Folks, I’ve managed to lose 2kg between September 2 and October 1. Today I weighed in at 70.2kgs, which is essentially my goal weight for September. I’ve been going to the gym plenty – 5 times a week, which includes 3 classes (plus a teeny bit of elliptical to get my heart rate working), and 2 strength workouts. Ideally, if I was more motivated and loved exercise, I’d be inclined to do strength workouts 3+ times per week, but I’m just not, and I hate going to the gym. Why do I do it? For health, fitness, weight maintenance and bone density. I want to be able to run into my 80s if need be. I want to have strong bones when I’m 90 (if I live that long). I like fitting into clothes I bought in 2022 when I was thinner. I relate to being smaller, as I was pretty slender until my late forties.
My goals for October 31 are to lose another 2 kgs, or to get to 68.5kgs. I’ve had one major blow out since going on my diet, and I blame extreme hunger and eyes bigger than my belly! I had 2 drinks throughout September, and did not really miss drinking. I made a conscious decision to stop for the month, but not to be completely black and white about it, as there were a number of celebrations this month and I really did not want to be drinking horrible Prosecco and regretting my decisions in the morning. It has paid off, as has sticking to my calorie counting diet and being ruthless with night time eating (not snacking mindlessly in front of the TV). I have found this time around that my weight is fluctuating wildly about a kilogram every few days, which is extremely disconcerting. My previous efforts saw me lose weight very consistently. I put it down to water retention, mostly.
I’ve also tried to eat breakfast every day (some days later than others but not intentionally). This helps to even out my blood sugars throughout the day as I usually eat fruit and yoghurt with a smattering of granola. If I can eat 3 square meals a day, not large ones, with the occasional snack such as an apple, or a rice cake with dips, I feel I’m doing well. Like everything though, it’s pretty all-consuming. It would be nice not to have to THINK about my health all the time! But by making these changes habitual (such as going to the gym every morning between Sunday-Friday), by tracking my lunches, and ensuring I don’t eat too big a meal at night, I’m finding that this is working well. Habits, such as taking my medications and supplements every day, or eating breakfast, or going to the gym regularly, takes the stress out of the work. These are just things I DO. That being said, if anyone can encourage me to take a shower BEFORE I walk the dogs, that would be good… 🙂
Folks, our renovations are complete. We had a few hiccups, but that is to be expected with a high end kitchen/ bathroom renovation. I look forward to showing you the results of the kitchen really soon, once I upload all the details and design choices to the computer (as they are on my phone at the moment and I just cannot).
In new information, last year in late September I suffered a L4/L5 disc bulge and was in terrible pain. As a result, the last year has seen a number of personal frustrations and I took time out of work in late November to concentrate on my recovery and do some travel. It’s amazing how debilitating a minor back injury can be!
I don’t know if I mentioned this, but in 2021 I was at my physically largest I had ever been, to the point at which my doctor, who had only met me a few months prior, thought I was normally that size. I was 90kg, felt terribly unfit and my boobs were strangling me! I went on a very expensive weight loss regime through an accredited service that included a dietician, exercise physiologist, psychologist, DEXA scans and weekly pep meetings. I was on a strict diet of only about 1200kcal per day for 9 months. Guys, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It was not fun, my metabolism dropped from a regular resting rate of 1580 to about 1250 and I was HUNGRY ALL THE TIME. Now, I’ve never before needed to diet, and I love my food, and I don’t have an eating disorder. But I tell you, counting calories and being permanently hungry is a sure fire way to develop an ED! Sure, I dropped from 90kg to 63kg, and I looked amazing. But I was always tired, sore, cold, and frustrated by such a rigid diet. Over time my weight has crept back up to about 73kg, which is 10kg higher than my lowest weight. I’m not sure I need to be 63kgs again when it mucked around with my metabolism so much, but I DO want to fit into my size 9 /10 clothes that I’ve been waiting to wear. One of the issues I’ve encountered has been physical incapacity, and this has meant a loss of momentum. We’ve travelled a lot this last year, and each time we do I don’t exercise, although I do walk heaps! Being on holiday also means lots of alcohol, eating lots of yummy food, and basically losing all the good habits I spent a year building. So it’s back to the drawing board for me.
It’s a September reset. It’s 16 weeks until December 25, and I’ve realised a lot of old habits have crept back in. I’m healthy now, so here are some things I’ve decided to do to lose about 7kgs and fit into my old togs for summer.
No alcohol for September, probably the rest of the year, unless it’s a very big celebration (birthday or Xmas). I’m perimenopausal anyway, and alcohol leaves me feeling a bit depleted. It doesn’t affect my mood, but does affect my health. I don’t need the bloating.
Back to a calorie deficit diet, focussing on lots of protein (>100g per day), fibre (>25g per day), decent carbs (~70-100g per day) and low in fat (<50g per day). I use an Australian calorie tracker and it works pretty well. I aim to stay below 1500kcal every day, which seems perfect for me especially if my protein and fibre goals are so high. I don’t get wildly hungry with this amount of food either.
Cutting out added sugar. I actually hate this, because desserts and sweet treats are life, but my sugar intake has risen a bit. I’m not a huge sugar eater, but it all adds up over a day. I refuse to eat fake sugar, so I have to work on this. No more tim tams, chocolate bullets or violet crumble with my morning coffee.
Supplements to aid health. As a perimenopausal person, my oestrogen is depleting rapidly, and while I am on a hormone treatment plan, I have been advised to add the following: Vit D, magnesium glycinate, iron, creatine, collagen, calcium, plus anti-oxidants in pill or plant form. All of these aid in bone density, heart health, and things that menopause removes from the system, including all the f**ks.
Upping my exercise regime. When I injured my back, I was unable to get to the gym, so I stopped going consistently. I actually love exercise classes such as yoga, Pilates and body balance. So the aim is to get to 3 group classes a week, strength training 3x per week including with my personal trainer, 2x elliptical sessions per week at home, and walking the dogs every day, trying to get my steps above 7500 per day. Living in a hot climate, getting my steps up is quite hard, so building good habits is crucial for this step.
Another thing I did was to buy a set of bathroom scales. I’ve not owned a set for 30 years but the time has come to be accountable to the figures on the scale. When I weighed myself yesterday I included all the other stats: height, weight, sex. The scales also measure fat percentage, BMI, visceral fat, water percentage and metabolic age, which was a bit of a shock. I need to get my metabolic age back to my actual age as it’s sitting at 66! Now, weight loss will support this metabolic movement down. So losing 7kgs will bring my BMI down to 24, my fat percentage down as well, and my muscle weight should increase. As a perimenopausal woman it’s really hard to manage body changes, so I also need to be kind to myself if my goals aren’t met at the timeline I’ve set.
Men don’t have the same issues as testosterone improves muscle growth much faster, and metabolic function loves high testosterone I believe, so I have to work within the parameters of my own imperfect ageing female physiology. Yay. 😬
Anyway, that’s my life right now. I’ll talk about my latest pottery-making craze in a future post. 😜
There have been many changes at Chez Jess this year since last I wrote. For a start, all of our chickens died unexpectedly and suddenly overnight and we never found out the reason why. I had one of the chickens autopsied but there was nothing outwardly or inwardly wrong with them. I suspect poison but there was no evidence. A tragedy and I’m not sure I will ever really recover from the loss as I cannot help but feel it was all my fault. If we get chickens in the future there will be some changes here to ensure they are safe and sound, including re-siting them to the backyard. I miss my girls and the trauma of their death still shakes me to this day.
In other, rather more exciting news we have a new bathroom! Of COURSE our quote came back at double what the original quote said. Of COURSE it did. You’ve seen the plans – up and down they were gorgeous, and I knew they would probably be a bit exxie… but at $800k it was more expensive than the property is worth. We cannot justify the cost. After I finished weeping I realised we can still do the kitchen and bathroom, even if we cannot do the top deck just yet. I think the deck will be a year off, and maybe prices will stabilise a bit, or perhaps just go up. At any rate, it’s not going to happen this year. So we have gotten started on the kitchen, bathroom and some other much needed additions to the house, including more solar panels and a fast charger for our new electric car (work vehicle), roof insulation, some skylights in the kitchen, ducted air-conditioning throughout the house, 3-phase power (boring but necessary), and if funds stretch far enough, an exterior paint job, and a wine cellar installed under the stairs. In truth, the wine cellar is already there, but the IKEA Kallax shelves have limited potential…;)
Prices for building work in Australia are breathtaking and far more expensive than other similar places such as the USA. This is because we pay our tradespeople extremely well. But oh, boy, the cost bites. So let me show you the bathroom as it was, and as it is now. First up we have the moodboard. Since we now cannot afford the schmicko ensuite and walk-in-robe, we had to make the family bathroom the one we use all the time.
We lightened the colours and made it gentler and softer so that we wouldn’t be shocked every time we walked in the room. One of the issues we discovered early on was our design team did NOT want us putting in a floor-based vanity unit – they wanted us to have a floating unit that was light and bright. Well, says I, you need to find us some extra storage then, as this is now our main bathroom and a one-drawer vanity is absolutely not enough. So they did a clever thing and added a hidden unit in the wall. I’m thrilled with the result.
We chose a special bidet toilet from Caroma but although it now works well, the people at Caroma were pretty terrible and the information in the installation and user guide was singularly unhelpful – it was missing at least 20 pages of really important information. Still, we have worked out how to both use and fix it (especially since there have been numerous black-outs where the electricity has been cut for renovation purposes). A bidet toilet is a really useful addition and we are seeing so many people put them in their houses now.
We selected an above mounted sink which, after living with other options, I prefer, as I can place my makeup against the sink and not have it tumble into the sink itself! We have a pill-shaped medicine cabinet that stores more of my stuff, and we have a repeating vertical stripe pattern throughout, which shows up in the textured glass shower panel, the front panel of the vanity, and the VJ board throughout. Some other great ideas include a shower LEDGE rather than ALCOVE – much easier to navigate, and even though we live in a hot climate, adding a heat source via the lights/ extractor fan has proven rather useful in the cooler months.
There are plenty of curves to choose from, too: the pill shaped vanity lights (nom nom), the curved glass and mirror, the curves in the tapware, and the curvy pattern in the wallpaper. I don’t have all the product names and suppliers available to me but rest assured they are all available in Australia.
Our soft furnishings and decor were purchased almost entirely from Pillow Talk as they are my favourite homewares store – well, OK! They are RIGHT next to my gym. Dangerous. We bought 3 different towel colours, which I switch out when I need a break – just 2 of each, in grey, mustard and teal, all available in 2024. The floor mat and hand towels were also from Pillow Talk. We splurged just a bit and bought a slender vase from Dinosaur Designs that perfectly complements the tones in the room, and pairs nicely with the soap dispenser. Finally, we threw in some old baskets that I had in a former life to hold spare toilet rolls and towels and stuff, and we are done!
In the wind-down to Xmas I have only one teeny paid job to do, plus my tax (I hate doing my tax, even though I always get a little tax bonus). This wind-down has been perfect for my mental health as it allowed me to slow my work down gently, and not crash me into boredom and frustration – is anyone like me, and very goals-focussed? If I don’t have something to work towards I’m a screaming wreck. Meanwhile, before we head south for the summer (I know, who goes south when the heat is in sunny Qld?) there are still plenty of things to do in and around the garden.
Tropiscapes have been and gone, not without some dramas for them regarding our recalcitrant arborists, who caused no end of delay and frustration. Landscaping is not cheap, let me assure you, and I made the hard decision to do the remainder of the work at the front of the house myself. I moved some granite rocks to improve the size of the garden beds at the front of the house. As previously mentioned, this is the area that gets nearly all day sun, so I wanted to put in mostly food plants with a couple of decorative bushes for funsies.
The first thing to do was move these teeny tiny granite rocks – minimum 6kg each, up to more than 25kg, from their old spots (you can see where they once were) to the new garden edge, which doubled the size of the garden bed on each side.
This didn’t take long on the high side, but boy did it take forever to dig out and move the rocks on the low side! No points for guessing that the earth had moved DOWN the hill, over the rocks, and that there were a heap of old roots encircling some of them. Fun. That was my exercise for the day. Sore for several days after!
I thought I would never get the earth moved from the driveway into the beds. It was perhaps the hottest, most humid day all year.
On the most humid and hot day of the year, prior to a rather large rain cell developing in the afternoon, I personally moved three cubic metres of soil off my driveway onto the waiting garden beds. Oh! And I did sweet FA about preparing the beds. The earth was so compacted I just gave up and decided to lay the soil straight over the top. Of course there was rather less fresh soil on the old bed. Y’all, I had to fill that new bed! I survived the day – just.
This was at about midday. I thought I would never finish the job, and because rain was forecast, I had to get that dirt off my driveway before it ran off the driveway into my new garden beds….Surprising how far 3 cubic metres of soil can go – for a hot minute I thought we’d ordered too much. Amazing what a bit of rain can do to damp down the beds. As it turns out we had too much cypress mulch so we used it to spread over the rest of the front garden on the chookie side. Cypress mulch is amazing as it repels termites and keeps the earth super cool and damp.
Once I had laid the soil I went and bought some plants from our local Bunnings. Turns out they’re low in stock right now, so I ended up buying lots of different thyme, some rosemary, lemon verbena and lemon balm, a perennial basil, some oregano and sage, a chilli plant, some curry plants, even some samphire. These plants act as ground cover and low bushes and make great cover for the beds, and all are great herb plants that love full sun. For small trees I planted a miniature lime, a rosella hibiscus and a warm climate nectarine. I do not believe for one minute we will get any fruit off them before the possums chomp them, but it’s an ecosystem. Gotta live with the little beasties. For decorative plants I bought two different Coleus (love those leaf colours), some Dragon’s Breath, Dichondra, a Persian slipper and a hot pink hibiscus. Hubby was getting a little too eager to spread the remaining mulch and I had to get the plants in the ground before he went psycho with the shovel! So I flung them into the ground at speed. I removed all the Brazilian wandering iris and the grass plants prior to digging up the beds, so I put them all back to grow amongst the food plants, and I can safely say nothing has died yet. The persian slipper plant had to be moved last week – it was in full sun, and its leaves were literally burning, but even that has revived nicely now that it is in the shade. The wonky hedge thing on the right of the image below is a fun white Powder Puff tree. It was already there and makes a super cute flowering hedge, sitting in between two mature golden cane palms.
We need now to do something about the chookie side, but we’ll leave it until next year, once we have done some carpentry work to keep them confined to one section of the garden. The basic plan is to move the rocks out from the left side by about a metre, build out the bed there and plant some basic bitch plants there to support the chookies and give them some fresh plants to eat and shade under. This side as you can tell is rather rudimentary but now that the Waterhousia tree (from the Lillipilli family) has been trimmed, the Murraya hedge is going great guns and even my lemon tree (not shown) is fruiting like crazy. Let’s also of course assume the possums will eat all the little lemon buds. This is not as awful as it sounds as the plant is not yet big enough to support all the lemons it has already budded. We also have an azalea or rhododendron in the corner nearest the house – not my favourite plant – but it thrives and we’re keeping it for now.
So two weeks later and I decided to buy a blueberry bush because 1/ it was available and 2/ it’s not a raspberry bush with prickles and spikes. I planted it where I had left a big clear patch at the front in preparation for a rubbish bin plinth we hope to build next year. We have just had a week of torrential rain and it looks like summer will be cool, wet and super steamy. It was so wet that the rain moved some of the mulch away so this weekend will be about moving the mulch back where it came from and sugaring the nut grass that has decided to spread amongst our Little Dugald side hedge. I tell you what, though, the plants have grown like CRAZY since we planted them – with the the native thyme and lemon verbena more than doubling in size and the rosella hibiscus the same. Amazing.
Still too wet to mow the lawn! We will be replacing some of the lawn with stepping stones but again that’s a job for 2022. The powder puff bushes need some pruning and it’s amazing how messy it all looks after a week of rain, but also how heartwarming it is to see all the growth.
Out the back all the major work has been done, but the hubby and I have decided to expand one of the garden beds as we can’t grow lawn there – which was made very clear when the rains came this week – the area turned into a mud bath. We will be moving the smaller rocks out by about a metre, filling the expanse with new soil and cypress mulch, and moving some of the smaller plants forward. We’ll also add some more of the plants Tropiscapes selected to give that bed more consistency with the other side. We also bought a few metres of grass/ sod that has really taken, so I think we may end up adding more once all the building work has finished and all the water tanks and veggie beds are in, etc.
See the bare patch on the left of the picture above? That’s where we will expand the garden bed. Shade loving tropicals will love it there. The grass in the foreground is lovely thick sod, and the remaining grass you see (same colour, different grass, plus weeds) is probably not actual grass, so we’ll lay some more sod next year once we’ve done the building work.
So here’s the thing I’ve discovered about myself: that I really enjoy working in my garden, creating a beautiful, welcoming tropical vibe there. Here’s an image of the garden at night – we had set it up for a birthday do just a few days after finishing the front garden:
I think once all the main work is done I will buy some festoon lights and have more garden parties like this one. It looked perfect and even though I knew the grass was patchy and the working side of the house was ugly, this still looked just sublime on a perfect summer’s night. And isn’t that exactly the point of a beautiful garden?!
There is some massive plant action on the way! The folk from Tropiscapes are here this week, building steps into the garden, planting beautiful tropical plants and preparing the garden beds. We will have to keep on the watering duties over the next few weeks while the plants establish – something I’m not really very good at, so please Rain Gods, rain every day for at least an hour so that I don’t have to water the newbies!!
Here’s some images of what the garden looked like before demo day: very pretty but full of weeds and rather poor soil. And, typically, the agent hid all the leaf litter on the ground in the photo to pretend that it actually had a lawn. Not true. Too much shade from the very important enormous tree on our boundary, which we have just had trimmed by an accredited arborist. When I say trimmed, they removed most of the satellite branches and all of the lower leafy cover, to satisfy the urges of our neighbour, who wanted it removed entirely. Which we entirely disagree with, because of the important ecological benefit it provides for the wildlife, not to mention that the world is heating up – you don’t remove mature trees from yards unless they are DEAD. There is much more light into our yard now, and certainly more viewing spots for our neighbours into our bedroom 😉
Here are some images from when the garden had undergone Demo Day:
These images are a bit fuzzy because I had to reduce their size to get them to upload to my email account. Yes, I could use Google Drive. No, I’m not going to. Tropiscapes removed most of the weeds and nearly all of the non tropical plantings – which weren’t thriving in any case, and we’re in the process of making the garden a truly tropical paradise. I can assure everyone that this is an enormously expensive proposition, but IMHO worth it. We’re not doing the front yard yet, because we have a few things to complete before we tear up the ground, so the house will have this rather odd selection of perfectly planted beds and several scrappy ones!
We had a few scrapes to get to this point – our arborist is the worst communicator ever, and had booked in to do the work just when some massive storms were predicted. Obviously they cancelled, then wanted to come in on the Monday, when our landscapers arrived – after also delaying their start, for the same weather reasons. Some minor argy-bargy chest beating ensued, complaints were made, but in the end, it all worked out, except for the bit where they need to do some stump grinding and haven’t booked that in, even though it could have been done at any time in the last month. SIGH. Here are some shots of the work at the midway point:
I love that the garden beds look so much nicer than the rest of the “lawn”… so, don’t ask me to name ANY of the plants that have just gone in – it was hard enough working out the name of my Waterhousia tree at the front of the house, which has also been trimmed beautifully and now everyone can see into our house.
In other news: have you ever thought that you’re really over social media and that you’d be very happy never looking at Facebook ever again? Well, I’ve had enough, yet again. I enjoy seeing what friends and family are up to, but most often nowadays people don’t post at all and it’s only the pages you follow – such as news and infamous folk – that are the consistent posters. Every now and then I purge myself of FB and have a long hiatus. I can’t remember the last time I deactivated my account, but it’s all there in case I need to access it again. FB and other socials are not always the best vehicle for developing good mental health – or even healthy online habits, so I’m ready to take the step and remove myself from it for a while.
That’s enough for now – we’ve lots more to do and I’ll show you the “finished” sections when they’re fixed.
On the weekend hubby and I took stock of our lovely Queenslander home in SE Qld and decided enough was enough. The never never plan will probably NEVER happen because it will no doubt cost a million bucks of money we don’t have and will literally be 10 years off, by which time we’ll either have moved or died 😉 . So we’re renovating our upstairs bathroom and kitchen! My old mate who did our last set of brilliant renovations has said she thinks she might be able to squeeze in this job, so off to the bank we go to see if they’ll chuck us another bit of $$.
I’ve not shown images of these areas online because it is just too traumatic – the kitchen is a mostly useful space but the bathroom is terribly inefficient in the use of space and needs a complete gut job – the last time it was renovated would be easily 25 years ago and while it was probably good at the time, it’s not a happy place for me or the hubby. So I’ve sent a bunch of images and footage to my mate, to see what she can come up with. I know her style and it’s perfect for the house, so I might even leave it up to her to design me something. I know, WHAT AM I THINKING. But I think her knowledge is so much better than mine these days and she has a great way with choosing cheaper cabinets and benches and making them look amazing. The only thing I will really really want to discuss is the stove and oven – I love the space they are in at the moment, but she might have other ideas. Also, I want a Falcon brand stove/oven. One that has both electric and gas hobs, because I’m no longer a great fan of gas, due to its earth-killing properties, and also because the gas stove we own is awful: doesn’t work properly. The oven door doesn’t close all the way and the handle is missing. This free-standing stove from Falcon is GORGEOUS – 110cm wide with a ceramic hob alongside the gas hobs, 2 ovens, a grill and a warming tray. But there are other fab styles too. Of course, this one is the EXPENSIVE model. SIGH.
Here’s a picture of our current crappy bathroom, which even the real estate agent didn’t really want to show, and our kitchen which has issues:
The toilet, located in its own WC next to the bathroom, has no sink, so its separateness is moot. The entryway to this bathroom is appalling – you have to sidle in sideways if you don’t want to bump into the shower door AND you can see right into the bathroom from the street because that is where the door was cunningly placed. The shower door is etched with limescale that cannot be removed – I’ve tried the magical CLR and it did nothing – and the bath, which we just don’t use, takes up all the space. I want to remove the bath, replace the awful vanity and sink with a LONG single-sink vanity (we don’t need 2 sinks – we need 2 prep areas!) and reorganise the space so that the toilet sits within the bathroom. There’s at least 4.5 square metres of wasted space in these 2 teeny rooms. There HAS to be a great solution.
The kitchen, constructed about 25 years ago, doesn’t even have space for a microwave oven – on the bench it goes, along with our kettle, toaster and coffee maker and bang bang and coffee grinder and compost bin and regular bin and letter holder and everything else I squeeze on there. The pantry door opens the wrong way. There are 2 corner cupboards and I can’t access the rear contents. The sink is misaligned with the window (due to the dishwasher position, no doubt), and has no stacking space for dirty dishes. The stove is nearly dead, and the dishwasher only likes the top drawer, not the bottom, so we have to rinse everything, wasting even more water. UGH.
If my mate can come up with a great design that’s reasonably priced I will be beside myself with excitement. I bet you’re asking now – where do we prepare food if the kitchen’s out of action? Well, we have a good sized laundry with a great sink, and a portable electric stove that we can use downstairs, which means we will actually USE downstairs…, and of course there is a working downstairs bathroom for our abluting needs…
Come to think of it, the kitchen and bathroom upstairs sit ever so slightly proud of the house – we might be able to extend this area a bit more if it still sits under the eaves…hmmm.
Hubby and I went to Sydney a few weeks ago and enjoyed the most wonderful king sized bed sleeping experience. We decided then and there that we needed a new bed. My old Queen sized bed base was 30 years old and while I loved the 20s vibe it gave, we were overdue for a bedroom update. We decided to gift the bed base and mattress and accompanying bedding (I gave away my old doona, some sheet sets and doona covers) to a local couple who needed it for their son’s place in Toowoomba. I hope they get lots of use out of it! The mattress was a bad buy for us – far too soft and even though it had “pocket coils”, I don’t think there were enough of them. It was a poor experience all round.
We decided to buy a king sized bed. We had to decide between firm and medium – this is a major issue for us as our backs are not getting any younger! I reckon we tried every single brilliant mattress in SE Qld, until we discovered Hypnos brand from Beds ‘n’ Dreams. From there it was a matter of deciding firm or medium. A wise person on our travels told us that one can make a firm bed softer, but one cannot make a soft bed firmer. Well. That decided it. Firm it was. We had four weeks to wait while they constructed the ensemble which is made in Australia. Oh dear, what a shame that I had to immediately go out and buy all new bedding for the unit.
Here is an image of the bed we selected (headboard NOT included!):
It’s freaking enormous. I have to stand on my tiptoes to get in the thing. I laugh every time I do this, btw, because it feels so ridiculous, but I’m happy to say it does not overwhelm the room. I’m utterly thrilled with the ensemble as it comes with drawers for my shoes (huzzah!!) and it’s actually streamlined the look in our bedroom. Here are some shots of the new bed with accompanying bedding from Adairs, Pillowtalk, Bed Bath ‘n’ Table and the Coastal Cushion Company:
I’m still getting used to the firmness of the bed but it’s starting to soften up just a bit, and it has some memory foam too, which I normally don’t love but it’s fine in this instance. Hubby loves the firmness. I’m miles away from hubby in the bed, too, which is quite a blessing after 15 years of marriage!!! 😉 I’m just loving our new all natural bedding – wool, feather and down, linen, cotton and bamboo. I feel like the sage green and olive green pillows were an inspired touch – they will work beautifully with our white linen doona cover. Now, of course, I’m eyeing off new lamps…
We’ve been doing a few things together and our bank balance is looking a little worse for wear. We finally had a HUGE timber boundary fence installed and it’s beautiful, but it was NOT cheap. We shared the cost with our neighbours with no dramas but I gave them a discount because their side was left with a portion of the old fence (on their side of the boundary actually) that was riddled with live termites… white ant for those not familiar. Given that both our houses are timber, we each shuddered. The fencing guys wouldn’t remove that portion of the old fence so I slightly reduced the neighbour’s cost of the fence cost to offset the nuisance value of getting the termites taken care of and the fence removed.
The doggoes were so good while the fence was missing – they didn’t try to go over to the neighbour’s yard once, except for the very last night before the fence was finished, when Dougal – who up until this point had resolutely refused to step over the mythical fence line – went INTO their open HOUSE and greeted the neighbour with a grin and a wagging tail. Doh! Mike our (rather grumpy) neighbour was not amused. Luckily his wife could see the humour in it… 😉 I’m going to pull out some of the hedging at the top of the block and replace it with rosemary – it’s a softer plant and the car gets scratches every time I open the door onto the rather meh hedging plants there at present. Then right at the top, where the dogs lie in wait for other dogs, I’m going to plant either some lavender, or some woody herbs such as perennial basil, and ground cover plants like thyme or oregano. That spot gets heaps of sun and I’m a bit desperate for some good herbs. We will need to feed and rehabilitate that spot as the dirt is compacted and lacks nutrients, and we may have to pull out a massive concrete footer left from the old fence (apparently rather over engineered according to the fencers who came and DID NOT remove them – too huge to move!)
I know it looks kind of wonky at this angle but it’s not – we have a steep block and we had to move the boundary just a bit to keep a mature, gorgeous palm tree. Worth it! Imma gonna clear off that leaf litter on the neighbour’s garage roof, I swear! May have to plant around the old concrete footers if we can’t get them out…
In other news we’ve been investigating the idea of putting in a ducted air-conditioning system upstairs. Again, it’s not cheap but since we now have solar I feel better about using it during the day, and switching it off at night when we need it less – our carbon footprint isn’t as hellish with solar panels, and the ongoing costs aren’t as huge. Of course, we will only need it between October and April, but we’ve discovered this house is hot in summer and rather cold in winter. There are no window gaps or anything, it’s just a timber and tin home. With all the best will in the world, it’s impossible for them not to heat up quickly and cool down fast. I’ve not checked the roof cavity but I’m pretty sure it’s been insulated – we might even double down on the insulation if it’s the cheap, thin stuff. I’m not yet sold on the air-conditioning idea. We might put it off and then I may spend another summer sweating into my eyeballs – my study is the HOT room, but I spend between 4-8 hours in it most days.
That’s not all. Told you we were being spendy! Two or three years ago we bought a new mattress and realised once it had arrived that it was far too soft for our poor ancient backs. Instead of sending it back, we’ve made do. Our backs have not thanked us! So we made the rather huge decision to buy a king sized bed and mattress ensemble, repurposing our old queen sized bed for the guest suite, and selling our newish, rarely-used double bed (or giving it to our daughter who still sleeps in her single). Again, this was not a cheap endeavour. Luckily, beds are ALWAYS on a 50% off sale, and this one was no exception. We could have bought a decent second hand car with what we paid, but sleeping on a bad bed has taught us that given that we spend fully one third of our lives prone, the lying down bit should always feel good. First world problems, for sure. Of course, this now means I have to spend lots of money on new bedding, because it’s a king-sized bed. This means king sized sheets, doonas, mattress protectors, and even a mattress topper if that’s needed. We bought a firm mattress, because as I’ve been told, one can always soften a firm mattress, but one can never firm up a too-soft one. And, for the first time in 30 years, we will not have a bed with a footrest or headrest. This is new to me – where will I hang all the not-quite-dirty-but-not-freshly-clean clothes? How will we cope? I do have a lovely camphor-wood chest we can place at the foot of the bed but I’m tempted to get a narrow padded bench instead and totally make over our room with new furniture.
We bought a Hypnos Balmoral bed ensemble. Not the most exxie bed, but not the cheapest either! We bought a base with 4 drawers in it so we have somewhere to put our pillows at night (yeah, sure) or my shoes. Probably my shoes. Definitely my shoes. The bed head was NOT included. Can you imagine…
In other news, we’re finally painting the front walkway, bannisters and deck! Old mate Robert, who has a thick Scottish accent and says “ooh aye” a lot, has been painting our fence and deck this week. I’m basically paying for his 2-month grey nomad trip around Uluru in June, but I have grown to hate painting with a passion and am ready to let it go to someone else. He’s better than me, and worse than another guy I’m hoping to employ once Robert has scarpered. The new paint looks a treat, and he’s also painted the batwing doors. It’s so fresh! I won’t show you all yet, but I’m pretty thrilled with the result, because the cack green is finally going.
Oh! And I finally bit the bullet and have bought a new electric height-adjustable desk from Office National. Nope, I did NOT purchase it from Officeworks! Just for a change. I wanted a wide desk for my two monitors and laptop, so I’ve gone with a Rapidspan height adjustable 1800mm desk in white and black that should look very smart in my studio and be an improvement on the laminated wood bench top that I’ve had perched atop some bookcases for the last 4 years! I’m very aware of my health as I age and I wanted a desk that I could stand at or sit at as my body demands. I’ve actually sustained a SITTING injury – a sore coccyx – from sitting down too much. I think this will help with my weight and general improved freedom of movement. I’ll let you know how it goes….
This desk comes with a stabilising bar, which no others do, and is recommended for desks of this width.
In South East Queensland, it is generally accepted there are two seasons: hot and humid, and not. Living in the subtropics as I do, I have to confess I really hate January through March here in Brisbane. When late April/May arrives, though, it’s the best place in the world. I’m in two minds about November-December. Sometimes it’s blazing hot, other times it’s mild and warm. Good for old bones at any rate. September is nearly always gorgeous but we usually get overrun by southerners trying to warm up after a long dark winter. They go to Noosa. Which is a little slice of heaven that I can never return to because it’s full of southerners. 😉
Winter in Brisbane is like everyone else’s awesome Autumn. The days are mild, bright and sunny (mostly – it’s proving me wrong this week), the nights cool and crisp. The frantic never-ending heat and humidity of the last few months has ended, and I stop sweating into my eyes. Top temperatures are about 22 degrees Celsius, nighttime temps from 6 – 15 degrees.
That being said, of course, this is the first Winter in our new house, and we have a feeling it will be a cool one. Most Queenslander tin and timber homes are too hot in summer and too cold in winter, and even though I’m sure this old girl is insulated in all the new sections, the old wall sections can’t really be well insulated without a lot of retrofitting, which is difficult and expensive. So we make do with insulated ceiling cavities, warm jumpers and ugg boots, snuggly rugs and hope that there are no ill fitting windows. There’s no natural heating in the house – the two working air conditioners are reverse cycle, which means they can heat a house in winter, but I’m not really fussed – a little chill never hurt anyone, and the air is quite still in winter – very few breezes and we’ve fixed all the window cracks and creaks.
We’ve had a “little man” come round and do a few odd jobs for us. He’s not little, really, he’s Scottish and has a dear broad Scottish accent – oh aye, quoth he (like, literally, he says “ooh aye”. Never heard anything like it). He’s been fixing holes in ceilings from when we moved the light fittings, a bit of cupboard hinge repair work, and he’s been repairing and cleaning up our front fence. We do intend to replace our front picket fence in the next few years, but a good refresh with a coat of paint never hurt. Already the painted sections look brighter and crisper.
We don’t really have the funds to paint the entire exterior – I got a quote that was nearly $30,000!!! So we’re taking the much cheaper option of painting the trim, fence, rails, bannisters and decking posts a bright Dulux Natural White. This has a cream base but is much brighter than the current colour, which is a deep cream. And we’re looking at a lovely mid green called Taubmans Sweet Clover for the contrast colour, which we will use sparingly on the window trims. We’re playing with a strong black/brown Dulux Klavier for the decking boards – everything is a dreary, miserable dark green at the moment, so this will provide a much needed lift. At some point we will need to replace the boards but not this decade – when we do we’ll go with a natural timber colour. Silver paint will be used for all the window hoods – we could replace them but the metal is solid, so painting over them is better, IMHO. And finally, of course, we will be painting the front door a divine Taubman Sachet Pink to match its glass insert.
The colours we have chosen look like this:
Klavier is a bit darker and the Linseed is as close as I could get to the dreary main house colour – it’s a tiny touch more green – hence the green contrast trim colour, but these colours work well together. It’s been a bit of a sad journey to put aside the crisp white, grey and blue combo I was investigating, but these colours will serve us well into the future and won’t cost us all the monies, and the Linseed does not yet need repainting.
I promised months ago to show you another architect I’m investigating for our never never renovation. I’ve been looking at Alexandra Buchanan Architects. One of the reasons I like this architect firm is because it was started by a woman, and women have a pretty terrible time of it in architecture, as they do in many other fields. The designs are comfortable, bright and clean, and really well suited to our sub tropical climate, but I really like the designs that are more oriented towards a bush feel. In our back yard we have about 20 trees and palms, and it has a really cool, forested vibe out there. So I want to honour that look and feel, and include a lap pool at the back – I really enjoy swimming but the nearest public pool is a bit icky. Below are some examples of her work – all copyrighted to Alexandra Buchanan Architects, of course. The first three are of a house in Warrandyte, Melbourne. I love the mix of stone and wood textures and clever use of the butterfly roof line that enables a good clerestory window action. The final two are of a new build here in Brisbane. I love the use of white and natural stone, and the pale cement. We have plenty of room under the house to build – about 4 metres high, so I’m not worried about the light or anything. But like all good ideas, ours is super expensive as we need to upgrade the upstairs wet areas too. So this might be on the back burner for good! Argh.
The house that Jess built. 