Tales From the Box

The box in 70’s goodness

After many a restart we have finally fixed this silly blog. All the links should be working and hey we have updated the front graphic. Here are some funky pics of the finished house.

After many years work – The Box was put to the test as the family journeyed up from Melbourne – hosting 25 people on the deck for Christmas lunch (albeit in Novmeber).

It was a lovely weekend – and The BOx worked a treat.

We have had our eye on getting rid on a few trees over the past few
years. Well thanks to a hefty tax bill we went all out and got rid of
the two dead ones at the front and the massive trees at the back.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from tales from the box

You might have missed us and we have missed you. The Kookas have been
at us too – so in spite of extreme laziness here are some updates of
the box. For now – the Kookas rule!

Posted via email from dann’s posterous

There were three reasons I wanted a house as opposed to an apartment.

to mow the lawn

to make a garden

to have a dog

So when we bought our abode in Warrimoo there was some lawn to be mowed, a garden to be tended, and definitely the yard for a dog to run wild and free. However the house on stilts didn’t offer us much protection in keeping said dog inside purchased land.

So we reveled in other people’s dogs – namely our parents. In January my parents bought this gorgeous little puppy Shaogo – who ran amock on our deck and generally caused a bucket full of mischief. The little slideshow is some pics of her looking sickeningly cute. (By the way if you hadn’t noticed – I have fallen in love with this google slideshow – damn you google and your irresistible goodies)

We have found that since our reno – and the addition of the deck (with the soon to be roof – thanks for the donation myles) these flighty green creatures have been paying us a visit. In fact their has been a plethora of birds. But these little fellas were very friendly and happy to eat the seed i scatted on the deck.

Well after nearly a year of non updates, we are back here to share more tales. Though we haven’t blogged our tales, they still have happened. So over the next few weeks I will relay some the tales. We freshly painted the house mid year, but didn’t finish it completely until the week before Christmas where we finally moved into our bedroom (the room that was our living/kitchen) Anyway these pics highlight a few of our gatherings over the past few months.

While we were gone some things have happened around here.

The reasons for our lengthy absence are numerous and complicated. In part they can be blamed upon our somewhat incompetent hosting company(mt), and our somewhat incompetent author (me).

The good news is that due to our thoroughly caffeinated but brilliant sysadmin (myles) we are back resuming usual transmission.

We have had rain. Lots of rain. During May and June we had a series of east coast low pressure systems that dumped nigh on 250mms of rain. That rain filled our tanks good. SO much so that one Saturday morning in June, I awoke to what sounded like a bursting pipe. It was our tank overflowing for the first time (filled from nearly empty to full in a few days). The front lawn (i.e. patch) was flooded too.

We have in the interim done lots. Dodging the rain, I have oiled our new deck about 4 times. Though it has been a thankless job, my piece of advise has been to NOT oil your deck imediately. I started and and oil just sat on top. Going contrary to the directions, the best thing was to let the decking board (our choice was merbau) weather for a few weeks then oil away. The oil then is sucked right up and gives the wood a lovely red colour.

Care of my wonderful mother and brother we completed the downstairs painting. After the primer and then three coats of paint, we were over painting white surfaces, ceiling and all. Now we have our directions pointed to the outside of the house. For the record, we have painted Dulux Whisper White on the interior (low sheen for walls and enamel for skirting/door).

Yes – we are back – more on that later…..

One of the problems with a reno that isn’t discussed (publically at least) is the casualties that stack up for every day of the reno.

For us it started with the usual. Our blinds were broken when we took them off the wall. We broke three glasses packing away the kitchen (what can i say – the wife is clumsy…) and numerous things were damaged from the bucket loads of rain that fell when all of our stuff was sitting wrapped in tarp on our front deck.

Fast forward five months of reno. The wife and I are enjoying are first morning in our new house, and I, being the model husband, rise early to make the wife some breaky. The breakfast would include toast with a smattering of butter and a milky coffee, experted brewed by yours truly. I approached the machine, turned it on and….nothing. Again, turned it on….and nothing. The constant pressing of buttons did nothing to alleviate the situation…

Yes the coffee machine is dead….the reno claims another one…

Now its personal..