments are for! lol

We have been flat out with life since the kids got back to school. I wanted to post but didn't really know what to say so after lots of procrastination I decided on a to do list. Hmmmm maybe just the most important jobs or I will be writing forever!!

Paint No 1 Son's bedroom
Splashback for the kitchen
Move the water tanks into back yard and install
Build a side fence to replace the fence that we pull down to get the tanks around the back!
Build a side gate

That will have to do for now. Family calls

Take care and talk soon!

EMMA!

2008-01-28T18:01:00.000+10:30

In response to a friend of mine who has been watching and waiting for me to get off my butt....here are your photos Emma! :^D

HEY! When was the last time you updated yours???? I seem to recall a certain job announcement and then nothing since ! AHA! lmao

Happy New Year!

2008-01-11T22:46:00.000+10:30

yeah yeah I know, it's about time. All I can say is time has been limited with trying to move, clean and juggle 3 kids... Speaking of which does anyone want 3 children? They are free. Will pay and as a bonus they also come with baggage and attitude. No? BUGGER!

I wanted to take photos of the completed rooms but middle son said that if I put pictures of their rooms on the net they will be abducted and it will be all my fault. So I took the photos anyway and will show you the painted but not moved into rooms soon. SIGH the power of children. Did I mention they come with guilt laid on thick???

I guess the holidays will be over before we know it and then I will be lonely again.....oh how I long for those loney days!!! :^D

Take care all

Pam

Last one for this year

2007-12-30T15:04:00.000+10:30

Well we have been slowly moving in and getting comfortable over the last week and overall we are just slightly ECSTATIC!!!!!!!!!! We are all so happy and relaxed. My favourite thing about it is sitting at the kitchen table because we all fit!

We have a lot of work to go yet but when I get all of the new curtains up n the front wndows I will finally show you all a picture of the whole house.

Thats it for now ... I don't know what I was thinking but I decided to have New Years here so I have some organising to do and probably some drinks and nibbles will be in order.

Take care and be safe. Type soon!

Breathe in, Breathe out......

2007-12-22T13:06:00.000+10:30

Breathe in, breathe out ok still not helping. While we were moving H's furniture into her new room I noticed some water near the toilet door. Went to wipe it up and see where it came from and followed it around the corner and into H's room! NOOOOOOOOO

After a lot of running around like a headless chook we found that with all the rain our gutters had over flown into the roof and down the wall :^((

I spoke to the builder who rushed straight over (to make sure it wasn't his fault) and he has fixed the problem for now. I rang the insurance and an assessor will be out Monday afternoon.

They recommended that we get and electrician out to check the wiring immediately so we did He looked and checked everything out and said it was ok to turn the power back on which was good. He has left the power point hanging out of the wall so that it has some aitr circulating. He has insulated it so that little hands can't get zapped but we still moved a few things around to be safe.

After many hours and a few tears we decided to move H in and take our chances since it looks like everything will be ok. FINGERS CROSSED!!!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and if you don't celebrate Christmas then have a nice day ! MWAH

Gotta love kids

2007-12-20T11:16:00.000+10:30

Not that she has been waiting for this day or anything but our darling daughter woke up this morning and had barely wiped the sleep from her eyes.....

Do you think she is happy? Ecstatic nearly describes how happy she is. She had furniture lined up from her room to the extension. I had to push it back in for now and distract her with half an hour on the play station so Dad could finish painting the outside of her door frame. He was being very good about leaning out of the way as she carried her drawers and stereo in, truly something only a grandpa would do.

Thats it for now so take care and have a very Merry Christmas!

Good news!

2007-12-19T20:44:00.000+10:30

It's wednesday and guess what ... the floor was laid yesterday!!!

Not that we were waiting or anything lol

It took a lot of last minute work to get ready but after a 1 am painting finish monday night we were ready in time.

I spent tuesday morning scraping the floor to get rid of all the lumps of plaster etc and have the blisters to prove it. Today I spent the day sealing the floor so that tomorrow they can move in to their rooms! Do you think there is anyone here who may be just a little excited?

what else can I say but WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!

Quick update

2007-12-14T20:35:00.000+10:30

We found out today that the soonest the floor can be laid is next thursday. We are going well with the painting but without the help of my Dad we would never make our deadline. We will spend this weekend painting and should finish everything by monday. The flooring people have said that if they have time before thursday they will slot us in so we need to make sure that we are ready just in case. It wold be soooo wonderful if it happens sooner but at least it will be done before Christmas! I'm not sure if we can walk on it straight away or not so at most we will have 4 days to move everything in. Can we do it? YES WE CAN! (er yeah I think so lol)

We are also the proud new carers of 3 more chickens! We were down to 2 girls so when I heard there were 3 looking for a home I thought why not. Hopefully the ducks will be relocating to their new home soon and we can get the vegetable garden up and running again.

Thats it for now so take care type later!

Weekend work and a new switch

2007-12-10T12:42:00.000+10:30

The bathroom switch took 2 minutes to fix as it was only a faulty switch. Woohoo go electricians!

On the weekend we picked up the paint and filled all the nail holes in the skirting boards and window frames. D, M and A did a good job of sanding in the front room and today Dad is in there with his sander whizzing through the rest of the rooms. I bet they wish they had thought of using our sander instead of crawling around with a piece of sandpaper lol oh well live and learn!

Al has finished H's drawers and they look fantastic! She is soooo happy and can't wait to use them. I need to polish the handles but i'm not sure what to use. Any ideas for me? They are brass but appear to have a protective coating on the front where the cameo is. Will post a pic when I get my card reader back from my darling husband.

Thats it for now

See ya!

Such fun!

2007-12-06T22:40:00.000+10:30

I had a wonnnnderful morning scrapping at Mandy's followed by lunch at a swish restaurant lol

When I finally got home ( just in time to get the kids) I found builders business card in the door. Will have to ring tomorrow and see what he wants...Maybe I should make HIM wait for a change :^D
Nahhhh I have to ring him to get the electrician back. When I turned the bathroom light on tonight it started flashing and when I went back to the switch it was making sizzling noises. I went straight out the front and turned the lighting circuit off because I did NOT like that sound.

The best Dad in the whole wide world has undercoated and painted the ceiling in the 2 bedrooms and the toilet. I have asked my colour consultant (aka Mandy) to help me pick a colour for my family room/kitchen. Then it will be off to the paint shop AGAIN to give them more money.

Hope you are all well
Pam

Are you sitting down?

2007-12-05T23:27:00.000+10:30

I can hardly believe I am about to say this but the builder has finished :^O

Thats right! Finished! Yesterday the plumber fiiinally turned up at the same time as the shower screen guy and today the window man brought the fly screens and thats it. I asked what was next and they said "ummm nothing that I can see ...it looks like thats it". I don't know what I expected but I guess I at least thought we would here hope you are happy have a nice day. Oh well who cares WOOHOO!!!!!

I will post pics of my wonderful toilet tomorrow lol

Have a great day ... I'm going scrapping :^D

Electricity is DONE!

2007-12-01T17:34:00.000+10:30

Now you have to know that I was totally tempted to take pictures of each light bulb on :^D but instead I thought I would post an outside pic to show how good things are looking.
Have a great day!

totally confused

2007-11-27T13:57:00.000+10:30

and a bit peeved. I have been expecting the builders electrician for 2 days now so I rang to see when he is coming. I get told they will ring me back. Then the tiler turns up to fix the broken tile so I can only assume they decided against getting the bigger mirror? Who knows ... anyway I asked him about the toilet floor tiles stopping before the door and he says he will fix that at the same time. I wait 4 hours for my return phone call ... nothing grrr. I ring back and they are out of the office and will ring me back hmmmm. Half an hour later the guy that the building manager is training rings me and says the electrician will be here THURSDAY arghhh. SO I ask when the plumber will be here and.....they will ring me back. Officially pissed now.

Christmas is closing in really quickly now and when they finally finish we still have to paint, get the floor and kitchen tiles done. Feeling really overwhelmed and frustrated. The fact that it's Chrismas would bother me except that things close down and if the floor and things aren't here before we could be waiting until the end of January. OK better stop typing now...my eye has started twitching ( insert maniacal laugh here)

Electricity first stage DONE

2007-11-24T01:59:00.001+10:30

We have been without power for 2 days but we finally have our electicity meters moved out the front. On the second day the carpenter came and fixed up the last things few things. He kept looking at the door step and asked if we had any left over pieces of cladding. We did so I went and got him a piece. 10 minutes later he stood back and said " That's better. It was driving me nuts!" He had seen quite a few things that weren't finished properly and this was just another thing. Before and after....So all I can say is. What a guy!

Another great day!

2007-11-20T23:13:00.000+10:30

Today the cornice guy turned up and put the cornice around the kitchen cuboards and then the shower screen man turned up to measure and show us our choices.

We chose chrome as it won't seem as intrusive in such a small bathroom. It will also match in with everything else because all the metal and appliances are silver.

He also pointed out that if we chose the bigger of the two mirrors then we won't see the chipped tile.....yes there is a chipped tile

I'm a bit peeved that the tiler didn't tell us. You can't tell me he didn't notice it. I am the kind of person who would be disappointed but it's not the end of the world, but when it's hidden it annoys the hell out of me. This is where our builder really shines...I rang to speak to the building manager but he was out of the office so the owner asked if he could help. When I told him about the tile he was disappointed and asked "what can we do about this?" ( that dosn't read very well....he asked in a good way lol asking me what I wanted done ) I told him that the shower screen guy said the larger of the 2 mirrors would cover it. We are supposed to pay for our mirror as it isn't in the contract so you can just imagine how happy I was when owner said "Don't you worry about it I will pay (chuckle chuckle) as long as it is not ridiculous I will pay for you" What a guy!

It's so nice to get some good news like that after all the budget blowouts!

Hope you are all well

Take care

MIA apologies

2007-11-19T23:47:00.000+10:30

Bathroom and toilet are tiled and today the vanity was put in. Then just to really make my day the kitchen company dropped off OUR cooktop. LOVE IT! What a great day :^D Yes it still needs the handles put on.

This is the RIGHT cooktop and did I mention I LOVE IT :^D

Nearly there!

Standby to rewind

2007-11-12T23:41:00.000+10:30

Apologies for not posting much lately. It's been crazy as usual and I am WAY behind with my posts....well the posts are done but they are missing photos so I decided to put them up and then FINALLY go through my photos tomorrow and add them. So if you want to see what has been happening you will have to look back!

Today the tiler laid the floor in the new bathroom and toilet. YAY things are moving again :^D

My goodness a Meme!

2007-11-05T22:57:00.000+10:30

Mandy has nominated me for a meme...ummm thanks? LOL I hadn't heard of such a thing so I wandered over to her blog to check it out. Here is what I found :^)

Mandy from Made by Mandy scrapbooking tagged me for the "Picture Me" MeMe.

Kate at Our Red House began this MeMe and said the following;

"The rules are simple: post a picture of yourself on your blog. As some may feel uncomfortable posting a current photo, a baby or childhood picture is fine. Post the picture, tell us the story behind it, copy the logo, and tag three others (without forgetting to tell them that they have been tagged!)"

So here goes...

This is ME! Taken by DS2 J while I was painting the extension. Now who to nominate hmmmm

Chandelle @ Arthur happenings

Rachael @ 2+3=A mad house

Joyce @ Salisbury's corner of the web

I hope this is ok girls. I nominated you because I enjoy reading about yur lives and you aren't scared to put your pic on your blog ;^D

Take care all

Hugs Pam

Rainwater tanks

2007-11-03T22:25:00.000+10:30

Finally we can breathe a sigh of relief. We have been under a lot of pressure to get rainwater tanks...pressure with both money and time. The rules state that we have to have a tank big enough to collect water off of a percentage of the roof and we also have to have a minimum off a 1000 litre tank plumbed into the house.

We have always wanted more tanks but to get metal ones we have to wait 4 months. We could get plastic ones in half that time but they are twice the price. So there lies the problem until.....

A friend of ours found us these 2 tanks and the price......Freeeee! Woohoo .

Hope you are all having as good a day as I am :^D

Take care

REAL carpenters!

2007-11-01T23:10:00.001+10:30

That is what the bargeboard SHOULD look like. Check out "The dodgy edge" below for what it looked like before our super carpenter fixed it. He also fixed the outside window frames so Hooray for real carpenters :^D

Inside carpentry is done!

2007-10-31T12:42:00.000+10:30

Yayyy another thing done :^D It's the little things that really make a difference isn't it.

Underneath the window in our (old) house we have scotia , the curved piece of decorative wood under the window sill, is is cut square to the sill. Our wonderful carpenter cut them on an angle and it looks fantastic! I will try and get a better photo of it soon.

Take Care

We have doors!!!!

2007-10-30T15:38:00.000+10:30

Come on eveybody sing along with Miss Pam...Open, shut them___open, shut them___give a little clap...open, shut them___open, shut them (take pictures and) put them in your lap(top). Yes i've gone crazy and i'm having flashbacks to my childhood hehee
We also have window sills, most of the skirting done and half of the door surrounds yayyyy

Carpenter

2007-10-27T23:23:00.000+09:30

The carpenter spent 2 days here so far and has fixed all the "problem wood". He even fixed the floor that the site manager was trying to avoid talking about.

and built us a nice door frame for our double depth doorway

Doing the kitchen dance!

2007-10-23T23:17:00.000+09:30

I have a kitchen lalalalaa laaaa I have a kitchen lalalalaa laaaa there is a whole dance that goes with this Pam song lol

Dave the big meany says its not a kitchen just a room of cuboards until everything is hooked up...rolling eyes and starting my kitchen dance again while he's rolling his eyes LMAO

Anyway here are some photos for you

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Security doors

2007-10-22T23:48:00.000+09:30

Security door man turned up today and the poor bugger was having a bad day. The first door locked open and wouldn't move after that so it had to be taken back then he was really happy about the second door being ok until he squated down the put the plate that the lock goes into and his hammer went straight through the mesh :^( Not happy Jan. We pointed out that Murphy lived on this site and had showed himself many times at that he just laughed saying that his mother was a Murphy so what hope did he have lol. Anyway all is well now and we have 2 lovely new security doors.
Here is what they look like.... Good night for now

bathroom

2007-10-17T22:25:00.000+09:30

Today the bathroom was started when they waterproofed our shower.

The only other thing that happened was the electrician hacked holes in our bedroom wall. Hopefully he'll be back soon to finish the job. He has to wait for an ETSA technician to give approval and turn power off to our house so that the meters can be moved. Until then we have to live with this...

and you know what? I don't care :^D because it means things are slowly but surely getting done! yayyyy

It's a sad life when....

2007-10-16T09:31:00.000+09:30

....a toilet get's delivered and it's the highlight of your week. LMAO Well to be fair it was the vanities that made my day.
It's getting closer !!!!!

OPINIONS PLEASE

2007-10-12T10:20:00.000+09:30

I have changed the settings to show all the posts on the same page.
What do you think?
Does it take too long to load now?
Input! :^)

More happenings

2007-10-12T10:03:00.000+09:30

Yesterday the cornices were put up. It was another WOW job that has made everything seem bigger. The shutter people also came to measure up which was good. Hopefully we will be feeling a bit more secure soon.
Hope you are all having a great day.

quick look

2007-10-10T11:36:00.001+09:30

The two little chips are the kitchen colours and the bigger is the floor.

Bathroom Floor

2007-10-09T18:20:00.000+09:30

The tiler turned up today which was a very welcome surprise. He came to lay a slip ? I think thats what it's called? over the floor. It's purpose is to get the fall on the floor going towards the relevant drains. If that had been done properly in our old bathroom we probably wouldn't have had so much trouble with whiteants. If this photo is fuzzy let me know and i'll get on a computer with a better screen and change it.
Just after they left a guy turned up to measure for the security doors. Yay for another step along the way!

smoothing out the edges

2007-10-07T23:07:00.000+09:30

Feeling pretty happy about the wood idea. It came just in time to help save us from the messiest part of the reno...rubbing back the plaster. The plasterer is a lovely guy and knew I was worried about the mess it would make and stapled some blue stuff to his side of the doorway.
Then it was on to business and let the dust fly!

The end product is such a great finish that I wish he could come back and redo most of the walls in the old part of the house!

Getting Plastered

2007-10-04T23:40:00.000+09:30

No no that was my reckless youth lol This time i'm talking about the house!

Sorry the updates have been sporadic, it's school holidays here and I am bookmarking days but not getting to post until days later.

It's been quite windy lately so we upgraded the blanket to a sheet of MDF we had from a long forgotten project. That has kept us a lot warmer.

Strange how easily it becomes out of sight out of mind. It's just like having the curtains hanging over the old window...have I mentioned I can't wait to move in?

Well it's getting late so I will leave you with the Sarah Lee plastering method

Layer....

upon....

layer....

upon....

layer

Profile pic

2007-10-02T23:54:00.000+09:30

This was the easiest way to put a pic on my profile so here are the terrible twins H & E having a ball at the beach.

They just cant wait

2007-10-01T17:20:00.000+09:30

Since it's the school holidays H and friend have been having loads of fun. They have set up cubbies and craft table in the new family room. The only thing they aren't happy about is that i'm a mean mummy and won't let them sleep out there.

It's ALIVE!

2007-09-29T23:20:00.000+09:30

After a very cold windy night we decided to put the curtain rod back up and hang a blanket from it to try to keep the lounge a little warmer. While we were watching TV the blanket was swaying in and out and one of the kids said "it's breathing!" yep the extension has come alive :^D

WHAT A DAY!

2007-09-28T23:25:00.000+09:30

Today was one of those rare occasions (since construction started) that I got to go out. When I got home I was blown away by the change!

Nothing had happened since late last week then today 6 tradies turned up. 3 gyprockers, 2 plumbers (they came to fix the joint from the old bathroom to the new pipes which were leaking) and the carpenter who came to the scribe the bargeboard under the tiles, hang front door and make the most amazing difference....he broke through into the house so the extension is officially part of the house! Yayyyyy

So here are the much awaited photos lol

Dave wants a pair of these go go gadget legs lol

How to change a window into a door....

Oh my what a difference a day makes!

Going to get a good nights sleep with a HUGE smile on my face :^D

Boring wednesday

2007-09-27T23:36:00.001+09:30

Nothing much has happened so far this week. The Door furniture was supposed to be delivered last week but it didnt turn up. While we were waiting we had insulation delivered. We had just got it into the family room, the bundles are surprisingly heavy, when the gyprock turned up and we had to move the insulation to J's room so that we could fit the gyprock in. A couple of pieces were so long that they stuck out the front door (hole) and had to be covered in plastic. We had just fnished doing that when surprise surprise
They finally got here via reynella???? Apparently that where they went last week but they are here now which means they can arrange the carpenter to hang the front door.

Yayyy see how easy I am to please! lol

We're wired!

2007-09-24T15:29:00.000+09:30

Decided to bore you with wiring lol

and since the chickens are feeling left out I decided to hang a construction creation in their tree...YES I am booored with being at home all the time!!! Did you notice? ;^D

The dodgy edge

2007-09-21T23:09:00.001+09:30

Some pics of what the edge should look like and what it actually looks like.

Here is the outside edge bargeboard

This is the "joined on" side which should follow the same angles as the pic above but...

It may not seem too bad but when looked at closely it is really rough and made up of 3 scrap pieces of woodAfter pointing it out to the cladders it now looks like this...

It's been really roughly cut and is down to 2 scraps. urgh

Arrrrgh!

2007-09-21T23:06:00.000+09:30

Is that talk like a pirate day or non carpenters? lol

I have been kept very busy with life around here. Most of you know what happened to M and for those who don't I will just say his shiner is coming along nicely...sigh.

As for the non-carpenters ... they are cladders. They were also paid to put the outside window surrounds and door frame in. When we looked at the workmanship...or lack there of...we were not happy. Where the mitre cuts on the corners haven't met up they have filled them with a silicone type putty and where they were really badly mismatched they simply did what anyone would do ... took an angle grinder to it. They also put a piece of wood on the end of our eaves that is just ridiculous on so many levels and J's window is sagging in the middle so that also needs to be looked at.

Will tackle the site manager tomorrow and see what can be done about the windows. What is it that the site manager does exactly? I wonder because I feel like I am doing a lot of the onsite management at the moment lol

I'll leave you with photo of the back of the house before they put the edges around the windows.

Take care.

plumbing

2007-09-14T22:59:00.000+09:30

We have pipes! The plumber has done a great job. Not only with the new section but also new pipes to my bath in the old bathroom. When they laid the foundations the bath pipes were bent up and badly damaged, then they were cut off and the framing up covered the holes where the pipes used to go. Mr plumber not only fixed the pipes he also moved the position of the bath taps so that if we ever need to work on them in the future they will be a lot easier to access.

The carpenters it turns out are not carpenters but thats a story for another day.

Stay safe and well

Fiiiinally!!!

2007-09-13T20:20:00.000+09:30

I was starting to think they had forgotten where we live! Today they made up for it.....

They've done more than this but I wasn't going out in the rain to take more pictures.

We have an appointment to confirm the kitchen colours and then they will come and do the final measurements. ooooo it's getting so exciting now!

Hope you are all well

We have a roof!

2007-09-08T01:31:00.000+09:30

After my last marathon post I thought I would leave this one as.....

We have a roof!

Waste

2007-09-05T00:06:00.000+09:30

The amount of waste involved in building has been really bothering me. I think I will see if there are any charities in Adelaide that build houses for families who need homes. I seem to remember an organisation called houses for humanity or something like that. Found them! They are called Habitat for Humanity

The reason for this is that I have seen so much thrown away. I'm not talking about offcuts of wood i'm talking about perfectly good building materials that are going in the skip because they are surplus. I recycle as much as possible around here to reduce landfill so it's really annoying to see things get thrown out that could still do the job they were created for.

What really pushed my button was when the gutters went up and a box was thrown into the skip. It was cardboard so I decided to put it in my recycling bin. When I picked it up it had 5 gutter clips (thats what I call them anyway lol) I asked him if he was still using the box and he said "no just throw them in the skip they are just extras" There was nothing wrong with them so why didn't he take them for the next job or leave them for the builder to use on the next job?

I don't see why they can't put this stuff to use. Surely if they don't want to keep the money in their own pockets then they could have a left over pile that could go to someone like Habitat for Humanity to collect and use.

Well that whinge wasn't the ony thing that came out of the skip. So far we have recycled...

The quarry rubble ... to raise the level of our front yard so there is no more step up to the verandah

From the concreting we have saved orange plastic, bar chairs (the black tower things that hold rio up inside the slab), small cement blocks (that were also used inside the slab) a full pack of trench mesh stirrups, lots of tie wires and several huge pieces of rio mesh that will be used for foot paths and leftovers will be used in the vege garden. The the last of concrete went into the skip...so if you ever have concrete being poured at your place have a think about what else you want done. We could have had a path out of all the left overs if only we had thought of it before!

Metres and metres of string line that is cut off at the slightest hint of a tangle is now being used in the garden and on some creations i've made

The batton offcuts are hard wood so they are going into our neighbours fire to keep them warm.

Unfortunately the other offcuts are treated but if they weren't then they would have gone to our local kindy for construction play

The broken roof tiles and the offcuts of cfboard will soon be garden edges.

The steel is being taken to the metal merchant to be recycled and put some money back in our pocket.

I've also been having fun and creating while waiting for tradie's to turn up so i'll finish this off with a photo of my favourite creation out of 100% rubbish!

Whiteant wipeout

2007-09-04T23:44:00.000+09:30

Due to the whiteant damage we have had over the years we wanted to make sure all timber used was treated. Turns out the trusses weren't! So they hired a lovely young lady to climb like a monkey (her words lol) and rub poison all over them.

Poor thing...it was a really awful job so I hope they paid her well!

We blame the eclipse!

2007-09-03T23:13:00.000+09:30

As I said in the last post we went a little nutty and decided to have a bit of fun!

First we got a little chair and put it in the toilet area with some toilet paper. Then we bought in a table and decorated with some recycled goods. We went out and got our old portable TV that died a few weeks ago and set that up on a chair in the corner and put the cats bowl in there too.

Then D remembered the outside sink and just had to set that up, more recycling there with the dishwashing liquid bottle, and don't forget we hung curtains. (Finally put that pic up on the last post...sorry about the delay.)
Carpenters started the day with a chuckle. Kept asking me what kind of hot chocolate we were drinking lol

Time to go again already take care!

Windows!

2007-08-29T23:05:00.000+09:30

We have windows and in all the excitement we all went a little nutty! hehe yes there are curtains hanging in the windows
It was the lunar eclipse so we went outside to watch. After deciding it was a bit cold we all moved into the extension to watch in comfort. We were joined first by my sister and then our young neighbour. Later in the evening Mum and Dad turned up. A fun night was had by all and we were kept warm with our Hot Chocolates yummm.

Around 9.30 we got a little over excited and talking about setting up a practical joke for the carpenters.

will have to finish this tomorrow and will add pics .... have to go and clean up glass now siiigh

Truss time

2007-08-26T19:19:00.000+09:30

I've been sick for the last two days and just wandered out to have a look at what they have been up to.

WOW! We have roof trusses up and it's starting to look like a house! Sooo exciting!

Can't wait to see what they do tomorrow!

The floor

2007-08-26T16:21:00.000+09:30

The words "get over it" come to mind lol

Clearly a polished floor just wasn't meant to be! First the bathroom floor, then the blood splatter (YES!) and the oil. Ahhh let it go Pam

The last post told of the problem with the floor in the bathroom section. Well I spoke to the the man in charge the next day and reminded him that we told them from the begining the floor would be polished. His answer? well he had a novel solution... paint it grey! HELLOOOOO The coating we were going to put on the floor is a one time deal. If we paint it it will need to be done repeatedly.... forever more....kind of defeats the purpose.

Here is the paragraph to skip if you don't have a strong stomache. Close your eyes Mern hehe

The carpenter was busily putting up the walls when ouch he shot himself with the nail gun! His son called me and when I got out there they had pulled the nail out ... which was when the splatter happened ... and he was sitting down trying to stop the bleeding. I ran to get the phone and when I got back HE WAS CLEANING UP! I think that freaked me out more than anything. He said he was worried about my floor! I wanted him to go to a Dr or something not clean the floor!!!! Anyway he went to the Dr and was back half an hour later with lunch. They told him it would be a four hour wait so he left. Said there was 60 people ahead of him and they all seemed to have bird flu so he was out of there and back to work! Bred tough that one :^D

After they went home that night the crane turned up (a day early) and put the trusses on the roof. while they were doing that the crane dripped oil everywhere. I went straight out there and spread bicarb on it to try to soak up the oil but it only worked on the small patches Ahhh there it goes ... POP... floor dream gone lol

Now here is the pic that made my day.

After everything else that happened that day I went outside to find this. That is our toootally excited daughter SWEEPING her floor and complaining about the mess they had left in her new room!

Always nice to finish on a high :^D

Hope this finds you all well. Hugs to you all

It was......

2007-08-21T22:29:00.000+09:30

...the best of times it was the worst of times lol Ahhh the joys of building.

We have walls!

Well half of them anyway. The other half will go up tomorrow. They would probably have finished today but when they put up the bathroom walls we discovered a problem :^O

The bathroom floor should have been a stubby L shape but it is square. We assumed that it was square now because of the plan changes unfortunately that isn't the case. I suppose they will just fill the gap up to floor level but that will ruin the planned polished floor. This photo shows the view from the bedroom door looking down the hallway.

Thats all for tonight. I have to get them here tomorrow to find a solution to the floor and the roof as things aren't going as planned with tiles either.

Goodnight all

More laughs!

2007-08-20T23:21:00.000+09:30

We have the carpenters on site now and will have some exciting photos tomorrow.

I just HAD to post these two photos. The chippies needed to have a closer look at the window which will soon be a door so I moved the lounge and discovered that murphy has once again visited our house!

On the first day when the guy took the wall planks off, to check the level of the floor boards, he cut through wood and some wall and as it turns out our LOUNGE! Ahh the fun ... yes believe it or not we are laughing about it.

Anyway here they are ... the wall and the lounge.

Pouring the slab!

2007-08-15T22:40:00.000+09:30

Monday they poured the piers which was great but boy was Tuesday exciting....WE HAVE A FLOOOOR! So exciting because it really makes it real. Well it should considering it took about 7 cubic metres of concrete for the piers and ....wait for it.... 21.6 cubic metres for the foundation. The back corner is just above knee height which made a nightmare for the concrete guys. Poor buggers had to pour it in 3 stages to get the height and the eastern framework started giving way under the weight of the wet concrete. They were amazing and caught it just in time.

Oh and as a bonus our front yard has raised to the level of the front porch due to the fact that they had about 40tonne of quarry gravel sitting in our yard that they were going to dump.

D asked one of the guys what they were going to do with it and they said why "do you want it?" (It has long been D's dream to get rid of the big rocks that border our front path and raise the level of the yard) Next thing the site manager was asking if we wanted to raise the level and we agreed on D's condition that they get rid of the rocks for us! BONUS it was cheaper for them to get the bobcat to dump the rocks and level the yard than it would have been to get 2 trucks to take it away.

How easy was that!

The thin string line

2007-08-14T20:58:00.000+09:30

Thats what it came down to...

That little bit... about 6 cm ...bought work to a halt for a week. Once we trimmed the plans to suit we were up and running again!

We had the concrete guys here next to dig the footings and piers which all went well until it came to the plumbing. I noticed they marked a line on the ground and asked them what it was. He said it was the plumbing and when I told him that the plumbing was about a metre to the right he first... said "oh ok" second ... completely disregarded it and third ... dug our sewage pipes up!

Enter the plumbers. They fixed the pipes and OOPS fixed the footing good and proper!

Poor concrete guy nearly had a heart attack when he saw the mess they made of his footings. Once he got over the shock he emptied out the holes he dug for the piers and got them ready for the concrete which was poured later that afternoon.

Time has gotten away from me again so i'll do another update tomorrow.

WOOHOO!

2007-08-07T22:40:00.000+09:30

Well we have had a crazy week but whats new? lol

Last wednesday they were supposed to dig and pour piers but when the boundary was called into question it was all tools down and wait for the technicalities to be worked out.

Welllllll today it is finally back on! Yayyy

We have had to cut the width back but i'm sure that will be fine. We have gone over and over all the plans changed a few things to suit the new size and have given the go ahead so..... They are back onsite tomorrow!!! woohooooo

Update on the injured goes J is sore and milking his colarbone for everything it's worth and D has had his stitches out.

I guess I will be doing more interesting posts more often now so see you soon!

First week of August

2007-08-02T22:10:00.000+09:30

WHAT A WEEK!

We were told that work would start on Monday so I stayed home and waited. While I waited I recieved a phone call telling me that no2 son had broken his collarbone! Poor kid was very brave and by the time he got home was all strapped up and clutching his xrays. He was happily smiling as he told his story and got lots of sympathy along with lollies, icecream, pods, and a brother and sister who were doing his jobs lol.

As for the building, it started with a flurry of excitement with 85 tonnes of quarry rubble being delivered over 2 days. The guy on the bobcat was amazing. We were all watching and at times it was jaw dropping. I think he was enjoying putting on a show for all of his spectators lol

Unfortunately by Wednesday we hit a snag and work stopped. We have boundary issues so they have to measure and peg and decide exactly what to do.

So now we wait!

Shed day!

2007-08-01T22:31:00.001+09:30

Arrgghhh it happened again. This is my 3rd attempt at this post. Never mind thats what kind of day it is I think lol

Saturday was shed day. We were helped out by a wonderful group of friends and relatives who started arriving from 7.30 for a breakfast of bacon and eggs. The shed had whiteant damage and it really worried me that someone would get hurt but they got it down without incident. Unless you count hubby's attempt to get out of helping by cutting his finger the night before and earning himself 4 stitches. Joking honey!

Anyway we just wanted to say a HUGE THANKYOU to them for a job well done and for everyone else there are pictures.

Going...

GONE!

Holiday's and repeat approvals!

2007-07-16T15:57:00.000+09:30

Well it's halfway through the school holidays and all I can say to that is WOOHOO! We are all taking turns at being sick so it hasn't been the happiest of holidays. We haven't even been to the movies.

The good news is that we have had our building application approved AGAIN!!! Thats right again. It WAS approved towards the end of May and should have been weeks away from starting but then it was recalled. Turns out our council got into trouble for "rubber stamping" approvals, so our application was amongst those that were recalled for a closer look. We new it would be ok because we have a reputable builder but it has been a very frustrating wait.

Our bathroom is still naked (scroll down to see the picture) REALLY over it now. Sick of keeping towels and toothbrushes in our bedroom but I guess it will all work out in the end.

Thats it for now. Will give more regular updates now that things are moving again.

The perils of moving house!

2007-06-29T22:57:00.000+09:30

Oh boy am I glad the last 2 weeks are over!!! We have been helping our friends move from one side of town to the other and it has been ...ummm...fun? NOT! LOL

We decided to hire a truck so that we could do as much as possible in one load. The hire company told us the price and that we would also need to pay $500 deposit. So off we went to the depot to pick up the truck but when we got there.....at 7.30 in the morning.....they refused to take cash! What on earth is wrong with cash????? Apparently it's only good during the week so on weekends they need a credit card! URGH We ended up ringing D's boss and he let us use the company credit card. Thank God for a great boss.

Finally we had the truck and off we went for the big moving day. We had fun with the first few bits of furniture going up on the lift tray...sooo much easier than lifting... at least it was before the battery died! Thats ok we decided to have a break until the repair truck turned up with a new battery. It took ages to get there but after our break we passed lots of boxes up until it was fixed.

We finally finished loading about 3pm and headed off in our very own little convoy! We NEARLY got there too! lol J and A arrived safely and we were only a few minutes behind with the truck. We were 2 lousy kilometres from their new house when the truck dropped it's clutch ARGHHH! We were left sitting in the middle of a main arterial road blocking the biggest intersection in Port Adelaide OH JOY!

They sent out a repair truck and when they realised that it was the clutch and that the truck wasn't going anywhere on it's own they had to figure out what to do with us. Their first plan was to get us towed to their depot 20 KILOMETRES AWAY and have us unload the truck and reload onto a new truck????? I think that our faces must have said it all lol. So he asked us what we would do if it was up to us. We told him how close we were and that he should tow us there and let us unload. He didn't look to keen but I told him that WE wouldn't be unloading anywhere but their home so if he wanted to swap trucks then he would have to organise that himself and we need all the stuff at their house TONIGHT.

It took them 3 hours to get a tow truck big enough to tow a fully loaded truck but it came with a legend for a driver and he agreed with us and towed us right to their door! Hooray for REAL truckies! He put the truck up on blocks (where it sat for 2 days) and left us to it.
We finally finshed 14 hours after we had started and it was freezing. I already had the flu but 3 more joined me after our late night fun.

We thought that was it but OH NO! There was more fun to be had yet ... Wednesday night belive it or not was worse! We were taking a load of outdoor stuff down for A & J so we had our bus fully loaded and were towing a fully loaded trailer when our rear left hand wheel.....CAME OFF!!!! Yes it decided it had had enough and left us to get on with it lol

After getting the brake drum off the road and getting the wheel out of a carpark we rang some wonderful friends who came to our rescue. One towed the trailer and the other helped patch the car and followed us on our slow journey home We ended up taking one wheel nut off each of the remaining wheels and managed to limp home very slowly. We were pretty lucky really and considering what happened we are lucky that this is the extent of the damage. Well this and the brake drum which won't cost much thanks goodness!

and that is what is known as "the last straw"

I'm going to bed!

Finally kicked lol

2007-05-24T22:52:00.001+09:30

Ok I will have to get this blog moving now. We have council approval!!!

We were starting to think the day would never come! The next stage is to get it passed by the engineer which should take about 2 weeks. Tomorrow we have an appointment to choose our kitchen and next week we choose the bathroom fittings.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to put pictures on here.

Stay tuned for more boring house talk :D

Are you all happy now?

2007-04-17T23:51:00.000+09:30

Yes thats right here I am and I blame all of my online bloggy friends !

Hee hee anyway I plan on posting pics of our home and the way it changes. I will post some sketches of how it was right from the start of it's life and then I will post photos as it transforms into our home.

Don't forget bloggers I will be needing lots of advice on how to embellish by pages!

Kick me when I don't update regularly ok!