I enrolled the help of our lovely neighbours, Jim and Viv, who worked their magic in the garden. Jim was on general maintenance and tidying, and Viv helped me overhaul the fruit cage. We decided it would take too long to tidy around the strawberry plants, so she dug them all up then I went round with the rotary hoe and then we re-planted most of them. It was a bit of a poor crop last year (the year before was a bumper one) so I think they may need replacing soon.
Fruit cage before....
And after....
The veg garden needed a major overhaul and I had a sleepless night on Friday wondering how the hell I was going to manage it on my own (as OH is on the mend slowly but still unable to help with anything manual). So out came the rotary hoe, and I was surprised how quickly I managed it. But boy my arms were aching by the end of it! Big Girl followed behind with a bucket and picked up any big weeds I dug up, and even Little Man helped for a while.
Veg garden before....
And after....
As I was madly doing my final cleaning and dusting duties I looked out of the window and my heart fell. It was around half an hour before she was due to arrive, and it was windy, grey and starting to drizzle....
I had visions of it being postponed, which we couldn't really do as it goes to auction in four weeks (eek!). But miraculously about twenty minutes later, it cleared up and the sun started shining! Yay, someone was looking down on me and thinking 'come on, give her a break'.
Well I wouldn't normally welcome the world to peek inside my house, but I was really impressed with how the photographs came out. Would you like a tour?
Come on in then!
There is a large, open plan living/kitchen/dining area which is lovely and light and airy. Here in NZ houses tend to have more and bigger windows than in the UK. It's lovely when the weather is nice to open the doors wide and sit and admire the view.
I definitely think I need to get rid of the children, then my lounge could always look this tidy ;-)
I was really pleased how my homemade bunting and crochet and tapestry cushions added a pop of colour, and the peace lily plant came to life with the sun shining through the leaves....
The plastic flower windmills on the deck looked colourful too. We got them from the Warehouse, they were about $15 each, and they have lots of different colours. I'd love to get some more but can't really afford to waste more money on plastic flowers!
When we moved in there was just a deck out the back. I convinced OH that wasn't going to be safe with a little person crawling around out there, so he put in the fencing. It spoils the view a little bit, but means Little Boy can play out there safely on his own. He loves racing up and down there on his little plastic car.
The Archgola was brilliant device we had installed. It used to get really hot in the living area in summer, and now the archgola cuts that dramatically. It is also 99% UV resistant, which protects the carpet and curtains from damage, and also means the kids can play outside under it without worrying about them getting burnt. Plus they can also still play outside when it's raining.
There is an area of decking outside Big Girl's bedroom that we haven't fenced. This is the 'grown ups' spot, where we have the BBQ and dining table and chairs....
Little Boy's toys had to be packed away temporarily, and all the ornaments came out that used to be there before he arrived....
I don't think I have seen Big Girl's room so tidy!
I love Little Boy's room. I got the stencils from America as I couldn't find anything I liked in New Zealand. I'll show you around more another time, as I'd like to remember what it all looks like - I'm sure one of them will want something similar in their room when we get back to the UK.
This is OH's toy. We both played a lot of competition pool before we had kids, and shipped this over when we came here. Unfortunately we won't be able to afford anywhere big enough to accommodate it when we go home, so will have to sell it :-(
It doesn't normally look this tidy in here by the way. There are usually bikes, boxes of things to sell, and OH's inversion table (you hang upside down on it when you have a bad back). The carpet was a really good idea, and I'd never heard of it until I saw an ad on TV. It's a special garage carpet that you can drive your car on. It feels really thin and ineffective, but has made a huge difference in there. Before, it was just concrete and felt quite cold underfoot. Now it feels more like part of the house in there.
So that's it, the tour is finally over, hope it was slightly interesting!
xxxx
Wow, what a lot of space! Looks like a lovely place to have lived for a while and this blog will remind you of what it was like.
ReplyDeleteYes, that was one of my main reasons for creating this blog, a kind of online diary/photo album that we could look back on,and I could share with anyone who was interested in taking a peek!
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