Outside Completed

After 4 weekends Dave and I finally finished the outside of our house.  All gardens are in and grass is in place and now we watch them grow and blossom.  Dave made a beautiful fence and now the outside of the house looks awesome.  The funniest thing is at the beginning Dave was totally against having any roses, however we have gone with 3 white standard roses out the front garden complemented with icing sugar Hebe's.  Amazingly all went well with nil arguments and fighting (that's so not normal for us, very strange indeed).  Our summer will be all about relaxing and enjoy the outside living just as much as the inside living.  Great team work.

Ready lawn is layed

Fences are built

Roses & Hebe's planted

Finished!!!

The Garden

So after much patients and some nagging, Dave finally decided to get someone into make us a decent lawn.  Mr Ready Lawn (YEAH!!!!!)  Building is something Dave is great at but landscaping is not his forte.  He threw some grass seed out not long after we moved and some bits grew but overall a bit of a disaster.

So Thursday came and Nevin arrived with truck loads of top soil, then he got his cool little digger and moved the soil into the places he needed.

You can see Dave's lawn

Man screeds and levels out the top soil and then lays the lawn

Finish Product

AWESOME!!

Now because the lawn looked so nice it helped us to get our flower garden in order and so in 2 days we created our garden

Chocolate is not aloud on the new lawn so her home is now in the corner.

With the back completed we venture to the front.  That will be fun..

Guy Fawkes

I know animal lovers hate Guy Fawkes and for good reasons but I just love them.  I love seeing the sky light up in pretty colours and writing letters with sparklers.  When I was a little girl my mum would buy lots of fireworks.  Back then they had tom thumbs and jumping jacks and sky rockets it was so awesome.  One day Peter and I were doing the dishes and mum lit a whole packet of jumping jacks and some how placed them in the kitchen whilst we were doing the dishes.  The sound inside the house was deafening, Peter and I jumped and screamed our heads off whilst my mum was laughing her hysterically.

The cost of the fireworks is the only reason why our Guy Fawkes night was brief with sparklers and a few flower pots.

Nicholas wanted to have halloween too so I made this latern out of a tangelo

The House

Entrance

The house is near completion here are a few pics of the outside.  I can't go inside at the moment due to the painters spraying up a storm.

The Garage

The patio with master bedroom and lounge

Lounge/Dinning & Spare Room

We have officially handed in our notice with the landlord which means there is only 3 more weeks and the Finnie's will move into the new house.

Dave has two jobs to do inside which are installing the kitchen and putting on the skirting boards.  This weekend he will install the kitchen so watch the space for pictures......

Preserving Season

Prepared Apricots

Its that time of the season where I get out my preserver and do apricots, peaches, nectarines, to replemish my stock. I really enjoying preserving. The trick to great preserving is the prep work. My preserving does not include sugar which MM really likes and it saves money.

  

I like to arrange the fruit very neatly and try not to get burn't at the same time





Placing them into the boiling water is somewhat of a challenge I really should get some preserving tongs

The finished products

 

The most annoying part of preserving is preparing peaches and nectarines because they are so attached to their stone.  They never look that pretty in the jar not like apricots do.

To Procrastinate or Not?

So we have been out of our old house since Dec 23 2009 and the handover for money/house is 15th Jan 2010. I figured that would give me plenty of time to go back and finish cleaning the old house completely. However!!!!!! one has procrastinated and now its the 13th Jan and I haven't been back to the old house alas I have to pull my finger out and get there.

Our lovely neighbours had been over to weed the garden bless them really but it meant I needed to find away to get rid of all those weeds time wasn't on my side. Thank goodness for Mr Green who whipped up today and gave the section a once over and took away all the weeds.

I think the reason for my procrastinating is the dreaded oven cleaning I really HATE cleaning ovens its the worst job ever. Every time I move house I always say to myself I must clean the oven at least once a month but I never do and so the consequence is an oven nightmare. This oven was no exception either gross.

The lovely neighbour had also been around the section and found things we had left or should I say Dave left (on purpose) I think hence that loaded my car up to the top.

Kate was awesome wee helper but mostly she sat on a stool and watched Hi 5 on the lap top.

Finally the kitchen is mopped and everything was clean and looking good. Hopefully the new owners will be well pleased with my efforts.

Its funny generally when I leave a house for the last time I always have a sense of sadness but not this time I felt really happy GOODBYE 16 Galloway Street thanks for the memories.

The Finnie's are on the Move

The Finnie Family by rule of thumb generally live in a house for 2 years and then we get itchy feet and move to another house. Just to give you an idea Dave and I have lived together for 13 years and we have moved 8 times. Well the time has come again for us and I'm so excited. Why you ask??? My adorable husband is going to build me a house again and whats more he is going to build it in MOSGIEL!!!!! Oh yeah I'm lucky so lucky. We put an offer on a section and its been accepted and now we have to try and sell our house. Let the buyers come forth please.

Spring Cleaning

Whilst on my holiday I decided to spring clean. After reading and seeing Ange's cupboards and how well organise they are and then seeing Jasmine's I really wanted the same. So off shopping I went and got lots of containers and so organising my cupboards began.

My Cupboard before

I really hated having all of these packets of spices/herbs in my cupboard and when you go to use them they are empty or not much left so gone are those annoying packets

Annoying empty packets

Hello new bigger spice/herb containers

I really love this container because I use alot of stock cubes and now I have them in one container but separate compartments so cool.

I was so pleased with my achievement and now my cupboards look organise and clean and awesome. Long may it last!!!!!!

New organised cupboard!!!!

New Garden

I must be honest I am not the best gardener although I love looking at gardens. My garden at home is what you would call a MESS!!!! So I decided to get the professionals in to help me out.

Mr Nichol man arrived and looked and had heaps to say and I was really excited gave me ideas and made me feel better as my garden was designed for a person who doesn't have a life or a job and spends all day everyday in the garden. (NOT ME). I asked him when could he start and how much? He said I'll price it and send you a quote. The job included pulling out plants I wanted to keep, chopping down 3 shrubs, moving a Camellia brush, spraying, laying weed mate, mulching and replacing some plants. My own quote was maximum $1500-$2000 I received the quote and WOW total price $6500 no way I couldn't believe it. When I think of those make overs on TV the landscaping never ever came to that much someone is exaggerating!!!!!! What a RIP OFF!!!

Alas my perfect garden dreams are shattered!!! I showed Dave and he laughed and said he would do some of the suggestions himself. So, so far the 3 shrubs are gone Camellia moved and lots of weeding done awesome. Maybe my garden may happen I'll keep you posted and show pictures