This year the list of things we want to get done around the ramshackle farmhouse seems challenging, daunting even, but I think we're up for the challenge. Oh yeah and did I mention this year we're trying to organise a marquee wedding in the middle of a paddock and both have busy full time jobs? Suckers for punishment.
In 2011 we would like to...
PAINT! The house is in desperate need of painting on the exterior. It will just look like a totally new house, I can picture it now: beige/taupe colour with crisp white trim windows. Yup yup yup.Finish painting and put on the new barge boards for the bottom of the house (when we moved in there was horrendous splitting lattice which was all falling apart, we promptly ripped it off!)- New door for the back porch, white with panes of windows in top half to let light into the kitchen, silver door handle rather than knob to open door with armful of shopping easily.
- Two new heritage style flyscreen doors for the kitchen door and the dining room door.
New tin roof for the carport and storage room as the existing one leaks, and some new laserlight for the laundry roof and the backporch skylight which will hopefully make the kitchen brighter.Demolish the 14 cypress trees on the west side of the house and rip out the 39 stumps in that area also to include it in our yard. This will require an excavator, time, effort and money! This is a big one.Re-fence the entire yard, push the existing garden fence over at the front like we already have at the back, and the fence on the east side of the yard out another two meters to accomodate dog pens, chook pen and hedge to block neighbours. Possibly fence behind the shed to include a 'dumping zone' area which is not in the paddock. The new fence we would like to be either chicken wire or pig mesh at the bottom (i.e. child-proof as we have a dam close to the house).- Install a cattle grid in front of the house instead of the gate. The farmhouse is literally in the middle of a paddock, which more often than not means we have sheep around the house, I am getting over hopping in and out of the car to open gates! (Or lets face it forgetting to close the gate and finding unwelcome rams in my garden). We would like to find a cattle grid second hand or possibly make one.
- Put up the dog pens we took from Ythanbrae and concrete a new floor. The hounds are getting sick and tired of hanging out under previously mentioned yucky cypress trees tied to a stake.
Build a chook pen and bring back my four chickens who are currently having a little holiday at Mr M's parents until we can accomodate them. I hate having to buy eggs, the horror!- Plant a veggie patch next to the new chook pen, I am hoping for raised beds to plant lots of raspberries, zuchinnis, lettuces and red capsicum. Big tall sunflowers must abound also.
Plant our orange tree next to the clothes line, get a lemon/lime tree to go next to it.- Pull up hideous lino on back porch, replace with our recycled decking boards from Ythanbrae and extend out to create big deck. Oh how I miss the deck at the cottage. Put in pergola over deck and plant white Chinese wisteria to grow over it.
- Plant evergreen hedge to grow up the east side of the driveway to block out view of neighbours messy sheds from our house.
Get new lighting fixtures for the dining room, lounge room, pendants for the kitchen, spotlights also for the kitchen and a gooseneck wall light for above the bathroom cabinet.- Build or have made a kitchen island bench to accomodate big deep drawers, shelves for cookbooks, space for barstools and create more benchspace. This is also a big one, very important to the function of our home!
- Block in the old wall in the kitchen to create a walk in pantry with cavity-slider door. Knock out the dark timber cupboard to accommodate fridge/freezer.
- Paint and/or wallpaper my sewing room.
Organise cupboards, cutting tables, open shelving and wall space to hold all my fabric, craft supplies, paint etc. - Re-cover my sewing room chair with brighter fabric (currently dark chocolate suede).
- Make pretty curtains for sewing room from Sugar Love fabric.
- Paint back of sewing room door duck egg blue.
New door handle for sewing room, current plastic one is all cracked and literally cuts my hand!- Buy or make new ruffled shower curtain and liner to fit our shower.
Make curtains for bathroom from grey and white gingham.- Replace laundry trough with second hand one we recently bought.
- Get plumber to fix and install new system also recently bought second hand for outside toilet.
- Paint top half of walls in bathroom grey and ceiling, picture rails and window trim gloss white.
- Rip up our main concrete pathway in backyard and replace with path made from old red bricks.
- New stained glass window for cute little window in the lounge room. Mr M's parents said they would buy us this as an engagement present -hurruh!
Make or buy curtains for dining room. Huge windows = expensive operation.- Make curtain tiebacks for lounge room, bedroom and eventual dining room curtains.
- Rip out old oil heater in lounge room, get chimney swept and checked, reinstate open fireplace and render over bricks, possibly replace tiles in front also.
- Put down new gravel on our driveway and area in front of shed. This will most likely coincide with the installation of a cattle grid.
And some things that may be a bit of a pipedream but I would love to happen if the budget could stretch or time and energy permits:
- Rip up hideous fake-timber lino and polish floorboards throughout whole house. Massive project!
- Remove all remnants of concrete pathways around the house.
- Do something with the outdated (yet functional) kitchen. New benchtops, cupboard and drawer fronts could be an option but would have to be custom made due to the old chimney in the kitchen where the Aga stove used to be, now covered in laminex!
- New front door and panels. Some debate about this: I want a Victorian style big, wide, heavy door with no glass and cricket bat panels to paint red to match our roof colour and Mr M wants a tall Federation style with stained glass insert at top. We'll see!
- Do something about the front porch/entry to the house. I'm not sure what...see photo above.
- Attack the dark plywood panelling in the hallway and replace with plasterboard and maybe attempt some DIY wainscotting. A new lantern style light fixture there would be nice also.
- Buy a solid awning with tin to match our red roof and install it above the sunroom/dining room window facing north.
- Mr M building me an arbour where the bottle brush is at the moment, hopefully at the end of our lovely new brick path from the back door.
- Doing something about the plywood almost black timber panels in the lounge room. I would like to replace with plasterboard but I think it's a pretty big job.
