OUR NEW KITTY

 Some photos I took the other night of our place when it was tidy ;) taken from the corner of the lounge. We are in the process of getting curtains, blinds, a black splash back and obviously the range hood flu is missing still.

Taken from the kitchen to the lounge. Like the picture in the corner? Steve WOULD NOT put it in the middle of this room.

Below is a closer view of our kitchen and very large dinning table ;) It extends if we need

Today we had lots of things to do. First we went and got blinds for the kitchen, turns out the window was a funny size so couldn't get pre made ones so got 50% off to get them made to fit, was cheaper to do that than buy them! Then we went to the SPCA to 'look' at kittens and then we brought one home ;)

She's a girl,  not sure of a name yet, maybe gin? or ranga? ;) any ideas?

 They say to keep them in a small room for the first three days so we have her bed and poo tray under our vanity in the bathroom. First time I've sat on the bathroom floor for this long ;)

 That's her house and mouse

Here's a video of her drinking ;) Love the tongue movements. Steve's was on the phone while I took this...sorry

I took a photo of myself while doing this blog, she was on my shoulder so she could see the computer screen. She's now jumpring at  the light from my watch on the wall like Maddie used to ;)

Cute photo of Steve and ...??

We've moved in!!

 Our Bedroom!!

 The kitchen/dinning room taken from my view sitting on the couch! We need to shortne our flu? on the rangehood

Steve sitting on our wooden floor just after it had been sanded and poly-ed

Totara flooring!

This is the lounge area with the undercoat sealer on after the walls had been plastered. We are having white walls so that they will pretty much look like that in the end.

Photo of steve painting in our bedroom, at least painting isn't loud so we can do it week nights

Getting started one Saturday, Dad and I ended up painting and Steve and Graeme Watchorn started laying out the flooring.

Jono and Steve laying the first plank! The first three took us a while... ;)

We laid out all the wood around the house, trying to get as little overhang (so we didn't have to waste much when we chopped it, and tried to get similar colouring) We got the last of a companies stock as they are moving to engineered wooden flooring, so they gave us a bit of a range of colour and quality. we paid $50 extra and they gave us all the extra. We weren't planning on putting wooden flooring in our bedroom but we had JUSTenough so we laid it in there as well. We had one small plank left over! Phew.(That's the bathroom)

This is Graeme and Dad trying to fix a really bowed piece of wood, they used all sorts contraptions to get them straight. Dad takes health and safety seriously and made sure he had his high vis gear on.

We have Hardie sheets? in the bathroom, so it's more water resistant, they are semi concrete so the pneumatic nail gun wouldn't shoot the nails in so Dad spent AGES in the bathroom drilling each hole first. That's our shower base sitting there, we got one from Bruce,(Atlantis showers) who is Steve's uncle. We had a wee set back when we went to install the shower but now even better the man himself is going to install it for us this weekend. 

So this is how we did it, I was the WO-MAN with the nail gun and mallet and Steve stood and watched me work. ;) Nah, you cut the boards to fit, glue the floor (we were scant on the glue as we didn't want to have to buy two pots), Stick the wood in place, use another piece of wood and hammer the wood to get the gap as small as possible, often the boys would use a chisel to push the wood in further, then I would come along stick the gun on the edge of the wood and fire the nail into the tongue of the wood. It's TnG flooring if you want some Jargon. My back was killing me by about 2pm everyday. Actually we didn't get photos of it but I stopped every now and again to have a little read of my book - I had to rest my back you see.

This shot is showing you the nail gun and the mallet. 

There's no photos of the glue we used but we got it all over our hands, it was seriously hard to get off. We still have it on our finger nails. I was wearing those overalls to stop the glue getting on my legs like it did the day before, instead though I managed to get it all up my arm. A free wax if you wanted.

This is our bathroom complete with a shower base and an eastern style toilet! I can't wait!

Living area all done looking on to our expansive outdoor dining area.

Looking back the other way!

So that was our Easter! Work work work ;) The boys finished at 4.00 on Monday, so went out on the boat and stayed the night then dropped Steve at work on Tuesday morning, he climbed onto the wharf in town just outside the Hilton. Can't complain!

So the floors are being sanded and polished this week, hopefully kitchen going in later in the week, plumber and tiler coming early next week and fingers crossed we might move in on ANZAC day!

COMING SOON: photos of our floor when it is polished!! And photos of my very own Kitchen!!

Nuestra Casita

Here is the gignormous update of our little project. The first few are of our last photos from our flat where we have been living for the last two years. They are taken with Dad's iphone at night, so the quality isn't that great.

 The last supper at our place before we moved!

 A

 Our Deck and backyard.

And bring on our new place! We saw it on a Monday night, put in an offer on Tuesday night, it was ours by Wednesday night and we settled the following Thursday. Talk about quick!

 The grand entrance from the car port,

The glorious colours of the bathroom!

 There are four rooms;bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and lounge. So this is taken from the lounge looking into the Kitchen and the balcony.

The bright pink kitchen! I haven't included it but the floor in the centre of the room was completely rotten. 

 \The oven is a little example of how dirty the whole place was!!!

Our bedroom wardrobe

 The lounge

 The balcony as it was, it was slimly and covered in an overgrown vine.

 The front of our flat, we have a little carport and garden, plus a new car ;) just jokes

 Our first dinner in our new place ;)

 Not sure if this shows it but parts of the floor were completely rotten, we think the hot water cylinder had been leaking

 The Driveway and letter boxes. Our place is right in the middle of the complex.

 Our blacony, with the vine. Mum and I were attacking the overgrown garden out the back.

 Sambo moved the kitchen/bathroom wall over, the bathroom was massive in comparison to the size of the kitchen. We also took cut the kitchen wall to open up the whole room, so now it feels a lot bigger.

 Just a photo to show how the flat stood for quite a few weeks - with no flooring!

 A shot from the balcony looking back into the flat. Our bedroom is on the left

 Putting up the first ceiling jib board!, We got it insulated as well to keep us toasty and to help with noise. Pink bats are not fun!

 Currently our one and only access to power (sorry the picture is upside down)

 We now have wall!! The door hasn't been touched - notice the difference in the colour of the white.

 Living area

 Living area, Kitchen and a peak into the bathroom

Our bedroom, we opened up the wardrobe to make it a lot bigger to fit all of Steve's clothes and shoes ;) May leave it door-less for sometime 

 These photos are a little example how dirty the whole place was. This is a before and after of a little cleaning! The man smoked obviously a packet a day and the whole house had a yellow/brown tinge to everything, it was disgusting! You could smell the place from the outside when you walked past it. It was foul!
Now very soon, you will be able to smell paint or polyurathane. The jib stoppers are there today, then we will be able to start painting and laying the floors!. So more updates soon maybe, if I can get into the swing of this blogging business ;)
At times this seems all really fun and exciting and at other times I am completely over it but the end is sort of insight now!;)