All this here sand...

...needs to go in there!
And who better to do that than a bald man with a bobcat...

...while I supervise and rescue lizards!


Poppy and Scooby check the Bald Man's sand spreading handiwork!

The shed goes up!

Things have been going on here the last couple of days! The shed is finally going up :)

Cuppas in the sunroom

Enjoying some rays of sunshine on this chilly winters afternoon. Kicking back, relaxing in our "sunroom" with Nanny who dropped by for a visit.

I've been cold and depressed lately, but Trev makes me laugh with his antics. It was his idea to open up the front door and sit in the sunshine and I'm glad he did. It was lovely and warm and we were able to soak up some much needed Vitamin D, turn off the heater for a little while and stop stressing about using too much gas with the heater.

OMG we have natural gas!

Not connected to the house BUT it is there and waiting for when we need to!

I'm so excited for the day I'll no longer need to be stressing out about if the gas bottle will run out while I'm in the shower :)

We have approval!

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between us and the council and Those Who Make The Rules**, I'm happy to say that our planning permit has been granted! We also have our owner builder and building permits ready to go too :)

Part of the issue with town planning was the way that we wanted to use recycled windows and clad the extension to match the era of the original house. This is not allowed to happen for reasons only known to TWMTR (my request to know exactly why remains unanswered). They do not want the new to match the old. Our windows needed to be MODERN CONTEMPORARY style, we were not allowed to use Victorian style window canopies, but they would not tell us what we were allowed to use except for they must be modern contemporary. After some discussion we are allowed to have them be a similar shape but we must ensure they are not dressed to look Victorian (so as plain as possible). The cladding for the extension is allowed to match BUT we need to provide a stop in the boards with a 3cm vertical break where the old part stops and the extension begins.
So we are pondering over the things we need to do so that we comply with the requirements of TWMTR. This is changing our vision somewhat but we are just happy that we have the green light and we can work out what we need to do.


** Because I'm kind of paranoid, the State body in charge of the decisions about our house will be known as Those Who Make The Rules (TWMTR). I'm sure if you think about it hard enough, you will work out to whom I refer to ;)

Cold snap!

Damn it's cold. It's 4 degrees outside according to my iPhone weather zone appand not much warmer in here! I'm really regretting getting rid of the fire place right now... This is me in my bedroom on my iMac. Rugged up with a blanket on my lap too. The kids have a split system in their bedroom so they are snug but it doesn't reach in here so I get to rug up in my sexy beanie and scarf.

She loves to bring me flowers :)

Pulled from the garden roots and all and left on the back step for me to find!