In the beginning ...

So where did this all start? Well it really started for me back in the 1980's as a kid. You see we used to live in a very small, A V Jennings built home with only the most basic inclusions. Nothing was very 'pretty' and it certainly had no real soul to speak of. In those days we used to walk everywhere and often we would pass a lovely old Queenlander house just up the road and around the corner. The gardens were always so lovely to look at and sometimes if it was twilight and they had their lights on you could sneak a glance into the house and it's occupants. I used to imagine (in my ten year old logic) that someone very rich, and of course very pretty, lived there and I remember proclaiming that one day I too would live in that house.


Fast forward about 15 years and somehow I convinced my husband (AKA The Gas Man) that we should buy the house for ourselves. By that stage it had fallen out of the hands of loving owners and was rented out. The man living here was lovely but the yards were unkempt and the house had been ravaged by white-ants and wood rot. It certainly wasn't a dream home, in fact the real estate agent listing the house had no even taken a photo of the front of the home, lest buyers be scared away by the jungle outside. Inside the house was better, though it had been painted a revolting shade of green. Needless to say I somehow managed to convince The Gas Man that this house was just right for us. He has never let me forget that it was I who loved and wanted this house, and all it's problems.


So the house that was first built in 1885 became ours exactly 120 years later.


When we bought it our house sat on the ground, we have since raised it and built it in underneath. We've landscaped a bit and added a pool. It's been a huge task and it is by no means finished. We have a list of 72 things that still need to be done before we can finally see the end product of the project that we started 5 years ago.


Here are some pictures to put all these words into context.

Pic 1: This our house post-raise. Yes that is Santa - he always lives on the verandah and comes out to wave and sing each Christmas.


Pic 2: Here is a shot of the inside as it was in about 2007. Much has changed as I've found my own style and worked out how to live nicely here but I did want to show off one the features we have kept- the gorgeous floor to ceiling built in cupboards.


Pic 3: And finally here is our house in the midst of being raised.It is amazing how the contractors do this kind of work - such an art form. The child in the picture is Big Boy my now much older little guy who was probably only three when this picture was taken.


Pic 4: We were blessed to have a few nice features to work with, this entry way being one of them.