The Backyard Benchtop

The arrival of the backyard bench top. Grahame and our neighbor The Clacka built this beautiful benchtop that now adorns our kitchen. It's made from Australian Ironbark. It still has to have a few more coats so it looks more glossy and shiny. There is gong to be a sink put into it (unfortunatlely). It just looks too good too cut a hole in it. I should have went with the original plan of having a white fireclay Butlers sink. It would have looked awesome. So now we just have a boring steel sink.
I orginally bought the laminate bench top and a heap of cupboards(not the ones you see here) for $100. Surprisingly the color suited the paintwork. But that benchtop now supports the timber top so it hasn't gone to waste.
The benchtop was built so it just slid right over the other. Doesn't it look great?
Will definitely do the other 2 bench tops in timber now as well. This was a much cheaper way of getting a timber benchtop than buying it through a cabinet maker or kitchen company.

A little light

Will update soon. Kitchen is under construction, photos soon.

Hubby is home

Back in April Grahame first went to Afganhastan, then came home then went again. He arrived home last night. Our family is all together once again. I wish we had of taken photos at the airport. The boys didn't know he was arriving. So we went our for dessert after dinner, then drove around wasting time then made up a story about putting rubbish in the bin, so we stopped at the airport to put rubbish in the bin.( it's a tiny airport incase your wondering!). And there was the Daddy and the look on the boys faces was priceless. Very happy moment.
And look what he bought home.

A beautiful silk Afghani rug.
Together with my newly upholstered chairs and the curtains the house is really becoming very homley.

Curtain call and mote chrissy decorating

With a little bit of drama and fuss the curtains are now up. I think they make the house look much more homley and give a certain elegance to the place. I really love how they look.

Today we went out to a christmas tree farm to choose a real tree. We raced around the paddock looking the best one of course. However many had already been earmarked. Some since as early as October. Who on earth is thinking of christmas trees in October?

So with choosen tree closely guarded so no one else would take it, Elliott and Harison tried to cut it down. But the owner had to do the honors as the boys couldn't get the saw going.

Desperate to decorate it tonight we raced to Go Lo with 10 minutes to spare before closing time. Me having no say in this, I just handed over the cash for deco's. So after dinner the kids all decorated. It looks good but I think we might need another trip to GoLo to really tart it up. Needs more sparkles.

We have had a thorough drenching this week. Very boggy all around. But we have managed to get some fellas in to do some work on the orchard.

The Vegie patch/orchard is having a bit of an upgrade.

Sunday clean up

After being here for almost two years now I think all but a few boxes are unpacked. I have had a massive clean up over the past few weeks. Timothy has worn a path to the tip with the copious amounts of rubbish for the tip. We have also filled the Merimbula Salvos bins on a few Sunday nights. With stuff, stuff and more stuff. I couldn't believe how much stuff we had for no good reason. Stuff that sat in boxes for many years through many removals. It was time to say good bye.
Now as much as I hate Grahame being away it's the perfect opportunity to throw away the stuff without him shaking his head and rolling his eyes. I usually remind him how much of it has been donated to us, much of it Gilly junk(family joke). But it just had to go.Yes some of it was sentimental but that doesn't mean you need the stuff to remind you of good times.
So now we have an organised and fairly clutter free shed space.


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Now it may still look like there is alot of stuff but you should have seen it before.
Harison has been doing some christmas decorating and Elliott has put up the first christmas tree.

Our over grown orchard with trees baring hardly any fruit.

The over grown garden, I only weeded it 2 weeks ago and now after all this rain, well I shouldn't have bothered wasting my time. They are all back bigger and better than before. I need Roundup, shares in Monsanto.
Who I'm totally opposed to by the way.

For Grahame, sorry about terrible photo, it was just too blingy.

Only he will understand the significance of this photo. Suprised!!!
While we are here I might as well show you Elliott's baked white chocolate and cherry cheese cake.

Allyson and I accompanied Timothy to his Year12 formal dinner night. It was lovely and it was a chanced to get dressed up.

And the two who had to stay home, well they went for a sleepover.

And finally have started to put some art work around the house. It was all gathering dust in the shed so I thought I should at least move it out of there.

Now we are yet to finish this build. It's very frustrating living in a half finished house. We had a good builder but now he's chasing the big bucks and he's kind of left me in the lurch. It's really dissapointing because he knew how much I wanted it finished before Grahame came home, he knew I was here on my own trying to manage this, the kids, the property(Violin please).
Anyway it is what it is and he can stick it.
And if he doesn't come and get his band saw and saw horses he can re buy it from Merimbula Salvos!!

So apparently my dear husband is going to be on the telly tomorrow night. A whole show featuring his work for one whole hour minus the 35 minutes of ads. Channel 10 at 7.30pm. don't know what it's called though.Although he says he runs away from the camera when it comes close. He'll be the one shying away in the background covering his face with a coffee mug or such. He's too important to be seen!! Ah here we go it's called Tour of Duty: Australias Secret War. I'm sure it will be rivetting.

WANT