Home improvements

I love doing home improvements so am very excited to set some projects and get this house up to scratch and exactly how I want it!  Originally we were only intending to stay here for 10 months but after just a few weeks are finding the country/ beach life is actually treating us quite nicely.  Being away from the centre of the city has taken a bit of adjusting to but WOW once we remembered how blissfully quiet it is out here, how great it is to be able to walk around in the nudie because there are no neighbours to spy on you, and how fantastic it is to have a huge beach just 5 minutes drive from the house you quickly forget about town.  The only problem is that you find yourself becoming a recluse and really having to force yourself to leave!  So here are some things we have planned for the house...
Put a fan in this bathroom so that water doesn't drip from the ceiling every time you have a shower. and then PAINT IT!  This blue and yellow just isn't really us any more (apparently it was my 18 year old self because I am actually the one who painted it like this 10 years ago when I lived here) and it is just way to dark.  The bathroom also needs new lights and what I am most excited about is the new sink we are planning to install.  The actual basin itself is a big round bowl that my mother (who is a potter) made especially for it.  Then the bench around the sink is going to be made from the wood of a huge tree which has recently been cut down on my grandfathers property.  This is what the bathroom currently looks like,

It sort of hurts your eyes doesn't it!

Next on the list is to turn this mess in the front garden into a vege patch.

 I have been wished luck with this task!  Apparently the huge tree that grows on the other side of the fence eats up all the nutrients in the soil, and the grass that grows here is relentless and near impossible to get rid of.  Still I am determined!  I have been even more enthusiastic about this since readying the brilliant post on DeluxeVille about simple living.

I want to get the flooring finished once and for all so that the pantry doors can finally go on again!

I want to figure out what to do with this bit of bare backyard.

It gets the most amazing amount of sun during the day, in fact it almost gets too hot to sit out there which is a real shame.  The only plants that really appreciate this kind of temperature are the succulence, and even they find it a little overwhelming sometimes!

Another bare section that needs plants.

This whole side of the house used to be covered in the most beautiful ivy (as you can probably tell from the paint that has been pulled of by the plant) but the whole thing had to be cut down when it starting growing into the drains.  Now it has left this big bare area and I can't stand it!  Obviously the outside of the house needs to be repainted too!

Clear out this car park area so that I can actually park my car here!!  I would love to know who all this rubbish belongs to anyway!

And a rather big mission on the To Do list is to get rid of this shed.

It was built at a time when asbestos was all the rage!  Now the shed is piled to the roof with previous owners crap and nobody wants to go in there and deal with it because obviously the don't want to inhale this horrible stuff and get cancer from it!  The only thing to do is get the whole thing professionally removed... and that is not going to be cheap!

So there you have it.  If you have any tips, ideas or websites/ blogs you want to pass on I would be very grateful. I will continue to do home improvement updates.  Right now we are still trying to unpack everything and get this place feeling like our own.
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