WPC Transformation: A Fishy Tale

Our outdoor area has been undergoing a transformation lately, since we had the new screen room installed.  Some of you may remember my photos of iguanas sunning themselves on a pile of rocks around a defunct pond.

It was also a favourite perch for Samantha squirrel to eat her breakfast.

The occasional visit from the otter family also made for good entertainment value.

This was all well and good for the wildlife, but not a very pretty sight from my kitchen window, so hubby tackled the job of improving the aesthetics. First thing was to rebuild the waterfall and install a new pump.

After much thought and hard work, it took shape and the transformation began to look rather pretty.

The next thing to do was buy a few little fishies for the pond. We adopted six goldfish and two koi and have also grown some lotus from seeds, which seem to be doing quite well. The two koi are named Blue Flash and Silver Streak. The orangest goldfish is Donnie of course, and the others I can’t tell apart except for little Freddie who is the smallest and least sociable. Whilst the koi show off as they race up and down the pond doing laps, the goldfish mostly paddle around together in a jolly group. Poor little Freddie however, just keeps to himself and hides between the plant pots. I sit on the bench and call him to come and play but to no avail. I hope he’ll be okay but only time will tell.

The keeper of the pond is Ali, who we found hiding out at our local nursery. Because he’s so scary, his presence is very effective at making sure that all the inhabitants behave themselves.

We also have two toads on lookout duty from the edge of the waterfall. Warty and Rocky may not look very menacing but I can assure you that they stand for no nonsense.

Little Sammy would love to pop in and join the fun, but has to make do with peering in from  the outside of the screen.

This is a bit late for the WPC ‘Transformation’, but better late than never.

Hope you’re all having a splendid week. I’ll keep you updated on Freddie if he ever shows his little face again. I’m not hopeful.

 

 

 

 

Thursday Doors: My Red and White Front Door

Norm,  the ‘world’s youngest grumpy old man’, invites us once a week to share our door pictures.

After two years of hard labour on hubby’s part, the work on our ‘abandoned house’ is almost complete. The inside is looking great and hubby has just finished painting the exterior. The last thing to be painted was the front door, which I decided should be bright red. The door is south-facing, and according to the rules of Feng Shui, red is the perfect colour and invites good energy into your home,  although I only found that out after my decision, so I think that was rather clever of me.

The inside of the door is white, as it goes better with my decor. I hope that’s okay.  Too bad if it’s not. 🙂

Do pop over to see Norm’s gallery of interesting doors in Montreal’s China Town district.

Save

Feathers On Friday: Blue Flash

This Boat-tailed Grackle posed so nicely for his photo at our local nature reserve.

It’s been a very busy week here especially for hubby, who after finishing all the painting, except for the dining area which has all the wood flooring stacked up in it, immediately started putting the hardwood floor down right through the living area. Yesterday, he said that I could phone to see which day next week my piano could be delivered. The answer came back “Monday morning”, which was a bit sooner than we anticipated, so it’s all go this weekend to lay the floor  before they arrive. I’m so excited about being able to play again and serenade hubby whilst he’s finishing off the rest of the house.

Wishing you all a very happy weekend. Ours will be happy, but it won’t be at all relaxing.

 

WPC: Optimistic update on house renovations.

As some of you may remember, almost two years ago, hubby and I bought a house which was in a very sad state, after standing abandoned for over four years with the roof leaking in many places. It was full of black mold and some of the ceilings were on the floor. After getting a new roof put on in September 2014, hubby almost gutted the whole house, and has been steadily working away at renovating it, almost single handed. He’s filled three large dumpsters with tons of rubble. We did get a company in to rip up all the floor tiles, and also had all the windows replaced with hurricane-proof glass. The rest has been done by my one-man-band-do-it-yourselfer, in between three trips overseas, and a week long visit to meet family in Key West.

The WPC ‘Optimistic’ seems a good opportunity to give you another update on the progress made so far. I know that my blog friend Jude is dying to see some photos. I have to be very patient, as things always take longer than anticipated, but I’m optimistic that one day in the not too distant future, I will look out every day on this view from our lounge window. Unfortunately there’s no alligator, but maybe we could import one, if the two in the lake outside our present home should have babies.

This is my half finished bathroom,

with a round tub, which I can sit in and look out of the window. It will have steps up to it.

The shower between the two bathrooms is almost finished and we’ve just ordered the frameless doors, which will be installed in just over a week.

Hubby’s bathroom is also almost finished. I took this photo a couple of days ago, and all the black and white trim is now in place, so it looks quite different.

Hubby is very proud of the barrel ceiling in the master bedroom, which took a lot of effort to put up all on his own.

The bedrooms are at the moment full of boxes of our ‘stuff’ as well as furniture, sent over from South Africa.

This is going to be my little nook off the bedroom, where I can write and paint.

The guest bathroom is almost done except for the sliding glass door on the bath and the wall cabinet.

The front bedroom is finished, except for cleaning up and setting up the bedroom furniture which is still all wrapped up. Window blinds and drapes are in the mail.

The grand-children’s room is also done except for the furniture, and clearing out the boxes etc..

One day this will be our outdoor living area, protected by insect screening.

The large living area is being divided up, and this will take at least another sixty sheets of dry wall. Hubby has already used a hundred sheets for replacing walls and ceilings in the rest of the house.

This will be the dining room, which also has a barrel ceiling like the main bedroom.

The kitchen will be in this area, and it will have a pressed steel ceiling.

Here will be the laundry room with a door into the garage.

The family/TV room will sit at the end of this area., and my piano somewhere in between, and the sitting room is off to the left.

The twenty-four heavy round things, which I carried in after the kerbside delivery, are the bases and tops of the twelve 8ft columns, which will be strategically placed around the living area.  The two of us managed to lift each column onto the wheelbarrow, and wheeled them into the house one by one.

Hubby’s study will be here, just off the entrance hall.

There’s still a lot to do, including laying the hard wood flooring, designing and installing the kitchen, and of course lots of painting.

I’m very optimistic that by next summer, I’ll be able to hang a hammock between these two palm trees, and relax. I might even let hubby have a go in it, if he has nothing else to do.

To see more optimistic posts for the WPC, just click this link.