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Wednesday 30 January 2008
scroungers
Kim & I are self professed junkies, no not drugs, we love junk. At the moment the "chuckouts" are on, for those less informed this is the time that people place their unwanted goods on the side of the road for council workers to collect. We take great pleasure in saving these treasures from landfill, greenies that we are. So in the last week or so we have a clothes dryer!!! (look at ebay item 320211777520, same as our 'new' one), a 3 way camping fridge, old but works perfectly, new ride on plastic stuff for the kids (as if they need it!), nice pine chest of drawers, imaculate timber venetians x 4, an incredible toilet (my favourite find, photos to come, it's amazing!), plastic drop down blinds for the verandah, boxes of books, very nice rugs, an old ornate fire place surround in cast iron (bound for our outdoor bathroom someday I think, we have 2 clawfoot baths, one for indoors & one for my long dreamt of outdoor "bathroom"), brooms, new mops, a gorgeous old cane chair, 2 art deco light fitting & lots more that I can't think of right now. I hate that people throw such great stuff to landfill but I love that we can just collect it for free! I really don't get why these people can't take these things to the charity shops though, what are they thinking? Oh, I forgot to mention the 200 year old violin. I'm not kidding. thank god we saved it. It is just gorgeous & quite valuable. A Hopf from germany. Oh, and at least 100m of thick black plastic pipe that will connect the house to the water tank (quite an effort to get it onto the truck!).
Friday 25 January 2008
BEARERS & JOISTS
I went over to the block last night to take some photos of the Peugeot (for ebay) & took a few more pics while I was there with no kids to take up my time. It was lovely being there alone for a few minutes! Here's where we're up to. That's the kitchen in the foreground! Kim put a piece of chipboard there so I could stand at the kitchen sink & enjoy my view! Eitherside where there's no joists yet will be decking, that will come later. We're off to spend the weekend in Sydney, hopefully the joists will get finished next week, the weather's been bad again ) :
Thursday 24 January 2008
ramblings
My Ivy is a girl, a real girl! She is a feisty little thing & quite defiant & cheeky but such a girly little thing. She's started to insist on wearing dresses, yesterday I dressed her in pants to go out to see a friend & when I'd finished she said "OK, my dress now!". So we popped a little skirt over the pants & she was happy. She was given 2 dresses by a friend yesterday & she had to immediately put one on , then take it off & put the other one on. She also loves shoes, hats & bags. It's all a bit foreign to me after Chelsea being such a toboy but it is fun dressing her up!
Finn has decided he wants his hair short like Mum. Dad's not impressed, Finn's going to have to really persist with this one! He cut a bit of it himself last week, then brought Ivy into my workroom to show me how he can cut her hair too! I think he knew he needed my aproval before he began! He just hates having it brushed & it's quite a bit ofwork keeping it knot free, a job we often give to Lucy our nanny twice a week to catch up on. These days she's plaiting it which looks gorgeous on him!
I've added some new photos to previous posts, it takes me a while to get to these things, catching up financially after 2 weeks off over Christmas is proving to take longer than I thought it would. Ebay's a little quieter than I would like but not too bad.
We've just had another week of rain so not much has happenned on the house, still getting through the floor joists. I think they're about 2/3s done. The sun is out today so Kim's over there for the day. We've bought our roofing this week, due to be delivered next week I think. Another bargain at $6.20 a meter but we are having to change the planned colour. New colourbond at this price is just about unheard of so worth a colour change, it's saved us about $2500. So the colour will now be headland (dark red, almost a terracotta) instead of ocean blue. With our funds very tight now we need to save wherever we can.
We've managed to get a tax return done so that will bring some dollars in & we'll have to sell the Peugeot now too, I'm happy with the Mazda so no point keeping it.
she loves her twirly skirts!
arm in plaster, due to come off Jan.31st
belly laughing, she's always happy!
Finn always happy to RUN!
Brody's artwork on her plaster
must be the smallest plaster cast on earth!
This Sunday we're off to Sydney for the 20th reunion of the crew of the 1st Fleet Re-enactment that I was involved in in 87-88. We're going sailing on the Svanen (one of the tall ships that did the trip & is still here in Sydney) followed by a party at an ex-crew member's place in the inner West. We went to the opening of an exhibition of memorabilia from the event, put together by the organiser Jonathon King in Avalon. I won a writing competion when I was 15 (25 years ago!) that was held by the First Fleet re-enactment comittee & Jonathon had my original story, letter that accompanied it & photo I had submitted all on display. At the time I won a month on a tall ship. It was so funny to see it, my handwriting back then was sooo neat! I don't know what happenned lol! We caught up with a few people we hadn't seen for years (Mario came along to). I went on to work on the Bounty as a cook & sailed to England from Sydney & then did the 1st half of the re-enactment voyage back, Mario & I met on the Bounty & left together in Rio to travel in South America. That seems like another lifetime ago now. Here's a few pics I took at the exhibit.
he had even kept the little cutout I filled in from the newspaper!
a photo of a photo, the ships at portsmouth. Bounty is to the right of centre.
Laid back Ivy
bored teenager
she just wouldn't keep those toes still for me! I like it anyway. Her feet on the table at a restaurant, little feral.
Finn has decided he wants his hair short like Mum. Dad's not impressed, Finn's going to have to really persist with this one! He cut a bit of it himself last week, then brought Ivy into my workroom to show me how he can cut her hair too! I think he knew he needed my aproval before he began! He just hates having it brushed & it's quite a bit ofwork keeping it knot free, a job we often give to Lucy our nanny twice a week to catch up on. These days she's plaiting it which looks gorgeous on him!
I've added some new photos to previous posts, it takes me a while to get to these things, catching up financially after 2 weeks off over Christmas is proving to take longer than I thought it would. Ebay's a little quieter than I would like but not too bad.
We've just had another week of rain so not much has happenned on the house, still getting through the floor joists. I think they're about 2/3s done. The sun is out today so Kim's over there for the day. We've bought our roofing this week, due to be delivered next week I think. Another bargain at $6.20 a meter but we are having to change the planned colour. New colourbond at this price is just about unheard of so worth a colour change, it's saved us about $2500. So the colour will now be headland (dark red, almost a terracotta) instead of ocean blue. With our funds very tight now we need to save wherever we can.
We've managed to get a tax return done so that will bring some dollars in & we'll have to sell the Peugeot now too, I'm happy with the Mazda so no point keeping it.
she loves her twirly skirts!
arm in plaster, due to come off Jan.31st
belly laughing, she's always happy!
Finn always happy to RUN!
Brody's artwork on her plaster
must be the smallest plaster cast on earth!
This Sunday we're off to Sydney for the 20th reunion of the crew of the 1st Fleet Re-enactment that I was involved in in 87-88. We're going sailing on the Svanen (one of the tall ships that did the trip & is still here in Sydney) followed by a party at an ex-crew member's place in the inner West. We went to the opening of an exhibition of memorabilia from the event, put together by the organiser Jonathon King in Avalon. I won a writing competion when I was 15 (25 years ago!) that was held by the First Fleet re-enactment comittee & Jonathon had my original story, letter that accompanied it & photo I had submitted all on display. At the time I won a month on a tall ship. It was so funny to see it, my handwriting back then was sooo neat! I don't know what happenned lol! We caught up with a few people we hadn't seen for years (Mario came along to). I went on to work on the Bounty as a cook & sailed to England from Sydney & then did the 1st half of the re-enactment voyage back, Mario & I met on the Bounty & left together in Rio to travel in South America. That seems like another lifetime ago now. Here's a few pics I took at the exhibit.
he had even kept the little cutout I filled in from the newspaper!
a photo of a photo, the ships at portsmouth. Bounty is to the right of centre.
Laid back Ivy
bored teenager
she just wouldn't keep those toes still for me! I like it anyway. Her feet on the table at a restaurant, little feral.
Thursday 17 January 2008
wildflower
I took this on the block the other day, then went back in the afternoon to look at it again & it had vanished!
Sunday 13 January 2008
NEW CAR!
My last post had been saved as a draft for about a week so it was actually quite old.
We have since been back to Westmead & had ivy's arm xrayed & placed in a full plaster. It is healing well & she looks so, cute, her plaster is just tiny. Brody drew a dalek on it (he's a mad Dr. Who fan). She won't let me write on it!
Yesterday we were out at the garage sales & came across a 1988 Mazda 626 7 seater station wagon with 6 months rego for $800, so we bought it! My old Peugeot has been out of Rego for 2 months so I have been carless. It need quite a bit of work to get it registered & we just haven't had the time (or haven't wanted to put the time into the car instead of the house) or the money to pay someone to do it. Kim was going to have to do it soon as you can only leave a car unregistered for 3 months before you have to get a blue slip, so we were dreading him having to take several days off the house to work on the car.
We weren't looking for a new car, this was just too good a deal to pass up & I love it! It drives beautifully, has heaps more grunt & mod cons than the Peugeot & (touch wood) seems to have no issue other than a CV joint that will need replacing sometime soon.
The house: Bearers finished & joists about 1/3 done, maybe a bit more. We are having to de-nail as we go as all out bearers & joists are recycled timber & most of it was not de-nailed. We've paid about $1 a meter for most of it so it's worth the extra effort of denailing. hoping to have the joists finished this week. Photos coming soon.
We have since been back to Westmead & had ivy's arm xrayed & placed in a full plaster. It is healing well & she looks so, cute, her plaster is just tiny. Brody drew a dalek on it (he's a mad Dr. Who fan). She won't let me write on it!
Yesterday we were out at the garage sales & came across a 1988 Mazda 626 7 seater station wagon with 6 months rego for $800, so we bought it! My old Peugeot has been out of Rego for 2 months so I have been carless. It need quite a bit of work to get it registered & we just haven't had the time (or haven't wanted to put the time into the car instead of the house) or the money to pay someone to do it. Kim was going to have to do it soon as you can only leave a car unregistered for 3 months before you have to get a blue slip, so we were dreading him having to take several days off the house to work on the car.
We weren't looking for a new car, this was just too good a deal to pass up & I love it! It drives beautifully, has heaps more grunt & mod cons than the Peugeot & (touch wood) seems to have no issue other than a CV joint that will need replacing sometime soon.
The house: Bearers finished & joists about 1/3 done, maybe a bit more. We are having to de-nail as we go as all out bearers & joists are recycled timber & most of it was not de-nailed. We've paid about $1 a meter for most of it so it's worth the extra effort of denailing. hoping to have the joists finished this week. Photos coming soon.
Tuesday 8 January 2008
BROKEN ARM!
No, it wasn't a sprain. She has a fractured elbow ) :
Here she is playing with a half cast on about 3 days after the event.
Of course I now feel like a real goose!
On Sunday after the fall (new years eve) she was OK & using the arm but was whiny & it was tender. We kept checking her wrist which seemed to have full movement & no pain. It was in the afternoon when we went swimming at the lake that I noticed her very swollen elbow when she screamed in pain as I tried to get her arm into her swimsuit. She couldn't straighten it. So we took her to hospital Monday morning & had x-rays done. The Dr told me that he couldn't see a fracture & they didn't have a radiologist there until Wednesday so if the radiologist saw anything we would get a phone call. I thought it a bit strange but there wasn't much I could do so home we went. We went to a NYE party & she was happy & had a good time. Tuesday she was also fine, we had to be careful dressing her & putting her in her car seat, otherwise she was using it without pain. Tuesday night at 2am (wed. morning) she woke up in pain & was awake crying for most of the night. I knew then it was broken although had thought it was since the Monday (always trust your gut feelings!) So we were back at the hospital 1st thing Wednesday morning, she was still in tears, had hardly stopped since 2am. The radiologist took one look at the x-rays & of course saw the break instantly. They showed them to us that time & it actually seemed quite obvious.
While we were waiting for a Dr to put a plaster on she went to sleep in my arms, I put her down in a cot & they put the plaster on while she slept, she was totally exhausted. They only put a half cast on & gave us a referral to an orthapedic surgeon at Westmead for the next day at 8am. So up at 5.30, out by 6.15 & there by 8, only to be told that it was too swollen for a full plaster so come back next week! She was the youngest patient to have this type of fracture he had ever seen. He also said it is worse than it appears in the x-rays. And he will need to re-x-ray next week (this Thursday) to check for any movement as there can be complications if it moves at all including growths on the bone causing deformity as she grows! That brick pier was only 60cm tall, are we unlucky or what!
Anyway, she's coping pretty well with it & it's not stopping her from doing much but causes us much stress everytime she falls, which of course she does a fair bit. We're looking forward to getting that full plaster on to protect it a bit better. She won't let us put a plastic bag over it so we can give her a bath & the bandage around her hand is getting pretty disgusting!
Things are progressing extremely well on the house (finally!!). Kim has finished levelling all the piers, he had to make timber forms to sit on each pier & then adjust their height with cement to make them all level. We used our $5 laser beam level (garage sale find) to level them all, it was so easy! So we're now into the bearers, it's very exciting! Kim thinks he'll have the bearer's & joists finished by the end of the week & then we'll be laying the floor!!!!! OMG! It's been so hard getting to this point, if only things could go smoothly for a while. The weather is being kind, a bit of rain here & there & overcast a lot but not too bad.
Here she is playing with a half cast on about 3 days after the event.
Of course I now feel like a real goose!
On Sunday after the fall (new years eve) she was OK & using the arm but was whiny & it was tender. We kept checking her wrist which seemed to have full movement & no pain. It was in the afternoon when we went swimming at the lake that I noticed her very swollen elbow when she screamed in pain as I tried to get her arm into her swimsuit. She couldn't straighten it. So we took her to hospital Monday morning & had x-rays done. The Dr told me that he couldn't see a fracture & they didn't have a radiologist there until Wednesday so if the radiologist saw anything we would get a phone call. I thought it a bit strange but there wasn't much I could do so home we went. We went to a NYE party & she was happy & had a good time. Tuesday she was also fine, we had to be careful dressing her & putting her in her car seat, otherwise she was using it without pain. Tuesday night at 2am (wed. morning) she woke up in pain & was awake crying for most of the night. I knew then it was broken although had thought it was since the Monday (always trust your gut feelings!) So we were back at the hospital 1st thing Wednesday morning, she was still in tears, had hardly stopped since 2am. The radiologist took one look at the x-rays & of course saw the break instantly. They showed them to us that time & it actually seemed quite obvious.
While we were waiting for a Dr to put a plaster on she went to sleep in my arms, I put her down in a cot & they put the plaster on while she slept, she was totally exhausted. They only put a half cast on & gave us a referral to an orthapedic surgeon at Westmead for the next day at 8am. So up at 5.30, out by 6.15 & there by 8, only to be told that it was too swollen for a full plaster so come back next week! She was the youngest patient to have this type of fracture he had ever seen. He also said it is worse than it appears in the x-rays. And he will need to re-x-ray next week (this Thursday) to check for any movement as there can be complications if it moves at all including growths on the bone causing deformity as she grows! That brick pier was only 60cm tall, are we unlucky or what!
Anyway, she's coping pretty well with it & it's not stopping her from doing much but causes us much stress everytime she falls, which of course she does a fair bit. We're looking forward to getting that full plaster on to protect it a bit better. She won't let us put a plastic bag over it so we can give her a bath & the bandage around her hand is getting pretty disgusting!
Things are progressing extremely well on the house (finally!!). Kim has finished levelling all the piers, he had to make timber forms to sit on each pier & then adjust their height with cement to make them all level. We used our $5 laser beam level (garage sale find) to level them all, it was so easy! So we're now into the bearers, it's very exciting! Kim thinks he'll have the bearer's & joists finished by the end of the week & then we'll be laying the floor!!!!! OMG! It's been so hard getting to this point, if only things could go smoothly for a while. The weather is being kind, a bit of rain here & there & overcast a lot but not too bad.
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