Garden of Weedin'

 From this...

to this...

in 4 hours!!!

"Give a weed an inch and it’ll take a yard" (or in our case a rain water tank)
Today Mum, Dad & Kerry took on the vine growing around one of the rain water tanks at Dawesley. (Lee had to work so he missed out on the latest cleansing task).

All it took were 2 ladders, a cordless sabre saw, a garden saw, secateurs of varying sizes, tin snips and a lot of grunt; plus lunch and coffee at Millies Bakery in Nairne to keep the batteries running.

When Dad went on a trip home to get the tin snips Kerry had a turn wielding the sabre saw (girls like power tools too!).

There was a lot to find in the vine:

• things that make you do the creepy crawly dance – spiders (of various sizes and hairiness), beetles, earwigs, cockroaches, a UMC (unidentified moving creature - the size of a rat - that made Kerry jump off the ladder);
• a gecko (we cooed over him);
• old birds’ nests including a dead baby parrot (poor birdie);
• household items entwined by the vine runners - a dust pan, the side of an old singer sewing table, a garden fork;
• other miscellaneous items - a big metal staple thingy and a metal cone (that looks like it belongs to the tin man).

Now all we need to do is deal with the aftermath. And find someone interested in coming to collect the water from the tank so we can remove it.

All were feeling satisfied after a job well done.

Big thanks to Mum & Dad for their help today.


A bientot!


K'n'L

Now the fun begins...

And today was fun, even though we were met at the door by an unexpected guest. After charging the batteries for the cordless tools and packing the car with a few bits of equipment borrowed from dad's garage, we headed to the Chateau. Lee unlocked the door and as soon as it opened the surprise guest appeared. Kerry kindly provided the following creative version of the encounter:

(To the tune of Incy Wincy Spider)

Giant fuzzy spider climbed up the door frame.
Along came the human and down the spider came!
"Aaargh" screamed the human and did a little dance,
so giant fuzzy spider ran up the stone manse!

Yep, when Lee opened the door, the worlds largest ever (he reckons) huntsman spider dropped from the top of the door frame and landed on his leg! He bravely squeeled like a girl and broke into the 'get it off me' dance. The spider, probably laughing so hard he couldn't hold on, eventually dropped to the ground and ran off up the wall.

CREEEEPY!

Today's task was to rip out the ceiling in the old post office/shop front. The previous owner of the building had decided to put in a nice new ceiling of PINE FLOOR BOARDS!!! Perhaps they had wild parties in mind complete with Lionel Ritchie dancing on the ceiling???

 

Anyway, we hated it straight away and knew getting rid of it was our first opportunity to make our mark on the property. Here it goes...

 

 

 

Tadaaaa!

Ok, so it looks pretty daggy at the moment but we know it will end up looking spectacular. If you have seen the ceiling in our apartment at Port Adelaide you will know what we mean :).

After the clean up we noticed a cable and plug in the rafters near the chimney and upon inspection located an old portable light fitting at the other end of the cable. Just for a laugh we plugged it in and it actually works. It's about as bright as a 3 year old's birthday cake but it was still a cute find. And we're keeping it!

 

A bientot!

K'n'L

PS: If anybody would like some nice pine ceiling/floorboards for fire wood, let us know!

That's settled...

Hoorah - we finally got there. We have had several delays and are already behind schedule (not that we actually have a schedule) but at least we have finally achieved settlement. Lee got an email from the conveyancer on Tuesday to say that settlement was to occur today however the saga continued (told you it'd be a saga) when the conveyancer called Lee at work today to organise for him to sign another document. It seems one of the forms we signed that was then sent to the bank disappeared over the weekend. An emergency visit to Lee at work fixed that though - lucky he works locally!

So after work Lee popped in to the real estate agent to pick up the keys and a lovely little gift pack - wine, glasses, chockies & local 'Hills' magazines all in a nice wine cooler bag - thank you Mr Hooker! As for the keys - they don't make them like that anymore! Check out the big sod below. We don't what door it fits or if that door will end up being chucked out but we'll certainly keep the key. That's going straight to the pool room... when and if we have a pool room.

A bientot!

K'n'L

A bunch o' stuff...

Well it's been a while - sorry for the lack of posts lately.

So here's a general update:

Remember the post about the meetings with the architects? Remember there was one that we really wanted to go with? Remember we were waiting for their proposals? Well, we got the proposals... and we can't afford the one we liked. Where to from here? Don't know.

Remember we had a roof contractor measure the Chateau for a new roof? Remember we were waiting for an email with the quote? Well, we got the email... and we can't (or more accurately, don't want to) afford it. He can place his $23,000.00 quote somewhere very unpleasant.

For our last renovation - the warehouse apartment in Port Adelaide - we wanted the ultimate modern kitchen with Miele appliances. We couldn't afford the Miele appliances so ended up with a nice kitchen with appliances which were of rather lower quality than we thought they were. Well, this time we want those Miele appliances. We can't afford 'em... but we're getting 'em anyway! A local retailer, Rawsons Elite Appliances, recently had their yearly sale and we were in like Flynn! We got a Miele microwave, steam oven and dishwasher and two Franke range hoods. Why two? You'll see eventually. And all up we saved around $4000.00. Noice! The rest of the appliances will come further down the track.

And finally... settlement on the Chateau was scheduled to occur this Friday the 13th - hmmm, hadn't realised that would be the date until I typed that! Well, perhaps it's a good thing that something has gone awry with the bank and settlement won't actually occur now until next week. Phew!

Other than all that we are just mucking around with fit out designs in somewhat of an attempt to minimise the work for the architect... whoever that might be. Stay tuned.

A bientot!

K'n'L