The Kitchen is in the house!

After a 5 hour marathon in Ikea on thursday night (with a break for meatballs, of course) we managed to load the 3 trolley loads (Yes 3) of boxes into the two cars (good job they have fold down seats). Then the last haul to get them all into the spare bedroom, nobody welcome to stay over right now...unless you enjoy sleeping on boxes!

Thank god I'm not putting all THAT LOT together :)

Less is more (hopefully)

So the oven and stove top are disconnected and sitting in the back garden, thanks to the electrician. And we now have a big hole in the wall where the one used to be, hopefully the rats won't "drop-in" for a visit! Well, I haven't heard one in the loft for a while, so hopefully they are all dead or done a runner...

Janice on guard duty, where the oven used to be...

And so the exodus of the kitchen continues, with most of the cupboards are now emptied into the spare room and the big smash happens on the weekend, with Marc and Glynn coming round to help with a powertool or two.

Say goodbye to the oven and HUGE sink

Stove top used to live here

Warmer evenings and sunsets

Now the evenings are warming up it's the perfect time of the year to wander along the beach front walkways, especially between Trigg and Hillary's. So to escape the paint and house chaos we took a walk the other night which was a cloudy evening so not expecting much but cleared up at the end and got a cool sunset

Slow sync flash in action

Just to prove I do still exist (yes, I'm wearing my painting clothes)

The last guy in the water

Painting party, without the fun!

So the painting is in full swing with the ceiling done in the kitchen and hallway and after many decisions the paint colours for the kitchen have been chosen and colour number one is done!

And just for a laugh, we decided to paint the doorframes and then of course the doors of all the rooms (except kitchen/laundry) just to keep us a bit busier...So been painting and flipping doors after work and getting them back on one at a time, with only two to finish on one side.

Yes, its Janice doing the work again...

So why does EVERY door have to have a different type of handle to take off

Yup, 80's yellow door frames

Nice and white, that'll do for the next 20 years

Kitchen shennanigans

So after many debates and discussions the kitchen "reno" is starting! We now own a new sink(one and three quarters for you sink junkies out there) and a swan neck mixer tap (so I can fit all those big pans under there that I have to wash - feels like back working at the hotel kitchens....). Also, decided on the electric hob with the wall mount oven which meet J's requirements (although they are still at the warehouse until we need them).

So time to get the contractor guys sorted for plumbing, electrician and a bloke to help cut a hole in the wall to fit the new oven and cupboard. Got 2 out of 3 sorted yesterday and went to good old Ikea to get the cupboards ordered, so the main bit still to source is the counter top although we've decided on the type of it, just need a place to buy it now!

Better get going as we want it finished by the time I leave for the UK in November.

It's gadget time with the iPhone

So after pulling a few strings we managed to get some iphones v4 in work, which is about time as we were sorely lacking in the gadget department, especially being a techno-geek as Glynn and Marc are fond of telling me!

And thanks to Dad's excellent photo skills and Pippa being a lovely model I have a new background wallpaper.

She's back and has new boots

So good to have J back and we celebrated the 30th birthday with Glynn, Sue, Ollie and Alice over at their place with a roast beef on the webber! After a good night out at the C Restaurant (did anyone know Perth had a revolving restaurant?!? Now you do).

Then when not looking (of course) Janice finally found the boots she has been looking for at a bargain price, thanks to some birthday money too!

Diving off Rottnest, about time...

After a trip over to Melbourne for work the winds were looking pretty calm, so decided to take a much overdue dive trip off Rottnest. Booked with Dolphin Scuba and we left Hillary's at around 9am Sunday morning. An interesting mix of guys on the boat, as they were running a tech course of advanced nitrox and decompression (still not convinced there is a real call for that unless you are a wreck junkie!).

I buddied up with two guys who had been out a lot and were the classic underwater photographers who jumped in the water and basically ignored each other for the whole dive, so I just hung around one of them, just in case. The first dive was more north-westerly of the island and a good dive with a lot more life than the in-shore reefs and better visibility although there was still a good swell coming through. The BIG downer was coming up and being told a Minkie Whale was swimming just around the boat and we missed it......

Second dive was better, over a good section of reef (Roe reef) that had some great swimthroughs and of course some of my favourite little critters, nudibranchs :) Including this tiny, tiny (approx 5mm long). Next time I have to take my camera! Dropped down straight to a scorpion fish too, just don't get too close. A good range of coral, sponges, ascidians and seaweeds hard to identify half of them. Several types of filefish, leatherjackets and some fun boxfish hiding under crevices.

Great just to be out on the boat out on the sea as well. Something very calming about it :)

Probably not going diving this weekend, looks like it's going to be golf with the lads!

Weekend of diving

Not that J would stop me diving, but with more time on my hands I took the opportunity to get some more diving in. Out with Marc diving in the river along Blackwall Reach on Saturday, which was all good until we jumped in for our 200M surface swim and discovered the tide was going out and so quite a fast current.... next time check the tide tables! So we dropped under as it was easier going and made some good headway, collecting golf balls as I went (ended up with a pocket full). Then surfaced not too far from the buoy we were heading for in the first place which we then took down to the wreck. But of course the cruise back to the entry point was a breeze :)

Then I booked on with Mindarie dive to go out with them sunday morning. The wind was light (offshore too)but some decent sized swells coming through so we couldn't get out to the outer reef. So ended up at Burns Rocks and "the clumps" some small bommies only about 1/2km out from the marina. Fun dives with two guys I'd just met (as you do) but not great viz due to the swell. But we found a new anchor on the first dive, which one of the guys was very keen on, so let him take it up and have it for his boat. And a cool little lined dumpling squid (I think) was something different to spot!

Tis the night of J going to Canada

So off she goes to Canada tonight, leaving me to fend for myself.....beans, beer and diving it is then ;o)

Off back to Guelph for her birthday, her dads and various other parties and of course to see the new babies.

So looks like I'll have to keep busy playing on and under the water, with a little bit of housework in-between for balance!

The latest update on the house is the bathroom being painted by "yours truly", which was fun for the first 2 coats as it's been ages since I've painted. But another 2 coats later to cover the stupid $%#$%# gold swirls that the previous owner liked was not on my master plan. But does look a lot better and lighter, I hope you'll agree!