The Eiffel Tower

(picture from old edition of Home Beautiful from what I can gather)

My five year old daughter announced recently that she would like to go to the Eiffel Tower and could we go within the week! - "Would love to sweetie but unfortunately it is not that easy (especially as it is a 24 hour flight away)."

Since this announcement she has become very interested in the Eiffel Tower and Paris, probably because we have pictures of it around the house and small model of it on our mantel and books on France. There is just something about it. It is amazing to think that when it was originally built it was only meant to be there for about 20 years and the French weren't happy about it. Now it is one of the most recognisable man made landmarks.

Coffee break inspiration

I am not sure if this cafe can claim the best coffee in town but it was a great place to stop, watch the World go by and have one (sorry for the photo quality was taken on my iphone).

The cafe is located on the main street of Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, a picturesque colonial style town well worth a visit. I love the exposed red brick at this cafe, the wrought iron tables and chairs, the vine and roses. We just had to stop and have a coffee.

http://www.southaustralia.com/9003122.aspx

Summer Holiday

Happy New Year everyone. Hard to believe it is already day three of 2011!

We have just returned from our Christmas / Summer holiday and so I have been offline for a while. As I mentioned in an earlier post we organised a house swap with friends in Adelaide, so we could have Christmas with family and catch up with all our old friends.

Just before Christmas my daughter wished for a white one, hoping it would snow and even though we had cold wet weather on the lead up the only white we will probably ever get is flowers, blossom and sandy beaches.

I think her wish was very quickly forgotten though when we got to the house we were staying in for our Christmas break. We were lucky enough to swap with wonderful friends who have a beautiful house and a pool and we swam everyday, the weather was fantastic. Living in Melbourne I miss those amazing blue Adelaide skies. So advantages of having Christmas in Summer.The week leading up to our trip was busy with birthday parties, fairy gardens and painting. And as the week goes on I will share some photos.

So now a New Year and today we have been moving furniture in preparation for the next few months. This year will be an exciting one with the next stage of our renovation and completion of our extension. Plus it is the year my daughter starts school and lots more.

Hope whatever this year holds for you it is a good one.

Bedroom dreaming

Wow time can really fly can't it? I have just realised today that I have not only not posted on my blog for over a week but I haven't even had time to comment on others either. Now I have a bit of catching up to do.

I have over the past week been a little distracted and exhausted by the very slow finishing off of our ensuite and walk in robe, which also impacts on our main bedroom. I so want my bedroom and bed back, a little over sleeping in the lounge on a sofa bed. Can't wait to get back in a redecorate.

So what has been happening besides gastro, head lice, work, Christmas and birthdays parties and planning, painting and cleaning? We have had serious discussions with our builder about a few things we were not happy with, which are now being fixed but at a very slow rate.

We also have had a disagreement about installation of the shower screen, something in our building contract which we think the builders have stated they are doing but they don't. We eventually got to the point of organising it ourselves (and it got installed today and needs 24 hours to set). We will at this stage pay for it and try to get reimbursed. For us is not just about the money but the misleading wording in the contract and discussions we have had with them. If we were clear they weren't going to do it we would have organised a couple of weeks ago as soon as the tiling had been done.

Good news is we have had a shower in our new bathroom even without a shower screen as it was all sealed late last week, we just had to mop the floor and wipe down the toilet after every one.

The other frustrating thing is there is still some minor carpentry work required in our bedroom and hall, which we were told would happen today but didn't, so we still can't sleep in our room. It has now been seven and a half weeks (doesn't help that a colleague of mine has been doing similar work at his house, started three weeks after us and has already finished). Not sure when they will finish off as can't seem to tell us.

What I do know is with the shower screen going in today and the mirror being installed tomorrow (maybe because we organised both ourselves), the bathroom will be finished and ready to decorate this weekend. As soon as that is done I will post some pictures.Thankfully too the building waste that has been sitting in our driveway was cleared today just in time, as we have about 20 kids descending on our house Saturday morning for my daughter's fifth birthday. Fingers crossed we have good weather as the garden is looking great, with all the rain Melbourne has had.

Painting and cleaning

Could it be - we might be able to use our new shower this coming weekend. If so it will almost be seven weeks since we had a shower in our house!

The weekend was spent painting, sorting and cleaning in anticipation of moving back into our bedroom and having a WIR and en-suite bathroom, which for the time being will be our only bathroom.

Corner of shower - still got to paint above, do corking and put in shower screen (to right of picture only as walk in)

Just painted the ceiling and new cornice

We had discussion this morning with the building group about some issues and are hoping all will be sorted asap, I mean Christmas is under three weeks away can you believe!

Looking through the new WIR to bathroom - can't wait to put blue towels on the towel rail

Hugs, thank you and a win

It has been a frustrating hard week as far as the build goes but today I managed to take a step back and focus on the good things.

Lots of hugs and watching how well my two kids play together, making things with my daughter while my son had a long sleep, and receiving a gorgeous gift in the mail from Lisa of Ledamae which I recently won on a giveaway on her blog.

And speaking of blogs, I want to say thank you to all of you out there that read my blog and leave lovely comments. It really is helping make this build process so much easier to handle. I love writing this blog and reading all of yours. I have met so many wonderful people and been reminded of great, easy things to make - like these lanterns and paper chain I did with my daughter today - I was reminded of this reading Buttons by Lou Lou.

We have also enjoyed getting ready for Christmas and started to decorate the tree (my little boy however loves to take of the balls and throw them).

Good news is the plasterer finished today, so we can actually clean up a little and paint this weekend. We do have issues still but one of the company managers is coming to see us Monday. Hope you all have a great weekend.

And so it goes on.....

What a day! Started off being so excited as the vanity, toilet and fittings went in. Then the electrician came and put in all the lights.

So knowing this raced home from work excited about taking photos to share with you. Turned on the lights (which look great) - let there be light! Unfortunately with light we can now see any defects, so to list a few:

• uneven tiling on walls
• uneven tiling in shower recess, meaning any shampoo bottle would lean
• slant on floor
• bowed wall behind vanity.

This has left me angry and upset, so straight to the pizza store and a glass of red!

Tomorrow we will be having harsh words to our site manager, it needs to be fixed and we are fast running into Christmas and out of patience! Stay tuned for the next episode in the saga.....