What surprises me is that my arms are stiff, but my back is fine! Even my elbows are stiff! There are always people who shovel until they have a heart attack; I guess I'm in better shape than I thought; for me, muscle soreness comes before being out of breath.

It is alright to be a little bit out of breath, that is good aerobic exercise. Stiff elbows are a new one.

That's from holding the shovel. Maybe because I don't shovel at a break-neck speed, it's less aerobic & more muscle-strengthening?!

Roo - Did you see today's "This Week on Houzz", about the "Midcentury Australian Homes"? The article talked about building restrictions during WWII on size & cost, so that there was a big housing shortage afterwards.

Yes, factories and production lines were either run by women during the war or shut down (as I'm sure was the case in the US) and things were only just starting up again plus there was a surge of immigration - the Govt brought the Brits out by boat for 10 pounds plus the Greek and Italians arrived in boatloads. Home ownership wasn't so big pre war and after the war the Govt also gave returned servicemen special loans to get themselves into homes, so home ownership really began. "Boat People" are sort of a bit of a standing joke here now we are getting all these illegals out of Indonesia - this whole Country has been populated by boat people right back to the convicts and first settlers.

The first two homes are fairly close to me, the second one at Castlecrag is lovely and still very modern looking too. It had extensions and renovations done around 2002 but all the original facade was kept. I put a link to a website about that on the article. The back of the house overlooks Middle Harbour, down from me and is on a double block of land so I'm guessing would be worth in excess of $2m easily.

@Roo - That's very similar to America; there was the G.I. Bill, that helped servicemen get educations & homes. Lots of large developments, like Levittown, Long Island (NY). It's amazing what things are worth, because of their location!

astraea, you have some very beautiful teal blue colour swatches in your idea book. Are you considering painting your house or something else? I love those teal colours with a rich deep brown.

Roo my aunt (previously mentioned) was one of those £10.00 boat people! Funny now to think of her as a 'boat person'! As you say the nation was built on that foundation but now it's considered less desirable.

@Eztia - I think I'd like to try it out, before buying another shovel; I remember reading something negative about them .. but I don't remember what.

@olldcan - I think they came with a bathroom that had multi-color shell-design tile, and I liked the combination of colors for the bathroom I'm thinking of redoing. My house was just painted 3-1/2 years ago, and the main colors are BM's "Peach Nectar" and "Barely Teal"; not sure how well they'll show up here. I think the Teal is a richer color & slighly bluer, on the walls.

astrea, my favourite of the bunch is the one on the top left, seems to have the most teal in it, while the others are more blue. Bet the top left one on your swatches, would go nicely with your Barely Teal which I also LUV :) LOL, glad to see I'm not the only one that considers re-painting and often. As the boys were growing up, sometimes a paint job lasted just a mere 2 years. My fastest paint flip was 1 year.

Morning all! My my my you have all been very busy! Roo, what is V.C.? And wait....you hired.....painters? Are you kidding me? That's so great!

Lisa, sorry about your weather I will trade you in a heartbeat. Just another sunny day in California, here, frost everywhere but will melt and warm up in no time. Blech and boring.

Astraea, sore muscles, isn't there a high school kid you could hire? Funny story - the restoration company my son works for got a call to shovel snow off commercial rooftops in Reno, NV. They called the local labor agency to get workers - free trip to Reno!!!! No takers. Imagine?

Trying to decide which spring colors to put in my front bath - coral or turquoise. Or can the two colors live happily together? Walls are beige, floor beige. Help?

ASTREA, the G.I. Bill is paying for my daughter's Master's program. Her's is under the Montgomery program. I think there is also a post 9/11 program, also.

It is so beautiful here today. We didn't get as much snow as Boston, but huge drifts. Winds up to 80 miles an hour. But, you know that absolutely clear air after a storm and the sun on the snow? The ocean and beach look incredible.

Hunting for fabric for master bedroom. Walls are Alexandria Beige. Not sure which direction to go…just lined linen or a print.

mornin girls....or whatever it is!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks ez, can't do yellow, ever! But I do like the colors in the last pic, good idea. I may just go that route!

Judy, how did your presentation go?

Thanks, ez, you're such a good researcher!

ez, even God rested on the seventh day! And after all the cleaning you did last week you can rest without guilt. I don't want to rest today, I want to do something but can't find anything that sounds good. I feel like a slug!!!

I saw that, and I saw your comments, too. It looks like it might have been a shadowbox kind of window. The panes of glass had to be at least an inch apart, don't you think? And they probably hot glued the river rocks on the backside?

@astraea - I've got one of those ergonomic snow shovels and I don't really care for it. For one thing, it is a major league pain to store since you can't just stand it up or hang it against the wall.

I was trying to use it the other night and I couldn't get the slush to fall off the end of the shovel and given its shape, tapping to get the snow to slide off doesn't work very well. So, I was constantly turning it over to try to get the snow knocked off. Plus, I found that shovel to be hard on my elbow, but also too awkward to shovel left handed.

Bobbi - VC stands for the Victoria Cross, the highest ranking military decoration in the UK and Commonwealth countries. US equivalent would be the Medal of Honor, although the VC can be awarded to civilians doing military service while the Medal of Honor is only awarded to military personnel

Thanks Linda, I get it! Roo can be so funny!

Bobbi - I liked your comment about the labor agency looking for workers to go to Reno. Around here, temp services usually pay $10-12/hour but don't pay for travel or down time and some even charge a small amount for transportation and of course, that income is all subject to payroll taxes. So, someone might be gone for 12-14 hours, but end up with a check for $50-$60 in their pocket and then have to pay a couple of bucks for someone to cash that check for them. Plus, many of the folks I know who work temp services are probably on probation and cant' leave the state without permission!

Bobbi – There don’t seem to be any H.S. age kids roaming this neighborhood! The catch-22 is that the times when I could find what plow services were around my neighborhood, are times when I can’t get out of my driveway to look around! (LOL)

Judy – I think the GI Bill is a good thing, and should be continued; it’s sad when you hear stories about former military personnel having problems back in civilian life, and the government doesn’t do enough to help! After Hurricane Sandy, high winds scare me a lot more than snow itself! Today was another beautiful day here too; the SPCA fundraiser was at a restaurant right on the beach in Long Branch .. gorgeous, especially since I was sitting in the sun!

I couldn’t believe that I left home about 10 AM, and got back on my pc about 2:30 today .. and there were 125 e-mail notifications just from Houzz!!

Linda – I knew that if one person here recommended one of the ergonomic shovels, at least one other person would say they didn’t like it! “Sticky snow” was a big problem for me yesterday; what a waste of energy, having to bang the shovel every time, to get rid of the 1/3 of the snow still on it!

What I've done with the notifications, is put all of them in a subfolder, then sort them by subject, so I'll read everything for 1 discussion at a time.

Olldcan, it's not just a gate! It's the first thing visitors see, it is the first clue anyone has about who lives here, it sets the tone for your home, it protects you and it welcomes people in. If you love the gate, I hope you get it! All this from the woman whose gates are stacked in the garage because they scrape the ground since the new driveway was laid! Didn't like them anyway!

Roo my next project it also the grand kids bedroom, and it also has to be unisex. I saw plain striped duvet covers in a duck egg and white stripe, and thought they might be nice, and could be prettified up with pink pillows for girls. Not sure if the colour is boyish enough for the boys though?

Linda, I hear what you're saying! But transportation and meals and hotel were included! It's just that no one wanted to shovel snow on a rooftop. Can't imagine why!!!

:) :) YAHOO :) :) The gates are mine. Now, how the h e double hockey sticks am I going to get them home then to the lake. There huge!!!!! I'll have to take a pic to share once there here.

busylady1 Arrg!!! I feel your pain :( I went through the same problem on my acreage with gates scraping once the asphalt was laid. Now, there pushed all the way open and half in the ditch LOL.They look crappy in comparison, I was hoping someone would steal them for the longest time. That hope only lasted until I found out how pricey they are. Gee, wouldn't it be nice if my welder son could raise the gate hinges, he's always too busy to be bothered helping out. :(

Woo Hoo olldcan! Congratulations. Don't forget the pics!

Morning all, absolutely have to restrict my time on here and get my butt in gear. I hardly know where to start.

Lisa, I think it is only because of the current invasion we have of Boat People, who only the ratbag minority have any sympathy for, that people started to think back in time and everyone was given the 'Boat People' tag. How else do you get to an island anyway!!!

Bobbi, painters not hired yet, but rounding up names to get quotes. I'm expecting it to cost around $3,000 - $4,000 and warned BH, but he just didn't care. Remember only last week I was sending us bankrupt!!! I'm happy to paint all the woodwork if it means a considerable saving - in fact I would really like to do it, it isn't a big deal. I really want (and so does BH) it done in full gloss oil paint, which is much, much slower to apply and would probably bump costs up.

Coral and turquoise should be fine together in my book, although I wouldn't go too strong if you want to keep a spring feel. I just love looking at this photo although the colours are lighter.

[houzz=]

Roo, that's the look I'm going for, exactly! Thanks. Good luck with your painters! Amazing how men can find the money if it means they don't have to labor :))

Thanks, ez! How's your day going so far?

busy - the duck egg and white doona covers sound lovely and a good start. Maybe some navy with it to man it up a bit, if you think it looks a wishy, even a navy feature wall if the room would take it, and greens and mauves for some feminine touches.

Did you see the kids rooms on the Houzz update this week. How our little bloke would love the pirate ship, he is pirate mad at the moment. I did love this room though, and funnily enough the room is already painted in this colour but it needs totally redoing. I will have to go doona cover shopping, I was thinking of just something plain, but stripes are nice or I was thinking of something with different sized colourful spots. I get all these wonderful ideas and then get disappointed when I can't find what I want. Then of course I have to find curtains, I only threw out the old curtains the other day, they were a lovely light fabric in the blue, but I had to take them down some years back because DD wanted blackout curtains for afternoon naps and my other dd here lent some to me.

Now I think about it, I will really have to give the curtains some serious thought. With the room so small I have to get a trundle bed but the trundle will have to go along under the window so whoever sleeps in the bed doesn't jump on the one in the trundle if they get up in the night. I have always only had short curtains in this room but was thinking of going full lenght but full length curtains are going to be a pain, maybe I might just look at a blind - get the double one that has a white mesh for normal use and a block out blind at the back.

[houzz=]

Note from this and the photo I posted for Bobbi, I just can't get away from this blue/orange/coral mix.

Roo, that is a pretty room! I like how the beds are perpendicular to one another. Doubt if I spelled that right.

ez, good for you! You earned it, you deserve it.

We removed the butt-ugly shelves from the outside front of the house today. I've been wanting to do that for almost two years. I think they were original to the house as the supports were built into the stucco. Why would anyone do that? Seven bags of red mulch to lay! Last year we did 50 bags so seven is nothing.

Bobbi, I just wish the room was big enough to do beds like that. BH did suggest we get bunk beds but as it looks like the LA grands will only come about every 18 months, I would really like to keep the room more versatile.

Mulching is fun. Our gardens need it again, last time we used wood chips. Being in such a busy area, there are always trees coming down in storms or dying. BH heard a chain saw one day so walked around till he found the guys, saw they had a chipper so asked if we could get the chips. There had been a bad storm at the time and trees were down everywhere so the guys were happy to dump a truckload of chips 'just around the corner'. Cost us $50 and we had the chips 4" deep on the gardens and supplied neighbours as well. Took us days to do non stop as we had to move it all off the grass as quickly as possible before it killed it. Probably won't be so lucky again.

What is red mulch?

olldcan - congratulation on the gates, what a great start to the week for you.

Roo, are both the grands girls? Could you do a full sized bed and have them share? Red mulch is just wood chips that have been colored red by some organic something or another. You got very lucky with the wood chips! That doesn't happen everyday, now does it???

Just took a couple of quick photos but I think that has given me the answer. The green in my bedroom just won't photo well, but it does go with the fabric nicely. The room faces south and although it has a wall of windows, it can still be dull. I've had green in it before and it worked fine. The other colour I like does look great with the fabric caramel/creamy colour but I think the lighting in the room (or lack of) will send it dreary. Might still get a sample pot to try it out.

Pretty fabric! You are no doubt a world class color expert. I wish I had your talent!

Bobbi, no one ever makes my life that easy!!! DD has Miss 6 and the little bloke. I was thinking of buying a sofa bed actually, getting a good one, and going that way and making the room a bit more versatile. Like my bedroom, it is at the back of the house and gets the cool breezes in summer and sun all day in winter so it is a lovely room to be in. Wouldn't be a problem for now, but by the time they get to teenagers, I doubt even the same room will be acceptable. Of course I do all this and when they get here they end up sharing the queen bed with DD anyway.

I was at the local $2 shop the other day - that is becoming my church away from home - and they had a pair of canvas prints with peacocks on. Miss 6 is crazy for peacocks, I would love to get them to decorate the room but they were $50 the pair. Have to think more on that, they were nice in one way but I would only be doing it for her current 'fad' and don't know if it is worth that much.

Peacock prints at the $2 store, for $50??? Someone's confused. What about futons? They don't take much space and they look like sofas when they're not laying flat. And while the kids are little you won't even have to unfold them. [houzz=]
[houzz=]

Check out these cool wall decals! [houzz=]

Ok, we're getting ready to bbq so I need to go make the salad and clean the chicken. Talk to you later!

Okay, here's just 1/2 of the gate. It's 14' wide, 8' tall at the centre, and 6'tall on the outer ends. I didn't realize it had so much gold on it. What do you think, should I paint it all black?

It's coming home Tuesday so I'll take better pics then.

olldcan, that's HUGE! And so cool! Yes, paint it all black. Are they delivering it (I hope!)?

olldcan - tres elegante - feel we need to genuflex to speak to you.

Definitely black - gold looks cheap.

bobbi, hubby and his bud are picking it up. So nice to have a good friend with a flat deck trailer.

roo, genuflex.... ya right...LOL... you are waaaay to funny. Problem is, all the lots on the point are gated, ours is the only one that's not. If you fish and belong to this crazy fisherman's blog, they have dropped a pin in the bay, right out front of our lot and the friggen GPS will put you on our driveway. Winter is bad with the sledders and Ice fisherman. Summer is bad for people trying to avoid the fee that is charged for launching your boat and there is a maximum of 25 public boats allowed. When the launch hits 25, thats it, no more. People always try to go around the lake to see if they can get there boat or jet ski in the water. I just don't like people cutting through our lot, using our fire pit, dock, bbq, lawn chairs etc. I especially get pissy when they lite the fire pit, and throw our lawn chairs into the fire when there done using them. Hopefully this HUGE gate will be a good deterrent.

Back to the gate, yup, agreed the gold cheapens it. I'm really not fond of the gold panels. Should I leave the pointy things gold and paint the rest black or all black?
Kinda leaning to all black but in gloss.

8:30 here now and 2 am comes fast. I'll check in tomorrow for the paint advice on the gate. Nighty night, girls :)

We just got home from a great get together with friends.. She is Irish, he is Boston Italian. The meal was out of this world. She makes a cream/sausage/tomato sauce, chix cutlets with panko crumbs and the most delicious meatballs, which she cooks in the sauce! She doesn't bake, broil or fry them. Yummy.

bobbi, have you seen these Ikat towels from Pottery Barn?

can, paint the whole thing black. What a great find!


roo, how do I compare your South with mine? Is that side your least sunny side? If so, take a look at BM slip AF 605…or BM elephant pink 2087-70.

olldcan - people will try anything to get to water, how rude of them to just come onto your property like that, I'd be more than p**d off, I'd be up a tree with your bow and arrow and really give them something to think about.

The gate should be a good deterent - it isn't like it is hard to see. Definitely do all the gate black but I think a flat looks very classy. A gloss will lose it's sheen and maybe be more maintence. Maybe check out everyone else's and see what they have and what look's best.

Judy, your dinner sounded lovely, making me very hungry. Fortunately I'm doing a honey, mustard chicken tonight so I won't be drooling through a boring salad thinking of yours.

My south is your north, doesn't see any sun at all and the rooms can get very miserable. I do like that pink you found but the bedroom has been a salmon/pink type colour for longer than I care to remember, so over that now. Mauve or any shade like it goes really dull grunge and makes the rooms depressing.

Had a very progressive day today, the bathroom builder dropped in and will come back tomorrow to fix the messy wall - he agreed it was bad - and gave me the name of a painter he uses. Rang him immediately and he came two hours later. He has talked me into reducing colours which I had been in mind to do so I have decided the green of my bedroom will look good in one front bedroom and I know it looks good at the back of the house so I think I will use it for the kids' room too. That means the 3 bedrooms at the end of the hall will all be the same but with my room all white otherwise, the second bedroom with the floral and I might keep the kids' room shades of green or bring in yellows, even oranges, I will see what I can find when I go shopping, the three rooms will have their own individuality. The hall is presently a custard yellow I have in the kitchen and family room and I really like it so I think I will repaint the same colour and BH is very happy to have it for his room which is the gloomiest room (even without him in it) so I think it will all work well together. I think I will keep his curtains pure white which should heighten the light coming in.

Dropped by the paint shop while I was shopping and picked up a few more paint shades that I now won't use probably (I won't say my mind is set in concrete just yet) and the guy who has been helping me with all the paint asked if I wanted names of some good painters. Gave me 3, one is looking for work as he has a few clients fiddling him around. Wouldn't believe just as I went to leave the store the one looking for work rang so Steve called me back and gave me the phone to talk to him. He is coming tomorrow afternoon to look at what we want. I also saw a local Real Estate Agent who grew up in our street and went to school with one of my joeys and he gave me the name of a guy he highly recommends plus my nieghbour who had painters in all last week has them returning to finish off next week and is going to send them up to see me, so I suddenly have 6 painters to get quotes from. Doesn't rain but it pours.

I just opened 2/11 with a design dilemma question about color!!!

roo, this might work for the caramel color…BM secluded beach 899.

BOBBI, THANKS FOR ASKING. PRESENTATION WENT VERY WELL AND THEY ARE MOVING ALONG. HOPEFULLY, THEY WILL ALLOW ME TO POST SOME PICTURES WHEN THE PROJECT IS FINISHED. I'VE MANAGED TO KEEP COSTS DOWN FOR THEM BY CHOOSING ALL THE NEW DESIGNS AVAILABLE IN PORCELAIN.

Thanks Judy, picked up quite a few caramel colours yesterday and while I love them and the effect they have on the fabric, I have decided they aren't quite right for the room. It has been very overcast and raining the last two days which is perfect to see colours in the worst possible light and the caramel just slides into nothing while the green really speaks to me.