A few finished things

This is our finished retaining wall - well the planks anyway. It is made from concrete sleepers so should last forever. Plants will go up on the top section, grass down the bottom. This is in the front yard.

The finished laundry. We actually used all the cupboards from the kitchen in our old house. We built that kitchen about 5 years ago, so pulled it all out before the house was demolished, just added new doors and new benchtop.

The attic where we will put some flooring and turn it into a big storage space.

One of my favourite things - you could seriously drown under this shower.

This is our next work in progress we are building at the moment - it is our "office in a cupboard". We made the cupboard in the media room extra big so we could build a desk and shelving inside and close the doors when we don't want to see it all.

And for those of you who have heard me whinge about the clothes washing situation over the last year - you'll appreciate this photo and know how happy it made me.

More new house

More progress in the laundry today - looks like I'll be able to do my first load of washing in a year! My mum will be pleased - she has been washing and folding all our clothes for a year now.

Driveway is now not being poured until next week - it will be a really dark charcoal colour to match the roof.

Walk in pantry - one of my favourite things. I actually use it as a large storage cupboard. There is no food in there. I've decided to put all the food in the large drawers on one side of the oven so I can easily grab when cooking. My walk in pantry has all my appliances, all my plastic containers, large things like salad bowls, jugs - and there are spare shelves. I've never had so much storage. This photo of it looks messy but it must be the angle because it looks quite neat inside. The walk in pantry cupboard and extra large linen cupboards were things we added because we had no storage in our old house.

Living room - this room looks very brown. The brown lounge will eventually go in the media room and we want a red lounge for out here. But for now, the brown has to do.

The house looks quite bare. Our dining table looks tiny - too small. So many walls and no pictures to hang. That will have to be a work in progress.

Kitchen - still need to have the splashback tiled. Our tiler is coming back "any day"... just which it was some day soon! Picture below of what the tiles are that are going behind the oven.

These silver mosaic tiles are what we are having for our splashback in the kitchen.

Big oven!

Still haven't started on our bedroom or the bathrooms. Bathrooms might be my project for tomorrow. I'm on two weeks holiday from tomorrow so want to try and get all the left over stuff unpacked.

Need to get some flooring sheets in the attic as we hae put in an attic ladder for lots of roof storage.

We've been "home" for a week now

We love having our own house again, but we've still got a lot to do. We have old sheets hanging over windows - will be there for about six weeks until blinds and shutters arrive.

All the landscaping still needs to happen and it seems no matter how many days we spend out there digging and building retaining walls, it still looks like a house stuck in the middle of a clay pit. Our driveway will be poured on Thursday. The drainage and retaining walls have been built out the front, once the driveway goes in we can get some soil and turf delivered. Then we can start on the back yard.

Front yard with retaining walls half built, and driveway half built.

Backyard - I have a washing line again! Grass down the back has now been mowed, need soil and turf on top level near washing line.

This is my laundry that Peter is building - should be finished tomorrow (if I have my way).

The entrance to the house looked like this until Sunday.

The media room is where unpacked stuff lives. Still have to unpack all of Peter and my clothes - we have a walk in robe but no shelving.

Ben and Izzy's rooms are nearly finished.

I was dreading having to rebuild Lego City.

This is one of my favourite things I put in Izzy's room! Her room is SO PRETTY - won't take an overall photo until she has shutters on the window and pictures up on the wall. It will be all pink and green.

And this is my favourite room of all. We call it the "toy room". Ben and Izzy love it in there, they have all their toys, their DVDs etc. No longer do I have toys all over the living room floor... no longer do I have to listen to the same DVDs over and over again.

And the new addition who has made himself very much at home - Stanley! He looks big in this photo but he is actually very small. He is 5 1/2 months old and CRAZY.