2014 & The Pretty Little House

Hello & Happy New Year!

I'm a bit on the late side with the well wishes and blogging, but I am very excited about the year ahead. There is so much exciting stuff on the go and I can't wait to be able to share with you! In due time folks, due time.

2014 means Darren and I are moving in together (officially)
2014 means we added a ginger kitten called Jagger to our family
2014 means that we bought a porta pool
2014 means we are going to kick it into high gear in our vegetable garden
2014 means we are adding chickens to our lives
2014 means more in love than ever
2014 means fresh starts
2014 means renovations...

At the beginning of this week, renovations started on our Pretty Little House. We live in 106 year old wood and iron house in beautiful Glenwood. It is a sweet home, but exceptionally old and falling down in a few places, so before Darren fully moved in, it was decided that it was high time for some restructuring. Enter our landlord and yay for renovations! We packed up all our prized possessions and stacked everything in the spare room and the carnage began!

Anyone who has tried to live in their hundred and six year old house while a FULL floor to ceiling renovation is taking place will know, that it is in no way a good idea. We thought we could do it, but no one can. Ya hear? no one! There is 106 years worth of dust on those ceilings that are being ripped out , BUT you are getting sparkly white ceilings put in their place, so the moral of the story is, don't be a chop, move out while you are renovating. You don't get an award for going to work with dusty streaks on your butt from the chair you sat on, just really weird stares and eye infections.

We have been so lucky with our renovations because the house is quite old, there was a lot that has to be done anyway, so we were encouraged to throw in any ideas we had for what we wanted at the end of the day. Because I wanted to be super helpful and I can be really efficient when i want to be, I did this in 2 parts:

Part 1: Make a ridiculously detailed drawing of your current home and then edit it to what you would like to end up with at the end of the day, including plug points, lighting, counters and floor finishes. I used www.floorplanners.com to do this. I found it really easy to use, very easy to edit and I was able to place furniture in each of the rooms so Darren and I could get a good idea of where we wanted to put everything once the renovations were done as well as a good idea of what we needed to sell/buy/repair.

Part 2: Send the detailed drawing to the person doing the building and meet them at the house to do a walk about. Lets be serious, unless you are a qualified architect or something or other, you are going to have put in a few unreasonable requests in your plans, poor Richard having to deal with some really funny stuff..."Jordyn you can't really make a wooden bathroom a "wet room". I'm sorry Richard, but you really are the kindest gent I know.

We are now letting the builders do their thing and we are trying to stay as much out of their hair as possible . I cannot wait to share some of the progress with you as soon as it is done, which according to the schedule should be in about a month! Thats the advantage of living in a non-brick house and having the most amazing team working on it.

This is going to be a great year and I can't wait to share it all; our home, work, friends, food and more.

Our internet should be up and running in about a month, so you can expect some more regular blog posting around about then. Until then, random-kepping-you-on-your-toes-stuff!

Love,

Duffymoon