The painter is coming!

At last my renovations at the new old house are starting. The painter is coming. Well the plumber is coming first followed by a quick visit from the electrician then the plasterer then the painter but let's not quibble. The sample pots arrived in the mail from Murobond and I've been busy painting up large swatches for the wall. Head over to my page to see me turn to the dark side.

Dark days in the sunshine

As most of the world knows by now my home state of Queensland is facing dire floods. 75% of the state is disaster affected and the water keeps rising. 36 years ago as a 12 year old I witnessed this city succumb to the last big flood. Now I am back in my old city of Ipswich and even though the rain has finally stopped and the sun has come out the flood will be even bigger than the "big one" back then.

I awoke this morning to the sounds of alarms and helicopters. We are safe on a hill but just a few blocks away the river was creeping into the business district. At 6 o'clock I ventured out and this is what I found. The waters are still rising and the peak will be at least 2 meters higher than the levels in these photos. 4000 homes will be flooded. Downstream in Brisbane, ten times bigger than Ipswich the number of affected properties is just that, up to 40000 homes and businesses inundated in some way. It is not over yet.

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Why renovating a house is a never ending story of joy

Help! Look what the painters did to my floor! I have spent all day trying to save it but I admit defeat. You can see more of the carnage on my page. Perhaps you can help with suggestions on improving this sorry state of affairs? My suggestion is a jam and cream donut.

Rainy days and rubbish skips

My weekends are being devoured by new old house jobs. The painters start on Monday and to ensure our weekend is action packed my husband has hired a rubbish skip for the week. Think of me as the rain pelts down, lugging stones and rubbish from the backyard and removing old flyscreens and strange bits of timber nailed to walls for unfathomable reasons. The next old house before video is up on my page as well as a few of my recent thrift  and secondhand store finds like my new murano glass bowl on a thrifted ikat. That glass is almost edible! Yum!

Drowning in boxes! The dining room before

When will this nightmare end? Every time I unpack a box I look up to see a wall of boxes still awaiting my attention. With a full time job in the next city and blogging, weekends are devoted to getting settled in. Ha! I can't see the light at the end of this box tunnel. So I'm playing hooky again from WINKS and reading lists (I haven't forgotten all those lovely blogs I promised to include in the next few guides ... I promise.) That's a before of my new old dining room. The previous owner was into diving by the looks of it (and concealed storage!). If you want to see my next walk through just head over to my page.