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.