A Whole Lot of Fun

The official 'first swim in the pool' occurred today! The huge smiles on my kids faces said it all! 

 

And it glows at night!! This is the pool with lights on.

 
 Yep, happy kids = happy parents. I think (if the rain stops long enough) that this is going to be a great summer! When we started out on this journey, building a new home, I said I would only go through with it if we could afford to put the pool in too. It's a big investment, but when you plan on hanging at this house for a long time and have a couple of young kids, I'm already thinking it has been worth every cent. (still need to paint the wall behind the pool and landscape around it)

I visited the framers I use yesterday. My posters have arrived and I had another couple of things to be sorted too. So in a week or two we will have a big day finally getting some colour on our walls.

DH and I have been trying to estimate our next round of soil and turf so we can complete the next stage of the backyard and start the front. The front will be a 'good enough for now' effort and we can add more/correct if needed later.

This weeks flowers for my bedroom...I decided to pop some colour into the room this week.

My son, Connor, would love a dog...but DH isn't a 'dog family' man. Luckily Connor had a little 'fix' of puppy cuddles when a friend popped in with her new puppy. Meet Alfie...

 He is just adorable! My friend is away for a week in January and is looking for a puppy sitter...we'll have to work on dad - it is just 1 week after all!

We are so busy at the moment that not being able to get stuff done is a little frustrating. I have DH's birthday Wednesday and Connor's Friday...big week ahead. We will get there I guess, slowly but surely. At least my reports are all but ready to go home and work is winding down for the year. We really hit the ground running, and haven't stopped since moving in, and are very much looking forward to the holidays.

I hope everyone in Sydney enjoyed the sun after the dreadful week we had. Have a good week everyone!

Cheers

Kylie

Moving Swimmingly Along

Today our pool surfacing happened and it is finally being filled - WooHoo! Very happy with it. I wanted it to look an aqua-y turquoise-y colour rather than blue. I originally wanted to tile the whole pool but that option was just too expensive for us. So we have gone with Gemtex, and I am very happy so far. It still has a very long way to go to be full, but already you get an idea of the colour.

Bamboo will be planted along the right-hand side. As it is quite expensive, we are starting very small, but it is meant to grow to full height (8m if we let it) within a couple of years, so this time next year it will hopefully be looking much better.

These two troublemakers cannot wait til it's ready to swim in!!

Checking it out from the hose's perspective. Yes that means I stood in the pool - before I saw the note telling me not to for at least 36hours...oops! Hopefully no damage done:)

And it is allowed to be filled because the fence went up last week!I think I forgot to update the blog about this. Love it!!!! You can barely see it there!

Thought I'd show you this shot looking out in the evening - just the image I had in mind when we started this journey.

The front is still in desperate need of attention. We did paint the letterbox and planter-box late yesterday, just before the rain hit.

I now need to find some house numbers I like. 

  

Add a few plants and some turf and bob's your uncle.

I did buy this succulent for a pot I bought at Freedom to go on the outside table.

Maya insisted I buy this butterfly to add to the pot. 

My 'thing' for new flowers in the bedroom each week has continued...here is this weeks effort.

And last week we entertained (just casual drinks with extended family) on the Sunday afternoon, and these were on the table adding some colour to the mix.

I am still struggling to keep up with the hectic schedule. Unfortunately it is set to continue right up to Christmas - but what do you do? I really do want to sort the front out, but at the same time our kids are a bit attention deprived - due to the house and my work lately - so I'm feeling a few family outings and quality time also need to be thrown into the mix.

I am very much hoping some pics we had taken of the kids recently might be ready by the end of the week. We spent a small fortune on them, but what can a mother do when her kids are so darn cute! Will try to share/show them off on here. My posters have still NOT arrived. Tomorrow is the last day I should be waiting for them...better come!

That's all for now folks. Hope everyone is doing well.

Cheers
Kylie 

Growth...The Only Way is UP!

 In many ways this song describes my life...not that I'm all that low down, but still, I look at where I am now and what the future days, weeks and months hold and I feel...

All aspects of my life are hectic at the moment. I don't think I had time for breakfast or a lunch break this week and the following weekends look choc a block too. Those blasted reports are still hanging over my head and will consume a great deal of the weekend. We still have a very long way to go with things at the house too. I just really look forward to not only taking a break - as I did last weekend - but actually enjoying it fully because everything is DONE!

 On the other part of my title, the growth of my newly planted garden and turf is very pleasing. It has literally been down for a couple of weeks and my lawn (out the back - still haven't touched the front...sigh) needs it's first haircut! Just the tiniest bit, but it will be a cut none-the-less. Everything else is sprouting new leaves and things beautifully.

Long and Lush

Look at the half dozen new 'sprouts'.

Frangipani - full of new shoots.

This off cut is from a huge tree in my nan's garden. Her magnificent tree is decades old!

My ornamental ginger is sprouting away.

My agave's are doing well too.

In other news, my poster I ordered off 'Etsy' from America arrived yesterday. It is for my son Connor's room. His favourite descriptor at the moment is that everything is totally 'awesome' so I thought this was very appropriate. Plus I love him to bits and he is incredibly awesome! It should look great once framed.

Not so incredibly awesome was my leaking roof this week. Those of you who are Sydneysiders know we copped two very big thunderstorms this week. During one, the rain was sooo heavy that my troublesome spot in the roof (the one that caused much grief during the build) leaked again. The problem is, damage is difficult to assess as most of the water comes in through the wall cavity. So my walls were dry but my carpet was wet. Water was dripping out of electrical points...not good. Obvious to see the water in the carpet, not so obvious is whether or not there has been water get in under my bamboo flooring...who knows what damage this may cause. Anyway, we have the maintenance man from Metricon coming out tomorrow morning.


That's all for this Friday night. Head down and tail up for my reports. I plan to work my butt off as I have more family visiting for drinks Sunday afternoon and I really want to be able to relax and enjoy their company.

Hope everyone is well.

Cheers
Kylie   

Taking a Break

This weekend we decided to put down the tools and put up our feet. I reckon since we moved in in August we've been going fairly flat chat and we deserved (desperately needed) a quiet weekend. It was lovely, although I did have other work (writing school reports...yuck) hanging over my head, but I managed to put that off too - very Scarlett O'Hara of me...why do today what I can put off until tomorrow etc

So for once we took our time reading the papers. I actually fitted in a beautician appointment I haven't had time for. I finished a book I've been reading. I sat on the lounge and watched a movie. I had more family over for a lovely bbq lunch. Sound relaxing? It was! I suggest those of you who have been working madly like me, take a weekend and just chill out! I know that when we are ready for the next onslaught of jobs I'll be rested and ready to go again.

I did buy my flowers for my bedroom for this week...one small but enjoyable job.

 Nothing nicer than having fresh flowers in the bedroom. Try it. I don't go silly and buy expensive - then I'd just feel guilty everytime I looked at them - but small and simple is nicer anyway I think.

I also enjoyed burning my new candle in my new candle/lantern thingy during Friday afternoon drinks.

And in other news, the render guy has started on our wall, planter box and letterbox. If the weather behaves it should be finished tomorrow, but I'm not sure how lucky I'm going to be with that. Snapped a quick shot or two on my way to my son's Oztag game.

 Really won't be long now until we tackle the front gardens and turf. We'll paint first but that shouldn't be too big a job (hopefully).

Pool is still moving along slowly. I'm eagerly, stressfully, anxiously waiting for the fence guy still...will be very relieved when he has done his job!

That is all to report for now. Those posters I ordered should have arrived by last Friday, so I will chase that up tomorrow. Back to work...can't keep putting it off as the deadline is looming closer by the minute!

Cheers
Kylie