Dale has finished the paving up the side of the house and Dale has also laid the new lawn down the back yard.  We are also in the process of moving the pizza oven and putting some steps in the back yard betwen the two sections of the backyard.  Dale is also about to put the rest of the deck down and we are putting the sandpit in under the deck so it’s protected from the weather.  More photos of these things to come. 

It’s coming along nicely.

See you all soon.

D & E & B & Z

Dale has finished putting up the patio and he has been doing lots in the back yard to get it ready for when I start doing family daycare. 

Here are some photos of what it all looks like now.  There are still a few things to do.  We are going to turf down under the clothesline and plant out a whole heap of plants to try and keep children away from climbing on things.  Fingers crossed that plan will work. 

Dale’s mum will be here in two weeks and I think is planning on doing the paving single handedly, although I’m sure Dale will be able to help when he is not at work. 

The vege patch is doing very well as you can see from the photos.  The green bushy things are broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage various.  I’ve also planted some spring onions, peas and beans.  I will plant some seed potatoes soon too, I am just waiting for the chook manure I put in the soil to break down a little bit.  The herbs are finally starting to grow as well.  The coriander has shot, the basil is growing and the parsely and chives seem to finally be doing something. 

The corns looking a little worse for wear cos we had some really strong winds and it got blown over nearly horizontal.  It’s then tried to right itself again.  The cabbage is at the end of that patch. 

We also now have two apple trees, one Golden Delicious and one Pink Lady.  Can’t wait for those to fruit.  I better start looking for apple recipes now. 

Anyway, will show you more photos as we get more stuff done.

I took the boys up to PMH on Monday so that the surgeon could have a look at Brock’s hernia. The doctor was actually able to push the bowel back up into the stomach area while I watched. That was a bit weird. We are now just waiting to hear from the hospital to see when he can have the operation. The doctor put it down as urgent, which means within 30 days, so hopefully we will hear any day now. The boys were very good. I fed them both at the hospital and then they slept the whole way home. As I was walking back to the car this older man started talking to me. He was a teacher and was chatting how much fun some of his kids had in his class who were idential twins. We have so much to look forward to with the tricks I am sure they are going to play on us.

The weeked here was quite warm. Saturday it got to 30 degrees and Sunday 28 degrees. Maree and Samantha were feeling the heat. On Saturday Maree took Samantha up to Aqua Jetty and they spent a couple of hours in the pool. Samantha enjoyed herself very much. While they were there Dale and Justin were up at the block chopping down a tree in the back yard and there will be more on that in the house update.

The boys are starting to spend more time awake as they are getting older. I’ve started giving them some awake time in the afternoons. Here’s a photo of them on there play mat that mum sent over. You can see in the photo how much they have grown.

On Tuesday (15 Mar) I went down to the beach in the afternonon and met up with Maree, Justin and Samantha. We went and had an ice cream and here is a photo of Samantha holding Zac. She also held Brock but I wasn’t able to get a photo of her with Brock as I was helping her to hold him up without him falling over.

We also got a photo of Samantha sitting on the front of the pram while the boys were in it. Hopefully you all enoy it.

Ciao for now D & E and the boys

We now have some roof timbers on as well.  We had been told the roofers would be starting on the Wednesday but they actually started on the Monday which was a very pleasant surprise.  They are now almost finished.  Here are some photos of where the house is at now.  The house is looking great.  With the roofing materials on it seems quite big.  We have worked out the lay out of all the rooms and what will go where. 

Ebay has been a bit of a godsend of late also.  As the house is so much bigger than the old house we need some new furniture.  We hadn’t had a lot of luck finding what we needed in the shops so did some searches on ebay.  We have found two 3 seater lounges, a 6 seater dining table and a coffee table.  We also have found the two buffets for the alcoves in the lounge/dining area and all a lot cheaper than in the shops.  It’s great to know that things are coming together. 

That’s about it for now.  As I always promise I will try to keep the updates a bit more regular.  Any sense of organisation that I thought I had has gone out the window with the birth of the two boys but I will get there again at some point, hopefully soon. 

The brickie has been working very hard.  He has got nearly all of the house internal (round the edge) completed and has drawn out a plan to lay the bricks for bedroom 2, 3 and 4 (which is now the study).  He was talking to our neighbour during the week and said that he expects to be finished by the first week of Feb.  That’s great except it does mean we will have to make another payment to the builder.  Oh well,  I guess that’s what happens when you undertake these things. 

 So here are a couple of photos from last Thursday for you all to have a look at.  Hopefully these come out a bit bigger on your screens, as I understand some of you are having trouble seeing some of the photos.  Fingers crossed. 

 It is very exciting to see all the windows and door frames in the external walls and see it all coming together, finally.  Well, not really finally, it has actually not taken that long considering he is working on his own, but seems to have taken ages from when we signed the paperwork back in June. 

Here is a couple of photos of where the house is at now and I will update again in a week. 

Oh, we were victim of some charming people who decided to decorate (graffiti) the lovely pink toilet and the builders shed.  Apparently the police have been around and taken photos (graffiti control is a big push over here at the moment) so there is a photo of the toilet also. 

After everything was finally delivered the brickie has done a wonderful job.  He has done about 3/4 of the external walls up to window height. 

It has been great to drive past the end of the street in the morning and see his car there and then past in the afternoon and see how much he has done.  He cleans as he goes and there is no mess left at the end of the day, just another lot of wall.

Some of you will have got the Christmas letter and seen the progress up until the Tuesday before Christmas.  For those of you that didn’t, here it is.  

 He finished up on Thursday for his Christmas break and we think he will start back on Monday 7 Jan.   Fingers crossed.  This is where it is at from Fri 21 Dec.   

We’ve also been doing a bit of looking around for the new furniture we are going to need for the new house.  As it is soo much bigger there are a few things we are going to need.  We thought we had found the two units that we will need to put in the recesses in the lounge and dining room but they wouldn’t fit in the back of the van.  Surprise Surprise!  We were actually surprised cos the van is huge!! 

We will keep looking though.  The plan is to buy the stuff now while we have some spare money as there won’t be a lot, if any, when the twins are born. 

The bricky actually started on Monday this week.  He would have got more done if all the bits he needed had been delivered or what had been delivered was right.  The window frames that have been delivered were all put together back to front (ie they opened on the outside).  The manufacturer had to come down and dismantle them all and put them all back together the right way. 

There has also been a delay in getting some steel feet delivered.  They need to go in so some support beams go fit into them and then some steel lintel can go over the top of the windows to support the bricks.  Hopefully they will be delivered next week now. 

In spite of this the bricky has done a wonderful job so far.  Have a look at the photos and you will see what he has managed to do in just two days.  He will be there all next week before taking some leave over Christmas. 

Funny story – our friendly neighbour was talking to Dale last Saturday.  Apparently on Saturday morning this truck pulled up on the opposite side of the street.  First the driver hopped out and used our lovely pink toilet, and then the passenger hopped out and used the toilet too, and then they just drove off.   Hahaha. 

We have had our window frames delivered and also the steel lintels and beams.  The pile of dirt that has been slowly being eroded and blown away has been taken away, thank goodness.  The neighbours are happy with that. 

The lovely pink toilet is still there and appears to be a source of amusement and some pranks for the local kids.  We dropped past today and the door was wide open.  Not sure what possesses some people. 

Graeme was also able to let us know that the brickie will start this week, sometime, but hopefully Monday.  He is a middle aged, Welsh guy, who works on his own.  The job will take a bit longer (4 weeks instead of 2) but will be a perfect job.  We can’t wait to see the walls starting to go up. 

Hopefully I will have some photos of that soon.