The Less Ugly House!

So sometimes it's a good idea to go away for three weeks and leave your husband at home with a list of jobs.
Because sometimes he will surprise you by doing all of the 'suggested' jobs!

Here is a (very much) Before photo of The Ugly House.

This is the estate agent's photo that really sold the house to us - it's gorgeous isn't it?

Now, this is the house that we came home to last week... ready?

It's still not the prettiest house but I am so happy! 
Now I can pull in the driveway without checking that no-one's looking.
Our over the road neighbours have been over several times to congratulate Mark on adding thousands to the value of their house...

Now I've got a lot of planting to do to fill up those flowerbeds.

Prevaricating...

Mark and I seemed to wake up with the same idea today. To put off the important but boring jobs by appearing to be busy all day doing something else...

It worked well.

Instead of flattening the garden and covering over our new septic tank lids (exciting..), Mark tidied his shed.

It took all day and he's now out there in the dark fitting a new light. (He's jealous of our next door neighbour's Man Cave.)

Instead of cleaning the carpet and hanging out yet more washing, I....decorated the toilet window.

Yes, it really needed doing.

Here is the Before - perspex with handy ventilation holes to let the mozzies in to bite you whilst sat on the loo in the middle of the night.

One roll of white contact paper later...

Here is the After:

Yes - it look so long to do it was dark outside when I finished.

The outside view is even better than the inside! Pity no-one will see it apart from our resident frogs.

Job done. My sense of satisfaction is marred slightly by the pile of washing still in the machine....

Crossed wires...

Our broadband just came back on - yay!
It's been missing in action this weekend due to this wire...

That's what a telephone cable looks like after it's been chopped in half by a grinder...

Naming no names but...... when you unearth a pipe that looks like this....

DO NOT assume that the wire inside is not important.

Rant over.
Thank you.

Today....

Today I finished our blackboard wall - 

I'm thinking about painting...

And reading this - a must-read for any Salinger fans out there.

Landscaping?

I really should have learnt from the chainsaw incident not to leave Mark unattended with petrol powered machinery...

               

Our back garden now looks like a ploughed field.

The front garden looks slightly worse.

And the driveway?

I came home this afternoon to find the postman in his van completely bogged in the sand - I had to tow him out - I don't know who was more embarrassed - me or him!

Before and After - Kitchen!

When we first bought The Ugly House the room I was most excited about was the kitchen - basically because there really wasn't one! Just a sink, four cupboards, one drawer and a bit of singed '60's formica worktop... Oooh, the potential!

As a cheap fix I painted the cupboard doors white and changed the door handles ...

Now it's a pretty nice room - still need to sort out the strip lighting and the scruffy blinds, but with the aid of a cheap Bunnings worktop and a wallmounted shelf unit Mark's mum picked up for me at a swap meet it looks pretty good!

It was my birthday last week so I treated myself to these gorgeous postcards from Lisa Stubbs - I love her illustrations, and especially like the fact that there are two each of three designs in the pack so you can send one and keep one for yourself :) These two make me smile every time I put the kettle on!

Also making me smile - my present from Mark and the boys - they have amazingly good taste, it's almost as if I told them exactly what I wanted and where the cheapest place to buy it was...

And from my lovely friend Karen, an Emma Bridgewater teapot! Which travelled safely in the post all the way from the UK!

And from my equally lovely sister, who always buys the best presents - a DIY Trophy Deer Head

Sunshine and dirty windows

Yep - really dirty windows...

Stormy day

The first storm of the winter has rolled in - typing this in our living room I can hear the waves crashing on the beach down the road. 

It would be a lot more enjoyable if our uninsulated house felt a bit more solid than a giant cardboard box! Last night we took turns running downstairs to check for leaks - think we've got them all covered now, apart from the stream coming in under the back door...

Demolition Depression...

I'm having one of those days when there are about fifteen things I should be doing, but I can't decide which to do first, so I'm sitting around doing nothing... 

At the weekend we knocked down the steps to the balcony, because they were pretty much rotten and just waiting for a boy to run up them one too many times and fall through...

Before Demolition

After Demolition

Isn't it depressing when the 'After' looks worse than the 'Before'??

I've finished painting the bottom storey so it does look slightly better... (Slightly..)

We've come to terms with the fact that the big renovation will be a year or more away - we need to save some money and also agree on a design!

So in the meantime, the plan is to turf the garden, finish painting the exterior, install the free log burner we found in Mark's dad's shed, and start squirrelling away some money!

Corners

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The Ugly House has come a long way in a short time - sitting in the living room now, with carpet and lamps and nice white walls, it seems a lifetime since I was painting and sweeping and de-bugging the place.

I'm down to unpacking the last two boxes now - they're full of Mark's clothes and I'm planning a bit of a cull (dodgy leather jacket, bizarre tweed number, lots of bad shoes...) while he's at work tomorrow! 

So here are a few of the tidier corners of our house -

A finished project!

It's council pick up month round here so the streets are lined with piles of furniture - mostly fridges, sofas and big old TVs. It's all new to me - in the UK you just take it all to the tip yourself. Or dump it in a layby...

I've been very good and I haven't brought anything home - it's the favourite topic of conversation at the school gates at the moment - 'What have you found??' 

I've already got a shed full of furniture waiting to be transformed... like these two chairs that Mark's had for years. I always hated them and thought I'd escaped them for ever when we packed up to move. But no, they came with us..

So, I finally got out the sandpaper, a bit of polish, and some nice fabric  and voila! 

A (half) finished project! (I've still got to do the other one...)

House News

Life in The Ugly House is going pretty well. 

We solved the wandering ant problem... and then the millipedes all woke up and started trundling around like little trains..

Could be worse - I've got quite fond of them!

We've still got piles of unopened boxes in corners but it's looking quite homely...

Bits and bobs...

My Penguin postcards...

Washi tape flyscreen repairs!

PPE for dogs..

I am so thoughtful - Molly was looking a bit disturbed by the sounds of Mark chainsawing his way through the undergrowth so I let her borrow some ear defenders.

I also thought it might help her empathise with Lily the deaf Sharpei that lives over the road and likes to come and visit each day..

For better and worse..

We've moved in!

The shed looks worse...

But the living room and kitchen are looking pretty good!

Apart from the fact that we seem to be living on top of a giant anthill, we're liking it so far :)