extra post for vintage box

My  Mr TT has been becoming more and more handy around the house. He did the exterior paint, popped some stairs on the french doors to nowhere and repaired our other broked back stairs.

But he has just finished my favourite project.

How much does a vintage hardwood weathered box go for in your neck of the woods??
 Lately I've seen them from $70 up to $150. Too much for us.

But some old hardwood fence, a lot of hand sawing and some nails, and Mr TT knocked this together for me.

 A versatile lidded box.

 Without the lid.....

lid inverted for a coffee table or tray............

 or two separate boxes....

or just the tray alone.

Anyone for rustic farmhouse scones, with lashings of cream, raspberry jam, and steaming hot billy tea????

He could be a genuis, what do you think???

It's a bit like Christmas..

Only Two sleeps. We have had reasonable weather and all our approvals are filed and waiting.

We started this in December, and now I realise we should have engaged a private certifier. A must for dealing with Council and getting things done quickly. Just in case anyone reading this is going to embark on the crazy journey!

But you live and learn.

5 months working our way through Council and our house is finally coming to its new home. I just can not wait to walk through. To work out if everything I have planned will work or whether I need to make more decisions about bathrooms or kitchens. Realistically to hope it will be what I imagine when it is finished.
Just to visit this place whenever we want, and many times when tradies want.

Even though it will take anywhere from 12 - 24 weeks to complete, we can go and sit on the verandah in the Autumn sun and dream about established gardens, with flocks of children running around, just the way we like it!!

Let the renovations begin, and not too many unknown big expenses arise.

To do List today

* order 25000lt water tank and decide on it's location
* clean large esky and fill with water bottles for workers on the house
* pick up temporary fencing for construction period
* keep looking at the sky and hoping the fine weather holds.......................

I used to stalk realestate.....

I did I love stalking Realeastate.com.au it was an excellent pasttime.

But now, in this past week or so I have a new obsession.
I stalk the weather predictors. We need it not to rain. Our block is too steep at the top and it would be a messy mud filled, perhaps truck toppling nightmare. Far less than ideal.

So every monring, ok many times a day, I check different website predictors of the weather. Generally until I find one that says the long weekend will be sunny.

So my dear weather Gods. I don't usually mind what you do with the weather. In fact Summer saw us through 4 floods in two towns. But if you could grant me three fine windy days to make sure our site is dry I won't get cranky at not being able to hang out my washing when it rains. Well I'll try not too.

Source

Take 5 Kate

I love a wedding. Kate over at Take 5 is suggesting we offering a list of 5 things we would do differently from our weddings to help the roral couple on there way.

I don't have many digital pictures but here are a few. We had a gorgeous wedding July 4th in QLD 7 years agao. About 90 family and friends attended the reception  and 125 came to the church and afternoon tea. It was a magical day with lots of laughter, tulips, friends and fun.

1. I hated my hair. I wish I had told me hairdresser, or pulled it out. But it didn't ruin my day, i just should have spoken up.

2. I wish I had actually spent more time with my husband, it was very chaotic and with seeing everyone we didn't get as much time together as I would have liked. The honeymoon made up for it though.

3. Photographer. She was pushy, and verging on rude on the day. I loved her pictures and in our tumultuous time post wedding she was lovely. But on the day i could have had someone more relaxed. Plus it cost a motza, which was unnnecessary in hindsight!

4. I didn't realise I could have happily married my husband in a park with a few family and friends. This felt like what we had to do, and much as it was a joyous day I'm not sure that is how I would spend the money again!

5. That the day would not go as quickly as it did, but not sure if I cna actually change that :)

To my husband I love you just as much now as 7 years ago, in fact much much more.

To Kate Middleton...........
I can't wait to see the dress :)

growing cuttings and landscaping with edibles

This post really has sprung  from a very limited budget and little gardening skills, although they are increasing.

I decided I want to plant a lot of flowering shrubs for my happily flower obsessed daughter.
But with Camelia, lavender and Gardenia plants about $30 a pot we would have trouble filling much of the acreage with these, well we'd have trouble filling a meter squared with the current budget left over for landscaping.
So what to do?

Grow from seed?? Well I looked, lavender takes 26 weeks to sprout!!!
 Plus it seemed another lifetime to look mature. Similiarly the Gardenia and Camellia were ruled out.
So next plan?

Well we have some camellias that haven't done particularly well in the spot we planted them so I dug them out and potted them. They seem much happier in there pots. So I took some cuttings of them and potted those. They have now taken root. So we have 5 Camellia plants to take, and maybe as these mature I might get some more cuttings.

I have done the same with our lavender, but it is not doing so well. So am trying a different method of placing them in a small amount of water until the roots appear.

On the entry road to our block we also have an abundance of healthy Gardenias, some rosemary and yellow daisies. So I thought it was reasonable to take some cuttings of these, that's ok right?????

Now I have potted 5 Gardenia cuttings too. Not sure if they will take but we can definitely take more without affecting the plants.

What do you grow well from cuttings, or simply can't kill in your garden??

Sorry no pictures, camera is flat.

Landscaping the slope

Yesterday we double check the house site pegs/markers. I felt nervous having a large sloped area directly in front of the house. So what to do???

I came home and googled sloped gardens.

and the inspiration was overwhelming

gorgeous tumbling flowers against rustic stone steps

natural native landscapes

lavender, lavender, lavender

All would be a delight to sit out on our verandah and enjoy. Lots of garden work ahead.

Trying to make final bathroom decisions

You have seen before we have the french tub for our new bath, and a pedestal basin.

We have just decided to go with a frameless shower screen, and because the wall behind the shower was an external weatherboard I think we might sheet it, and do a white subway tile over the top.

These bathrooms have the style we want to achieve. But I can not decide on a colour for the floor tile.

 Love the white distressed mirror, I have to find one of those!

I wish we could have floorboards, but it just isn't very practical with young children who splash water around.

White is classic, but our locality has excellent red clay soil and with three active children and two happy gardeners I think it would be a huge mistake, and rpobably be orange dirt colour most of the time.

Anyone got a tile colour they love, that hides the day to day dust and grime!

two exciting acquisitions

I have hinted at our joy in locating pre-loved items. Vintage thrifted being my obsession, with secondhand pieces at a higher value usually being lower on my loved list. But this piece is special!
It has history.
This piece has oodles of lovely foreign history.

A german kitchen hutch

 A spice rack perhaps?

 gorgeous glass jars we were told would have stored flour and sugar etc.

then these wooden kitchen tools.

Don't they make you smile!!!

I need to search and find out more about them, but regardless I love them.

The bone handles on the cupboard from the 1940's Germany have made me nervous since hubby told me the Nazis made furniture with jewish bones. Please someone tell me how unlikely this would be.........

Oh and my beloved new item that needs us to make memories with it

Here are the start of the memories....

Unforeseeable issues come to light....

Well yesterday we ould have cracked the champagne as our Planning Approval arrived in the mail! It was so great to see it officially. I felt like I was never going to win that battle so it is good to have it crossed off.

Then Building department called. I had been told time and again they were just waiting for planning approval and all was fine with Building approval. But apparently that is not the case.
We were supposed to give our carpenter/builders confirmation of insurance notice for our job. Unfortunately our builder hasn't even quoted on the job as the house is over 2.5 hours away and he hasn't seen it.
So now  I need to find a builder, get a quote on a house he can't see, and get him to agree to the job and pay the insurance before next week. I don't really like my chances.

However I have a small plan that perhaps the builders stumping the house can use there insurance to cover the minor building works and then we can just  get our approval and hire another builder when the house arrives. Hoping this one works because otherwise I don't think our house will arrive as we hoped.

Gotta love unforeseeable hurdles.

Our house before the shift.... one last look.

Our house comes in 15 days. All being well with the weather and any other unforeseeable issues.
I cannot wait, I feel like I haven't breathed out waiting for our home to come, and now I am so looking forward to breathing out. To making this house our home, a lovely relfection of all ur families quirks and passions.

News but not officially - it is coming.

Hubbie called the Council. They said 'Approved'!!

WOO HOO!!!

He spoke to 2 different ladies in planning and they both confirmed it is approved. We should receive the letter in writing by next Friday.

Yeronga is coming. May 2nd is the date. We will take heaps of pics and hoping some video as well to upload so you can share in the journey.

We are overjoyed, but still a little apprehensive until we see it in writing, perhaps even until we see the house coming down the road.

Many hurdles ahead, but our lovely house will soon be ours offcially.

Singing off,

 relieved house relocators.

Tocall or not to call

Tomorrow is decision day.
The planning officer suggested it would be pointless for me to call.
But I really want some information about how it is all looking.
What would you do?
Call?
Or wait patiently for a decision that you may not get until next Friday, or possibly later by post?
I wish I was a patient person, but I am a frustrated, annoyed, powerless person currently and I want some information.
Doesn't mean that I will call though, because I don't think she will tell me anything.

To call or not to call that is the question ...... might get hubbie to call, he is good at being persuasive.

Arrgghh it feel just beyond reach, I can almost touch it, but not quite.

Boot camp acreage style....

We have been madly rushing through jobs on our little house and our acreage whilst my hubbie is on holidays. It made me wonder about charging people to access this extreme type of chaotic energy expenditure!

Boot camp day 1

Dig 25 holes for fruit trees. Drag mulch up and down the hill covering the plants. Water the pants by lugging around 20kg watering storage containers.

Boot Camp day 2

Re-water plants with 20kg watering cans.

Chainsaw 2 large trees, chop into smaller pieces and remove large limbs by carting them across property.

Plus kids want to ride in go cart so drag them up and down the hill for 2 turns each.

Boot Camp Day 3

Plants need watering again, plus dig in 5 new rose bushes and clear more large branches. Chain saw large tree into smaller logs, for kids seating and firewood, etc, etc....




You can imagine how the rest of the week will pan out.

Other things.....

Plus on our little house that we reside in currently my hubbie, Mr TT, has sanded the front of the house, and we all helped paint that in the same colours, although they are not the most aesthetically pleasing!

Mr TT removed some old rusty tin from a window awning and we will replace it. We also started the fence, but are yet to finish it due to rain.

Mr TT is also fixing one of the quirks of our little house, french doors that go to nowhere.

 Can you pick the painted section??

Awning

I wish I had a 'before' picture. But the paint had flaked so much you could see bare boards through, and it gave the house a lovely derelict kinda feel.

Much nicer now!

One little lemon tree to give you a taste of the orchard. But another Post about that to come.

We have decided to be massively positive about the house coming on May 2nd. Today I booked a skip, portaloo, and a Bulldozer (D7) which are all required for the landing. Why not be positive, it will be a big fall if council does not give approval anyway!