Blog on the Landscape

Moving

2010-04-30T10:37:00.000+10:00

Now at yassblog.wordpress.com. Warning: don't expect miracles, or like actual posts or anything.

Cupcakes

2009-06-09T12:26:00.004+10:00

A cautionary tale.

Mister 6 discovered the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook in the pantry a few weeks ago and has been desperate to make cupcakes ever since. Being the long weekend I thought, why not it will give us all something to do. So I looked at the cake recipe and went and stocked up on some more flour and butter and food colouring for the icing, we had enough eggs so we are good to go, or so I thought.

So I put the large bowl onto the mixer and put in the butter (which I had tried to soften by putting it on the stove near a pot that I was cooking pasta in but all it did was melt a little bit all over the stove) and sugar to cream it. But the bowl was to big and the butter just stuck to the sides. So I transferred it all to the little bowl which seemed to work a bit better.

Now usually I'm pretty good at reading and following a recipe. But not this time. Somehow I ended up adding all the flour and then the milk instead of alternating them. Then I read the bit that said "Don't overbeat or mixture will become tough". Bugger. But it was too late so we went ahead anyway. Then Mister 6 and I had a heated discussion about not taking out all the double patty cake papers that I had put into the muffin tins (I like to uses doubles because it helps stop the bottom of the cakes burning). He was difficult to persuade but gave in eventually. Then the cakes went into the oven, came out and rested and cooled for 30 minutes. So far so good.

Then the icing. OMG the icing. When looking at the recipe for the cupcakes, I forgot to look closely at the recipe for the icing. I got enough butter, but didn't look far enough to see that I needed pretty much a bucket load of icing sugar. So when it came to making the icing, I only had about half the icing sugar I needed. Necessity being the mother of invention I threw in the best part of a packet of baking marshmallows that I had been wanting to get rid of for ages and hoped. It's not the best butter cream icing of all time, in fact it's not even really that good, but it's there.

So I decided to make the icing a lovely shade of purple, just like the ones on the cover of the book. I looked at the chart of my food colouring 3 x red to 1 x blue. No worries. In went three drops of red followed by 1 of blue. The result was a dirty looking pink. Ok, a little more blue. Now it was a dirty looking blue. Some more red, oh bugger I picked up the wrong one that's yellow. Well, the only colour I haven't used is green, there is no way we are getting back to purple from here, so lets throw in some green. Right. Lets call it "sea foam". It does look a bit like a pallet of marshmallows were lost overboard (if you are being kind) or a pile of sludge with marshmallows.

Anyway, see for yourself:

This is not the recommended colour

The finished product, which despite appearances do taste pretty good.

Apparently the Crabapple Bakery has closed but the book is still available. It has some lovely recipes, and if you look here you can see how good they can look. This was my inspiration to buy this book in the first place. As you can see my apprenticeship still has some way to go.

Mothers Day and the pergola

2009-05-11T10:56:00.002+10:00

My kids went all out on Mothers Day. All out creating a never ending series of messes unfortunately. I'm not sure if it's just that I noticed it more, or whether they really did make more of a mess, but I seemed to be cleaning all day. I told myself that I wasn't being sucked into the whole "We value mothers, see you have a whole day just for you / mothers are only valued once a year" dichotomy by not doing anything and insisting that it was Mothers Day. I know there should be an apostrophe in there somewhere, but it's Monday and I couldn't be bothered. I did get breakfast cooked for me, but I'm spoilt and get that most Sundays. I still did some, although not all, of the cleaning up after breakfast was cooked. When told that it was Mothers Day, my children reacted by looking at me through beady eyes for a few seconds, then loudly repeating whatever demand they had just made. I did get a lovely laminated photo of my son under which is said Happy Mothers Day, love C. It even has a magnet on the back so it can go on the fridge, which is a brilliant idea. G gave me a bar of soap, that had a label with her hand print in paint, and a little poem which the lovely girls at Daycare had done for all the Mums of the kids in her room. It was orginally wrapped in red cellophane, but G unwrapped it just in case there was chocolate inside. When she found the soap she told me I could have it. It almost made up for her getting paint all over the clothes I expressly told her not to paint in. Water based house paint doesn't seem to come out that easily.

The paint she covered herself in was a test pot for the pergola Uncle Kev bought for us. I wasn't planning on buying a pergola, but it is something that we have been planning for a while, and the muse to build it hit hubby right at the time the stimulus hit the bank account (he didn't know this, it was just lucky) so it was meant to be. I realised last night that I should have taken some more photos in between part way up and having the first coat painted. Bit late now. After putting the chooks to bed hubby came in and said we definitely need to grow something over it, as in the dark it tends to loom a bit. Kinda like a giant open mouth. How welcoming. We are thinking a decorative grapevine. Unfortunately the style of pot I really like are $135 each. Even if Uncle Kev went mad and did the stimulus all over again (which he won't cause there's no money left) I still don't think I could bring myself to spend that much on one pot.

We also argued about fencing off the house yard. He wants white posts. I think they would look weird. "It will look like we've pinched all the white posts from the side of the road and made a fence with them" I said. "That's funny" he laughed "that's where I got the idea from". We are so not doing that. Everyone else around here has a star-picket fence. I'm happy to do something a bit different across the front of the house, but around the rest of the block a farm fence will do just nicely. Doesn't have to be fancy just has to keep in a potential sheep or alpaca or two. I can see us never being able to leave this place because of the menagerie that we will have collected. But somehow, that's not so bad.

I love these quizzes

2009-02-27T11:34:00.003+11:00

They seem to bear absolutely no relation to (my) real life and I think that's why they are so fun. Like this one I did previously.

Take the test of discovery
1. Which items would you most likely accessorise your home with?
a Sea shells
b Key designer pieces
c Artefacts from travels
d Items inspired from nature
e Lots of pieces inspired from the past

I need an f - things your children have brought home from school/preschool and insist on displaying, eg the green tissue box with strategically placed patty cake papers and paddlepop sticks.
Failing that I thought e might best cover it.

2. Which of the following activities would you ideally like to do?
a Walk on the beach
b Dress up
c Make things
d Anything outdoors
e Shop for antiques

All of the above. Preferably without a child around my ankle or with foot poised above the pedal of the sewing machine while I'm trying to thread it. I've never had a needle through my finger, but it's something I really suspect I wouldn't enjoy. As I had to choose, I went for a since I could theoretically do that for free. Although on second thoughts it could be quite stressful pulling children out of the surf, getting the sand out of everything and spending a king's ransom on icecreams.

3. Which colour would you most likely find in your home?
a Neutral palette
b Metallic palette
c Warm palette
d Earth palette
e Cool palette

All of the above scribbled on the walls in crayon? I think we have a bit of everything in our house. I think I finally went for e. Maybe I just like the delusion that I was cool.

4. Which of the following movies would you rent first?
a Something's Gotta Give
b Lost In Translation
c The Notebook
d An Inconvenient Truth
e Casino Royale

Well I've seen Casion Royale on TV, I can't remember what Something's Gotta Give is about and I'm too lazy to google it, I've heard about the Notebook being soppy, I think someone lent us An Inconvenient Truth once or am I getting confused with a Mike Moore? I don't know. I rather read a book, but since I have to choose I went with a. At least I might get a nice surprise.

5. Which colour are you most attracted to?
a White linen
b Charcoal
c Coffee bean brown
d Rainforest green
e Ripe cherry red

This one was easy b, charcoal. Hides sticky finger prints really well. And cat hair. I'm seriously starting to think that whoever wrote this quiz has never seen a real child. They probably don't believe in them.

6. Which of the following best describes where you buy your clothes from?
a Department stores
b High Street boutiques
c A mix of places
d Eco-friendly/socially responsible retailers
e Shopping centres

Another easy one e. Although I'd hesitate to call downtown Yass a 'shopping centre'. Again I needed an F option - chain store.

So I ended up with an e,a,e,a,b,e. So mostly e's.

ANSWERS
Mostly As: Hamptons White Wash
You don't live by the sea, you live with the sea. You like a calm and balanced environment. Your home is treasured and a temple to all you love. You fill it with loved memories, often with pieces that have a story to tell. You love details (sea shells, raffia) and you create your home to be a central meeting point - an environment for people to come together and spend time. Rooms go beyond their initial function (eg, the kitchen is used not only to prepare food).

Mostly Bs: New York Loft
A global trendsetter. You believe the built environment is more spectacular than the natural one and you're hooked on architectural detail. Your style remains distinctive, yet ever-evolving and true to your own self - you don't buy off the shelf. High ceilings, open-plan, rich and luxurious are key components. You pick up on trends but integrate them into your life. While you enjoy the finer things in life, you fill your home with loved memories and key pieces collected over time. A balance of function and excess.

Mostly Cs: Nostalgic Nest
Like a bower bird, you collect bits and pieces. You are earthy, sentimental, individual and your home is rich with detail. You treat your home as a gallery filled with happy memories, photo albums, unique souvenirs from travels and your own made treasures. Displaying your true self on the walls, your collection tells a story. Spending time away from the home - outdoors and exploring - is just as important as spending time in the home. You are not concerned with what your neighbours' homes are like: you are true to your own style.

Mostly Ds: Sleek "New Earth"
You love the outdoors and bring that into your living environment. The technological side of the environment is considered. You evaluate trends and bring those that complement your lifestyle into your home.

Mostly Es: Sophisticated Retro
You recognise and respect good design from the past and present (but have none of it in your own house). You pick up key pieces (and take them off your children carefully and put them back in the shop) over time and enjoy making them work together. While you are aware of innovations, you do not necessarily follow trends (because who has the time or the inclination, really). As you are both confident and authentic, you have been collecting pieces for years and you display them with pride in abstract ways in your home. I have been collecting pre-school art for years now, so this last bit is actually true!

This quiz was developed by the International School Of Colour And Design to show people the various styling trends available to them. It is not a determiner of a definite style but is intended to open your eyes to the manifold different decorating styles. These five decorating styles are the most relevant for our current lifestyle.

This is getting ridiculous

2008-08-26T12:44:00.002+10:00

His new record is 6 weeks. We gave him up for deceased about three weeks into that. Then, on the morning when I was seriously late for work, the phone rang and it was the local vet to say "We think we have your cat". The cat they named was asleep on the lounge at the time, so I asked what colour, was it a not-boy-cat anymore etc. and it turned out to be Garfunkel. Needless to say I was really late for work that morning. But he's home now, with a lovely new collar, and a tag with his name, address and phone number on it. Which he will probably manage to loose 5 minutes before buggering off again.

I have no idea where he was for those 6 weeks, but wherever it was he was bloody well fed.

Bookshelves

2008-08-26T12:40:00.004+10:00

Finally we have somewhere to put most of the books. Pretty swish huh? And they only took a few hours work after all that. Himself not me, which was even better.

The shelves are now full, some with books behind and books in front. When I get the toys in the lounge/rumpus/kids make a huge mess in here room sorted we will put some bookshelves in there too.

It's cold out there

2008-08-11T12:00:00.005+10:00

The heating doesn't seem to be working, and it's 2.5 degrees outside. Yesterday, it was even colder. It doesn't snow here often, but it was cold enough to on Sunday. The sound you can hear is the water running down the pipes and into the tank.

originally uploaded by Mindy

Reunited and it feels so good

2008-06-19T12:55:00.003+10:00

Last week I forgot to lock Madge and Beryl up at night a couple of times and on the weekend I discovered that Beryl had gone AWOL. A quick wander around the paddock failed to find her, so I went out at dusk when all good chookies head for bed to see if she had come home. A check of the chook house revealed a lonely Madge fluffed up on her nest for warmth, but no Beryl. I had heard a loud "Buck" while walking over to the chook house, so I decided to check the neighbours windbreak/chook run to see if Beryl had somehow gotten in there. And there she was, so excited she was nearly jumping up and down on the spot. I tried to pull the wire of the fence up so she could squeeze under but she was too busy pecking my fingers to notice. I told her to go under the fence several times, and was up to 'go under the fence you silly bloody chook' before she took any notice of me. Once she saw that the fence was pulled up high enough for her to squeeze under she was out of there like greased lightning and running to her chook house as fast as her little drumsticks could carry her. I was very relieved to have found her, her being a special pet chook and all, and was a little teary when she stuck her head into the chook house, clucking quietly to see if Madge was there. Of course the next day they both acted as if nothing had ever happened. But I know they missed each other.

We have a new couch, not new children.

2008-05-26T17:27:00.002+10:00

Note to self: just because we have a new couch, doesn't mean that the kids will automatically know not to climb on it with chocolatey hands, or spill drinks on it or draw on it with textas. Thank the gods for fabric protection.

Prodigal Son returns home...again

2008-04-01T09:53:00.000+11:00

After an abscence of two and a half weeks this time, Garfunkel has returned home. We had of course given him up for dead, so were quite suprised to see him trotting up the paddock toward us last night. He hasn't been living it large with the neighbours this time and is quite skinny, but still in surprisingly good shape with a nice glossy coat. He took things slowly last night and only ate small amounts about every ten minutes. He then spent the night snoozing on G's bed, until she came in with us then curled up at my feet for the rest of the night. Today he is locked in so he can't leave again, at least for a couple of days. I am thinking of changing his name to Prodicles.

From the garden

2008-01-24T16:12:00.001+11:00

Missing, one muse.

2008-01-10T14:13:00.000+11:00

I thought the blog might be feeling a little dejected since it's been about two months since I last put finger to keyboard here. Just doesn't have the same cachet as pen to paper does it. Anyway, I suspect my muse may be down the back of the lounge somewhere and since it's a sofa bed, it's quite possible that it's slid down to the floor underneath the lounge by now. And what a magical mystical wonderland that is. In the past looking for various objects I have moved the lounge and found, in no particular order, marbles, dead lizards, small coins (where are the $50 when you need them?), various snack foods quickly vacuumed up by toddlers if I'm not quick enough to confiscate said foods, combs, puzzle pieces, sultanas, dried rice, and the list goes on. I even found a complete sausage under the armchair the other day when we were looking for the tv remote. I think we'd had sausages a week and a half before. Luckily I found and binned that one before any keen eyed toddlers noticed. It took us almost a week to find the remote. Someone had put it next to the tv in the tv cabinet, so a casual glance missed it. So we turned the tv on and off at the set, and changed channels, all week with the remote inches away. We assumed that one of the kids had taken it to regions unknown in the house so once we looked in what we thought were the obvious places we gave up.

Anyway, so what's been happening with the house. D has made the man hole in the ceiling all nice by lining it and putting up cornicing. We need to paint it, but are waiting for a cooler day because we need to take down the man hole cover which means that a lot of heat could chimney down from the roof. We need to re-oil the verandah but are too slack to do it. We are hoping to have some drainage in the backyard before the next lot of rain floods the backyard again. There are some plans to hire boy toys to do this. The vegie patch is full of flowering plants, but whether anything will eventuate remains to be seen. Oh, and we bought a new meat shrine which we hope to christen soon. It's a hooded one that we tell ourselves we will use for Sunday roasts. Possibly we are deluded, but it's best to live in hope.

Spring has sprung, about 3 weeks ago.

2007-11-07T13:27:00.000+11:00

Or possibly longer. I can't remember when I took these photos now, but the iris have pretty much finished for this year it seems, and the daisies all need dead heading, but the violas are still looking good. Hopefully they will self seed like crazy and go all over the garden next year. Might help if I did some weeding, fertilising and stuff. It is entirely possible that the picture of the iris is in fact upside down. No, wait, looks like you can see the stem at the bottom. Phew. In other house news we are looking at Ikea this weekend for a bathroom cabinet. Aren't you glad I told you that. I know I am. The test will be getting out of Ikea with, if there are any, a bathroom cabinet, two children (preferrably my own) a husband (ditto) and my temper without ~~a whole heap of other stuff that we don't really need~~ impulse buying. Wish me luck.

Tara Dennis I ain't

2007-11-06T17:23:00.001+11:00

So here is the painted cat litter hider. As you can see Tara Dennis is quite safe from me taking over her job anytime soon. Especially since the first thing I managed to do was drop the paw stamp and make a mark on the background paint, which I then rubbed to cause a lovely smudge. Just to the left of the cat hole. But close up it doesn't look too bad. Well that's what I'm telling myself anyway.

What my sofa says about me...

2007-10-24T15:39:00.001+10:00

Surprisingly it's not - "you have allowed me to be systematically destroyed by your cats over the last 10 years and you don't vacuum underneath me enough, you let the kids spill food and drink all over me (and worse) and don't mop up the spills in a timely fashion, you let them jump up and down on me, let your pissed mates sleep on me, allow cat hair to accumulate all over me and never once let me squish a cat using my sofa bed mechanism even though they were crying out for it. I hate you!"

Apparently it's this (plagiarised from the Sydney Morning Herald, which got it from the Herald Sun). (click on link for quiz)

Mostly Bs: Empire Builder
Family and status are of equal importance and this is reflected in your taste where tradition and comfort carry great weight. As an Empire Builder, your decorating style is elegant and refined, although it sometimes lacks creativity.
In your choice of fabrics and finishes, you aspire to five-star hotel luxury, which is always pleasing and comfortable but sometimes bland and never challenging. You are inspired by a range of classic styles including town and country, British colonial, French provincial and romantic Victoriana.
Empire Builders like fine furnishings, elegant window treatments, formal wallpapers, Oriental rugs and matching Far Eastern antiques (from reputable dealers in upmarket shopping districts with certificates of authenticity).
You keep a clean house and like nothing out of place. Your feminine side, however, makes exceptions for pretty textiles, wallpapers of toile, moires or ticking and lots of family photos.

Elegant, refined, 5 star hotel, luxury, Far Eastern Antiques? How did I end up with this? Perhaps it is my penchant for English Manor houses which I am never going to own, but perhaps courtesy of a National Heritage Trust membership may one day get to stickybeak in.

and

Mostly Fs: Refuseniks
Refuseniks object to convention, so it's not surprising that in your approach to interior design and decoration, anything goes. You are a rule breaker, some say trendsetter, who may be an artist, a writer, an intellectual or a never-quite-made-it lazy bohemian bum.
Refuseniks love to explore the wellspring from which art and design is inspired. Their homes can be grand or modest, but a visitor will feel they have entered unfamiliar territory. The Refusenik decorating style is an exercise in extremes.
You are an adherent of chaos theory to the extent that it might provide a new way of dining, sleeping or entertaining. You're convinced that in a past life you lived in Prague Castle or Beijing's Forbidden City.
In a perfect world, Refuseniks would live in a sanctuary of unique furnishings, kind lighting and curious antiquities and art. At worst, your style is a conundrum; at best it's too cool for school.

Unfamiliar territory, chaos theory, well this is closer but probably not in the way they intended.

Thinking back to the reality of my house as I left it this morning at speed~~so I wouldn't have to look at the mess anymore~~ because I was running late it was more like this:

Your ten year old sofa bed is displaying signs of being a scratching post and sleep station for your numerous cats over the years. Your children like eating sausage rolls as evidenced by the scattering of crumbs all over the loungroom floor. You are too ~~lazy~~ tired to pick up after them which is why there is a trail of discarded clothing, cutlery and plastic dinner ware strewn around the floor. Artwork is likely to be of the 'naive preschool' school and stuffed under the spare bed in the computer room. Attempts to call it a study only confuse the children. It too shows signs of sausage roll addiction, with added unidentifiable liquid stains on the carpet.

Your hallway is a statement of why dark blood reds should only be used on feature walls that never have anyone even remotely close to them, and not in busy spaces where toothbrushes loaded with toothpaste, chocolately fingers, and sharp edged items can all damage the paint surface. The bedrooms all scream "for gods sake vacuum woman". The bathrooms say a bit of cleaning the shower and bog wouldn't go astray and maybe even a mop of the floor once in a while you lazy beast. The laundry has given up in disgust after being made recipient of the cat litter box.

The pantry challenges you to find anything, anything at all and the green bags only look like they are multiplying until you try and find enough to fit the weekly shop in. Mostly they just look at you accusingly as you throw another batch of plastic bags onto the mound. The kitchen floor reproachfully shows off its multiple marks on cream tiles which you steadfastly ignore, knowing that any attempts to clean it will be quickly thwarted by a child with an a)iceblock or b) biscuit, c)a cat vomiting (because they will only vomit on clean tiles), or d) a husband.

Your attempts to clean up the toys in the rumpus room, which you like to kid yourself will one day be a library/formal lounge, come undone when the children immediately start playing with all the toys you had slated for giving to charity because the children never play with them. You only have yourself to blame for not sneaking them out of the house immediately. Upon drawing back the curtains to let in the afternoon light you notice that the carpet underneath the curtains is white with cat hair from where the oldest cat likes to sleep in the sun all day, before retiring to your bed at night and trying to sneak between you while you sleep. You regret thinking this was cute when she was a kitten.

The less said about the garden the better. The vegie patch could be quite good, if you were a ~~cow~~ bovine and able to eat all the grass growing in it. Realistically you will probably never dig up and eat the potatoes that are growing optomistically. You will probably never plant the seeds that are currently being irradiated next to the answering machine.

Now that's much more like me.

Garage full of Crap

2007-09-23T18:20:00.000+10:00

Sometimes it's not a bad thing to have a garage full of crap. Like those times when you decide that the current system for keeping the toddler out of the cat litter isn't working, and you are sick of the cats knocking it over in the middle of the night with a loud crash, and your hubby can knock up something like this in half an hour. We are still deciding if we are going to get all "Tara Dennis, Better Homes and Gardens" on its ass and paint it with stripes or something. Maybe not.

There is even a cunning cat shaped hole for them to go through. I'm not sure if anyone has been brave enough to use it yet. Maybe they are just hanging on.

Rain beautiful rain

2007-09-10T12:35:00.000+10:00

I'm sitting here at work looking out the window at all the lovely rain falling. I hope it's raining at home.

Some photos, finally

2007-07-21T16:47:00.000+10:00

Garage and southern end of the house

Front of the house

Across the front of the house

You know it's cold when

2007-06-26T16:58:00.001+10:00

people buying thermals in Darwin make the nightly news, and the landscape looks like this. Oh and the washing steams when you put it on the clothesline. You have to look carefully, but the greyness around the top of the shirt is actually steam. I do have some cool video footage of it, but posting that would involve experimenting with youtube and that is currently beyond me, or I'm too lazy, one or the other.

The painting is finished.

2007-05-16T10:56:00.000+10:00

I was just in time to capture the last brush stroke for posterity. The house is painted. For about 10 years anyway. We have also finished painting the exterior of the garage and put up the little blingy bits that are supposed to make it look Colonial or Federation I can never remember. But they are up and not in the way in the garage anymore, so it's all good. All we need now is a cash injection, roll on June 30!, and then we can landscape a bit. Just enough to keep the Council happy, then we can get our completion certificate and it's all good. "oh my god what do we do with our weekends now" time is looming and I can't wait. I suspect it involves a lot of weeding.

On the camera

2007-04-30T08:01:00.000+10:00

When downloading the latest lot of photos from the camera I found Charlie had been busy again. I thought this photo of the daisies shows nicely how well the daisies are growing, the newly painted front wall of the house, and the lovely grey clouds that brought the rain. Not bad for someone who is not supposed to have the camera. The next photo is one of me standing on the steps pointing down while saying 'Come here now!' . But I'm not posting that one.

The Weather Gods

2007-04-30T07:53:00.000+10:00

My sacrifice to the Weather Gods has finally been accepted, and we have had three days of periodic rain. I have found that the Mothers' of the Weather Gods won't let them rain on baby clothes, but my stuff is fine. Which I can live with.

On house news, the insides of the front and back doors have been painted so the inside of the house is pretty much completely painted. There is only a tiny bit of grouting to do in the main bathroom and laundry, and some work around the manhole in the ceiling and the inside is completely done. Three walls of the outside are painted leaving only the back wall to do, plus the outside of the front and back door. Finishing the actual house is really close now. Thank goodness.

Stealth Painting

2007-04-18T14:03:00.000+10:00

Actually it's more like when will he notice that I've been - painting, replacing the flyscreen with the hole big enough to fly a jet through, and adding onto the watering system that he's been meaning to do for months. All those little jobs that need doing and which I've decided I can't really fuck up, unless I try really hard, so I've done them myself rather than whinge to him about it. The fun part is waiting for him to notice. It took him five days to notice that I'd changed the screen on the door, interestingly it took Charlie two days. He noticed the watering system about four days after I'd done it, but then he usually gets home right on dusk or when it's already dark so it's not surprising he didn't notice until the weekend.

However, I thought that the paint on me which he noticed last night and the fact that he was looking right at Charlie's wardrobe doors last night when he read the bedtime story might have brought to his attention that the painting had been done. He could also have noticed the hall cupboard doors, that he walks right past, had been painted but no. He said the other day that painting the wardrobe doors was his winter job. I didn't feel like waiting.

I'm guessing he'll notice tonight that only one set of our walk through robe doors have been painted because the other set need some planing off so they fit properly. Now that I really could fuck up easily, so I'm leaving that to him. For some strange reason I procrastinated long and hard before finally finishing the wardrobe doors today. I painted the wardrobe doors in the hall, Gemma's, Charlie's and the guest room yesterday, so I only had to do one set in our bedroom today. I had the first coat finished by 10.30am. All I needed to do was wait two hours and paint them again. About 12.15 I decided to treat myself to lunch in town, then I came home and did some ironing, brought in the washing and folded it, put Gemma's car seat back together after washing the cover, and tidied up the loungeroom. Of course as is always the way, it only took about 15 minutes to complete the painting once I got started. For some reason getting started was really hard.

In other news painting the outside of the house has begun. The front wall is completely finished and one side wall has one coat, and will be getting the second this weekend before we go to Sydney for the Dinghy's 1st birthday party. Hopefully another wall will get started on Anzac Day, and then on the weekend we might even be close to finished the outside painting.

Then all we need to do is finish some grouting in the laundry, put some coloured caulking around the bottom of the wall tiles in the bathroom and ensuite and cover it with silicone, and plane and paint the remaining wardrobe doors and my god I think we're finished! I'm sure we'll find some little job we have neglected to complete that will be the bane of our existence. We still have to finish the garage as well, but it's a lot smaller and less fiddly than a house, and we don't have to do anything inside so it should be much quicker. Then we can start on the never ending landscaping job.

Since I'm here...

2007-03-08T17:19:00.000+11:00

We've also finished the kitchen. It was a while ago, actually last year, but I thought better late than never. Who knows when I'll get the free time or inclination to update this again, so best to make hay while the sun shines and before the next thunderstorm rolls over and makes us turn off the computer.

Visitors

2007-03-08T17:01:00.000+11:00

Since we'll be having visitors over Easter we thought we should probably build some of these, so that our visitors didn't have to use the ingenious system of levers and pulleys that we have been using to get into the house*.

~~I even had the little man in to paint them.~~ The husband even painted them, in fact we painted them together. But I was taking the photo, so you'll just have to believe me.

Then, immediately afterward it rained so we found a cover for them. Then we went down town as it seemed likely to rain for a bit.

When we came back, we painted them again. Immediately after it absolutely pissed down and stuffed up the paint job. I swear the Weather Gods heard the noise of the paint tin being opened. So this afternoon, the front steps got their third coat of paint. This time it didn't rain and there was much rejoicing.

* may bear no resemblance to reality.

White Christmas

2006-12-31T04:19:00.000+11:00

We could see the storm clouds coming and there was a severe weather warning...

We didn't imagine anything quite like this...

Can't complain though, there is water running into the tank, the dam is filling up nicely and apart from the garden being flattened not too much damage. Is this what I get for dissing Xmas?

Slackness abounds

2006-12-20T09:02:00.000+11:00

Yes I've been lazy. We have been doing bits and pieces on the house though and the good news is that two whole rooms are completely finished (ooh three if you count the pantry)! The others are all pretty close, like if we paint the kickboards in the kitchen it's finished, paint the window in the ensuite and grout around the mirror it's done, paint the doors in the kids' bedrooms they are done etc. Lots of little jobs that we keep putting off because we are crap.

Having Xmas here has helped galvanise us into action because we have to show off a bit. Especially for the out-laws who are still finishing their house. Now into it's 35th year of finishing with no real end in sight yet. Our first anniversay of building comes up in January, not bad considering D has done most of it himself, while still working full time and for all of it I was either pregnant or with a brand new baby. So we've done all right. We are hoping to do more during the Xmas-New Year break with all those lovely public service days off. Or we might just eat too much and sit around groaning. It's nice to have options.

Unfortunately I can't post any photos because our camera had an altercation with Charlie and Charlie won. Actually I think he just dropped it, on the lens which was one of those ones that moves and focuses itself. Needless to say it doesn't do that anymore. The guy in the camera shop said it's probably cheaper, easier and faster to buy a new one. So we will see what is left in the kitty post Xmas. Could be a while.

New Kids on the Block

2006-11-01T09:03:00.000+11:00

Since we got our first pet together, D and I have trawled the lists of classical names for our pets. So we've had Julius, Aphrodite, Persephone, Attila, Nefertiti, Cleo(patra), and Dido. We always threatened our families that we would name our children after historical figures as well. We did like Trajan as a boys name, but decided that our families might never forgive us if we named our firstborn Trajan, so we went with Charlie.

We haven't gotten any new pets since the babies came along, so naming pets hasn't been an issue until now. The other day we got two chookies. More as pets than egg producers, so any eggs that don't get 'toddlerfied' will be a bonus. So we needed to name them. Charlie isn't quite up on his ancient historical figures yet, so let me introduce:

Chookie and Buckaboo.

Because chookies say buckaboo apparently. No, I don't know which is which. Sorry about the dark photo, they didn't want to pose for the camera.

Willy willy gives me the willies

2006-10-24T20:52:00.000+10:00

The weather gods must hate me. This is the second time this has happened in a couple of months. Our question now is do we replace the part again, for about $30 and hope it doesn't happen again too soon, or spend about 10 times that amount to get a new steel clothesline?

The obvious thing to do would be to move the clothesline, except that we don't have anywhere else to put it that won't have exactly the same problem, or that wouldn't be right in front of the house. Effen weather gods. We want rain! (I could regret that statement).

There is nothing like coming home

2006-10-23T18:53:00.000+10:00

So we've been out all day planting some of the 400 trees hubby went mad and bought at the Murrumbateman Field Days. Dusty and tired we come inside to relax and discover, upon trying to find space to put the baby on the floor, that the toddler has been busy playing and spreading stuff far and wide all over the lounge room. It really wasn't what I needed after a day of holding in curses about silly people buying 400 frikkin trees without thinking about needing to plant and then hand water 400 trees in the middle of one of the worst droughts on record. We've only got about 200 to go. I hope.

Adventure under the house

2006-10-11T20:32:00.000+10:00

I was under the house finding a screw that had dropped through the verandah, and which was essential to getting the window holder thingy back on the window, after I took it off to paint the window. We have just put a timber wall around the bottom of the house with a gate in it, to make the house look nice and keep the council happy, so I was hemmed in so to speak. So I was on my hands and knees, moving slowly and painfully across numerous bits of rock, hard dirt, rusty nails etc. trying not to think about having to make my way back again. I finally found the screw and on my way back saw a roll of shade cloth, which I thought would be good to use on the Chook Palace. (chooks arrive tomorrow). There was a dead spider on it, but I thought I'll just shake it off, then we'll be right. Just to be on the safe side I checked the distance to the gate in the fence and tried to crab walk, but decided I liked the skin on my back more. So I picked up the roll of shade cloth and banged it on a handy piece of metal support bar, and the bloody dead spider was stuck and it didn't move. So I banged it again. Still didn't move. I was determined not to take a dead spider outside with me, for the life of me I can't remember why, so I hit it one last time really hard. Then the *&%$##%$ dead spider suddenly sprouted eight legs and ran down the shade cloth. At this point I bravely decided to leave the shade cloth under the house for the husband to retrieve. Hopefully this will be my first and last adventure under the house.

Bless Him

2006-09-19T08:59:00.000+10:00

He's off on a ~~jaunt~~ management course this week, so, before he went, he painted the second coat of paint on the pantry all by himself while I veged on the lounge watching Australian Idle. It could only have been more perfect if Ricky had been voted out.

Virtuous if tense

2006-09-14T10:52:00.000+10:00

Last night instead of ~~cleaning and~~ relaxing in this,

we got our act together and painted the first coat of paint on the pantry.

We've been meaning to do it for weeks now, but there was always something else, like some crap on TV to watch instead, and it started to bug me that it wasn't done. Not enough to actually do it myself of course. I did that with the laundry and came away with a much more realistic sense of how much of a pain in the arse painting a room by yourself is. And the laundry isn't that big. Not surprisingly the laundry is still awaiting its second coat. Any week now. Luckily for me the painting (oh the pain the pain) is nearly done. If by nearly done you ignore the fact that we still have to paint all the tricky bits on the windows (lots of windows) and french doors and around the top of the tiles in the bathroom because we decided not to tile to the ceiling (fools fools!). And the kitchen, but there isn't much of that because most of it is covered by cupboards or non existent because of the huge window or because it will eventually be covered by a splashback. Once all that is finished all we have to paint is the hall cupboard and we're done. Inside. Outside is a whole nother problem that I just don't want to think about now because I might cry. And don't even get me started on the garage. If there is a god he'd (she'd?) let me win lotto. Okay, well probably not but it's worth a try.

The outside of the house

2006-09-07T20:09:00.000+10:00

It's been a long time coming I know. I've just been looking through the house photos and realised that most of them are out of focus or too dark or generally crap. I'm going to have to go through the house and take some more pictures so you can really see what it looks like. Anyway here are a couple of pictures of the outside of the house, which isn't painted yet, so it still looks pretty much the same. Except the clothesline. It was blown over by a big wind when it had a drop sheet hung on it, and we haven't fixed it yet.

Sorry about the lack of comments. I didn't think about what I was doing when I went for a change of look. Normal transmission will hopefully resume soon.

My Construction Project and things made by my clever friends.

2006-05-30T20:38:00.000+10:00

This is the construction project that I have just finished. I'm pretty pleased with it myself. My very talented friends have sent some gorgeous things for Gemma which you can see here. I don't know where they find the time, but I'm glad they did. I also have to thank everyone else who has sent things for Gemma (and Charlie). We were told after Charlie that when you have your second baby no one gets as excited and you don't get given much stuff for the baby. Well our lovely friends have really proved that wrong!

Mother's Day Tradition

2006-05-16T09:09:00.000+10:00

Belated Happy Mother's Day to all Mums out there. In the family I married into there is a special tradition on Mother's Day. It's called the 'Tip Run'. I'm not sure if my MIL has had the opportunity to indulge in this tradtion for a while, since not much producing lots of rubbish has been happening on their house lately, but I do fondly remember her commenting loudly that it was a lovely present to drive to the smelly tip on Mother's Day over several years when D and I were first going out and in the early years of our marriage.

This year was the first year that I got to do the Mother's Day tip run in my own right both as a Mum and home owner with a lot of crap to get out of the backyard. It was a proud moment. D was particularly pleased to be able to continue such a proud tradition. At three Charlie may be too young to realise the importance of such a traditon, but his future wife need not fear, we will ensure that the importance of Mother's Day family traditions are made clear to him. Of course there are still more tip runs to do, but they won't be as much fun.

On house news, we have 4 weeks until our lease is up and we still need to paint, carpet, put down the timber flooring, tile, put in the bathroom fittings, finish the kitchen, and the garage. It will be interesting to see how much we can complete, considering that we need to have carpets and stuff down before we have to move out of here, so we really only have 3 1/2 weeks to get everything done. But we like a challenge. Or rather D does as I think trying to paint with a toddler running around and 'helping' could be disasterous.

More eye candy

2006-03-30T10:51:00.000+11:00

And here's a picture

2006-03-29T09:37:00.000+11:00

Yep I've been slack. And here's a picture.
Once I find the rest of them, I will post them as well. Eventually I might even put up some house photos.

(with thanks to Raman Dhillon for writing to Icon with a tip on how to automatically resize photos, cause I was too lazy to look it up for myself).

Oooooh Splinter

2006-02-08T09:31:00.000+11:00

I was watching husbang dig some splinters out of his finger last night. He had gotten to the point where it hurt to touch anything, so he thought he'd better get them out before they got any worse. They didn't look too bad to me, quite little really, but he was really in pain. I had a bit of a go, but these things are always more painful when someone else does them, so I provided moral support instead. Or maybe I'm just a weirdo who likes watching things like splinters come out. Anyway, he finally managed to break the final layer of skin over the splinter, which was in quite deep. Then he squeezed and it rose to the surface. And rose, and rose and kept coming. It was at least 4mm long and deep into the pad of his thumb. No wonder it hurt so much. I've had a couple of the rotten things, just under the skin and they hurt like hell.

Then we went on to splinter no. 2. which was in his index finger. I should mention that he was doing this all left handed because he's right handed and so the splinters were all in his right hand. I gave more assistance this time because this one was more tricky and managed to get under the splinter but couldn't budge it. Husbang got hold of it and about 2mm broke off. He then managed to squeeze out the other 5mm of splinter which once again had been straight in deep into the finger. Gross but fascinating.

The worst bit, for him, is that he's only finished one short side of the all round verandah that's going on the house. There are a lot more splinters to come.

Apart from that building is going well. The frames have been put up by Harkaway's crack team of frame erectors, some of them were even good looking which was a bonus. Husbang and FIL managed to get the garage frame up as well and hopefully we will be at lock up in about 3 weeks. Then the inlaws can go home. Yay!

Screaming down the learning curve

2006-01-24T15:01:00.000+11:00

So we've begun. It's not until you start a project like this that you realise how much you don't know about what you are doing. Take digging pier holes for example. We got the man in on the bobcat thingy with the drill on front to drill the holes. So far so good. He then points out that all the dirt that accumulates around the holes and then falls in has to be cleared away so that the council can inspect and approve the holes you've just had dug. So rather than have a fairly relaxed day telling the guy were to dig, husbang had a very hot and dirty day scraping dirt out of holes with a tool not really designed for the job. In the end it was about three days in total, as there were about 90 holes. The cleaned out holes were then fallen down twice by the toddler, (who was immediately rescued and is still talking about it), filled with concrete, drilled and piers put on and screwed down. Bearers and joists have been put on top (after much discussion and arguing) and the floor insulation is ready to go. So far there have only been about ten fights between father in law and husbang, so everything is going as expected. Things that cost money keep cropping up, but now we just pay and worry about it later.

So things we have learned so far: it always costs more than you think it will, there will always be something you hadn't thought of and it will cost money too, there are always plenty of jobs for people who are silly enough to offer to help, FIL is never wrong (even when he is), and toddlers and building sites don't mix but they do have lots of fun together. Especially in specially bought bright yellow gum boots.

LMH and Harry came down to help with the first week of building. They were immediately hard at work, playing in the pier holes. Their help has been invaluable, and it is only due to the unfortunate need for them to work so they can eat and pay rent that they were forced to go back to Sydney with husbang's mum. However, they seem to have survived the frequent retelling of stories they have heard many times before, so well done lads. You should know that she is planning on coming to Newtown with the express purpose of coming to the pub where you work to see you. She thinks you are lovely.

If I can find a good photo of LMH and Harry hard at work I will post it soon.

Can you paint while pregnant?

2005-12-02T10:20:00.000+11:00

It was a hopeful question from my husband, as he tried to work out when he was going to fit in painting doors as well as 600m2 of walls (not counting ceilings). I didn't know, so I did what every expectant mother does and googled it. Unfortunately for him the answer is no. Well, the answer more correctly is we don't know but we think it's best if you let someone else do it. I hope his mum likes painting. In fact there doesn't seem to be a hell of a lot I will be able to do around the work site. I can't carry anything, I probably won't be taking the toddler out there often because I won't be able to run after him to stop him getting into everything, including the dam, and so there really isn't much point being there. I guess my job will be to keep the home fires burning and have meals ready.

That is going to be the other big problem. The bigger I get, and after the first one I know I get BIG, the more tired, okay lazy, I get and the more likely I am to have a sandwich or takeaway because I couldn't be stuffed cooking. As I see it I'm already doing enough cooking up a baby so who wants to do more? But now I'll have to keep up with feeding at least two extra mouths with husband's mum and dad helping build the house and provide lots of sympathy to tired and sore husband who has been doing his darndest to get the house finished before he goes back to work. It's going to be an interesting time. I think I'll designate one day a week where I get sympathy for my tiredness and aching back and he can have sympathy on the rest. Of course I reserve the right to change my mind at any moment, because not only am I a woman, I'm pregnant and I'm allowed. I am also extremely lucky to have married a man who can grin and bear my mood swings.

Because we like a challenge

2005-11-18T14:31:00.000+11:00

Fie on this quiet life he cries, striding in from single handedly building the house (well single handedly project managing it anyway) I want work! Well dear, she replies, how about we're 16 weeks pregnant, and I want my house ready?

Actually it's nothing like that. Except for the sixteen weeks pregnant bit. We haven't started the house, we haven't even left Alice Springs yet. So we'll be about half way through the pregnancy by the time we start earthworks on the site. Of course that depends on everything going to plan.

We didn't plan to be having another baby now, but we can't get the goofy smiles off our faces. Anyway, what's a little pressure between friends?

So, anyone know a really cheap plumber/electrician or tradesperson in Canberra or Yass?

Only 4 weeks to go

2005-11-17T12:10:00.000+11:00

Only 4 weeks left in Alice Springs, then we're off back East. To begin either the greatest adventure or biggest disaster of our lives. Or perhaps both. Either way it will be an experience. At least it looks like we will have somewhere to live, all going well, and hopefully our stuff delivered before Christmas. But who knows. If it doesn't happen you can be sure there will be a bitchy blog post about it. But that's what you're here for after all, and I'd hate to disappoint you.

So, things I will miss about Alice
1. All the great people we've met here and have to leave behind
2. Those rare but really lovely 30 degree days that make you glad to be alive
3. Eastside Fish and Chips
4. American Ribs at the Firkin and Hound (if you ask nicely you can have them with chips rather than mash)

and that's about it. I won't miss the dust, the flies and the, ahem, smell. Or K-mart. I'm so looking forward to being able to shop in Myer, and Target and Big W and all those crappy little chain stores that you can wander through for hours, unless you have a cranky toddler attached to your leg wanting to be carried. Must train him out of that habit, he is soooooo heavy now.

Anyway, stay posted for the big move. Although, may not be able to post for a while, since the computer will be in transit, so you may have to be patient. But fear not, I'll be back.

A.W.R. E.

2005-09-14T09:32:00.000+10:00

These initials are those of a local real estate agent in Yass. Lately whenever anything (everything) has been going wrong with getting the plans together to put into Council we have been looking at each other and threatening to call this real estate agent and just sell the block now before we even start. Some days I don't think we are really joking.

Sometimes I wonder if we will finally finish the house, stand back for a moment, then dial ... "hello is that AWRE? Are you interested in listing a brand new house, on about 5 acres, 5 minutes out of Yass ..."

But anyway, it looks like we might be almost finally ready to submit the plans to Council. We were hoping for approval before Christmas, and it takes 12 weeks, so basically we could be stuffed. It just depends on what the Council wants us to do. But unfortunately you don't know what you don't know. So we shall see if we get a nice Christmas present from the Council, or if we are twiddling our thumbs waiting for everyone to get back from their Christmas holidays.

So now we wait

2005-08-19T12:15:00.000+10:00

Well there are less than two weeks of August left, we are waiting for the final plans to be drawn up, then we have to submit them to Council, which could take 12 weeks to approve them, that's assuming they don't have any issues with the plans of course. Will we make it in time to start work in January? The worst part is that it's out of our hands and there is diddly squat we can do to make it go faster. So when does the fun start?

Yeah maybe we'll lend you the dosh

2005-08-12T15:02:00.000+10:00

We finally have conditional approval to borrow money to build our house. Conditional on the bank deciding that our block is worth anything of course. Then we get to play the guessing game.
Which consists of:

Bank: so how much do you want to borrow?
Us: Well how much is the block worth?
B: well, you tell us how much you want to borrow and we'll tell you if we'll lend it to you.
U: Why can't you just tell us what it's worth?
B: because I'm not allowed to.
U: okay, can you tell us what 80% would be.
B: no, because then you'd work it out for yourself.
U: Dammit, saw right through that one didn't you. Okay can we borrow X amount?
B: yes. In fact we could probably lend you a little more if you wanted it.
U: okay, how about a million dollars?
B: no.
U: okay, half a million?
B: no.
U: okay, how about X + 5?
B: I'll just have to do the calculations on that. Yep that should be okay.
U: cool, but we don't want that much, we just wanted a better idea of what our block is worth, without having to pay an extra $600 on top of all your other fees and charges.

Sometimes it feels like your dealing with McDonalds. So do you want mortgage insurance with that? Except McDonald's can't insist that you take the dessert if you buy the meal. Unfortunately banks can.

Mortgage Misery

2005-08-04T12:49:00.000+10:00

Two words most likely to make a mortgage broker laugh in your face - owner builder.

Bastards.

Kitchen Conundrum

2005-07-30T18:23:00.000+10:00

Well it has begun. We've started the long process of building our house at Yass. Our first step was to disagree on the design of the kitchen. Then I decided that I didn't want an Ikea kitchen. They just didn't do anything for me. So we are back to square one on the kitchen. We have a vague idea of what we want, and it's two completely different things. Things are only going to get worse from here I can tell.