Day 3-an inspector calls

Today was the day to get advice about what we can and can't do and how it is all passed through council. I must say it seems to be all a question of mm! Thankfully the millimetres seen to be on our side! Yay! Now just to crack on and get it happening.

Reno tip for today- don't undertake any major renovation without consulting council or a buildings advice firm about what is legal etc. If you plan to take out walls you may need an engineer to assess what extra supports you need in order to make it safe. No point doing it if you are doing it dodgy!

Day 2- Mastering this renovation stuff

Today was all about fact finding. Hubby needed a new BBQ which believe it or not is an essential Reno tool, especially when we are going to rip out the kitchen. So it was off to visit all manner of BBQ selling establishments. We checked the usual places- barbecues galore, Bunnings, Kmart and Masters. I am a Bunnings girls from way back but I was very impressed with their customer service. If you have every been to bunning aim a weekend, or a week day for that matter, and wanted to ask someone for advice you had better have packed your lunch! There never seems to be anyone around. At Masters there were more shop assistants than customers and a very helpful call button in each department.

We ended up buying the BBQ from Bunnings and I am pleased to say the car lived up to all expectations. Hopefully the BBQ will too.

Reno tip for today. Most of the larger bbq's you can buy are unlikely to fit in the boot of normal cars.

Voyager drivers- you can load to this line!

Day 1 - Introductions

Day 1 of our 100 day renovation challenge begins. It's always interesting when you get into the house for the first time after the initial rush of purchase to find all the bits and pieces you missed. We knew little munches had been in the wall so it was time to pull it off and find out whether it was good, bad or really really ugly. Thankfully not too ugly.

Today's lesson-definitely don't open up a wall unless you are prepared for the worst!

Winter fruits

This winter is the first time our fruit salad has avoided the onslaught of fruit flies.

The fruit seems to be ripening nicely.

We had the opportunity to try the first peach. Yummmm

Long time coming

I must admit, I'm terrible at keeping up to date on the blog. With all the busy things that go on in life it seems to be the bottom of the list. Never mind- there is never a better time than now to say hi! "hi".

Now that we have been introduced again, let me tell you a little about what's been going on. On the personal front, we are selling our lovely house in Brighton for what will hopefully be a tree change. Mad cleaning, packing and preparing for the daunting open house events.

On the business front, we are getting ready for a very busy couple of weeks. This Saturday we will be at the Billy Cart markets in SandgAte. Next weekend we are at the lovely 5th Ace markets in SandgAte and the Racecourse rd festival. Then on the 22nd to the 24th June we will be at the Pregnancy Expo in Brisbane.

Busy busy times ahead!

Making a recycled ribbon bow for presents

With left over ribbon from party presents make this cute present topper.

Simply cut the ribbon into equal ish lengths. Ties them all together in the middle of the ribbon. Curl the ribbon strand by strand by pulling the ribbon over the blade of a pair of scissors. Be care to pull it the way it is currently curling. Don't cut yourself. Split the ribbons in half and voila. Staple to a small piece of cardboard. Put some double sided tape on the back and you are ready to pretty up a present.

Plastic Facts

This week we started our first sustainability challenge. It seems like an easy one; No new plastic bags. I say no new bags because if you currently have plastic bags, throwing them away only creates more waste. Did you know we are the second highest waste producing country in the world? Reusing them is much more energy efficient than recycling them!

http://tribalenergies.com.au/blog/what-do-plastic-bags-really-do

We know plastic bags are bad. There has been a lot of media, campaigning and discouraging of plastic bag usage. Why? Here are some of the nasty little facts.....

1.8.7 plastic checkout bags contain enough embodied petroleum energy to drive a car 1 kilometre.
2. It is estimated world wide that 1 trillion bags are used and discarded every year.
3.Australians use 3.92 billion plastic bags a year, that's over 10 million new bags being used every day.
4.Australians dump 7,150 recyclable plastic bags into landfills every minute or 429,000 bags every hour. 50 million per year!
5.If 50 million plastic bags were made into a single plastic sheet, it would be big enough to cover the Melbourne CBD.

Information taken from http://www.cleanup.org.au/au/Campaigns/plastic-bag-facts.html

I did my weekly grocery shop today with 3month old in tow. I went armed with my Eco bags but I had made a poor miscalculation. Vege bags! I normally try and put larger veges on their own and watch the checkout assistants cast a disapproving eye at the little particles of vegetable that now litter their conveyor belt. Today however, I needed to buy some products that don't lend themselves to naked conveyor belt surfing. The only alternative was plastic bags. I know I have seen other alternatives and I will attempt to find them and link to them later in the week. Please feel free to comment with any you know of underneath.

So day 2 I must say has been a fail on my part.
;(