Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours!

Last year's Christmas Card - still a crack up!

Unfortunately I ran out of time to do a card this year :(

But I think this one gave us credit for a few years ;-)

I really think I could have done this card again this year and only gagged Nath - he's the noisy one....

Locked Out

Even though our house was officially locked up it wasn't really. With the Christmas break it certainly is locked up now.

So now we are at the "peering through the window" stage of building ;-)

During the second week of January the doors, skirtings and archiatraves will be delivered and installed. The following week the cabinets will be delivered and installed. Exciting times ahead!

Corniced

The cornicing has been done. I take my hat off to people who can cornice! They are very smart! When we renovated it took us a very long time to get our head around cornicing!  We managed thanks to some clever people who made youtube clips on how to cut it on the right angles.  Anyway, it's looking very good!

This pic is for Nathan - to show him that the guys doing the plastering must have been running on the walls.
One of the things Nathan wants to be able to do when he grows up is to be able to run on walls.

Garden to table

Presentation Night

Yesterday was the last day of school for the year! Can't believe how fast this year has gone. We also can't believe that our eldest has graduated from Primary School and that he'll be off to Secondary School next year. Our school had their Presentation Night last night. Cameron was awarded the Bible Shield (awarded to students who have demonstrated a clear understanding of Bible teaching which is reflected in their daily lives). We're very proud of our boy.

More Plaster

We went up to the house again today so that Mark could see the house plastered. The bricks have all been cleaned now and it looks really neat.

Plastered

We went past the house tonight for  a quick look. The plasterers were just cleaning up after their day's work. It looks great. They've done a great job (not that I'd know much about it - but it looks quite neat)

WIR

Ensuite

Family Room

Plaster

We went to the house tonight to see how they were going with the plastering. The plaster was delivered yesterday (we assume) and it was meant to be started today. Huge big amount of plaster!!!! Insulation is in all of the external walls and in bags up in the roof . Hopefully they'll get started on putting up the plaster tomorrow.

Our apricot tree is having the best season it's ever had. We decided to pick some of the apricots tonight as the birds were starting to eat them. This isn't even one quarter of what is on the tree! They're not quite ripe yet, but hopefully they will be by the weekend and we can get busy making apricot jam. 

Will definitely plant apricot trees in our new garden, but will have to patiently wait for a few years till we get another crop like this one!

Write them on the doorposts

"And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." 

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (NLT) 

I saw this idea on August Fields' blog a few years ago and just knew that if we ever built a house this was something that we would do. 

So yesterday we wrote some of our favourite Bible verses on the framing timber of our house. 

For the Lord your God is living among you.

He is a mighty savior.

He will take delight in you with gladness.

With his love, he will calm all your fears.

He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Zephaniah 3:17

This is my favourite verse at the moment. It is amazing that God takes delight in each one of us and that  He even sings songs (joyful songs) about each one of us.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

Marvelous are Your works, 

And that my soul knows very well.

Psalm 139:14

On Saturday we went up to the house and Mark put some wiring in for speakers. Our site supervisor asked us if we wanted to do this and said the house wouldn't be locked up until Monday so we could have access to do that over the weekend. As we were leaving the insulation guys showed up to install the insulation. Tomorrow the plaster will be delivered. 

Lock up

Our house was officially lock up yesterday. So excited!  Went past quickly on Thursday to see if the brickies had finished. They had and it looks fab. Electricians have been in and done the wiring.

Meeting the Supervisor

We met with our building supervisor this morning. Seems like a nice guy. No-nonsense kind of guy who is particular about what tradies he uses. Great! Really happy with the work the brickies are doing. Today they're finishing off the window sills and the brick work around the front porch. Hopefully the rain held off over Riddell long enough for them to finish it, but it didn't look promising. They've taken a little longer than scheduled, but we don't mind especially if it means they've done a better job. The past two days have also been very hot - esp Monday so that would have slowed them down a bit. Next week the bricks will all be cleaned off.

Today the electricians were coming in. The ducts and heater have been installed (but they missed putting two of the three additional heating points in so they'll have to come back to do those). One of the rear taps wasn't put in so that will be chased up today too.

Plaster will be delivered on Monday and that will all be put up on Tuesday and Wednesday. I think the doors, skirtings and architrave's will be delivered second week of Jan and cabinets the week after that. Possibly looking like we might be finished one month earlier than our contract date states.

Once school finishes it'll be on here to get our house ready to go on the market in the new year.