Duck egg blue

Duck egg blue... I think it is my favourite colour right now.  Just take a look at my header :-)

Source: google.co.nz via Sarah on Pinterest

I am desperate to paint something duck egg blue.  I know,  why not a house, I hear you say??

We own a rental property that we are planning on selling.  Internally it was originally painted a green colour, which at the time I loved.  But that was over ten years ago.  I did paint some of the rooms about 5 years ago, but was never really happy with the result.

I will post pictures of the house when I get access to it.  Next week, I plan to go and have a look at what work needs to be done, so that I can get it up on the market as soon as possible.  I haven't had a good look at the place for five years, hopefully I wont be too shocked.

 This is a picture of the front of the house 5 years ago. Yeah not a great shot, because the point and shoot camera that cost us a small fortune, about 5 years ago, didn't have a zoom :-)

And a loverly picture of me, lounging on the couch, again about 5 years ago.  This is just to show the colour of the wall, from memory this is a fairly true representation of the colour.  That couch, by the way was a elcheapo couch hubby and I bought when we were first married.  I didn't like it much then, you can probably tell by the look on my face.

Sadly I don't seem to have too many more pictures of the property.

I am not planning on painting the whole house duck egg blue, but rather the main lounge, laundry, and kitchen.  These three areas get the main sunlight, and they have white built in cupboards with a grey laminate top.  Don't screw up your nose, again from memory the grey laminate top looks very nice, just the wall colour I could never get to match.

Anyway on to the duck egg blue inspirations:

Source: norskeinteriorblogger.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: housetohome.co.uk via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: lonadeanna.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: fancybuffalo.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Until next time...

Getting to know the House.

I guess I had forgotten. but each house has their own bit of quirkiness. 

You know, the small stuff that you put up with, that don't really annoy you enough to fix. For example, the door that only locks when you hold the handle a certain way, but it never bothers you, because you know how to hold the handle, so it locks easy enough.

Anyway, we are trying to deal with this house's indiviualism.  The house is about 8 years old, and the owners have  lived here all that time.  But the ensuite didn't have a toilet roll holder.  Did they just sit the toilet roll on the ground??

 I bought a suctioned toilet roll holder, and it looks great.

The laundry door wouldn't lock.  To lock it, I thought I was going to break the key.  Our rental manager said, "yeah, I noticed it was a bit stiff".  That is the understatement of the year.  A little bit of filing and that door locks so easily now - the latch wasn't aligned to the lock.  A 2 second job (not an understatement).

There is a light switch in the kitchen that doesn't appear to turn anything on.  And a light in the kitchen that doesn't turn on (and yes I have change the globes).  I think the two should work together, maybe the wires are broken??

The ducted floor heating and cooling was only coming through one vent.  That was until we worked out that the four light switches at the front door controlled the vents (we just thought that they were another faulty light switch).

We have solar hot water, and for the first week we were here we had gorgeous hot sunny days, and bountiful hot water.  The second week, it rained constantly.  Day 2 of rain and we had no hot water, and couldn't find the switch to turn on the hot water back up.

There have been many more "getting to know the house" problems, however, I am feeling as though I am getting to know this house a little better.  Including the location of our water mains at the front gate.  Yep see that little green arrow, its down there, in amongst the trees. 
If you ever need to know, I will draw you a map. :-0

Until next time, take care xx

Everything I know about chickens

... and that is not much.

We inherited 3 chickens (here in Australia they are also known as "Chooks").  The owner of the place left them behind.  I have always wanted chickens, but never got around to it.  But when we heard the owners wanted to leave them behind for us, I was so excited.

The first week we were here, the chickens didn't lay any eggs.  We hadn't got around to getting any "chook food", but we were giving them our table scraps.  Their coup was also disgustingly dirty, with chook poo everywhere - Yuck.

I don't know much about chickens, but I personally wouldn't want to lay any eggs in that place.  So I spent a Saturday morning, making it my business to make the chickens happy. 

I cleaned out their coup, and put down fresh sawdust.  Cleaned their water and feed bowls, giving them fresh water and I bought some laying pellets and mixed seeds.  I also made a nesting box.  At this stage it is just a cardboard box layed on its side with sawdust in it.  I have elevated it slightly off the ground. 

They have a roost, where they sleep at night.  By my little bit of research onto chickens, the roost should be higher than the nesting box.

So after one week of no eggs, this is what I got that Saturday afternoon...

Thats right, 5 eggs.  Sadly, they were not in the nesting box, but rather outside amongst a small blackberry bush.  But they still tasted just as good.

Every day since, we have had at least 1 egg, and the last 3 days they have increased production to 2 eggs per day.  They are still laying the eggs under the blackberry bush, and not in my nesting box. 

Funnily, I love my chickens, and I especially love the little clucking sounds they make - I find it very soothing and tranquil.  The kids also love feeding the chooks, and it is a special treat when they hunt for the eggs and find them. 

The above pictures were taken with my phone.  I really must find the box that has my battery charger in it so I can charge the camera batteries.

Take care until next time...

We Have Moved \0/

Firstly let me thank all the lovely people who sent their kind thoughts during the move.

We have moved!!! And we came out the otherside, relatively unscathed.

Here is the house tour.  Sorry, no pretty pictures, but you will see the chaos we have lived in for the first week.

The above photo is of the entrance.  The house walls are green, but the phone camera has made them a blue green, in real life they are more olive.

The below photo is the view into a living area and at the back is the study.  Don't be alarmed, it still looks like that.  Picture it, I am sitting behind the pile of boxes as I type this.

  

This is the master bedroom. Yes, I slept on the floor for a week.

This is the spare bedroom.

 

Back to the entrance, and turn left you get to the dining room, with second living area at the back of the photo.

 Finally the kitchen.

The house is big, and has 9' ceilings.  It has lovely bones (if you can see throught the boxes that have been dumped).  Sadly, it is green.  We are only renting it (at this stage).  And because there is a chance the owners will be moving back into it, I wont be painting the walls.  In order to make this house my home, I will need to decorate around the colours.