CliffsNotes

I thought that perhaps I should give you all a quick run down of the 'little-by-little' work that's been happening while I've been somewhat distracted recently.

Progress:

So far the boy has managed to finish off the fiddly bits around the front verandah edges. I'm so happy we decided to leave the timber the stained colour instead of painting it cracked slate.





Kitchen:

We now have a 'temporary' kitchen (it's likely to be 'temporary' for at least 5 years).



Cheap 'temporary' dishwasher that works as well as the really expensive one we had in our last house.



Cheap second hand oven supplied by the new plumber (don't ask me why we have a new plumber it's still a sensitive topic).



Running water!



Why is the boy so happy? He doesn't have to fill a bucket in the bathtub in order to wash the dishes!

Pottery:

A few more things have been fired, but the really exciting part is that I've finally made a start on the bathroom basins! The first one is a bit of a tester to see if everything will work and it's currently being bisqued. I'm keen to see how my glaze tests come out as well.















Garden:

We've slowly started putting the bones of our garden in place and made a start on the veggie patch ... yum!



A tree for Magnum.



A splurge at Fairhill Native Nursery.







The Melaleuca patch.



Life at Toxteth:



The boy's mum is pretty excited about the kidlet and has started buying 'essentials' like teeny tiny non-slip socks.



Anoushka has decided the best place to hang out is in the clean, folded laundry.



Ambrose is enjoying the sun. He worries me a little as he's already fallen (quite spectacularly) off the back verandah once.



The ladies are getting bigger and have begun laying (we were worried it might never happen and then we'd have to turn them into chicken soup).

On Poorliness, Plumbing, Packing, Paint & Pots

It's been a little difficult to muster up any kind of energy for renovating or indeed blogging in the last couple of weeks because I have been unwell and then the boy got what I had. So we've spent the last couple of weekends not achieving very much.

Pat the Plumber on the other hand, has been doing heaps. We now have a working toilet and bathtub! Which means we're that much closer to moving in ... all we have to do is move our stuff.









I thought the gas hot water system could have been a little more discretely located, but regulations are regulations (it needs to be at least 1m above the gas bottles) and it does look better without the fleet of warning/product stickers all over it.



We cleaned up all the tools that were just hanging about in the lounge room and I couldn't help myself ... they're now all grouped into types in their own little sections.



The boy has made a start on the finishing touches the handrails require before they can be painted. Also known as bogging ... nice.



We continued on our endless paint scraping campaign. Thanks to Sarah and Gary for the lend of their heat guns, I don't know how we would have manged without them. I'm informed that a couple of Ida's Macadamia, Prune and Port Cakes are the only acceptable method of payment.





And finally, a fair few pieces came out of a stoneware firing last week. My favourite is the tiny bowl that looks a bit like a nest.

Flat out

Did you miss me? We've been so incredibly busy these last (more than) few days. Here's a quick catch up ...

I scraped some more paint.



The boy got the verandah rails finished.



Ross the Painter finished the side of the house ...



and part of the front.







A friend with horses dropped round some veggie patch fertilizer.





The boy put up part of the downstairs battens ...



and I painted them.





And somehow in between I managed to stalk some un-supecting wildlife and potter in the yard a bit.