Over 6 years here, and the garden continues to surprise us.
Most recently was a plant in the driveway which we have never noticed before. It's currently covered in quite noticeable flowers, and at least 3 meters tall so not a new addition.
Presumably this is the first time it has flowered, possibly the recent rain has agreed with it.

The roses are also doing exceptionally well this year. Some are falling over under the weight of their flowers, and the climber near the window turns out not to be a miniature rose after all. I had to prune back around the mailbox early otherwise the postie would probably just refuse to come near the mailbox.
The area at the front of the house smells amazing, particularly just after rain.

Something has been vigorously digging around the chook house, but it remains impervious. A fox cub ran across the road in front of me one morning after I dropped Mr4 at kinder (cute little pest survived the busy road just fine). Chooks are happy and laying well.

We have finally got the last of the house exterior painted, and it looks very nice. Just need to remember to seal up around the bottom of the balcony posts now that we've replaced them.

Next to the house to-do list is to do something about the patio. It's going to be a long term project, first step is to stabilize the slope so that maybe the patio stops shifting and sinking quite so much. My plan involves terracing with retaining wall blocks.

I've put in some pavers under the washing line. I hadn't realised quite how much soil had been washed away from there until I started looking at the levels with the existing concrete. Turns out to need less digging than expected, and a lot more top soil added. At least the weather has been ideal for growing new grass.
My hope is that between the pavers and the grass growing between them, the soil will actually stick around this time. Sometimes it is hard living at the bottom of the local drainage system.

Speaking of which, Yarra Water workmen turned up out the back gate recently and got stuck into the climbing plant back there. Turns out there is a fence, and big drain opening under there that we never knew about!

Currently, I am working on getting the kids a 2nd hand cubby house on eBay. Apparently this is not the right time of year to get bargain cubby houses. I shall persevere though, there seem to be plenty around.

Inside the house, I've begun getting rid of baby things. A number of large items were successfully sold on eBay. So we now have a bit more storage space back, and a spot in the kitchen to put a little table and chairs for the kids. They approve of the new arrangement and have spent a lot of time happily playing with playdough on there.

This cuts down on the rate of playdough in carpet incidents, but the kids are still doing a pretty good job of trashing the carpet in the lounge. It will definitely need replacing at some point when they're less destructive. I'm campaigning for floorboards, it's a tough sell though.

This week is a particularly insane week, but at the end of it there isn't too much left on the To Do list.
( Life, the house, and nesting )

As you may have inferred, I am currently feeling much better and more energetic thanks to the overnight insulin injections.

I swear, we can't touch anything in this house without discovering some new penny-pinching dodginess from the previous owners.

( Time to do the bathrooms... )

I guess the good news is that we have a nice big re-draw available on our home loan, so fixing the bathrooms up properly is actually possible, and then as we're not planning to go anywhere we'll have nice bathrooms with water-tight showers for a long time to come.
And we've managed to get over 5 years out of their el-cheapo bathroom work, so that's not a bad effort.

It does rather eliminate any chance of fixing the back patio in the next few years though. *sigh*

First step, consult some bathroom experts that don't use the word "deluxe" in their name. See if I can get a price that will allow me to replace the sink as well...

I have cat drool on my keyboard.

( That might sum things up )

House looks like a bomb has hit it. I have barely made a dent in it during today's childcare session. Too much going on. I think July is quieter?

Edit: The larger birds have been visiting us again. A Currawong at the lounge window had the cats stirred up, and a King Parrot came and perched by our driveway for a while. Haven't seen one of those before.

( I'll just start rambling and see what I can think of to say )

And now I really should grab lunch, since Bub is apparently gifting me a 2-hour nap...

Meanwhile, we've just got the sort of electricity bill I approve of - one where we don't have to pay anything.

This is our first bill to combine the solar panels with a smart meter, and also the most productive 3 month billing period of the year. Between having over half our usage at off-peak rates, only paying the supply charge to 1 meter (the old off-peak meter still previously got charged for even though it wasn't in use) and the higher solar feed-in tariff, we've come out with a credit.

Total usage: 941 kWh (519 off-peak, 135 shoulder rate) ($171.94 + $70.05 supply charge)
Total production: 529 kWh ($360)

Then there's some discount credits, GST added, and we end up being $102.95 in credit at the end of summer. It won't stay that way, but it's a nice buffer for the next bill.

As far as usage goes, we're registering well above last year because last year the meter was simply being wound back rather than generation being recorded separately. Compared to our first summer, we're using an average of 10.6 kWh a day instead of 13.6 kWh. So some improvement.

The trouble with hot weather where the nights don't cool down much is that upstairs, which includes my office, turns into an oven. This means I can't stand to be in here long, and so things like LJ updates don't happen. E-mail replies are rather behind again as well.

On the upside, our bedroom is downstairs and in the coolest corner of the house, so if there's any chance at all of sleep then we've got a chance at getting some.

Our hot water service heat pump has a problem, again. No longer under warranty alas. Service engineer stopped by yesterday just long enough to force the backup electric heater on, and will hopefully be back today to fix the heat pump.

The cats had their annual checkup and flu shot yesterday. They were very unimpressed at the whole car ride thing, as they always are. The vet confirmed that they are getting a bit on the chubby side and we should make sure they don't gain any more weight. Abby, who loves her chicken necks, has excellent teeth. Ella however, who does not consider chicken necks to be real food, is getting some tartar build up. So we also have to make sure Ella gets hungry enough to eat more chicken necks.

On Monday David was working from home so we could easily get to the first of our antenatal education classes in the evening. Hopefully in another month we'll feel more prepared for the business end of this whole pregnancy thing.

Got a bit of a shock last week when my phone informed me that I only have 12 weeks to go. It's not like I'm not keeping track, it's just that I tend to work in round numbers, and 12 weeks registers as three months in a way that 3 months actually doesn't.
So I've been busy trawling the internet and eBay for bargains on the baby stuff I need to buy. Off to a shop after this to pick up the car seat which they have at a particularly good sale price. I think I might be making David nervous, but I don't think there's too much more that we need in advance.

David also had a local real estate agent drop 'round for a valuation on Monday. (They're always offering free valuations, so out of curiosity this time he said yes). Ours is what you would call a 'unique' property and hard to value, but they came back with 700-750k, which I guess is pretty good given that we paid 620k only 3 years ago.
More importantly, they approved of the main renovations we've done. While they were mostly done to suit us, it's nice to know that the money spent was an investment as well. We've spent about $130k on improvements so far, and really only have the painting and minor finishing jobs to go.

Feeling rather exhausted at the moment. The last couple of weeks have been a little busy, but not exceptionally so. Haven't been sleeping terribly well, so days when I can't just sleep in all morning to make up for it are hard.

Today, we finally got the smart-meter installed. One more phone-call and we'll finally be getting the feed-in tariff for our solar panels. Although the rates are a little higher for usage now, we still expect to be better off. Previously we were paying the admin fee on two meters even though we weren't using the off-peak one, and now we'll get the benefit of some off-peak and shoulder usage if I remember to run household appliances earlier in the day.
That was all done around 8am. Afterward I promptly dozed off in the lounge chair, and napped hard for the rest of the morning. Had Ella stretched out beside me, Abby napped nearby.

Last Sunday saw the fencing club displaying at a second festival, letting everyone know that we exist. Morning was ominously quiet and seemed to threaten rain at any moment, but the afternoon was quite good. Shame I was way too tired to enjoy it.

Tax return has finally been done, will get a little money back but not much. Next year will be better when I probably get back all of my July/Aug tax payments.
At some point I will have to reinvest in shares just so I can make some capital gains to offset with my pile of capital losses. I suck at stock-market trading. (Ironically, I would probably be fine at short-term trading, I can pick the local peaks, it's over the long term that my timing is awful).

On finances, we're doing fairly well at living within our means so far. The next few months probably won't be so good as I don't have much work lined up, and don't really have the energy to do more even if it is available. As long as I do enough to qualify for paid maternity leave I'll be satisfied.

Right eye is driving me nuts, the tear-duct is leaking. Doesn't seem to be an allergy. Think there's a general pressure build-up in my head, probably pregnancy related. Bending over makes it worse, but even just sitting minding my own business I'll be interrupted by the need to dry my eye again, or wake up with the eyelid stuck down, and all the rubbing makes it sore even when I try to be as careful as possible about it. Not drying it results in a generally damp and sticky face.
Considering raiding the first aid kit for a pad and some bandage to hold it in place. Only problem is that the right eye is my good reading eye, the left will struggle without it.

Speaking of pregnancy symptoms, threw up for the first time on Sunday morning. Very weird, didn't feel remotely sick. Just brushing my teeth, rinse, spit, bleugh. Still felt fine afterward, although not hungry for a while.


And now it must be time to take a walk outside before I succumb to another nap...

The cats now have a catrun and can access it at will through their new pet door. Still some finishing work to do inside the run, but it's now functional, plants have been nibbled, and we think we've sealed the escape routes.

I was going to say that so far the kittens aren't showing a huge amount of enthusiasm for it, but tonight they've been a bit hyper, with Ella in particular popping in and out all evening.


Abby doesn't like butting her head against things. There's a door on the kitty litter tray - she uses a paw to push it open before ducking her head in, it's quite funny to watch. So she'll happily hop out into the run if I hold the door open for her, but sniffs and looks at it hopefully otherwise. It's stiffer than the one on the litter tray, so she can't use the paw-push trick.

However, she can push it if she wants to. I got distracted by the computer while she was out so wasn't on hand to open it when she knocked (yes, she knocks on the pet door to get me to open it for her). Turned around to find her basking in the sunbeam behind me, so obviously she managed to get back inside on her own. Tonight she has returned indoors on her own several times, after I cruelly ignored her knocking.


Ella has always been less enthusiastic about the great outdoors, but she seems to like head-butting things. Particularly me, especially when she wants me to get out of bed in the morning. I call her pushy-cat.
She followed Abby out a couple of times, and happily let herself back in. Yesterday I suggested she follow Abby out and she just sniffed at it a bit, then told me she was really quite happy to stay indoors.

Tonight of course she can't get enough of it. She likes to sit in the tunnel and think about whether or not to go out, leaving me to look at her fluffy hindquarters sticking out of the wall, and I initially wondered if she was stuck. She's a tighter fit than Abby, but it's mostly fluff and she seems to go through with no great difficulty once she makes her decision.

So I think we can call it a success.

July 1st marked the second year in our own house.
1st year review was back here

( And now a 2nd year retrospective )