Fans and Garden

Got home from Perth yesterday evening feeling quite shattered. We caught up with family and managed to do a bit of Christmas sales buying yesterday as well. Went to Beacon Lighting and picked up 5 ceiling fan lights for the house. This means all bedrooms except the spare will have a ceiling fan and we will also be putting 2 in the main living area. We did try to get the same ones exactly but couldn't get them in the same colour combinations so have settled for 2
different colours, 3 variations on the same model. We've had to leave 3 of the fans in Perth until our next trip as we ran out of boot space.

This is the one for our bedroom.


This is one of the ones for the main living area where the computers all are.
This one is also for the main living area and will be between two ceiling lights.
We have 1 chrome fan /light with wenge blades, One chrome fan with wenge blades for the main living area.
2 white ceiling fans with lights for the boys rooms and one white eco version (T5 fluro) light fitting for our bedroom. This one has a slightly more bulgy light fitting section but it was the only way to get the fluro light which is meant to be brighter than the ones in the other lights. They are all hallogen not CLF as this was the only version offereed in this light model. We couldn't find any other fans that we both liked although both of us saw ones we liked individually.
The brand is Lucci and the fan is called the Futura. Choice magazine didn't rate it super highly
(We didn't have $350 to spend per fan) but in the mid price range fans it was one of the better ones.


These are the minor bedroom lights. You can see our main bedroom one behind it.


Today I started on our first proper garden bed. ( There's a temp one for some plants that will eventually be moved near it) the weather isn't exactly perfect for gardening but I've been itching to get started and finally the retaining wall guy finished the last section of wall at the front of the house. ( I think we should have one more block but never mind perhaps he can add that when we eventually bring him back to do the other side of the house. I planted 18 dwarf abelias along the edge of the retaining wall. I'm going to have to go and get another punnet of 6 as I ran out.

First I started by digging in some of the soil conditioner and garden mix into the builders sand pad and then added more as I dug each section for the plants themselves. I plan to grab some wood chips to mulch near each plant when I go to the nursery tomorrow to buy the extra punnet of abelias.

I still have to dig the rest of the soil conditioner into the rest of the bed. The bed is about 10 m long by 3m wide. Once its done i'll water in some molasses.

Started on Christmas decorations. Finally!

Today our youngest, 'R" decided he wanted to help me put up the Christmas tree. The tree is definitely looking the worse for wear with one branch base broken and quite a few bits broken off it now. It's well past it's use by. Given that we bought it 2nd hand many, many, years ago it's done well to have lasted so long. It's the tree type that has conifer type branches with individual bits and they aren't the type of tree you see that often any more so it will be hard to find something the same but it really will need to be replaced for next year regardless. While I am tempted to rush out and replace it now I guess it's nice to have it join us for our first Christmas in the new house.

Anyway on to the decorating: Once we had finished "R" declared that it looked better with less so off came 1/2 the decorations and it's now down to red/blue/gold as a theme.

So no lead crystal decorations that I purchased when still working back when I was 7 months pregnant with the eldest and which have been on the tree every Christmas since. I haven't figured out what to do with them "instead" yet but perhaps I'll find a place for them somewhere. No embarrassing pics of the boys as very littlies that hung in Christmas wreath photo frames, no crafty decorations this year.


After we'd finished I tried draping the silver tinsel that we had and it just didn't look right so it's come off for the moment. Perhaps if I buy some gold tinsel it might look better. The tree lights will need to be tested as well. haven't put them on yet. So the tree is a work in progress.

This is what I started on last weekend. Pulling out all my Christmassy ornaments and putting them together in the lounge room. The Santa used to be a light as well and when the boys were young we'd place it on a coffee table in the lounge room with a snack for Santa and the reindeers next to it. The battery light hasn't worked in it for years but it still makes a lovely ornament.
Today I've added the stockings below. One for each boy. The Christmas Tree one belongs to "C" and the reindeer one to "R" I asked them if they really wanted them up but they told me they didn't want to miss out on finding surprises in there on Christmas morning.


I wasn't sure what to do with these stars. I used to dangle them from the curtains in the lounge room in our old house and then I realised I could do something with the electric fire so this is where they will sit for the moment until I come up with something else. Perhaps a stack of christmas crackers. I'm not sure. Had to switch on the light mechanism to make it appear more realistic.
We picked up our new organza sheers for the lounge room yesterday. they have turned out too short for the window. I did give the correct measurements to the curtain girl and explained how far from the floor i wanted the curtains to finish, asking her advice as to what drop to make them to achieve this but some how they've ended up at least 3-4 cms too short. Luckily the rod is quite high above the window and DH will be able to drop it down about the amount they are short. So not too big a drama to solve because as they are at the moment they look terrible. We love the colour and look though.

I've draped a chain of Christmas bells across them . It looks very festive although it hasn't shown up in the photo terribly well.

R's been doing some constructing of his own.

Youngest has been "landscaping" the front yard this week. So far we have a 2 hole golf course.
( I've been roped in to play 3 games with him today) and now our very own stone circle.

more pictures

back filling is still to be completed. but It looks great. So much so we are going to get the guy to quote us for the retaining wall we need on the other side of the house. which is probably a bigger job and is certainly more fiddly as it will include several direction changes and a set of steps. He's been brilliant backfilling over our septics as well. It seems they weren't covered the way they were supposed to be. So he has backfilled with some of our additional soil and covered up a service pipe so it's just visible instead of being nearly 500mm above ground level.

finally some action.

Still waiting on the maintenance guys,

still waiting on someone to put in some trees



HOWEVER



Finally our first retaining wall was started today. yippee The first of several. We plan to put them in gradually.

Once this one is done we can start on the front garden which I have been so looking forward to.
The guys will be finishing it off hopefully tomorrow.