I have just realized it has been a few weeks from my last post and lots of things have been happening. Good and bad! Lets start with the good. It was our turn to host our family xmas party and even though it is still a bit of a building site we had two weeks to prepare and get the essentials finished for xmas eve.

The first thing was to sort the outside out – at this point we didn’t even have any lights in the garden. So I fitted all the outside lights and added ceiling fans in the undercover outside area. Finally I can put away the work lights we were using to see at night outside.

I had a friend come and stay which is awesome as I have another helping hand. He is a tiler from the states so with his help things will start moving a lot quicker. He has been finishing off a lot of the jobs that I haven’t had time for.

The old roof beams that I had cut up into planks last month have been amazing. Not only has it saved me money but the mahogany looks great and of course it is very strong. I needed a decking built over my water shut offs and clean outs so he threw this together one afternoon. It still needs sanding and finishing but it looks great.

I bought some bamboo chairs for the undercover area and my mum made the cushions for them so we now have somewhere to sit outside. We also finished off the outside kitchen – well I say finished the floor and tiling needs to be completed but at least it is fully functional now.

If you remember last time I was in the process of making the front door – again from the old roof beams (I love using this up on the features for the house). I thought it was about time we took off the broken gates from the front of the house and at least had one front door for the party.

It may sound crazy but having a front door is a big step! I am very excited. I have all the wood lined up ready to make the other three. So I started work on putting up the other three door frames so I can make the door. Now this is where the not so good part about this month comes up….

So again in my recycling mode I decided to use the bars from one of my big front gates that was on the property and build it in to the door frame. Now this thing is heavy – it took four of us just to lift it off the hinges. Its made from 3/4 inch steel.

So I measure it out and started cutting it up with my grinder – which took a long time. I started using a sanding block attachment for the grinder – its kind of like a heavy rock that takes the bars back down to bare metal. So there I am grinding away and the block decides to explode on the end of the grinder and smashes in to my foot…. ouch. You might not want to look at the next photo…

I don’t think it is broken but I am going to be hobbling for the next week or so. It hurt a lot. Now this is an advertisement for safety at work – probably not the best idea to wear sneakers when doing this type of work, they did not offer much protection. So my first job was to buy a pair of new work shoes online. You live, you learn and it could of been worse.

So back to a better photo – the xmas party, I have to say the place looked amazing all lit up at night. This photo kind of gives you an idea of what the finished property will look like.

So after an enjoyable xmas party I decided to give Linda (my pet parrot) her xmas present – a big new cage for outside. So after buying this cage I decided to use the wood (yet again) from the roof beams to build a table for it to go on.

I was practicing on this table as I plan to make a lot more for the furniture around the property. Not bad for a first attempt a furniture making – I love the way the wood looks.

So after a lot of fun finishing off certain areas for the party it is back to the upstairs rooms. We decided to finish the back upstairs before we make a start on the front main part of the house. So my friend has been tiling floors and my mum has been painting. It is really going to move on fast now.