Walks and walks and walks.

I've been walking so much lately as there are so many new and interesting places to walk!

This morning I went on the "city backpackers circuit" which was through Roma Street Parklands, up Queen Street, up George Street and then past all the backpackers hostels and up Petrie Terrace.

This evening we wanted to see the fireworks for Australia Day so we went down Petrie Terrace, across the William Jolly Bridge, across Southbank and the Green Bridge, then across the city, watching the fireworks from the Victoria Bridge, then through the city and Roma St Parklands home.

There are also another couple of regular walks I do. One "the Paddington Rosalie Loop" and it is across the Hale Street foot bridge, up Charlotte Street (it's so steep), up to Enoggera Tce, then joining up and crossing Latrobe Tce and going down to the Rosalie cafes, crossing Baroona Rd, going past the back of the XXXX factory, through Lang Park and up Caxton St and home.

And the other one is "the circuit". Across the footbridge, up Given Tce, along Enoggera Tce, along Musgrave Rd, and home.

Try again for photos.

Not sure if the photos are coming out as it's not showing them. But one is supposed to be of the curtain and the other is of our "awesome shower" (yes, the one that leaked in about ten places!). It can either come out of the hand held, or the ceiling or jets from the back, or out near your feet (to fill up the little bath I think). And there's an exhaust fan, a radio with two speakers, capacity for using the phone in the shower (not connected) and a light (not connected). And it has a big mirror in it. Not exactly a water saver though.

More achieved - gradually.

I won't have achieved everything by the time I return to work the week after next but the house has come a long way.

Yesterday I ordered a coffee table and a new TV unit for the lounge room, and at some stage it will also need a rug.

I've finished all the touch-up painting too. Thank goodness the old owners left the paint.

And the curtain is almost finished for behind the TV. It would be finished except something has happened to the sewing machine and it's not feeding correctly. I guess it is about 25 years old and needs a bit of TLC. Don't we all?

The dog came back today and it's getting used to its new surrounds. It's howled at ambulances and barked at something imaginary (or not), and whined at the back door quite a bit. It's not used to security doors and being able to see in while there are people moving around. At the old house it had stippled glass on the French Doors to the back deck. And it's also not used to people coming and going in its territory. I'll have to train the family to do the right thing with coming and going or there will be an escaped dog before you know it, and traffic chaos at the Normanby!!! Aaaagh!!!!!!!!

I've heard from the cabinet maker that they can put the guts (but not all the doors) to the extra kitchen cabinets next week. And that means the desk and shelves will go in my "study in a cupboard" under the stairs. Yay, I'll be able to get everything out of the boxes in the kitchen and the place will look almost normal.

The handyman finished his 3 day stint (that's 2 three day stints so far!!). I've been popping into Bunnings and Paddington hardware frequently for bits and pieces. It never seems to end!

Then the air con is being installed late January. Thankfully we know someone in the air con business as one of the air con installers we talked to said they couldn't even look at something so complicated until winter!!

We are still waiting on Bigpond Wireless Broadband and Foxtel to be installed as there is some problem that needs to be dug out on the footpath. I'm not sure if the photos will upload in the blog today with just the dial-up but I'm trying!

Andy is off to Bahrain to visit his beloved tomorrow. He saved up himself as we couldn't get frequent flyer points for it. He is loving living in Flo Ho. He was a very prominent campaigner for buying the house. He loves he really big bedroom, compared with his very compact bedroom at Ashgrove. We're going out to dinner to celebrate his going (never celebrated his OP1 either) tonight at the Bali Grill. The food there is amazing.

Speaking of Ashgrove, the new owners are having a bit of trouble (though not as much as we are here). The pool filter has died, they can't get the oven working and the downpour exposed a pipe that leads to nowhere in the yard. And we are going out to dinner with them on Saturday! How embarasmment!(sic)

The photo still hasn't uploaded so may have to post without it. OK, I'm posting without it. Was going to be a photo of the curtain - maybe next time.

New water features!

Well there was a huge deluge of rain this afternoon and I found lots of leaks!! And they are quite serious ones too. They are all around windows and hopefully we'll be able to get someone to fix them without replacing them (kerching!!).

And over the road there appeared Niagara Falls (well not quite) out of a drain down the wall of Roma Street Parklands. It looked as good as any waterfall you walk a few miles to see.

I achieved something today that looks really good. I made and put up a curtain behind the TV in the "media room". It was to cover over 30 mirror tiles that the previous owners had left stuck to the wall, as well as an extra door on that wall that we don't want to use. So it looks amazing, like a feature of a media room. And it only cost about $150 thank goodness, with all the money we are pouring into other things. I was afraid it would look stupid but it certainly doesn't.

This morning I went for a bike ride with a friend around to Newfarm Park.

Tomorrow, more of the handyman putting up things on the walls, fixing the toilet, etc etc. Will have to revise the list and add to it.

Lots of people to ring tomorrow to see when they can do things in January. I just want to get everything done yesterday if not sooner! We've got visitors coming late January and that's also when I'm going back to work so I'd like to get things done by then.

No photos this time, maybe I'll take one of the curtain when it's completely finished.

All moved in and feeling like home.

Well we had a great Christmas day here in the new house with the family, including in-laws and cousins. We got lots of fabulous stuff, though it's a bit over the top and next year we may have to set some limits on how much we spend on each present. My favourite thing is my electric salt and pepper grinders with lights!

I am just so enjoying this new house, both setting it up how I want it and getting everything settled, plus the location of it. I have been walking, running or bike riding into the city several times, went cycling to QLD Uni one day, have been walking around Paddington a couple of times, and can't wait to do more. There are just so many interesting places to go to from here!! I'd like to cycle around to Downey Park, walk around the urban village at Kelvin Grove, walk into the Valley etc etc etc! I did try out the Arts Theatre which is a few doors down and it had some dismal production on which I left at half time as I saw no point in staying for more.

So, what have I / we been doing with the house?

Firstly, I've ordered more kitchen cupboards to match the existing kitchen as it is seriously under quota for storage space. And also the cabinetmaker is building a study under the staircase in a cupboard. I'm in it right now but it's a temporary desk only. They made me a laundry cupboard which is beautiful! I've had to buy a new washer and dryer as the old ones wouldn't fit.

The handyman has been busy with lots of odd jobs and lots of things to fix. We have this space-age looking shower (fondly known as the tardis) which was leaking in several places all of which led down to the kitchen. The plumber spent a lot of time here! The electrician will be spending a lot of time here too sorting out old phone lines (it used to be a business here), putting in more electrical outlets and bringing the place into the 21st century. Foxtel and Bigpond had a look and said they'd have to come back later so we are on free to air TV and dial up internet for the moment, much to the disgust of the boys.

The Air Con is being installed in late January, but the weather has been so mild lately we haven't cared. We've had a man around to fix the double hung windows and we're going to get another window double glazed for noise reduction in the TV room. I've had to buy a shelving unit to accomodate towels as there is no linen cupboard in the house. The wardrobes I bought fitted in well. They aren't flash but they are functional. Nowhere near as good as built ins but they'll have to do.

We are going to get a new bathroom built down the track so the current bathroom can be an ensuite and then the 5th bedroom will be converted into our walk-in robe and its old door will lead to a new linen cupboard - yay!

For the mean time I've painted two old wooden kitchen units to be used for storage on the front top verandah, for all my tools and handyman stuff.

Today I had a quote for a stair runner. As usual it was challenging to pick a colour and design but it's all done now. Then I picked out some fabric for a curtain in the TV room. It will actually be going behind the TV on most of the wall, not for a window, but to hide a door and a half a wall or mirrored tiles which would be too impossible to move. Let's hope the curtain idea looks good, otherwise I might have to resort to a more expensive option of a fake wall.

I need to buy a huge coffee table for the lounge room, hopefully one that has lots of storage in it. I'm finding it impossible to find a place for some things like board games.

Let's hope I can get a lot done to the house before I go back to work in late January.