Missing in action

I've been missing in action for 9 days now and it's amazing how time gets away from you. So what exciting things have I gotten up to in the last 9 days? I celebrated my birthday by packing up our rental property and spending some one on one time with Quinlan. Mr Opoes and the kids bought dinner over and we all sat on the floor and ate our dinner. Then the fun started. Monday saw the removalists arrive, it took 3 hours to load everything into the truck and an hour to move most of our stuff in with my in-laws. Tuesday was the move-out clean, so we dropped Caelan at school and Mr Opoes and I loaded more stuff into the car and dropped it off at our new home. Wednesday was move out day. Mr Opoes returned to work, the girls and I meet the carpet cleaner and we hung out while he cleaned our carpets. I left all the windows open so that carpet dried out completely and we returned just after school pick up so that we could make sure everything was perfect. Leaving the windows open had allowed dust to blow in so now I had to sweep the floors again. We rushed off to the real estate agent getting there with 5 minutes to spare.

An idea of the amount of stuff we have

After packing up you still have to unpack your stuff and this seems to take more time. I'm proud to say I'm halfway though the unpacking and re-packing process, I've successfully bought more things with me than we really need. CLOTHING. We seem to have clothes everywhere so I'll be going through everything and pack away all things that we won't need. I hope that when we move into our new house I'll have a few months to go through everything otherwise I'll be filling that house up with clutter and I'll never get rid of it.

I'm hoping to achieve a look like this

So now we have to hope and pray that the weather holds up so that the house gets built. Cross our fingers hoping that we get our bond back and not collect too many additional things so that moving won't be a long process. So far Quinlan hasn't settled into a routine and he wakes numerous times every night, Caelan is finding it difficult having to leave early in the morning for school and the girls are having to learn to be quieter especially as the neighbours are closer at grandma and grandpa's house. Tomorrow I'll give you an update on what's been happening with the house and I'll share some photos.

Megan

A gap he's happy to have.

This month is a busy one for our family, we have some birthdays to celebrate, we are moving out of our rental, Caelan has a talk to give at school and there are a heap of supplies I need to pay off and deliver to the site. So I'm hoping that my memory kicks in so that I don't forget anything on my long to-do-list. Today is my brother in-laws birthday so we'd all like to wish Craig a happy 35th birthday. We hope that you enjoyed your day and that you get to celebrate with friends and loved ones during the weekend.

The other significant event that happened today involved Caelan. He's been at home the last two days due to having an upset stomach so I was really happy that I was with him when this milestone happened at lunchtime. Here is the before picture...



He picked the place he wanted to pose for this photo.



He was eating his lunch which Mr Opoes had prepared for him. After finishing his sandwich Viveca and Caelan asked their father for an apple each, while eating the apple this is what happened.

He lost his first tooth.

If you look closely you can see the new tooth has already broken the skin. Caelan had been having a bit of pain from this tooth as it may have been pushing against the loose tooth but as soon as it was out the pain disappeared. I was surprised with the amount of blood but I soon stopped it by having him gargle salty water - the facial expressions were priceless.

When we picked Mackenna up from Kindy Caelan asked her if there was anything different about him? She looked closely, thought about it and then asked him:

'Where has your wibbly tooth gone?'

'Did it leave Caelan?'

He was so proud you couldn't wipe the smile off his face. We then spent the next 5 hours talking about the tooth fairy and what it was he thought she should give him.

Mr Opoes and I have decided that we aren't going to do the whole tooth fairy thing as it can become a bit of a competition amongst other parents and with four kids it could become expensive. So now Caelan is like everyone else in his class he's minus a tooth.

Megan

Onward and Upward.

The weather's been ideal for building since Monday. No rain, a nice breeze and temperatures around 30 degrees so I was happy to see that we wouldn't be too far behind schedule. The frame work for the walls was meant to be completed by Tuesday (28th February) and the trusses would all be done by Monday (5th March). So you can imagine how surprised I was to get onsite yesterday and to discover that they are right on schedule. We haven't spoken to Mark (building supervisor) but I'm expecting him to call on Friday with a progress report. We shouldn't have any delays but Coral Homes has required their first progress payment and if the bank don't pay it on time then our chippies won't be working until the funds have cleared. Praying every night that there is no problems..

So I thought I'd share some photos with you of what the house looks like. Not long until we have ourselves a roof and work can happen even if it is raining as everyone will be covered.



The view from the living room, see those pallets I have plans for them.



View from the media room through to the garage.

I had to think long and hard about the photo above, I knew I was at the front of the house but its so easy to become confused with which direction your standing because everything looks the same.



This is the view from Caelan's bedroom down towards the Media Room.

Caelan's bedroom is in the far corner of the block so it should be quite and peaceful for him. As he gets older he won't tend to disturb his siblings especially if he's doing any late night assignments.

Our roof trusses, these are lying flat on top of the walls at the moment



We have four piles of trusses just balancing on the roof, three of them are at the front of the house and the fourth is towards the middle of the house.

These are a few little trusses which will probably form part of the portico (veranda) that leads to the front door.

Mr Opoes is going to be surprised when he arrives home on Friday to see the progress that has happened while he's been away. I'm sure that he'll be happy especially as every time it rains he informs me that we won't be moving in just after the 14 week build schedule.

Megan

Special Zucchini Slice

While Mr Opoes is away I’ve tried to make quick and easy meals as I need the meal to be cooking while I’m bathing the children. So tonight I decided to make my ‘special’ zucchini slice.  So what’s special about this recipe? It’s a great way to use any leftovers you might have and it’s great for picnics, school lunches, finger food at parties and it tastes great cold.  It’s a great all-rounder. So follow the basic recipe and if you want you can add any additional items during step 2.

Special Zucchini Slice

Ingredients

3 zucchini (courgette), grated

3 mushrooms, finely chopped

½ cup corn kernels

1 packet of wok-ready noodles or 2 cups cold boiled rice

1 cup of grated cheese

200 grams fetta cheese, crumbed

1 cup of diced chicken or any other protein

1 cup self-raising flour

½ cup of oil

4 large eggs

Salt and pepper to season

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180˚C.

2. Grease a lasagna dish with cooking spray or a knob of butter.

3. Collect all your ingredients. Combine the zucchini, mushrooms, corn, noodles, cheese, fetta and chicken in a bowl.

4. Add the flour and mix together well.

5. Add the eggs, oil and seasoning. Mix together well, making sure the dry ingredients is covered  by the wet ingredients.

 6. You don’t want the mixture to be thick, this will make the slice heavy. Try adding an extra egg.

7. Pour into a lasagna dish, flatten with a fork and bake for 30 minutes or until set.

8. Serve hot or cold with a salad, chips or garlic bread.

Variations: depending on the amount of additional ingredients added you may need one or two additional eggs. You can also make these in a muffin tin, adjust the cooking time to 15 minutes.

Megan

How to frame a house

I thought that I'd show you a few pictures today of whats been happening on our block. This past week the weather hasn't been on our side so the chippies had a few days off and this means that our finish time has been put back for the second time since construction started. I'm planning on taking a trip up to the block after school pick up today so I'm hoping all the framing has finished.

Mr Opoes and I took a trip to the block on Sunday and with the front section completed I decided to measure the rooms up because they looked soooooo small. I've been told by everyone that this is a common feeling at the framing stage. What I didn't realise was how tiny everything felt. As we stood in the living room there was no way that this room felt like it was 5.8 metres along the front of the property, the tape measure assured us that it was. I'm sure when the plasterboard goes on, things will look different.

So here is a few pictures of the house.

This photo was taken from the garage door.

This is the front of the house, on the left is the living room, on the right is the kitchen area and at the end of the hallway the media room will be there. I'm actually thinking that I could use it during the day as a craft room and the good thing about this room is that it has concealed sliding door so my mess can easily be hidden.

View from the front door.

I can't wait to decorate the wall that's directly in front of the entry door. I'm going to create a gallery wall. There are a few things that are worrying me with this wall. It's 7.3 metres long, so I don't want to have it look cluttered, I don't have enough frames to use, I'm not sure if I should use a selection of things e.g. kid's art, photo canvas, coloured photos, black and white photos, decorative objects etc or if I should just use black and white pictures of our family so that it doesn't compete with the light in the entry? I'm really going to have to plan this out.

Looking down the hallway out to the wrong water tank.

This is the view from our bedroom door out towards the kids bedrooms, wet areas and the activity room. I'm hoping that the water tank gets moved soon otherwise its going to be quite difficult to move.

Looking into Mackenna's bedroom from Caelan's room

Mackenna's room is at the back of the house so she will get to look out onto the future vegetable garden, the trampoline and any yard that we'll have left. Now here is a picture of the most important room in any house.

The toilet or Water Closet.

To the left of the toilet is Quinlan's room which will eventually become Caelan's room and on the right hand side is the bathroom. Now if only I could train the children into cleaning the toilet and bathroom regularly I'd have two less spaces to clean each time. If only.....

So there is only two more sleeps until Mr Opoes gets home and the kids can't wait. I'll be happy when he gets home because Viveca can stop pointing at random men and yelling DADDY, DADDY, DADDY.

Megan

Lights, Camera, ACTION - PART THREE

I want to apologise for the lateness of my last post, the computer wouldn't work with blogger and just trying to do the simpilist things caused it to crash. With Mr Opoes interstate at the moment I didn't have him here to help me fix it. So as promised I'm going to deliver the third section of my lighting series.

When it came to selecting a light the two wall lights they took the least amount of time, I was shown the wall lights and I quickly found the light I liked and in less than 3 mintues I had this ticked off my lighting list. The requirements I had for this light was that they were either black or silver and that we could use a warm light instead of a white light. This is the wall light that ticked both criteria. There isn't much to this light so I'm hoping that it'll last a while and the elements won't damage it.

The next item we needed was our ceiling fan for the alfresco area. It seemed really strange that you'd place a fan in an outdoor area when the breeze would blow through the open areas but as its a requirement by the State government then you do what you're told to do. Every sales assistant that we spoke to told us to make sure we got a good quality fan that was marine grade and because of this the cost of the fan goes up.

As we are having downlights installed in the alfresco roof along with this fan I have to make sure that the fan isn't too close to the lights otherwise it'll cause a strooving effect. This wouldn't be fun for your guests while your entertaining them especially if they are enjoying a few alcoholic beverages.

I've wanted to put pendant lights over my breakfast bar ever since I found out I was getting my own kitchen, a place for the kids to eat their breakfast, snacks and to do their reading while I'm making dinner. I'd seen a few kitchens in blogland and I really liked the look they had created. My favourite kitchen was Corrie's from Retro Mummy, its all white and I just loved the classic shape of her pendant lights she'd chosen but as I didn't want to copy her kitchen I took elements she'd used and then after talking to my sister Renee I started looking for orange pendants.

Reto Mummy's Kitchen.

 

An element of  glamour with these beautiful chrome pendant lights in Retro Mummy's kitchen.

Now I'll have the same coloured Caesarstone benchtop (snow) and our kitchen sink is also located in the island bench but we have a drip tray because we couldn't afford the look that Corrie has. So without further ado here is the orange pendant light I've choosen.

I'm liking this colour but I'm thinking that if it was a bit darker like an orange it would be perfect.

I have another image of it which is a scan of the pendant that I was given by Glenda from Wide World of Lighting at Morayfield. I'm sure that once I've received the lights and the electrican has installed them it'll look great.

Elgo Naro Orange Pendant Light

I'm thinking that having three of these hanging above the white breakfast bar and being able to see through to the black glittery splashback is going to look really neat. It probably won't be considered a classic look but its a classic line and it'll just add a bit of character to the kitchen.

WARNING the following pictures were taken by a 3 year old so they won't be the best quality but for someone who has only pretended to photograph things I think Mackenna did a great job. I'll wait for Mr Opoes to come home and I'll post better photo's on Friday. While getting the other lights I asked Mr Opoes if he still wanted to go with the pendant light we'd seen up at Morayfield. We walked over to the pendants that they had on display and we had a good look. I was after something that wasn't too flashy, modern, looked cheap but came with a hefty price tag. The sales staff had just removed a circular starbrust ball like pendant and I was drawn to it immediately but unfortunately someone had already grabbed it. So it came down to a discussion between two pendants that were quiet different, one had an Art Deco look to it while the other one had lots of cystals, it had a classic shape while also being modern with its colour and text.

The Art Deco pendant was cheaper by about $50.00 but it was a lot smaller than the other pendant light. So I left the decision up to Mr Opoes as I'd had enough of looking at lights, I needed fresh eyes (he'd previously been outside with Quinlan who'd been getting upset) and this is what Mr Opoes chose.

Mackenna's first ever photograph

Looking through the lamp shade to the cystals and floor area.

Round crystal that hangs in the middle of the pendant light you'll have to watch your head when coming through the front door.



There are 3 lights in this pendant and each one is decorated with crystals and a lamp shade. The main decorative element is that the arms are made to look like rope.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at all the lights and fans we've purchased. I'll get some better pictures on Friday when Mr Opoes arrives home. Thank you for stopping by, I'd love to here what you think about the entry light?

Megan

Lights, Camera, ACTION - PART TWO

For people who know me the one thing that they can all agree on is that I'm either organised enough that I'll arrive at a function very early OR that I'm very disorganised and I'll never get things completed. Today has been all about the later. I had plans that involved getting up before the kids, enjoying a hot cup of tea in front of the computer while I wrote part two of my lighting series and then Mr Opoes, the kids and I would drive over to the block, take photo's of the progress before heading to North Lakes to do the weekly shopping.

Well nothing got written, the tea was cold, the drive to the block consisted of continual complaints. When we arrived the eldest two needed to go to the toilet so the photo shot was abandoned, we had a quick look and then we went to North Lakes to use the toilets. The groceries also fell through because we met a friend from school, the kids seemed to hit a sugar high which was followed by naughty behaviour. So it was back home for sleeps and rest time for the older two. By this time it was 3pm, day over....

So as promised I'll show you same of the other lights that we purchased last weekend. With my first electrical plan I'd intended on having about 60% oyster lights, 30% downlights, 5% pendant lights and the other 5% would be made up of  wall lights and a ceiling fan. With the limited budget we have I soon realised we couldn't afford that many oyster lights (it was looking to be about $40 per light and that was without the globe) and that downlights were a cheaper option (3 downlights to 1 oyster light). 

the five purple round dots show the location of each oyster light

I've never been a big fan of the oyster lights because they have always looked like round saucers stuck on the roof so when the new Masters store opened at Morayfield I was surprised to see that you can now buy square oyster lights and some of them even had decorative glass to make them look even more attractive. After visiting the lighting stores I also discovered that you didn't have to have them recessed into the ceiling, this means making a saving on the insulation - yah.



square oyster light that looks rectangular. Source unknown

What I love about this light is that the light shows through each side of the oyster as the round oyster lights are in encased and this defuses the light somewhat. So Mr Opoes and I now knew what style of oyster light we wanted we just needed to find an square oyster light that was within our price range.

We'd been given quotes ranging in price from $59.99ea to $79.99ea so we ended up getting this light for $49.00 and the square oyster large for $62.00 instead of $89.99. The good thing about these oyster lights is that there is a chrome plate and this will help to hide any dust that gathers in the light fitting.

You can see the glass plate and the chrome plate

We purchased a large oyster light for the kid's activity room because the price was good, we'd need a good light source at nighttimes and I wanted to make a distinction between the bedrooms and the activity room.

The other lights we purchased were a sensor light, two spot lights and two exhaust fans for the ensuite and the kid's bathroom. We got a good deal on these items, we even upgraded the spot light and sensor light. This meant that we purchased a quality product at the price we were originally quoted for a mid-range product.

Sensor Light

Spot Light



Silver Exhaust Fan this is a 3 in 1. It's a light, a heater and an exhaust fan. It's a good buy for $79.95

These are the boring lights of the house but I do love my oyster lights and I think that they will tie in with that classic look I'm going for. In a few years time they will have moved from the modern look that they are today too been classic.

Stay tuned for the last part of my lighting series. Tomorrow I'll be showing you my wall lights, ceiling fan but more importantly you'll get to see breakfast bar pendants and the surprising entry light that Mr Opoes chose. We will have to make a slight colour change to sections of the light but that's not something we'll have to do straight away.

Megan