The Backyard - Part 5

I'm happy to report the play gym is finished! Including a little shop, perfect height for William!

Mum has constructed some curtains and bunting. It has had a couple minor adjustments since this photo. All ready for the party!

And it isn't really the backyard big my mother-in-law spent the day in the garden weeding in ready for the party! Aren't I lucky?!

How does your garden grow?

So the front garden bed looks a little like this... Magnolia trees and a hedge full of WEEDS! Luckily I have discovered my new hobby, weeding!

Last week I had both kids outside playing while I weeded the garden below, not a bad effort with my trusty Ikea stool.
 

This little area used to be a herb garden but is very neglected. One year we grew lillies from bulbs so I am thinking we might try again this year. It is very therapeutic gardening!

Luckily we have a large block so I'll never be short of some weeds to pull.
 

The Backyard - Part 4

There has been more steady progress today with the cubby getting 'built in' and the railings being completed. It is all yet to be stained so it looks uniform but looks pretty amazing! The circle is a plaque that will have an M and W for the kids names.

Looking inside, Madeline has a few cheap cushions from Ikea to sit on. Mum has been commissioned  to make some curtains!

Very nearly finished and looking fabulous!

The Backyard - Part 3

It has taken a while (see Part 1 and Part 2) but Adam finally has some time to continue building a fort in the kids play area.

It is taking great shape and Madeline is very impressed with her 'castle'.

The views are spectacular!

Adam has been creative in the roof line and the stairs. It's looking fantastic!

Admiring his handiwork with the kangaroo. 

We are hoping that it will be fit and ready for the kids birthday party at the end of May. I'm envisioning lanterns and balloons tied to the fort and a picnic party.

We are so lucky to have a visionary and clever husband/Dad! To be continued on Wednesday.

Real Estate obsession...

Yesterday, Mum and I took Madeline on a special date to buy ballet shoes. After an exciting morning she fell asleep in the car close to Mum's house so we had a bit of a drive around.

Holy wow! This house is officially my favourite Brisbane house. Recently renovated and sheer perfection in my eyes! I tried taking a picture but the rainy day didn't help my cause.

Gosh I would love to knock on the door!

After a bit of googling, I came across this site; http://house.ksou.cn/index.php. It seems to me to be the back end of realestate.com.au and keeps record of past listings for a sticky beak. I have spent the good part of all downtime this weekend trawling the site - it lists the 'sold for' prices and it has been great seeing how much houses in our street have sold for lately.

Anyway, back to the house above. I was lucky to find the listing - it wasn't exactly decorated to my taste, but it has fabulous bones I could work with! Haha!

Bits and pieces and the deck revisited!

I found the plan of a renovated Queenslander in a Home Beautiful, the plan is something really achievable/feasible here. My favourite part being the sets of French doors on the bottom floor.

This is it in real life, plenty of gorgeous light and a beautiful room!

I don't think this was the same house but I have fallen in love with this idea for the kitchen (which I am yet to post). We also have large hinged windows and I have been dreaming of a roman blind but wondering what to put on the walls. I am thinking of getting some favourite pictures framed similarly.

In other news, Adam agreed about the colouring on the front deck. He bought some tint and mixed it in with the oil and re-oiled the deck. It looks darker/more natural now.

With his helpers! Everytime I aim the camera, Will smiles - what a ham! 

Front Deck

Our house faces west so our front deck is prone to the full brunt of the afternoon sun. When Adam bought the house the previous owners had lacquered the deck and lacquer/full sun do not go together!

This is particularly bad patches. It was peeling and accumulated dust easily, a mess really!

Adam had been waiting for a chance to sand and oil it himself but like every other job, has no time. He got a quote from the handyman who painted our house and it was $250 for labour plus materials. It came to about $500 in total. We had to move all the deck furniture inside!

The sanding progress.

The finished product after being oiled. It is great that it's even tone, but I don't like the colour of it! We are hoping to stain it with a different oil so it isn't so light/yellowish. Or maybe I'm just used to the old way it used to be! 

Dining table and weekend happenings!

Hello!

Hope you were able to keep cool on this hot day!

Sooo the dining table - one of Adam's machines broke - so the processing of the timber is going to be outsourced. Adam also severely underestimated the time it requires and with long work hours and two small kids Adam simply doesn't have the time it takes. He's waiting to hear back from a couple of sources, it will allow him to just focus on the building. Why don't we just buy one? The silky oak is a valuable and pretty wood - will be worth it in the long run. Watch this space!

In other news, I picked up two of the silver pendants for the kitchen from Freedom.

I (finally) purchased some linen for our bed. It isn't this exact quilt but very similar from Adairs (the only picture I had on hand).

Adam has another idea for Project 23,435 haha! He would like to build some permanent seating like the picture below for our front deck. The benefits would be more space to sit and a custom look. We would get cushion bases made.

This is where it would go - along the blank wall and along where the current daybed is.

I was originally against the idea as it wasn't even on my list! Haha! But I'm coming around to the idea. It's a great spot to sit and admire the view.

External - Front and back decks

I thought I would just quickly drop by and post the deck pictures as they were when Adam bought the house. They both remain as they were, although with our furniture of course. The front deck has spectacular views with a western aspect, so we see spectacular sunsets. The deck was lacquered and is now peeling from sun damage - we just need to sand it back and re-stain.

We have big plans of extending the back deck one day. 

The Backyard - Part 2

 

Adam's vision for the backyard included a fenced playground for the kids. To keep the dog out and the kids in. I can't seem to find the images but Adam hired a mini digger and dug all the fence post holes with it. (His Dad was also an integral part of the build!) Once the posts were in and the general structure erected the fresh turf was laid.

 

 

Another productive weekend saw Adam and his Dad nail the palings on, and so the playground had a fence!

 

 

To be continued.

The Backyard - Part 1

 

We are lucky to have a large block, around a quarter acre. Unfortunately these pictures don't show the full back block including a gigantic Moreton Bay fig in the back right! Just off the back deck was a gardenia hedge, it was growing quite out of shape and was becoming spindly. It still flowered beautifully but was a bit of a barrier to the backyard.

 

 

So despite our big block, we didn't really use it. It was our Ollie dog's domain and quite honestly we weren't/aren't very good at keeping up with the pooper scooping so it was just a waste. So Adam had an idea and before I knew it, a mini digger was climbing the back retaining wall to tidy up a bit!

 

 

The driver absolutely loved the challenge and I emailed him a few pictures for his files.

 

 

Before we knew it (and with the help of a labourer who chopped and carted rubbish/greenery away) the backyard was clear and a blank canvas.

 

 

To be continued.

Welcome!

Hello!

Welcome to our home.

Join me as I try to document making our home and lives more beautiful. The upstairs is currently all our living space while underneath remains the man cave. We have great plans of renovating downstairs in about 5 years - kids rooms, bathroom, laundry, rumpus and a study. It's hard waiting but hopefully worth the wait!

Our family is me, Sarah, my long-suffering and ever patient husband, Adam and our two kids, Madeline and William. And of course our first baby, Ollie dog.

To get the ball rolling, this is the picture of the house as Adam bought it:

Here is our Queenslander, we have since painted the stairs and added more to the gardens, but you get the idea! I'll rummage around and try and find some updated ones.