Renovations...

I am really enjoying living in our house at the moment.

We have been here since December 2009 and the house was purchased knowing that it needed some work.
It was not a dive by any stretch of the imagination but we knew it had a lot of potential.
As soon as we moved in we started work on it. 

We were all systems go for around 8 months or so, then we got engaged which meant a wedding needed to be planned and paid for.  Then we had our honeymoon 6 months later.  All these things take money you see.
Now these things are over (and hopefully babies in the near future) we are full steam ahead getting stuff done and working towards getting our house finished.

I thought I would share some before and after photos to show what we have done so far. 
People love before and after photos, right??

The next two photos are the front of our house.

Ugly cobble stones (sold of trade me for a tonne of money!!), and huge ugly trees that made the front room dark, a garden full of stuff, dirt like concrete and virtually no grass what so ever.

Before...

And after...

 

 Ugly trees gone, grass sown, standard roses planted, hedging plants planted and trees at the front pruned back.

At the back of the house we had a giant ugly clothes line that was rusty, a tiny deck and gardens that had a range of ugly plants in them and again dirt like concrete (and a feijoa tree that kept).

 

 

 

My husband and a friend built our amazing two level deck!!  Andy also built me the vege gardens, made the pizza oven (very back left hand side of the photo), retaining walls, stone paths and we have sown grass. 

  

 

 

 Our deck is amazing!!!!!  It is my favorite place in summer.

  

 And now the kitchen area!!  This is the area that everyone just loves.  I heart my kitchen so much!!

When we purchased our house the kitchen was a strange shape.  It was an odd shape, dark and there was not much storage space at all.

 

 Below shows the wall coming out a bit then coming out again (this was the old entrance to the house and the walk in wardrobe in the front bedroom).

 

You can see the old power box on the wall to the left of the photo (now have a fancy new one in the hallway) the entrance to the kitchen from the hallway is where the door is.

 

   

Before I show you the after photo, here is the photo of the front bedroom.

 

And now after...

 

 

Obviously we have a flash new kitchen (LOVE it!!), we also took down the wall between the kitchen and the front bedroom.  We now have one long room.  It has all been painted and the floors have been polished.   It is such a fantastic area to entertain people.  I spend a lot of time in this room.

  

Being a 1950s house the laundry was under the house.  Here is a photo before (yes that is a kick ass large original concrete tub, kept this bad boy!).

Before...

 

This photo is the old entrance to the kitchen.  

 

And after...

 

The old entrance to the kitchen has been made into a laundry.  Blocked on the kitchen side by the pantry and you enter the kitchen area through the door into the old front bedroom.  Washing machine with a dryer above.  We also have purchased a skinny set of cupboards to go to the right of the appliances.  Gib and doors are going on in the next month or so.

This is a before photo of the sunroom.  You enter this room from the kitchen.  They had built on this room in 1996.  It had fake wooden floor, window still in between the kitchen sunroom and a terrible paint job.

We have painted it, put tiles down, window is out (the hole is still there though), a servery added and replaced the lights.    This is now used as a dining room, hence the servery.

The room is a bomb site at the moment with Andys painting/building stuff.  I will put up a photo when this is tidy!

Jobs on the to do list, 

Bathroom (going to be done in the next few months).  It is going to be a complete remodel.

Bedrooms, new carpet, new gib, paint, insulation etc.

Formal lounge, we will make the decision on whether this will remain a lounge (and have a 2 bedroom house) or make it a large master bedroom.  Either way it will be re-gibbed, painted and insulated.  If it becomes a bedroom we will build some cupboards in there.

So there you have it.  Our house.  A lot of blood, sweat, a few tears and a fair amount of money.  It is great doing DIY.  Such a feeling of achievement when something is finished.  Makes for amazed friends when people have not visited for a while too.

I will finish off by adding a photo of one of the beautiful daffodils I picked today from one of my pots.

Being at home sick means...

Being able to make some lemon honey...

 

Being able to meet the courier at the door when he delivered my new lamp...

 

And being able to make a giant loaf of lemon and poppy seed (I used Chia seeds) bread...

well, well, well...

The pizza turned out very well, thank you very much!
Andy and I made one pizza each.  They cooked very quickly (5 minutes max) and were delish.

 

Andys pizza cooking...

 

Piping hot and ready to eat 

 My pizza going in the pizza oven

 

My pizza finished.  Enough to feed an army, some left for lunch tomorrow - woohoooo

Now I am sitting listening to some tunes and eating homemade crunchie ice cream (see the recipes tab hidden at the top of the homepage, if this sounds like a bit of you).  Nice way to finish a busy day.

I am loving these three songs at the moment...

Gotye, Somebody that I used to know

Angus and Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane

And...

Superheavy - Miracle Worker

Things I am loving...

 

I have not been very good with this blogging business lately.  I have been in a spring clean frenzy!!!  I dont know what has gotten into me.  I would like to say I am pregnant and I must be 'nesting' but no such luck!!!!

Right my list...

I am loving the fact we are trying out our fancy pizza oven tonight!  My husband is a handy man to have around and he built us a pizza oven.  I say that like it is an easy thing to whip up, but it is not.  We are having our first pizza from the pizza oven tonight, lets hope it works out as planned!!

 

He is so proud of it (as he should be) and many of our friends and family have volunteered their taste buds when we are trying the pizza oven out.

We are going to have a party at our place on the night of the Rugby World Cup final and it will be a byo drinks and pizza toppings party!  It will be fun.

I am loving my new food processor!!   My husband got this for me as a suprise gift.  Some people may think, how romantic, not!!  But I am super excited about it, it is a fancy thing with many attachments.

All I have wanted to do is unleash and have a cooking/baking frenzy using every attachment that came with it but I have held myself back.  Maybe next weekend!

 

I am loving the Rugby World Cup.  Let it be known, I am not a huge rugby fan by any stretch of the imagination but I am getting a bit caught up in the hype. 

I work with some sports mad people and my Dads side of the family are rugby mad.  

My Dad and his partner are going to 12 world cup games!!  

We have a friend from the UK staying for a few weeks at the start of the world cup and she has extra tickets to some games.  There are 6 games that either Andy or I are going to, I cant wait!  Andy is going to the opening game so I am getting together some family and friends and we are going into Auckland City to join in the festivities (along with thousands of other crazy people).  

Bring it on.

Lets hope the All Blacks kick some butt!

Other things I am loving...

• My cat Pickles, she is just sooooo cute!! 
• Cleaning the clutter, I have a huge box of stuff to take to the Salvation Army and heaps of stuff listed on trade me at the moment.
• My fressias are starting to flower.
• Low stress levels at the moment (a rarity as a teacher).
• The cake I am going to make for my Mums 50th birthday (yes my Mum is a spring chicken).   It is going to be a carrot cake with peanut butter cream cheese icing!!  I think the little bunting makes it look super cute.

• Also loving these tidbits from Pinterest...  Have a good week everyone!!

 

 

Sunshine makes me one happy camper!

Things I am loving...


Number 1

Wynyard Quarter.

We decided to check out the newly opened Wynyard Quarter last night.  This is the old tank farm on the waterfront of Auckland.  There was a lot of 'who ha; a few years back about what to do with this area.  There was talk of it being a park, constructing boring old apartments and a few other things I cannot remember.  I was really keen to see it be made into a public space, which is what the council have done. 
The newly opened section is really lovely with some very cool features, it is well worth a visit. 

They have built a viewing structure.  It is three levels and at the top you can view the harbour bridge from one end and from the other end you see the city. 

The photo above is of me on the viewing structure.
There is a playground for the kids which includes a basketball area.
There are 1920s heritage trams that to a circuit around the area and also a bridge that links to the Viaduct.
There is a variety of nice restaurants and cafes (including a gelato place!!!) that have opened and all of these look out onto the working port.  And the whole area has a bit of a nautical/industrial type theme happening.
This area has a huge amount of potential and there were a lot of people wandering around checking it out. 

Number 2

Planting seeds

Last year was my first foray into seed sowing and I had a pretty good success rate when it came to germination.  I ended up having too many plants and give a lot of seedlings away to family and friends.
Seeds are a much cheaper way of growing veges and you can grow interesting varitities that you may not able to buy in punnets at Bunnings or Palmers etc.
I planted up a storm today and all of my seeds are now safely watered and deposited in my wee grow house which is covered up with a blanket.
It has been pretty cold and I am not taking any chances.

Seeds sown today;
Zucchini - gold rush and black beauty
Tomatoes - pom pom (check this out at Kings seeds - very, very, very cool!!) and mini belle (sweet, prolific cherry tomato).
Capsicum - red ones and purple ones
Sunflowers - crimson and vanilla ice
Eggplant
Lebenese Cucumber
Rock Melon
Spinach
Broccoli
Corriander
Basil
Pumpkin - crown and wee be little
Snowpeas
Chili
Sunbeam Squash

I realise some of these are sown directly but I am not taking any chances.  The weather at the mo is too unpredictable.
I planted a heap of sweet pea seeds a month or so back and did not really look after them.  I did not water them very much (if at all to tell you the truth) so they are sitting there ungerminated.  I am giving it another go with these and am hoping the majority of these start to take off.

Number 3

My photowall

This is taking shape rather nicely I think.  I have had a bit of inspiration from oh mighty Pinterest and am in the middle of sorting out family photos.
This is the photo that got me started...

Number 6

Fresh veges from my garden!

Today I got spinach (we have been using this heaps lately), cauliflower (spacesaver so it is a small one), spring onions, cabbage and beetroot out of my garden.  So yummy, except for the beetroot, I grow it for my husband.  Nothing says I love you like growing beetroot!!

Number 5

Spring is coming...

Some of my bulbs are about to flower which makes me happy.  I have had a few earlicheer and my fressias are about to bloom.  I love these sweet smelling flowers...  does not look like much but watch this space.

And finally...  Number 6
The Sun!!
Everyone is so much happier when the sun is shining!!
Today I had a great day in the garden, pottering around tidying up things that had not been taken care of for some time.  
Yesterday we made the most of the sunshine and took Andys nana out for lunch in Browns Bay.  There were heaps of people out and about, going for walks, playing music, skateboarding, eating out, walking the family dog, basicly making the most of the sun.
Auckland really is a beautiful place when the sun is shining, there is so much that you can do and enjoy.  I am looking forward to having more sunny days as we slowly edge our way towards summer.
Andy just told me the sun is staying out until around Sunday so fingers crossed this is right.

Have a great week everyone!!