Somebody stole our side stairs

The work has begun on our side stairs. The old rickety steps were removed today to make way for something safer.

The number of times I would catch Son #3 dangling in between the gaps of the horizontal railings was enough to prematurely grey me.

Missing stairs

Mr D, the builder, is back with his trusty side-kick Scotty. They got through a lot of work today and hope to have the new stairs built in the next couple of days.

dressing the hardwood timber 

Real architects, avert your eyes. Jason's been designing. I know. Don't judge us.

rough sketches of the sunroom side of the Sow's Ear

The plan is to kick out the sunroom roof to make the new stairs a little more weatherproof, so we can access the downstairs laundry without receiving a drenching. That will be the second stage of the building process of the stairs.

So, lots happening here at the Sow's Ear. Stay tuned!

Getting ready for warmer weather

It's still quite cold in Brisbane but the days have been so glorious and sunny. We've been taking advantage of the dry weather and cleaning some of the winter cobwebs away.

We took the high pressure cleaner from the back shed and cleaned our outdoor furniture which was looking quite grubby. I also gave our old outdoor table a clean and oiled it. It's not a fantastic job but it's a bit tidier than before.

Casala chairs drying in the sun after a clean

 

It's  a lot cleaner than before and is another place to sit for the boys when they have their friends over.  Notice, I also cleaned the concrete...

Jason finished painting the back of the cubby house and then proceeded to prep the floorboards before applying decking oil. Our belt sander is still missing in action, so he hand-sanded the verandah as best as he could.

The boards just sucked in that decking oil. Jason's applied three coats so far.

Oiling the decking boards on the cubby house

Earlier in the week, I went with one of my friends to a fair trade wholesaler of hand crafted gifts on Brisbane's southside. It was completely awesome. I picked up a 'children of the world' bunting which was handmade in West Bengal, India for the boys' cubby house. I loved it so much, I bought a second one for Son #3's Kindergarten as it is quite multicultural.

(If you want to know the details of the wholesaler just email me, you will need an ABN to purchase from them though)

Colourful bunting for the children's cubby house

And in very exciting news, work on our side stairs will hopefully commence sometime this week. We can't wait!

Missed that 3rd year blogiversary

It's been three years since Fun and VJs became more than just a figment of my imagination...Sadly, I forgot to mark our 3rd year Blogiversary.

No cake, no giveaways and not even a second thought until it was already over. Thankfully this blog is made of the tough stuff. It is definitely a persistent little bugger, so Happy Blogiversary to it!

I thought it would be fun to see what we were doing three years ago today. From memory, I don't think I was terribly happy, as we were in mid kitchen renovation mode and I was very hungry. The blog post below was chronicling some of the smaller projects we tackled when we first moved into the Sow's Ear.

Hop into the Tardis and travel into the past...a time before I knew how to caption images...


Wednesday 5 August 2009
The first few projects 

With any condition Queenslander house there is always work. And lots of it when they need TLC.

The first job we did was to sand the deck and oil it to bring it back from the brink. It's a massive covered area, so it was a big job - particularly when it was pouring rain every time Jason was ready to oil it.

The second project was to sand and scrape the front entry ready for a coat of paint. Jason also needed to fix up the VJs which were covering the architraves. It looks a million dollars now.




We used Dulux acrylic low sheen white (wash and wear) for the VJs and a gloss white for the doors etc.

We are now living without a kitchen, waiting for it to be installed later this week. It was ripped out last Friday, so it has been an experience with my hungry boys.

Anyway, I can't wait for it to be up and running!

*the image above has been pixelated to protect the innocent

Lack of motivation

Yep, we've been struck by severe lack of motivation here at Fun and VJs. There are a number of small half-finished painting jobs hanging over our heads and it seems decadent not to be tackling them while the weather has been nice and dry. Who knows when La Nina conditions will hit us again in Brisbane town?

This morning, Jason bought another tin of exterior paint, so we could finish off the cubby house which we started a month or so ago. We needed to finish all the white and I gave the little old door its first coat of orange paint. The whole thing looks compact but adorable.

The cubby house looks incredibly cute

The only thing left to do is to paint the finials and trim on the back but it is a tight squeeze between the cubby and the fence line. We can't seem to find our belt sander either...when that is located, we can sand back the little verandah and give it a coat of decking oil.

Jason is straddling the side fence to paint the back of the cubby house.  Not much room at all.

white cubby house

This week, I'll try to get a start on the second car port. It's the last heritage coloured thing we have to paint over...and people on the street have been noting the unfinished nature of the Sow' Ear front yard. We've just been putting it off because it's just a pain to paint! (Jason just read this paragraph and said I should paint the front car port in my bikini...I'm snorting with laughter...he's dreaming!)

Also, I found out through local sources that the Sow's Ear was painted heritage colours only this century i.e in the early 2000s.  How funny is that? I had assumed it was last painted in the early 1990s but no, apparently it used to be white back then.

Anyway, expect more painting updates over the next little while...

Latest op-shop finds

I did a bit of an op-shop fossick yesterday and came up trumps in terms of Scandinavian crystal and serving ware. I was in the Logan vicinity and visited about three oppies for a quick browse.

It seems Kosta Boda is not terribly desirable in Logan and is being donated to the charity shops. So sad to see these languishing on the shelves...

Kosta Boda grape bowl designed by Ann Warff

iittala solaris plates designed by Tapio Wirkkala

Kosta Boda Party  plates designed by Ann Warff in 1970s
I found four large plates and a smaller entree size plate at three separate op-shops. So funny. 

the haul also included pineapple serving ware which I will pass on to some friends and more Ravenhead bark glasses to add to my kitchen shelf.

My friends Chris and Susan are having the ultimate retro garage sale on their lawn in September. I'm going to have a stall to raise some cash, the profits will be put towards our annual book club Christmas party (we're going to buy prawns this year. Ha!).

Some of the retro op-shop items I've found over the past few months will be for sale on my stall (I can't keep it all...as much as I'd like to...). My prices will be cheap, so if you're keen to start or add to your Scandinavian crystal or pottery collection, stay tuned for the details.

Let there be prawns for Christmas!