A small Vignette of our Home

These came from my parent's holiday home - they have been with us for more than 30 years.
Maybe we can find a place for them in our new home - where ever that will be.

A corner - a small vignette of our house before Auction

Anyone for chess - who left their shoes hanging around - that would be Sue!

GOSH, ITS ALL HAPPENING NOW!!!!

Boy have I been slack again - November 2 was our last post and I can only blame the house, work and general life.
The big news is that we signed with a Real Estate Agent on Friday and now have an Auction date of Saturday November 14. The next few steps are that we need to supply various notices of council and water rates - we employ a conveyor to arrange the necessary paper work that is required with selling a property.

The instant turf has transformed the front yard, new paint on the house has also added sparkle.
Being spring, the garden is starting to bloom. Friends gave us a few rose bushes that they were throwing out and another friend gave us some ground cover lillies.

This is our entrance hall (welcome) with the newly sanded and polished Baltic floorboards. Our hous was built in 1929 and these boards had never been exposed until 8 weeks ago. 

Our living room has always been the quiet spot in the house - a place of refuge.
Nothing better than sitting in front of the flames with a glass of port, muscat or tokay on a winter's night.

The living room has become the domaine of our 17 year old blue burmese who loves to sit in the afternoon sunshine streaming in through the bay window. 

Sue loves to entertain and the dining room has been a focal point with friends and family over many years.
It still is.

The Real Estate Agent will be arranging for photography and advertising the property which will go to 2 or 3 Internet sites and newspapers. The photography is around October 12 and the ads will be on the Internet from October 21. The first inspections start from October 24.

I demolished the en-suite this week and we went shopping for a new shower base, taps and all the tiles for the floor and sower recess.

The vanity was fitted and I layed the base for the floor tiling. The Plumber arrives Monday to checkout the work to be done. The room will be painted in the Antiuque USA White to match the colour theme of the rest of the house. I have 3 weeks to get this done prior to photography - the stress of it all. The floor tiles will be a charcoal colour with the shower recess being a crisp, clean whit gloss with a feature strip of clear aqua colours in a vertical strip up the wall and as a splash back on the vanity. The finishing touch will be an arc Deco mirror above the vanity.

These are the tiles we will use as a feature in the shower recess and the vanity.

Before October 12, I have to have the e-suite completed. Its just a small job of fitting the shower base, tiling the walls and floor, having the Plumber fit everything and then painting the room (not small job - I'm freaking out).  Next week we are having three rooms carpeted and then we style those rooms. Oh, the pressure!!!!!!!!
I must say that they place has never looked better. He's some photos to show where we are.

It doesn't end with the Auction and hopefully it sells well. If the sales recently are any indication of our local market, then we should be quietly confident. So once we know how much finance we have to play with, we can start our search for a new home in earnest. The location will be a country town less than 2 hours from home. Stay tuned.

Another Day in France

Luxembourg Gardens, Paris

The Front Yard Transformed.

It's been a very productive weekend starting from my Friday - that's when my weekends start. Our big project this weekend was to lay new turf in the front of the house and replant the entrance garden bed. We achieved our goals with the help from out two sons Mitchell and Andrew. They've been so helpful during our house spruce up.

Old grass and weeds being removed

New grass and top soil delivered

Mitch and Andrew spread the top soil

Andrew and his friend cleaned the terracotta tiled roof - only three weeks ago they helped me paint one side of the house and part of the side fence. This weekend they helped lay turf. Sue had organised the top soil and turf to be delivered on the Friday. Come Saturday we started by taking a skim of grass and weeds from the surface. Next was to spread and level the top soil. We then took the water-filled roller over the surface before laying the turf.

Almost ready for the turf

Preparation all cmpleted

The turf now laid and we have a new front yard that has been transformed.

This is where I previously parked my car while Sue's car was on the brick driveway. Over the years, the grass had become worn with weeds taking over. I would judge where the car would be parked by the wheels hit the pot holes.

The whole job on the Saturday took around four hours between the three of us which allowed for some time in the afternoon and Sunday to do some gardening. We bought a small white peach tree and added some colour with a planting of small cottage flowers in the under it. We also did a similar planting in the front entrance garden bed where our wisteria is.

The white peach tree with lots of cottage garden flowers.

The front entrance garden bed. A rose bush is the central focus with a Wisteria behind and small cottage flowers below.

This year I cut back the Wisteria rather savagely. In past years we have felt it might just start encroaching into the house. Its been a wild beast of a plant, spreading its tentacles without warning.

Sue still has another pot to fill like the one shown here - these will grace the entrance to our front entrance.

Its been an amazing transformation to the front yard with the new fence and a lick of paint here and there on the house. With that job now ticked off the list, our next BIG project is to renovate the bedroom en-suite. This project involves fitting a new vanity, rebuilding the shower with new tiles and then hitting it with a bright new lick of paint. With only four weeks to go before we engage a Real Estate Agent and set an Auction date, I'd better get my act together.

Although Spring seems to be on the way, we have had a cold, wet winter and so we decided on an open fire on Saturday night to welcome guests to our home - it was a great end to the days hard work.