Christmas!

One thing I have learned is that our street is a real community - and every calendar event is celebrated in style!

After a fairly abysmal Halloween (where we ran out of lollies) I swore we'd redeem ourselves at the annual 'light up' night. Which is tonight.

Now the other end of the street goes berserk - the full monty including organised caroling etc. A flyer went out a month ago to remind us all! However - keen not to be completely outdone, this end of the street is getting into the spirit of things, and are at least token 'lighting up'.

It wasn't looking great when we came home this afternoon after a birthday party, and Sean was pretty whacked. I was fairly certain we'd be conspicuously dark this evening :(  However about 3pm he decided we couldn't be the ONLY house in the street without at least a token effort - so we headed off to Bunnings for a few strands of LEDs and then hung them across the front of the house.

We also put up the XMAS tree in the front window and will have the curtains open / lights on and XMAS music playing.

Not a huge effort, but I have been assured most homes buy a new thing each year (in the post Christmas sales) and so over time the displays get more and more elaborate ;) I will certainly be looking for a nice wreath as I have always wanted one for the front door!

So our first XMAS season in our new home is here - and it has been such a delight to become part of this beautiful community!

 

Dodgy pic of our lights - and a small guy in his
PJs coming back home after light up night.

Rug and powerpoints

A bit of action today - specifically the new rug arriving at 9am! At first I was unsure about it - but then I realised it was the coffee table on it that I was not loving. Thankfully that situation will be resolved in a week or two ;)

In the meantime I am quite liking the rug. It's lovely and soft underfoot, and has made a difference to the echo in the back room.

Of course, the room is looking so very bland - so I need to start adding some decorative elements. Will probably start with some cushions - although I won't do too much until I have decided on the curtains.  More decisions!

Not long after the rug arrived, so did the electrical contractors who did the wiring for the house. They were here to put a double powerpoint in the roof (they accidentally only installed a single). Happily while they were here they were able to install an additional powerpoint in the master bedroom as I realised I'd not made a spot for the clock radio to plug in! So it worked out well.

Art. And stools!

For me, art is about what I like. It's also about what works in a given space. So hanging art in the new house has been a challenge! A lot of things were bought or framed for a different spot. But now I need to see if they can work in a new home.

I am happy to report I have positioned 3 pieces - and that (I think, at least) they suit their new spaces even more than they did their old ones!

All three are 'children's' art. 2 Elise Hurst prints (one for each of the kids). Also 2 sets of Michelle V stickers framed together. I think they work beautifully in the space. I know they might not be everyone's taste - but they make me smile :)

 

Kids hallway artwork - towards Oscar's room

 

Kids hallway artwork - towards Adelaide's room 

 

Our Michelle V originals
These are actually little stickers designed
for the back of envelopes. But when I saw them
I thought they looked like little teeny artworks -
and so I framed them!

 

Oscar's Elise Hurst print

 

Adelaide's Elise Hurst print

Oh. The kitchen stools also arrived today. They are slightly darker than the meals table - but it works and they are suitably unobtrusive which pleases me.

 

New stools.

Now the kids can have breakfast at the kitchen bench!

Laundry

My ideas regarding my laundry have changed a lot. Originally I was going to have it as more of a walk in pantry/butlers pantry. But that changed. So then it became more of a bulk storage space/laundry. I planned open shelves on one side which, in retrospect, looked ugly and were a constant climbing/rummaging temptation to the kids.

And so I recently commissioned matching doors for them - which were installed today!

I worry about poisons, and things like that, so I got them to make one of the two new shelved cupboards lockable - and also one of the ones under the laundry bench. Not for anything precious (a really determined yank by an adult would probably open either). But it's enough that I can put the bleach / toilet cleaner and metho in there and not worry that either of the kids is going to get into some creative chemistry - or cookery :o

Not a very exciting mod - but one step closer to 'finishing' the house. And I do think it looks a lot better! Might have to start decorating the laundry, soon!

 

New doors on what were open shelves

However tomorrow's job is to move all the things I do not want the kids to get into from the right hand cupboard to the (key lockable) one on the left. Then I can take off the kiddy lock!

Also need to ring and check on progress of my stools, rug and coffee table. And then I must pull in my horns for a while and instead focus on sorting and hanging things and less buying :P

The bell

Something I had not anticipated was that it would be hard to hear a knock at the front door when you are down the back of the house. So a door bell, of some sort, became an issue.

I initially thought a brass bell - and managed to source just the thing at Bunnings. But positioned next to our chrome door handle it looked silly. And the chrome bell, when we tried it, looked even worse!

So despite my misgivings, we ended up looking for an electronic doorbell. Not wanting it to stand out, I immediately limited the selections to grey/black models. To be honest they all seemed like much of a muchness. Sean said no 'Westminster' chime (I have to say I agree) so we ended up with a model which does that chime but also with the option of a simple 'ding dong'.

It is wireless - and the 'speaker' can be positioned anywhere in the house. It's on top of the fridge, at the moment, which is surprisingly quite a good spot as it echos a little and you can hear it everywhere but it's not too loud from the bedrooms.

Visually the button is quite discrete, which I like. So while I started out fully expecting to get a brass bell, I ended up with some plastic made in China and could not be happier :)

 

The front door bell.

Shut it! Or perhaps I mean shutter it :P

Today was lovely to have Margie (with her lovely Mum) visit to install our sitting room curtains and the shutter in the ensuite/master cavity.

The sitting room curtains are identical to the bedroom ones and, like the bedroom, they look great! But the real winner today is the shutter.

You might recall that there is a cavity in the wall above the spa.

 

Quite some time ago - here's
the cavity above the bath

The plan was always to put a shutter in. To allow privacy, when required, but also light. Anyway. It's now in and looks awesome. I am so pleased with the way it looks and how it finishes the space!

 

With the shutter

 

And same from another angle

So now I need to start thinking about the back of the house. Thankfully we're not overlooked, so I have plenty of time on my side to come up with exactly the right look :)

Fence - revisited

It's not a very 'sexy' house modification - but today we had the inside of our left hand fence covered in fence palings.

The house next door has the parents and 3 teenaged/early 20s boys and a (newish) pool. Maybe 5 or 6 years old? The house we demolished also had a (above ground) pool of 30ish years old. Which we removed. For whatever reason the fence runners are on our side of the existing fence.

When we moved in, we had the fence covered along the stretch which bordered their pool (and they also have fence extenders at the top). However in the last week Oscar has started to climb the runners near the front yard, use that to climb our side gate and get out into the front yard. From there (if he wished) he could easily walk down the side of next door, drag an outdoor chair, open the pool gate and get into the pool :(  Or just wander off down the street!

Thankfully next door have been wonderful. And today their middle son (a chippie) and his mates came across to put palings all along the inside of our fence, and also put guards on the gate to help prevent climbing. It is already deadlocked with a proper key lock. AND they're building a side gate on their side to help prevent any little person access to their back garden.

I can't tell you how grateful I am that the neighbours have been so accommodating and helpful and willing to go the extra yards to keep the kids safe.

Both sides (and indeed over the road and further down) have been so lovely, welcoming and accommodating since we've returned. For example - today Oscar wrote a 'letter' to the guy next door to thank him for installing the fence posts. Of which you could probably make out about two words :P  But the guy next door made a big deal of receiving the letter - (pretending) to read it and making Oscar feel so special for writing it :P

Makes me even happier to have our home in this street <3