A new door!

Before demolition

New door opening

check out the toilet on the left LOL

Our renovations are still moving along, little by little. Winter is coming and we need to get the things we started finished so we can keep the warmth in and the cold out. On the weekend Dave and a neighbour pulled down one side of the chimney and one fireplace. It was originally the place where they had their combustion stove and then later made it into an opening for their new electrical stove. Well we have moved the stove over the other side of the room where we made a new kitchen and now we have pulled this out and made a new door way leading out to the bathroom and laundry and to the back door. The other fire place is still there and we are restoring it and making a surround for it with a mantle.

The toilet will be moved to the bathroom because it originally was in a separate room and Dave will build bottom and over head cupboards and a bench in the laundry. We have a busy few days getting this work finished because my cousin Stephen and Jess are coming up over the weekend for a few days and I'm sure they will not like the bathroom conditions as they are at present LOL

Zucchini Cake and a New Kitchen Sink

We have an update on our kitchen rennovations. I mention earlier at the start of our rennovations that we are doing as much as we can on a tight budget and only at times when we can afford to spend on these plus we are sourcing out specials and items that meet our budget. So the latest happenings is a new kitchen sink which we found on special at our local hardware store complete with tap for only $149.


It didn't take Dave long to install it once he got his hands on it. The kitchen is looking more like a kitchen now, mind you I do have a sink on the other side of the wall which is the old kitchen that will be pulled out in the next 2 weeks. Dave just LOVES demolishing and he tidys up the mess as well and something even better is that it has hardly cost much and all that is to be done is flooring and painting.

Doesn't it look good, I feel silly ranting and raving over a sink but if you could see what the other sink area looks like you might understand why.

This is my view I will have while I do my dishes, it looks out to the paddock and dam. The breeze comes through and the wind chimes make a noise and it is so peacefull. Oh by the way there will be fronts put on those drawers on the right hand side of the kitchen below.

These are the handles that will be on the doors and drawers they have an antique look and the skirting, top moulding and architraves around window and doors will be painted a cream same as the handle.

Well! At long last I have been able to get my photos on here:)

And! I managed to get to my veggie patch maybe a little to late for my zucchinis and squashes because they have grown to an unbelieveable size. Some of the zucchinis are the size of baseball bats and squashes the size of bowls, anyway I'm dicing, grating, chopping, pureeing, baking, pickling and everything else possible with these monsters.

Now for the most delicious I have ever tasted and made is right here on this blog. So grab a pen and write it down, if you were closer I'd give you some these zucchinis as well.

Zucchini Cake

500 grams zucchini, grated

1 cup oil

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs, beaten

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon Bi-Carbonate soda

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped walnuts

Combine zuchini, oil, sugar and eggs.

Sift dry ingredients except walnuts and add to mixture.

Add walnuts, mix well

Spoon mixture into greased and lined loaf tin

Bake in 180'c oven for about 1 1/4 hours

Allow to cool in tin about 15 minutes before turning out of tin

Now go enjoy this YUMMY cake I'm off to pickle those monster before the tomatoes start to take over :)

Renno Update!

More walls have been pulled out and new ones going up, its all happening here on this little homestead. Below is our bathroom which was built on the corner of a verandah many years ago and its ceiling was low, the door has been moved and the ceiling will be a little higher. My kitchen is on the right of Dave and where he is standing a wall will be going up because that is where my stove will go and then my fridge. I know it looks like chaos but it will eventually come together, trust me!

This is my shower and hand basin exposed, thank goodness my daughter is away at the moment it makes showering time interesting. The wall will be up by tonight, so showering time will be a lot cleaner if you know what I mean (hehehe).
We are doing this on a really tight budget, I found it a good idea to check out prices and see if anyone can better that price and you will be surprised at the savings you can make. My days are pretty full at the moment with running the business, doing deliveries and running around timber yards getting timber and hardware for the renovations

I'm doing the rest of the house by decluttering which has been so invigorating plus moving out to storage containers boxes of items which belong to my kids that have long moved out. We did move from a huge five bedroom house to this little homestead and we had so much stuff that we have to be realistic and get rid of some of it and free up our living space.

I was in a Rut and Look what happened!

Have you ever had times when you were in a rut, whether you lacked drive, inspiration, motivation, enthusiasm or whatever and you sulked or moped around. Well I was in a rut, I wanted to do some miner changes to the house and spruce things up and do a bit of decluttering and every direction I went in things looked a bit bigger to accomplish than I thought. I lacked the drive and was a bit overwhelm with it all so I went to my hubby with a long look on my face and we looked over the situation (two heads are better than one) and started to make changes and alterations and set deadlines and before we new it we had over come Mount Everest :)


It makes life so much easier when you hubby is so handy and knocking out walls and rearranging rooms is a breeze. Our house is an old homestead and the people before us did not do much work on it . It has lovely high ceilings and timber floors, which do need a bit of work on. We took out two small side walls and opened up this room to make it twice the size, and the look is amazing. All of a sudden the clouds had moved away and the sun was coming out and I could see the potential for this room and it will not look so cluttered and dark and dingy
This was what my kitchen was like that little sink against the wall and the stove in a ridiculous covelet, you can see it in the picture below, the pink chair is in front of it. My new kitchen is getting built to the right and has a big window opening out.
My house is like a bomb has hit it but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel because it will be fantastic, did I tell you that my daughter is away for a week and we have a week to get this finished and the house back to some normality. We are going to throw up some gyprock, fill in some holes, it won't be completely finished like doing the joints, skirting and architraves and painting etc but it will be presentable and livable. There is a bigger picture here so we are doing this in stages.
My hubby just loves knocking down walls and making things happen, he is a builder/carpenter and he loves when a plan comes together.
The little dogs were not to sure about all the banging and rearranging of the house, some ran and hid under the beds till it was a bit quieter, the others were to busy eating their beef bones outside :)
This will be adventually be gyprocked and a door in the corner which will lead out to the laundry and a back deck
This is how the room sort of looks now, we will eventually gyprock the whole room, paint and polish floors and dress the room up. There is a support in the middle of the room until Dave gets in the roof and puts the beam up, it is all pretty secure so don't go worrying. We had a busy evening and will be working on the rest of the house through the week I'll let you know of the progress, I just hope my daughter doesn't see this or she will be freaking out :)
I have to mention when we were working on my daughters room about a year and a half ago Dave and I were standing on a plank (it was solid) on some scaffolding, because the ceiling was quiet high and we were putting up the cornice and the beam snapped in two and we both came crashing down and my (bare) foot went straight through the floor boards. I was in pain all night and went to the hospital the next day (of course it was a long weekend) and had it x-rayed and I had from the inside tore flesh from the bone and had a grazed shin bone :(