Mess

We have painters doing their thing to our garage at the moment. They aren't the most tidy, clean or thoughtful people.

The washing is mine but I am so over the rubbish that they have thoughtful unearthed and then let fly around the yard in the wind. And yes that is part of a tree they cut down and left ON TOP OF MY ONIONS!

Ah hem, well they are all most done and they have done a really really good job so maybe I should take my butt and do some picking up and less bitching....maybe.

Changing Our Spending

Dave and I have had quite a few talks about our finances of late and have finally agreed upon a new strategy (for us anyways). Basically we will live off Dave's wage and about 35% of mine with 65% of my wage going to the house. At the moment that will be paying for the painting but after this it will be going directly to our mortgage.

I was keen to live off Daves plus about 5% of my wage, but Dave pointed out that we needed to have savings separate from the mortgage as we don't want to be in the position of having to redraw the loan everytime we have a big unexpected expense.

We should eventually be able to put about 80% toward the mortgages once we have built up a separate savings. Once we have that buffer in place we will be able to go higher. I hope! If this actually works we *should* in theory have our mortgage paid off in about 8 years-ish. More if we are really vigilant or have a income increase or a rate drop.

I just want to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's quite inspiring to read other bloggers who have managed it! It feels a little like an impossible dream but from next payday this is the plan.

One of the reasons for our rejigging is we were discussing the term "lifestyle inflation". This is the term for when your income increases so does your expenditure. We have done that. We have somewhat relished in it after being on quite a low single income then going to pretty good dual incomes. We've realised we are just spending alot of our disposable income sometimes thoughtfully, sometimes not. So that is where all this started and I can see it as a fairly common situation as well, I don't have to cast my very far to see we are not the only ones. Hopefully there is now one less!

*Image from Cimexus

Weekend Happenings

So we have been through 5 tester pots now and have definately definately decided on the colour scheme below. Really. The house will be a light bone colour, the trims are off-white and the gutters are a darkblue/gray called Ironstone. I love how it looks, Dave painted one side of the old loo out the back.I have been trying to get all the vegie beds ready, adding manure, casting and getting the mulch happening. In the last week the weather has really cooled off and we may get the first frost before Anzac day!This morning we headed out to the strawberry farm and picked just over three kilos. There were quite a few people out there and that was before nine. I wish more farms opened their gates like that, I wouldnt have to go to the supermarket at all.

I still haven't gotten rid of the roses in the front yard but I am still planning on ripping those suckers out. I just don't like them! I thought they might grow on me but alas no, they are not for me. What flowers/plants do you not like????

Decisions, Decisions

Who knew that picking out paint colours would be so involved? We have our painters quote which thanks to our builder was heaps better than we had even hoped. Now its picking paint time.

We got a tester pot of "Confetti Shower" but twice as deep as the original and tried that but it was too light (thats the colour that looks light blue but its not). Went back this morning and got the colour done at 4 times as deep as the original and I think this is what we will go with (thats the main colour you can see). The thinking is that we will have white trims and eaves and charcoal gutters and balastrades. I think.

You can see the current house colour on the window. Yes someone did think the pinky/purple trim was a good look and no I cant believe it either.

Here is the finished bench. Dave has done three coats so it is all good to make our yard look pretty.

Pimping the Deck

I really love bunting, I have made some for Amelia and some for little bubs but I really wanted some just for myself. Grown up bunting!

We put up the new laserlite over the back deck (can check that off this years to do list) so we will be using it more and more since we can now use it in all weather. And I grabbed the opportunity to do some bunting for the deck (that means me!)

Its pretty much made of scraps. I can see a bunch of things I have made in it, Kelly & Lukes aprons, Megans penny purse and Wesley's school apron. I kept it to a red, black and white theme to make it a bit more adult-y and have tacked it up so I can get it down to wash it when needed.

The laserlite makes a big difference, it reduces heat and cuts out nearly all the UV so thats huge for us and makes the deck that much enjoyable.

Porch

Well I have just finished searching for a photo of my porch without the roof and do you think I could find one?? Of course not! The best I could find was a "just started" pic, so that will have to do.I think it will look really good when its finished. It will really make the front porch a usable space for us.