23.05.07

so we've been in our new house for a little over 5 weeks now and i thought i'd better do an update as to what we've achieved since then! in short, not as much as i was expecting but i guess that's always the way with renos. we're limited to saturdays and sundays as the short days are really cutting into what we could be getting done in the evenings - i keep telling myself that things will progress much more quickly in the summer when we're working on the big changes to the back of the house and kitchen (if we ever get the front bit done)! anyway, here's a running list:

shane has pulled all of the plastic cladding off of the house to reveal quite filthy, and in average shape, pale salmon pink weatherboards. lovely! he's also pulled out most of the air conditioning/heating units in the front, including the one that was in the old brick fireplace - it looks so much nicer without a hideous 70's heater stuck in the middle. i bought some great vinatge leadlight windows for the front two rooms:



they need a coat of antique white paint and a few panes of glass replaced before they go in. from the same ebay seller i bought 6 old solid wood doors for the grand sum of $20 and when shane was picking everything up the guy gave him 3 more doors so we're pretty well set in that area.



yes, they're filthy but i'm planning on giving them a wash this weekend (while i keep a wary eye out for spiders). since the doors were such a bargain i think we should splurge on some really beautiful vintage door handles, just need to convince shane. i also picked up a fantastic 1930s fireplace mantle for $50 from an antique store in newport that was closing down - the master bedroom is going to be soooooo nice!

i 've spent heaps of time in the garden - making shane cut down two giant dead trees, tidying up the lawn and pruning branches. i got myself a compost bin and have the front garden bed along the fence cleared and ready for 6 rose bushes that i just ordered. never thought i'd be a rose person but they're all growing so well in the dry weather and almost everyone on our street has beautiful blooms at the moment - just felt i had to jump on the bandwagon. i ordered a variety of bare rooted hybrid tea and floribunda bushes in pale creamy apricots, whites and pale pinks. i think they'll look lovely with our soon to be pale blue/grey house with antique white trim.

and, um, that's about where we're at! over the next few weeks shane will be working on restumping the house (it's been partially done but not in a patriculary good way so he's basically redoing all of it) and then we have to decide where to go from there - probably the bathroom reno which will see me scurrying to work at 7:45 am to shower on cold winter mornings!