Party Pics!!

Over the last two Saturdays we have had birthday parties for Amber and Nicky. The weather was beautiful and it was so nice to use the house to entertain. We set up the table out the front as the back deck isn't finished yet. Here is Amber opening her presents.

Here is her horse cake!!

Nicky and the pinata!!

Nicky's party was a "Weird Creatures" party! Here is one of the creatures that came. Her name is Pudgie!

Nicky's monster cake!

Another weird guest!

Nicky as a four armed, ten eyed, something or other!

The latest things done.

We really want to paint our family room / theatre room in a RED but finding the right red is a difficult process!

This is our walk in wardrobe in the main bedroom.

Remember the trees we cut down all those months ago? See here. Well here is some of them, milled and dried and used as feature timbers around the house. This is in the kitchen and we're also building our main staircase out of it. It is Blackwood.

Here's hubby measuring some of the Blackwood.

Party time!

No it's not the Housewarming....yet.....but it is Amber and Nicky's birthday parties. Amber and Nick have only had one proper "friends" party in their lives (excluding family gatherings of course) and it was a joint one as their birthdays are 11 days apart. This year, I promised they could have their OWN parties and have them at home. I haven't done a big home kids party for a very long time! So, Amber's is tomorrow and Nicky's next Saturday. It's time to clean up this place!!! Darren is coming home from work early to clean up outside and set up the BBQ in the top garage area. I am cleaning up inside and then I'm out to get some hay bales and horseshoes (Amber's is a horse party!). I'll post some pics soon.

And a bit of outside.

Our lovely weeping cherry. We transplanted this from our old garden in Surrey Hills.

Kids kicking around outside. Tim's in his jamies (at 4pm) and trying to run out of the photo!

Where's the ball gone???

We re-painted our front posts in Woodland Grey, the same as our Colourbond roof. It looks good. Daz painted the front door purple just for fun but we think we'll change it to a deep red.

A little bit more of inside!

The start of our outdoor entertaining area. The deck will continue out 5 m to the left of the picture. The trampoline etc. will go out the back where all the logs are.

Wardrobes upstairs finally have handles. Still need hanging rails inside though!! Not so bad for the boys, lots of shelving anyway but I really want to hang up Amber's dresses!

Teenage boy's room!

Tim's lovely room, all organised!

Tim's wall. Note the other team posters and one of Gary Ablett. He just loves footy!!!

It's been a while!

It's been quite a while since I have posted here. I guess that's because not much has been happening on the work front at home. We ran out of money a few months ago and have struggled to get more finance. Darren also started working again which doesn't leave much time to do things at home. It has been a hard time as we felt in limbo somewhat. This house has just cost way too much to finish. I don't know what I was thinking when I read some of my earlier cost projections!! This final stage of all the fiddly timber work, painting, bathrooms, doors, handles etc. just goes on and on!! When the plastering was done, I thought it was almost finished!!
Anyway, we have been blessed and have managed to get some money to finish the place. We have started ordering roll-a-doors, organising slabs for the garage, getting our lovely custom made doors in. Above are the french doors to the study. The left hand architrave is stained as it will all be. We are very happy with the look! We've also got all our cabinetry for the laundry, the "bag room" and our walk in robes. These will be our major storage cupboards so I can't wait till they're all done and I can put some stuff away at last!

Here is our bedroom wall colour, also in the study and formal lounge. We love it! It is an Antique Green, not grey at all (in case you think it looks greyish!)

Here are our Rumpus Room doors with the panelled surround. We love them too. Having doors on downstairs at last makes a huge difference to noise levels!! The Rumpus will be just a great room for the kids. We are determined to finish all the entertaining areas and the kid's play areas outside so we can all enjoy the house over the summer. Then we will consider our future here depending on finances.

We have some beautiful dry stone walls hidden on the property. Darren would love to expand them and use them in landscaping, especially along the driveway.

So, all the skirting and inside timberwork is now done and all the doors are on. We have boxes of handles and door stops etc. waiting to go on, all our cabinets to make up, and we have just got our load of timber from our old Blackwood trees we had cut down. They have been milled and we are going to use them on our second staircase and as some feature timber benchtops in the kitchen. They look gorgeous! Once the painting is done downstairs (and I'm trying to convince Darren to hire a painter to finish it all) it will be ready for carpet and finally, the house will be almost there. Except for the garages, back deck and the other bathrooms of course. And the landscaping. Sigh!!!
Bless you all and have lovely school holidays!!

Next.......

Just thought I'd put this in, a pic of Amber dressed up as...........I'll just ask her..........well, it's a floaty ring and a rubbish bag girl!!

Darren finished the splash backs a few weeks ago. Above, we had to score the veneer board behind the stove to get the glue to stick.

Almost done! You can see the colour. Hasn't been grouted yet but has all the little nails as spacers between the tiles.
It is all finished now and I'm very happy with it. It's an olivey green colour and it ties in really well with everything else in the kitchen. The one thing I would change is the kick boards in the U shaped section. They are off white like the cupboards and just show so much dirt and scuff marks. I think stainless steel might look nice or the timber colour like the other wall.

I have been busily unpacking lately, all the boxes of things that aren't necessities, that have just been sitting in the rumpus room. Lots of books, sentimental items, toys, old magazines. I even found some great kitchen items I'd forgotten I had including some Tupperware I'd bought!
It is fun but my reasonably tidy house has become a city of piles!! Piles of stuff to be put here and there. We still haven't done a lot of our storage areas like our walk in robe, my "bag room" off the kitchen, the laundry cabinets, etc. So, I think I'll just keep the piles, but organise them into where they'll eventually end up. At least I can see all the things I have and get a vision for where to put them. Some of our things I haven't seen since we packed up Surrey Hills which was four years ago! It is quite fun!