Summer food (and work)

Keep going my boy, there's a whole TWO cubic meters of mulch to scoop!

Last week was pure summer bliss! We were out on day trips and where we are not out, we were back home working on the garden.  By the way, I don't remember giving K ice cream on a cone like this much before. But he now attempts to make playdoh ice cream in that shape! Must be an instinctual thing? I've ever only given him home made ice blocks (made out of smoothies or diluted juice) prior.

These photos are gold! Definitely ordering large prints on these!

Green is the new brown

We have a lawn! No more looking at the brown dirt! Whooopeeee!I know its just plain grass out there but all that colour makes me very happy. But I must confess we didn't do this ourselves. We have a sizable yard and it just was not DIY-able with a very inquisitive toddler around. Just putting in a handful of trees on the side fence was abit of a nightmare. Kayden was stuffing soil into his nappy! His gumboots! Sprinkling dirt into his hair! I think I spent more time cleaning out the shower and bath after I washed him off.

We got instant turf and it will take around 4 weeks to settle and hopefully bind together. So at the moment I've been watering it 4 times a day.  We have only 2 taps outside and I have to shuffle the hoses and sprinklers around to make sure I get all the grassed areas. It get a bit tricky when you have a very clingy toddler who's wanting to follow you everywhere. But it's all good once I have the sprinklers set up and going. There's something very therapeutic about watching and listening to thousands of little drops of water swirling around in a very rhythmic pattern. That fine white mist falling onto a carpet of green glistening under the sun. Just gorgeous!

And as expected Kayden just cannot wait to go roll around on the lawn. He sneaks onto it every time I'm not looking! It's not ready to walk on yet, not at least another 3 weeks or so. I am not risking little yellow patches all over. So I hand him a small shovel and tell him to go play with the dirt on the edges. And then wash him off everytime.

Oh and we just struck a deal with our neighbours, we're building a sandpit (soon hopefully), and they're getting a swing set. Fun summer times ahead!

A different type of Jingle

Not the Santa type but the kind, that had me on the edge of my seat at my builder's swish leather office almost inappropriately screaming Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!

WE. HAVE. KEYS!

As we sat in our car and watched silently as the garage door slowly roll open, Hubby and I turned to face other with that knowing smile. Our new house!

So far, it has been a slow process of driving up to the new place with however much we can fill the car with.

We still have fences to put up, blinds to install, and grass to lay. At the moment, my backyard is just dirt. Slowly but surely, let's make this house a home!

Week 15 Getting there

Yup! We're almost there! This is my lounge. I now have my dirty new floor!  With abit of leftover carpet that the builders have chucked right in the middle of the room (Maybe for an afternoon nap?). We are now at lock up stage and I couldn't be happier!

The timing's been just fantastic. By the time we all return home, there will hopefully just only be a few more loose ends to tie up and we would be trucking our stuff in!





And by loose ends, I meant that broken downlight in my kitchen needs to be fixed.

And it's really no point having soft closing doors on my cabinets if they don't actually close? 

And I'm guessing our plumber is possibly left handed? Well, I'm right handed, and I prefer my spigot (I love how I can pretend I am smarter by using building terms haha) to be on the right hand side of my laundry tap!

There's also a few more similar minor defects that Gino our builder has already started following up on. Within less than a day of being informed! Such efficiency from a builder is almost unheard of! We are very blessed indeed.

People have been saying we've hit the jackpot and got a really good builder. I tell them straight out, NOPE.

 That, by no chance is just LUCK.

Besides, Oprah Winfrey (I am a fan! A very sad one at the moment, because she just did her finale) doesn't believe in luck. "Luck is when preparation meets the moment of opportunity", she says.

Hubby spent a great deal of time researching and compiling stacks of reviews, months before we even started looking for a plot of land to build on. Back then, when Kayden was just a little joey, we trudged through dozens of display homes and builder's office with his research file. To which one of the prospective builders actually asked where we got that copy! So I say a BIG pat on the back for my hubby for a job well done! I am so proud!

Speaking of the hubby, he is en route to Singapore! Our little family is going to be reunited! Daddy's coming Kayden! I wonder how you're going to react when you spot him through the glass window at the airport!

All very exciting!

Talk about shopping in comfort

This is our study. How nice would it be to be online shopping while having a warm soak in the tub? 

=)

Week 12





So we're now at week 12 of construction. Kitchen cabinets are in! Painters were in the house painting the interiors when hubby was there to take a look around. From what I can see from my screen, the white is what I was hoping for. A warm and soft off-white shade. But we've noticed there was no provisions for lighting in the kitchen area. We have 6 downlights. Still some work to be done there.

And as you can see, the rendering is done too. We're still waiting on painting to start on the outside of the house. But I am actually loving the white on the rendering! At colour selection, we were tempted to have it white, but being lazy but practical folks, we opted a darker shade so wear and tear would be less obvious in the future.

We've also played safe and hired an external building inspector to check on the quality. Report just came back yesterday and inspector says it is excellent! Yipee! Albeit some minor fixable defects he says is completely common, and usually fixed up before handover. It is comforting to know that your site supervisor takes pride in his work.

Tiling in the bathrooms are being carried out as I type. And throughout the week, I suspect the rest of the tiling work will commence too.

On another note, this time, next month, we are reunited with Daddy! But that also means it's almost time to go back home to Melbourne!

Week 8

Bear with me while I relish in the building process. Bricking is complete. Des has been dutifully going into the house every weekend to check and capture shots of the the house for me to look at. And as I look at the space, I try and imagine us lounging on a new couch, mug in hand, everybody snuggled up under the covers watching the telly. Or sitting at the kitchen bench, reading the papers as we have our morning cereal.

So now, the outside is waiting to be rendered. Thank god for that. I don't have the answer to those different coloured bricks. 

The builder says the kitchen goes in next. Right smack in the middle of this area too. The island goes on top those little stumps on the ground. Woohoo! My lovely sparkly benchtop, I am looking forward to seeing you!

Can't wait, can't wait!

Looking a little more complete

Whoooooooopeee! More progress in another week. Bricks go on next.

I can already picture K stomping around in puddles in our backyard here after a rain. And us having family and friends over for BBQ on a nice summer afternoon.

But my mind flickers with different images everytime I try to picture what sort of plants to grow under those windows you see here. Sometimes I think white iceberg roses, and sometimes lavender bushes comes to mind. And then I think maybe some lily pillys?

Time for some research. Actually, A LOT of research. My thumbs aren't exactly green.

Look what happened in a week

Remember 2 weeks ago? I take my hat off to our builders! In less than 10 days, the framework for the entire house is complete! How do they do that!? 

This is how the site looked like last week. We were so amazed we even had it checked, just in case it was a dodgy job. So far, so good!

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the work moves along, as smoothly for the rest of the process.

But it is Oh.So.Satisfying to see our to-be-home being materialized.

And as you get to the end of this post, the roof tiles, bricks and windows are being installed at the site back in Melbourne this week. How quick are they these days!

I never thought I'd be this happy to see a slab of concrete

Finally! Something to update on our new place. For the past month or so, there has been big fat envelopes being delivered by couriers from our builders. Drawings and variations we have had to go through. Huge sheets of papers we had to peer over, trying to make sense of the tiny little icons in and around the house. Errors to be weeded out. Instructions to be conveyed back to the builder on improvements. Which then meant big fat envelopes at our doorstep again, and us going over the documents over and over and over and over again.

But we made it through that boring part and they've finally poured out the concrete. Wet conditions have prevented the builders from laying the slab on any earlier. I am still hoping we're at our new place by Christmas!

Plain, grey NEW concrete ground, boy am I glad to finally meet you!

New house: Colours

Colours for the new house. I wanted a neutral colour palate. And I wanted a white interior. But I didn't want it to look clinical. All interior walls are a rice white. For some strange reason, the carpet and tiles in here look alot more like grey? Carpets and tiles actually look a more latte, grey brown in real life.

I freaked at the hundreds and hundreds of choices available. I refocused, and picked colours mainly based on a particular caesarstone tile I FELL IN LOVE with instantly. It is white with browny grey specks through it. You can't see it here, but it has heaps of shimmery little specks through it too.

Pre start appointment was actually a few months ago, where I picked out these colours. 

Have any of you built or renovated your house? Please tell me it's a fun process. And that I get to keep all my hair at the end of it! Can't wait till the building actually starts!