The Garden Project Commences

Now that the fence is finished (jumpy claps) I can get on with what I love most...the garden! I purposely didn't start on the garden a) because I don't like to start one thing before I finish another and b) I wanted some sort of incentive and reward to finish. Some people hate gardening. I love it. Love it!!

I took this pic so I can look back and see how the front garden started. Empty. I love looking back over time so I can see how much progress there's been. Sometimes you forget. I love this pic for a few reasons. Firstly, it's day one of what I know will be an ongoing project. Secondly, it's such a moment in time. Can you spot Bella? Look harder. This is her favourite spot. It's probably the only spot on the block with grass and gets the warm afternoon sun. While I was gardening she was happy to just sit there for hours. She should enjoy as much as she can because that spot is earmarked for a magnolia. Although that will probably be a while yet.

Ta-dah! This was this weekend's project- stage 1 (of 30) complete. It's a combination of gardenia magnificas I bought from the Rocklea Markets and some I had forgotten I had put in the veggie garden way down the back. I can't even remember why I put them there. I think I had bought a heap in pots to put in the garden but because the fence/driveway was taking so long, I planted them in the veggie patch and then promptly forgot about them. 

Gardenias are my absolute favourite and this will be part of a "white fragrant garden" which will cover the four separate gardens at the front. I plan to put magnolias, gardenias, murrrayas, star jasmine and white spider lillies. 

I added a border of mondo grass and hopefully this is the last of that I'll ever have to buy. At the last house I only bought one tray and I just kept dividing as they grew and they eventually did the whole back garden. 

Watch this space! xx

Guest Towel Excitement

I bought new towels for the guest bathroom! Do you love them as much as I do? They'll get their first workout tomorrow night when we have out of town friends staying over.

These were the towels that were in there before. They're ok, but lack any punch. The news ones are so much more dramatic. I really need to stop getting charcoal and grey though. This house really is 50 Shades of Grey.

Done and Dusted!!

Yep, you read right! This fence is done and dusted! The whole weekend was like a miracle! Firstly, the virus (or apparent virus) that knocked me for a six on Friday, miraculously cleared up by midday on Saturday. I still had a bit of a sore throat and a little cough, but the fever and headache was gone and I actually felt pretty good. I don't know about you, but I've never been that sick one day only to be completely fine the next day.

Saturday was still a bit of a write off though, painting-wise, only because I then had to catch up on the normal housework. I started first thing on Sunday though and it took me all day and most of the next day to finish. The weather stayed true to its word, with the sun shining all weekend.

I definitely agree that now it's all finished and I can see it as a whole, the colour is a bit meh. But it's not horrible and excluding my (extensive) labour, the painting project cost a grand total of $22. Jansen had leftover primer and the top coat was leftover from the pillars. The only thing I bought were some new brushes and masking tape. I may change it way, way down the track, but for the moment, it's staying. I plan to put some trees in the front soon and I think that will break up the colour a bit.

Now that this project is done and dusted we move to the next one - the garden!

Painting this weekend? No!

So there's good news, good news and bad news. The good news is that I managed to paint over my epic painting fail from last week with not too much pain. I didn't even need to sand it back, which was awesome. It did take me twice as long as the original dodgy paint job so all in all I've spent triple the time on this that I should have.

No matter, I've moved on. The other good news is that it's a long weekend this weekend AND it's sunny.

Huzzah!!!

Now for the bad news. Whatever virus that struck my child down last week (leading to me being home and painting late at night leading to the run paint) has now struck me down. Boo! It literally started last night and I suspect will fell me for most of the weekend.

Seriously…beyond a joke!

The saga continues...le sigh

I never thought any more projects around this house could be as painful as the great skirting board stuff up of 2014, but I think the fence painting project long surpassed that many, many weeks ago. 

Last week I was at home with the sick child and by 4.00pm was tearing my hair out. An IT issue at work meant I couldn't log on to work emails and the sick one had finally settled to sleep. For whatever reason I thought was good idea, I started painting very late in the day just before the start of Winter. I was just so sick of this project not being finished.

My neighbour, bless him, has renovated before and is quite useful at times, came out and said, "um, it's too damp to be painting, it won't dry." I was like (in my head), "Rarw, don't tell me what to to do!", but out loud was like, "oh it will be fine." *smiles sweetly*.

So I painted until 6pm, well and truly in darkness, running into the garage every 4 minutes like a madwoman to trip the security lights so I could see what/where the hell I was painting.

I painted the rest of the back of fence, smiling smugly as I washed out the brushes. I slept soundly that night, rather pleased with myself that I'd made some decent progress.

So imagine my horror the next morning when I walked out the front door and the fence looked like this.

Whaaaaaaat the???

So apparently, and you probably already know this cause I'm the only person in THE WORLD that doesn't know, but you shouldn't paint at night when it's damp cause your paint won't dry and the condensation will make the paint run. 

I just want to cry. And worse still I had no sympathy from work colleagues (who hear weekly about my painting dramas) or anyone else because everyone knows not to paint at night. Actually some of them couldn't stop laughing. I think that's very insensitive.

Waaaaaaaaaaaah!! This is never going to end...