Living area reveal!

I know, I know!  The furniture arrived on Tuesday and it's taken me this long to show it to you!!!  So instead of wasting more time writing about it, I'll just show you the pictures :-D

Here's when we first moved in.  Bit of a mess and hard to see the actual furniture, but it gives you half an idea :)

And here's where we'd moved pretty much everything out:

I think everything is gone in this pic:

And here's the new stuff :)

The plan is that we'll sand back the coffee table and stain it to match the rest of the furniture.  The TV is loving being on a proper stand, rather than on top of a box (albeit a lovely box) with the stereo stacked on the side looking very untidy!

And yes!  That is a wine rack over there :-)  Looks like I'll be stopping in at Dan Murphy's next week (darn!).

You can't see it very well, but there's a rather large buffet in the corner behind the dining table.  Somehow it fits SO much more in it than the last one (probably partly because of the huge drawers!!!), to the point that I still have room in it.  Between the new kitchen and the new furniture, I feel like I actually have space for all of our "stuff", especially now that we've purged a lot of it anyway.

So there it all is!  We have a plan to replace the lounge suite some time in the next 12 months, and I'd like to get some new table cloths and runners, an up-light (we only have flouros and sometimes you just want a bit of mood lighting), and some art for the walls.

Last night we were watching a little TV and the Big Fella says to me, "you know, it feels like a real house now".  I guess that means we've chosen the right stuff for us :-D

MORE Changes!

If you've been following along, we've obviously been making some changes to furniture and use of space in our little house.  This has been partially inspired by the new paint and kitchen provided by the company the Big Fella works for, who own the house.

Well, this coming week our new dining table and chairs, buffet, TV stand and wine rack should be arriving!  Yay!

Obviously, that means getting rid of the stuff we already have, right?

Well, I took photos of the furniture we wanted to sell and put them up on our local Buy/Swap/Sell page on Facebook.  And it's nearly all gone!  We are dining table-less for the next day and a half, which could be interesting :-D

Added to the furniture that's now gone, we've moved our massive bookshelf from the lounge room to the office.

My living area looks so bare!  Wanna see?  It's a bit messy and desperately needs to be vacuumed, but I'm thinking you won't care about that :-D

That big, empty space over there?  That's where the table and chairs were until lunchtime today.  And the window closest to the door?  That's where our buffet was.

Obviously the space at the front is where the dining table was.  The chair thingy with the bags on it and shoes on the little shelf (on the left) will be going tomorrow.  That big space on the wall behind the couch is where the big bookshelf was and where the new TV unit is planning to go.

And here's the little disaster my lovely new office has temporarily turned into. The bookshelf on the right is the one from the lounge room, storing not only books but items that will go in the new buffet, and the bookshelf on the left is the one that matches our new desk etc.  It has a couple of filing drawers in the bottom and is rather useful!  All that crafty stuff all over it needs... re-packaging ;-)

So there you go, more things changing in our house!  I think we're nearly done though.  Which is kind of good, because having everything so messy and all over the place really does my head in!!!

Kitchen renovation

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that the company house we're in was due for a kitchen renovation.  And, of course, we recently ended up camping in the backyard while the house was painted internally.

This is the old kitchen:

Out with the old!

And in with the new!

Yep.  I know what you're thinking.  What's the difference?  It's pretty much exactly the same, right?  Well, almost.

We now have a space for a dishwasher.  A dishwasher that we're very unlikely to buy, so thanks for taking away that cupboard that worked beautifully for my Tupperware!  And, of course, there's no flooring under where the cupboard used to be.  At least we now have an out-of-the-way space for the bins!

The upper cupboards are now a bit higher, which the Big Fella loves because he can see when he's making his coffee :-D  The down side though, is that some of the appliances that we'd kept above the cupboards don't fit there any longer.  Poo!

The pantry is the same size as the old one, but has an extra shelf inside.  We still have everything stacked on top of and in front of everything else, but it fits much better.  Yay!

And the drawers have been moved next to the pantry and are bigger so our millions of utensils are easier to find.  Woo hoo!

Oh, and the other difference is that the splashback now goes behind the oven properly so it's easier to clean up.

Unfortunately, the kitchen guys ripped the wall in several places and somehow broke the switchplate for the oven.  No big deal, but being a perfectionist these things bother me every time I look at them.

I almost forgot the absolute BEST part about our new kitchen!!!  I can't believe it, because I've been hanging out for one of these for seven years!!!

Wait for it...

We now have...

(duh, duh, duuuuhhhhhh - that would be the dramatic music!)

A double sink!!!!  YAY!!!!!

I cannot tell you how much I love having a double sink.  I know, it sounds like such a silly thing.  But when you have washing up water in the sink then you need to tip something down the sink, a single is an absolute pain in the butt!

Now, instead of rinsing and stacking up the dishes next to the sink, then sometimes being interrupted a million times before I finally get to washing them up at 10pm, I can have the washing up water there and ready to go as I'm cooking!!!  The little workspace that we have is no longer covered with dishes so it feels like we have more bench space.  Happy sigh.

So there you go!  New paint, new kitchen, and hopefully soon there'll be new flooring too!  It'll feel like a brand new house :-D  Oh wait!  It already does :-D

Backyard camping

Unfortunately this post is going to be photo-less.  Which is a pity because the photos that go with it are awesome!  But you're just going to have to wait (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah).

The company the Big Fella works for have decided that our house (we rent it from them) is due for painting inside, and a new kitchen, and new flooring.  Which is all very exciting!

But it turns out that it's also rather inconvenient!

This week the painters are here so we decided that we needed to test out our new camper trailer.  We'd forgotten how large it is, and it only just fits between the mango tree and the clothes line :-D

Really, it's pretty lucky we decided to camp out in our backyard though, because the smell in the house yesterday afternoon was appalling!!!  I had to be in there for about an hour last night, making the Little Big Fella's lunch for kindy today and doing the dishes, among other things.  By the time I was done I had a ripper of a headache!

When we picked up the Little Big Fella from kindy yesterday I told him he'd be sleeping in a different bed.  When we got home he ran upstairs into his room and freaked out because everything was in the middle of the room with sheets over it.  Then I directed him outside and he flipped out!!!

"Mum!  There's a tent in our yard!!!"

He was so excited to sleep "in the tent" that he wanted to go to bed straight after dinner.  I convinced him to have a shower and get into his pyjamas first then we put him into his bed.  I sat with him and we talked for about 15 minutes, then I went upstairs to do dishes etc and by the time I came back (about 15/20 minutes later) he was fast asleep.  It was only just dark.

Surprisingly, the Little Big Fella slept until about 7 this morning!  The surprising part I guess was because he's been waking up around 5/5:30 the past few mornings, and I thought because he'd fallen asleep so early, and was sleeping outside where the sunlight was more obvious, he'd wake at sunrise.

This afternoon when we got back from kindy, the Fella's had a swim in our little blow-up pool.  I'm typing this while they're cooking on the gas ring/fire.  We've got the mozzie coils burning and the dogs are hanging around looking for a bite of something.

I've noticed that camping in the backyard, just like "normal" camping, is an awesome excuse to spend time with your family.  Talking with them, playing together, and not being distracted by technology (ironic, given what I'm doing right now, huh?).

Nothing quite like backyard camping :-)

Boxing day busy

Traditionally Boxing Day is movie day for us.  We go to the cinema and check out the latest blockbuster release.  But our local cinema doesn't have "The Hobbit" yet so we ditched that idea for this year.

We had a yummy breakfast - the Big Fella made garlic and lemon turkish bread toast, topped with melted bocconcini and triple-smoked ham, with an egg on top.  We followed that with a little fruit salad and greek yoghurt.

Then we got up and got going around the house and yard.  Seems like we weren't the only ones too - we saw a lot of trailers heading up the road to the tip today :-D

I cleared the yard of dog toys etc. then the Big Fella whipper snipped and mowed, while I harvested all of our mangoes.  Did you know that they spray sap when you pick them?  Maybe it's just me and my spastic mango-picking technique?  But we ended up with half a laundry basket full of them, now sitting downstairs and ripening up.  Mmmmmmm, mango!

I don't think I actually ate a mango until my family spent a few days in the Philippines, when I was 16.  I discovered that I actually love them!  Since we moved to Queensland I've eaten quite a few :-D  Turns out the Little Big Fella loves them too :-)

After all that lovely harvesting, I had the awesome job of sweeping up with a broom that I hate.  Seriously, it's time for a new straw broom!

Then we trimmed some bushes and watered the flower garden.

The next task was predominantly the Big Fella's, I have to be honest.  I don't think I did much, and probably made some things a bit trickier for him :-o  Yes, it was time to put up the Little Big Fella's trampoline!

It didn't take that long, and it wasn't that tricky, but I don't know that I could have done it on my own.

But the Little Big Fella loves it and has spent a good portion of the day bouncing around.  It's a good height off the ground for him too, so he can get on and off easily, without the need for a step.

Hmm, what else did we get up to?

Oh yeah!  We emptied all of our camping gear out of the back shed and put it in our camper trailer, discovering a couple of mice in our lantern along the way!  Looks like we'll be setting some traps over the next few days!!!!  I am not interested in having mice, or the snakes that come looking for mice, in my back shed!

Did I tell you we have two new little chicks?  They're about a week and a half old now - a black one and a white/yellow one.  We've called them "Salt" and "Pepper" - the black one is "Salt" and the white one is "Pepper".  Don't blame me!  That was the Little Big Fella's decision!!!  :-)

Anyway, I decided they needed some outside time so took them out and let them run around a little near me.  The dogs came over to check them out and Frankie wasn't even interested, but Choccie watched them constantly!  She was really good though, but I wouldn't let her with them unsupervised at this stage.

We ended up putting them in a cage so that they could wander around on the grass, but be protected from the dogs and bigger chooks and they loved it!  I think it'll be a daily thing, unless it's raining, until they're ready to join the rest of the flock when they're a bit bigger.

The Big Fella and I ended up talking to a guy next door who was setting up to paint the outside.  Turns out we're on the internal painting list for the new year!  Yay!!!  I wonder if we get any say on colours?  Probably not, but it's nice to dream :-)

As well as emptying the camping gear from the back shed, we also took out some of the gym equipment and set it up under the house.  The Big Fella has decided it's time to get back into shape, and I'm ready to get back into Fit Yummy Mummy, so we'll try to do our workouts together whenever we can, starting tomorrow afternoon.

I'm still trying to decide if I'll do Tough Mudder in August, after being invited by a couple of friends who are putting together a team.  I think I might be talking myself out of it though.  The electricity thing really freaks me out!

We watched a little bit of the Boxing Day Test (cricket, for those not in the know) in between everything too!

When the gym equipment was set up we rearranged a few things under the house so hopefully it's a little more use-able.  It's so frustrating when you have such a great space but too many options and ideas for what to do with it!  (And too much stuff to squeeze into said space!)  I guess each time we try a new idea we get closer to what will actually work for us though!

The Fellas took a load of stuff to the tip this afternoon and found that our old washing machine and microwave that we put there the other day have been taken.  That makes me happy :-D  I like that our local tip has no regulation so people can take stuff that doesn't work properly and can't be sold, but other people can collect it and make it work for them (or bring it back I guess).

And we all went "bush bashing" for a little bit this arvo too!  The Big Fella bought a 4WD about a month ago that is pretty run down but works okay.  It has been dubbed "The Bush Basher" and the Fellas have had a couple of little jaunts about the tracks just up the road.  They both love it!  So today I got to join them.

I don't mind 4WDing, but I'm not a huge fan.  I mean, it's uncomfortable!  And it seems kind of pointless to me.  But, to those who enjoy it, it's just plain fun so I won't go bagging you out about it ;-)

We dropped around to a friend's place after that but they weren't home, so we came back home.  The Little Big Fella and I had a bit of a bounce on his trampoline - mostly with him laying down and me gently bouncing him around :-D  He loved it!  I'm guessing there'll be lots of requests to do that more over the next few days :-)

And now the Fellas are asleep (the Big Fella starts work at 3am), and I'm writing about our adventures for you!  We're hoping for lots of adventures in the coming year... hopefully I'll remember to take some photos of them for you :-o

Happy Boxing Day everyone!  I hope you've enjoyed it, whatever you've been up to!

Choices, choices, choices

Oh. My. Goodness!!!

I did jumping lunges yesterday as part of my workout and last night and today my butt has been in agony!!!  If I sit still for more than a couple of minutes I get up and walk like a cripple!!!

But tomorrow I'm sure I'll be fine again and my muscles will be that little bit more lean, and my metabolism will be kicking into the next gear.

My next weigh and measure is this coming Sunday.  I'm not as excited as I was the first time around because I haven't eaten very well this month, and I skipped workouts while I was sick, but I'll still be interested to see the results.

You know, it makes the world of difference when you wake up in a good mood.  Today has been a good mood day, and it started out that way.  I'm pretty sure having enough sleep has a lot to do with it.  But also the Big Fella was home for most of the morning today, after working 8 to 6 the last few days.  And having him around (and not sleeping) for part of the day certainly makes me feel better.

I think the main reason is that being fully responsible for the Little Big Fella, 24/7, gets a little wearing.  So sharing that responsibility, even for a few hours a day, seems to relieve the pressure.  And if I get a bit of time totally to myself, well, that's just an amazing gift!

We've had a few tradesmen come through the house over the last week.  We rent the house from the Big Fella's employer, and they have decided that our house needs new flooring, a new kitchen, and fresh paint.  Bummer! ;-)  Obviously, I'm really excited about this.  Especially the floors and paint because there are holes and marks on the floors throughout the house, and the paint has bumps and holes and peeling parts in every room.

So this morning a guy came through to measure for flooring.  He also brought samples for us to choose what we'd like - linoleum and carpet.  We had the time it took to measure the house (with a neat little electronic tool - no fighting with tapes here!) to decide the colours of our floor coverings.

Talk about pressure!!!

This is the first time I've ever had to choose anything for a house.  The Big Fella built a house with his first wife and they had to choose everything, so, as a reaction to that experience he was particularly unhelpful (he was also getting ready for work so was somewhat distracted as well).

We ended up choosing a fake slate for the lino, and a dark blue (with speckles of other colours) for the carpet.  When I put the samples on the floor and against our furniture, I was happy with the choice.  But I'm worried it's going to be too dark and make the place feel even smaller than it is.  But it's too late to change it anyway!  I'm hoping the light colours on the walls and window furnishings will help balance out the darkness of the floorings.

We also had a guy come and measure the kitchen this morning.  I asked him if they were just replacing the benchtops and cupboards, but he said they're doing a whole kitchen.  I asked if we'd get a double sink (we haven't had one in over 6 years and it makes doing dishes such a pain!!!), and he said at least a 1.5 sink, or whatever will fit.  YAY!!!!!

Apparently all the quotes have to be in by the end of the month and they're expecting work to start by the start of next month, and be completed by January.  They're doing lots of houses around town as well so it might take until January for them to do ours, but I'm excited (can you tell???).