Winter sucks...

Not much been going on around here lately, winter has set in and it's too cold to go outside...

Now that i've got my new laptop, I'll try and put more pics up soon of the few things we have got done lately...

x

BBQ Makeover

We recently bought a new barbecue and we didn't need our old wooden one anymore.  But instead of throwing it away or selling it, I had PLANS for it!! lol

I got Den to remove the grill plate and gas pipes etc, to just leave me with a wooden frame.


Then after fixing it up a bit, as it was a bit wonky, I chose a nice bright paint colour and got to work...


Now I use it as a lovely planter stand!
 

We've got heaps done on the ManVan this past weekend, can't wait until it's finished, I can finally start to see the end...I'll put more pics up tomorrow.


Still looking for a job, it's been so nice being home these past 3 months, but my time money is running out.  Had another job interview today, seemed like a really nice place to work...and I also have an interview on Friday, a really stressful one.  Oh boy, I feel like it's starting to get close!

Bye for now! xx

Bored of the ManVan for now...

After spending most of today in the ManVan, sanding, priming and bogging, I'm a bit sick of it...so today I'm going to show some pics of other things I have done around our home.

So far we have...


* Pulled up all the carpets in the whole house and had the floors sanded and polished. I don't like carpets and am glad I don't have to worry about stains etc!

* Painted and "temporarily" fixed up the kitchen.  We found an old cupboard to use as some extra bench space and attached some mini orb to the front of it to make it respectable and we painted the cupboards.  Maybe one day we will get a proper new kitchen?

* Completely gutted our bathroom and did all the new tiling, fixtures etc by ourselves. It was so disgusting and we were ecstatic when the new bathroom was finished!! There were tears...lol


* Had window shutters and security screens installed


* Had the huge tree in the front yard pulled down along with some other smaller ones


* Had new fences installed


* Renovated our Toilet complete with new pan which we installed ourselves, we also reno'd our Laundry


* Painted every single wall, skirting board, ceiling and door etc in the whole house


* Installed brand new front and back doors, including security doors.  We wanted to let more light in so both front and back doors have glass in them, I love them!


* Installed Built In Wardrobes in every bedroom


* Built a built in bookshelf and desk in the front room


* Re-did our 2 fireplaces by tiling them, staining the ledges and painting the insides etc.


* Installed new blinds throughout the house


* Had a huge area of paving done in the backyard


* Had our beautiful pergola installed out in the backyard


* Painted the exterior of the house (to hide the ugly old brickwork)


* Installed all new doors throughout the house, we chose bi-folds as they take up less room


* Had a split system airconditioner installed


* Replaced every light switch and power point in sight (actually I can see one or two that we missed)


* Replaced all the skirting boards (they were a funny shape)


* And alot more, which I'm sure I'll think about once I get off the floor looking at that list!!!!!




So here are some pics of the random things we've done...I will go into more detail later....enjoy!! (I know we did...lol)

 

This was the "crime" scene that was our backyard...Ewwwwwwwww!!

 

And this is where we sit out the back now...aaaahhhhhh!! (We have also repainted and fixed up the fence to the right of the first picture, thank goodness!)

This is Den just about to start taking out the old sink and bathtub. GROSS !! (Just realised that we had a mirror in the window area for a while) lol
 

And this is how it is now, with alot of hard work inbetween...

Can anyone say embarrassing?? lol...this was the loungeroom before we fixed it up.  Den only rented at our house at this stage, (before we purchased it) he was pretty much living with me at the house I was renting at so he didn't live like this really!...it wasn't nice. CRINGE

Can you believe this is the same room!!!!!  I have better pics than this for another day.

This pic was taken when we were halfway through our Laundry Reno, it was much (MUCH) worse than this to start with...more pics for another day.

This is when we were finished, we used our doorway for an extra towel rack, we don't use that door so at least it still has a purpose!  A much more organised and practical area. YAY

Looking from the other angle...I love my washing basket in the foreground, so cute.
 

   
Here are some pics of my artwork, I just mess around, nothing serious.  They are ok, I have the bottom green one above my bed and it looks great against our brown wall.  

So that's a bit of a sneekie peek into some of the things we've done around here, I'll have heaps more soon.  Have a good weekend! x

Getting the ground ready....

We have a large backyard, but really only one place for the Caravan to go, and it wasn't level.  Our whole backyard is on two different levels, higher at  the back and to the right, which meant previously when we were putting up our pergola and getting our pavers laid, it was a big job.  Lots of work to get the ground level.

So to get the ManVan in place, we had alot of work to do first, we had to make it flat, and build a retaining wall.

We had to get it done fast too.  The Bob-Cat had to get in to the backyard before the van was delivered, so it was a rush.

We placed some gravel down and dolomite to make it nice and hard, the van weighs a ton so it had to be sturdy.  We actually cut out an area for the doorway, so getting in and out of the van would be covered, we are planning on building a shelter type thing once it's in place.  Maybe even a little decking area?

Anyhoo, here are some more pics of us getting the area ready...the van hasn't been put in this area as yet, because we thought it would be much easier to do the work on it while it was sitting out in the yard a bit more.  Once it goes into it's final spot, it will be a tight squeeze, so hopefully we are almost ready to put that in soon.

 

This is looking out from the back door

Obviously this is looking from the other way

 

This is when we first got it all dug out!!  Oy Oy Oy, we had one of those moments...you know the ones, when we wanted to turn back time...lol

 

Den's son came around to help...sort of...lol

 

This is when all the dolomite started getting laid out.

 

Lee and Den starting to level it all out

 

Lee is heaps excited!

 

Bubby was all excited too! Love her x

 

We had to change to clothes line too as the other one went across the back yard.

 

So this is where it has stayed ever since, we are finishing off the retaining wall and the inside of the van before moving it in to it's final place.

This is how it looked before THE MANVAN arrived...sometimes I kind of miss having my backyard like this...but then again...lol

 

Inside the ManVan...

The inside of the caravan was in really good condition, we were expecting a lot worse after seeing some disgusting caravans when doing our search.

The park owner warned us that it was a "bit rough" and a "project" so when we opened up the front door, we kind of had our eyes half shut, but were happily surprised when we saw the inside.

The mattress was good, the bunk bed cushions were great, even the oven was clean!  There was a bit of wear on the laminated dining table and side shelf, and the lino floor was a little bit damaged near the door.

There were some windows that wouldn't open and some didn't have fly screens, but the sunroofs were neat and functional with no issues, and the electrical side of things was perfect.  It also had no water damage at all, which was a huge plus!

We both got so excited, but Den had already told me to use my "poker face" because it was so cheap and we didn't want the owner to realise that he was pretty much giving it away!  Like I said we had seen way way worse, for alot more price so we were freaking out about getting this one for only $1800!

We paid for it on the spot, got the keys...and drove home feeling really keen to get started.  But first we had to get it home! Oh yeah, forgot about that bit!

It wasn't registered and had a flat tyre, the owner said it would be ok to tow but he wouldn't recommend it...and as we have never really been "caravan people", and didn't even own a car that could tow it safely...we opted to pay for it to be delivered to our house the following week, it cost about $400 but so worth it...it was hilarious seeing it coming up the road, looked like the titanic rolling up the street!

So here's some pics of the inside...as it was before we got stuck in to it...more on that later!

Here is Dennis looking in the caravan just before we bought it! We were so excited!

The kitchen area was in really good shape...

We were really surprised at how good the mattress was...believe me, I am a stickler for a clean mattress!
 

One of the ends had a little room for bunk beds and a wardrobe...again in great condition.

I really liked this little dining booth area, it was so comfy!  I tried to convince the others that this should stay...

 

It had a little fridge, we weren't sure if it should stay or not? 

The door wasn't in really good shape, it kind of looked like it had been nailed shut, as the middle piece was meant to open.

 

This was the only real damaged part of the whole caravan, and we already knew we would be putting a new floor in.

I also liked this bench and wardrobe, it would be handy for Lee to put his things on.

So as you can see, it was a pretty good caravan for such a good price, but we had PLANS for it!

We thought about it all long and hard, didn't rush into anything, we didn't want to start gutting it until we had kind of slept on it (and IN it) for a while, lol...but we decided that it was best if it was more of a spare room than a caravan, he didn't need the kitchen and dining table, he wanted to sleep and hang out in it more than cook in it, lol x

More pics to come soon of us getting stuck in!

I Have Plans for the ManVan...

I've been trying to decide how to start posting on my blog.  I want to be able to show you all the different projects I've either done, or am still doing.

So, I thought the best way would be to slowly get through each project with maybe a week or so of dedicated posts, then the following week, start on another project.  Then as we continue doing the project, do follow up posts etc.  Get it?? No neither do I sorry. haha

The first thing I want to show you all is the 23ft Caravan we purchased last year for my son.  He is going to live in our backyard! We bought it for $1800 and have gutted it and are almost ready to start painting and decorating it. YAY!!

Here's some photos of when we first bought it and got it home. It was an effort to push it up our driveway let me tell you...or so it looked from where I was sitting...wha?

It's a bit rough around the edges, but exactly what we were looking for...a DO-ER-UPP-ER!! Yay.

We found it at one of our favourite Caravan Park in the Southern Vales of Adelaide, it was an old on-site van which was for sale... this section of the park looked like an old caravan grave site, wish we could have bought them all!! Muwahahahaha...

Lee loved it when we first got it delivered to our home, he spent hours and hours in it...just dreaming about his PLANS for it! lol

It only just fit up our driveway!

I think it looks really cosy...
 

Bubby loves it but tries to act like she doesn't lol 

We rounded up help to push it up the driveway, Den's eldest son and his cousin, Lee and Den found it hard, such a tight squeeze.

We had a few laughs but I have to admit, there were a few words that a young lady like myself shouldn't have to hear!


We were so relieved to finally get it in it's first resting place.  We've had to do it in three stages, as we were still doing the work to get the area flat and retaining wall finished.  

But we spent alot of time just hanging out it in, my son Lee and I would just sit and chat about exciting things like paint colour, curtains and things like that, I think he's caught the reno bug now!


I've got more photos coming up next time showing the inside and all the work that we've done so far...stay tuned!