Hoppy

A few years ago we had a Bennett's Wallaby visit our front yard looking for green grass in a hot dry summer. He only stayed a day before moving on and we haven't seen him since.

We recently added to our backyard wildlife list when we disturbed a Tasmanian Pademelon in the back garden. It seemed pretty unhappy to see us and we assumed it also left the next day. But a few weeks later we found some pademelon poo, then we found that some of our newly shooting grass had been nibbled down very low (it's hard to photograph grass close up)

and we also noticed some foot prints in the new grass patch

 
and the track where he hopped away after being disturbed.

We think he is hiding out in the thicket in the bottom corner of the garden. There are fresh signs of him every few days and we have had the occasional sighting (although he only comes out when it's almost dark so photographs have proven impossible so far). It also means the kids haven't seen him yet, much to their disappointment.

It really is great having wildlife like this in the middle of the suburbs and we would be happy for him to set up camp permanently. We will have to take some measures to protect the new grass until it gets established as apparently the young green grass is the yummiest stuff. We've started watering some of the established grass so that it also gets some tasty new growth. If the grass keeps getting munched it may take a few goes to get the cover that we want but we'll get there.

47/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015.

Sofia & Otto: excitement for the first fruit of the season in the garden - red currants!

 


Thanks to Jodi for hosting the 52 project at practising simplicity. 

You can click on the button (here or in the side bar) to see all my 52 posts.

46/52

 

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015.

Sofia & Otto: I love the morning light in our new room



 


Thanks to Jodi for hosting the 52 project at practising simplicity. 

You can click on the button (here or in the side bar) to see all my 52 posts.

45/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015.

Sofia: tutu head
Otto: morning smiles



 


Thanks to Jodi for hosting the 52 project at practising simplicity. 

You can click on the button (here or in the side bar) to see all my 52 posts.

44/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015.

Sofia & Otto: wearing woollies by Aunty Jenny


I have been off my game the last couple of weeks so I am trying to play catch up. There are zero photos for 43/52 so I have just skipped it :)

These week 44 portraits not only feature beautiful knits from my sister Jenny, they were taken by her too. Thanks Jen!
 


Thanks to Jodi for hosting the 52 project at practising simplicity. 

You can click on the button (here or in the side bar) to see all my 52 posts.

Renovation - handover

The renovation is finally 'complete' and we are moving back in tomorrow. There are a few things still to be tidied up, particularly outside the house but the inside is done. The last few days were focussed on the big issues like exactly where the towel rails go and what height to put the feature door handles.

We got possession of the house back yesterday so we have taken lots of photos of the house looking beautiful and new and clean. The next few days we have to pack up our rental house ready for the move on Monday.

Lots of photos of the house and not so many words today. This photo shows the front door and the unfinished path and driveway area.

The kitchen looks pretty good with a few minor things to be fixed like replacing the white power points with black ones and taking the sticker off the oven. The benchtop/splashback was a bit experimental but looks really good.

This high window lets in winter sun and has a nice little view of the roof of the old house.

There are so many types of wood around the house. All of the old floorboards have been polished and the wood in every room looks different. The hallway has four different types of wood including the new section.

This is the new section seen from the steps. The door normally sits against the wall but is partly closed for the photo. Note the mix of old and new light switches at the meeting point of the old and new houses.

This is from a few steps back and shows the new steps in the hallway.

This is the kids new room, previously the lounge room.

 The hallway has very old floorboards and are full of character.

This is half of what used to be the big room and it has lovely light. The fireplace still needs to be finished off.

And this is the kids old room, sans wallpaper and manky carpet.

The sunroom has also had its  carpets removed, floorboards polished and the sliding door replaced with french doors. The view is now without power cable.

There is a window in the shower so we can watch the sun rise - a great way to start the day. Will get a shot of this once we move in.

This is our new woodheater in the room that used to be our guest room.

The old kitchen has been turned into a bathroom and a new door to the back yard. This room is very dark and we'll see how the colour goes. This door is just where the old oven was.

Across from this is a wall that was meant to be left unpainted, but there was a bit of a mis-communication and the painter started to cut in around the edges. We're still working out what to do with this. They are really beautiful old handmade bricks.

The bathroom is complete apart from the mirror on the cabinet. 

When the kids came around to have a look they did an interpretive dance in the dining room to celebrate.

We had a celebratory fish and chip picnic dinner (with Miranda's sister Jenny), just like the day we took possession of the house in December 2011.

We are looking forward to moving back in!

PS Miranda should be back with some 52 portraits sometime soon.

Renovation - the final countdown

This is probably the last blog post before completion. We are still on track to finish next Friday and the floor sander was working hard today. Things are really close now and the builders are working on the final details so it's difficult to find any photos that show the progress. We are down to the big decisions like door colours, positioning of lights and finishing off outside. This means there are less photos this week and you have to look harder to spot the differences... although the difference between the first two photos should be fairly obvious.

 Otto is pretty excited about this door (the back door).

Both the toilet door and the bathroom door are painted yellow.
The orange and the yellow colours have been carried over from functionally similar doors in parts of the house that were demolished.

And the door between the kitchen and the laundry is this blueish colour.

Most of the heaters are fitted to the hydronic system but it's not quite finished off yet.

Things are also going on outside the house. The trellis has been removed from around the verandah and unfortunately it couldn't be repaired. We've gone instead for this mesh which has been painted black and which you can sort of see in this photo. The idea is that the sandstone footings of the house are more visible. The posts will be painted white.

Overall the verandah is progressing. The electrical cable has gone, the footings and supports are being stabilised and the rotton wood is being replaced

But the biggest change is that the brick steps have now gone and the new railing has been installed. This might take a bit of getting used to.

There are lots more things that we don't have photos of but from next weekend we have the place back and can take all of the photos we want!