Our house

Our house. Our biggest achievement. Years worth of saving for a deposit. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and after two years we stumbled, quite by accident, into our perfect first home. This place makes me so incredibly happy, and content. It's only had one previous owner, and they have loved and maintained this house for so many years, growing their family here.

We have been here for six months and I'll be honest, I'm a little overwhelmed with how much maintanance owning your own home requires. A lot of that has to do with home improvements, like painting, stripping wallpaper, plastering, installing insulation.. but I didn't factor in things like how the garden would get away on me before I could even improve it, and how a small renovation project that I thought woud take a week actually takes five. It's a lesson in patience, and I have to keep reminding myself; we are going to be here for years and years and years.. it doesn't all have to be done right now.

Hang up your mug

 Matt and I have been obsessively watching Australia's season 3 of house rules and it is so exciting. Usually we enjoy watching The Block, but have started to become a little bit disappointed with the rooms that are produced. They are fantastic, showroom, million dollar rooms, made to be judged by designers and purchased by people with millions. House Rules is much more personal, and the ideas and designs are much more realistic and inspirational for the average person on an average wage.
I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes a home, and the small details of each rental house that Matt and I have lived in over the years that appeal to us. Together we have lived in 6 different flats/houses, from apartment style, to awful student flats, to basic two bedroom homes. Each of them have had features we can look back on and consider - features we definitely want to avoid (bedroom with no windows, a gazillion stairs, no off street parking) or most definitely have (oh, how I miss the dishwasher and bathtub in our old house!). but as well as the obvious, there are smaller details that I feel like I want to remember, and be able to incorporate into our next home - which will hopefully be all ours to change how we wish.

 For the first year we lived in this particular house, I never really took much notice of these hooks in the overhead cupboards. When I bought this set of vintage teacups from the hospice op shop (there's also another one in storage) it was proving tricky to find a place for them, so they were put on the hooks. Best. things. ever. What a great way to show off a collection, and the teacups and mugs don't take up any space in the cupboard. Definitely a small homely feature that I would incorporate in the future.

Spacing: The hooks are 11cm apart and 33cm from the bottom shelf, and they comfortably fit a collection of average tea/coffee mugs, as well as these smaller ones.

Backyard makeover (part 2)

 Three truckloads of garden waste later, the garden is finally visible. I've almost decimated the ivy, and discovered paths that I didn't know existed. You wouldn't believe the rubbish we found - a kettle, plastic bags, beer bottles, a nappy! an inhaler, and about 6 items of clothing. The biggest thing we unearthed though, is this big concrete structure. It even had a large shallow metal sink - as you can see in the picture above. What is it? And what do we turn it into? A hen house, a glass house, or a vegetable garden?

Backyard makeover (Part 1)

Let me introduce you to our backyard. We are blessed to have a huge backyard with a fantastic view of the valley. There is so much space and this garden just soaks up the sunshine. For our cats it's like a giant playground, and for my imagination, it's like pinterest with the amount of creative ideas this space seems to generate. Because as you can see, it's not perfect.

This garden is in some serious need of TLC. When we moved into our new rental home, we knew that we want to be here for at least two years while we save up to buy our own house. Usually we wouldn't change anything in a rental, because it's just not worth the investment and usually it's not easy to change anything without permission. It can be a drag to keep up a garden you hate to the style that your landlord or property manager likes.. however, our landlords and property managers are happy for us to update the garden; and we decided it might as well be a place where we can be truly happy. For me, a good outdoor space is everything, and the best part of a home.

As you can see, the tenants before us had left the garden in a shambles. The property was overgrown beyond belief and the owners hired a team for several days to spruce up the interior and exterior of the house. This is the last part of the garden they didn't manage to get to.. underneath all of this overgrowth is the remains of a glasshouse/shed and believe it or not, some landscaping. Ivy has grown rampant in this area and is all through the hedges, grass, and has threaded its little suckers everywhere.

This is the first part of a series which follows our progress of updating this area, re-landscaping, creating and making a wonderful garden! I hope you enjoy it!

Winter knitting

 This past month has flown by and we have been busy settling into our new home. The weather has been absolutely horrific and at the moment we are holed up in our study with the heater on, shivering under blankets as it hits freezing temperatures after a hurricane roared through town yesterday. I forgot how absolutely cold it gets near the sea and it's a big shock to the system. I suspect I will have to stock up on thermals and merino jerseys before this week is out, just to stay warm. We are so lucky that we moved all our household items before this bad weather hit.

In an attempt to create a wooden headboard for our bed, I ventured out to Mitre 10 and got blown about 20metres down the parking lot by a gust of wind, and then saturated with torrential rain. Needless to say that project is on hold! There are some other creative projects going on though.. I haven't mentioned this before on the blog, but in November an elderly lady got me inspired to try my hand at knitting and it's making for a great winter hobby. I went to the op shop and bought some knitting needles from the 20 cent jar and some yarn from the warehouse (because I didn't know where else to go) and caught the knitting craze. This hobby is incredibly addictive! It's so rewarding learning new stitches and seeing the finished product of (suprisingly) hours of work. Talk about practicing patience! The online ravelry community is amazing to be a part of, there are thousands of free patterns available for knitters and crocheters and all sorts of forums to go to for help and advice or a chat. Goes to show that knitting is not just for the older generation!

Here are some items I have knitted so far this year, in iphone quality as my camera has disappeared amongst the boxes for now. Right now I'm working on a romper. Yarn expensive, especially pure wool, but I'm hoping to make a collection of things for when my friends and relations start to have babies. (Mid twenties - it's starting to happen!) There is an exciting project in the works that I am going to be starting on shortly, for real and not just on paper. Now that we live in the city where resources like fabric are a lot more accessible, with a large range, I'm thrilled to be able to start on something I've been thinking about for the past year or so. Hopefully it all happens. Stay tuned!

An empty room

 I've been preparing for this move for the past six months. Now the time has finally come and I'm finally starting to feel excited, instead of stressed with thinking about all the things that would need to be organised. When we moved to Ashburton we literally had nothing but a coffee table, an inordinate amount of books, and an air mattress to sleep on. Over the past two years we've built up a furnished home - each piece of furniture earned and paid for. Cushions and rugs sourced, desks and dressers carefully considered. Looking around at all the boxes and mess, it makes me so proud that every item in our home has a memory and a story.

Our lounge is almost empty now, as I'm getting ready to make the first four hour drive to our storage place. I'm excited to move on to a new home, a new chapter in our lives. I'll miss this town though.

the backyard

 It's been raining almost literally every day for the past fortnight. If this is summer, then summer is a bit of a disappointment this year. Everything in our garden is growing like crazy. Mostly the lawn - which is too wet to mow - but the plants as well. It makes me wish that I had invested some time and money to do up our little garden last year. We've been in our rental for just over a year, and I've never really wanted to commit to spending any money on this house, seeing as its not ours, and we probably won't be here for more than a year. The back lawn and deck is such a plain, uncomfortable place to be and could do with some flowers and fence screening. Our neighbours take great pride in their garden and it is absolutely immaculate, and so beautiful. I can't imagine wanting to spend so much time grooming, mowing and watering a lawn. Phew!

 Exploring pinterest yesterday I found a recipe for DIY weedkiller which involves mixing vinegar, salt and dishwashing liquid together and spraying it on weeds. Sounds simple! I'm excited to give it a go when the weather starts to improve, especially for the driveway. And I can't wait to get a new washing line threaded up. There are so many things that need to be done.. if only it just stops raining!