HOW DO YOU SAVE? WALLET WATCHING WEDNESDAY LINK UP!

Here at Home Sweet Kitchen & Garden, we are a single income family. I stay at home with the 2 boys while my hubby goes to work 5-6 days a week. Over the last few years I have noticed a massive rise in living costs, fuel is more than double what it was when I first started driving nearly 10 years ago. Utility bills are double what they were a couple of years ago, food prices are continually rising (and becoming more and more processed). 

For our family to continue to living the lifestyle we are and to make progress on our renovations we need to live frugally at times.We are joining up with grace in the little things to share our money saving tips on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month and would love it if you could join us and link up your tips too. 

Saving money from the kitchen to the garden, our wardrobe to our homes, link up during wallet watching Wedne$day. The next link up is on the 11/6/14 at 12 pm AEST.

 

TO LINK UP:

Follow the host's blog grace in the little things and home sweet kitchen garden

Like grace in the little things and home sweet kitchen & garden. on Facebook

Share the love and read some of the other great tips on how to save money.

Lastly leave a comment on the blogs that you visit.

AUGUST RENOVATION PROGRESS

I feel as though we haven't achieved much, but as I look back over the month quite a few things have been done. And although they are not things I can tick off my list, there has been a lot of progress made which will get us ahead this month, with hopefully a couple of rooms being completed! August saw a couple of rainy weeks which meant there were a couple of days that Hubby and some of his workers could not get out on site, so instead of paying them to sit at home, they came over to our place and helped us out with some of the renovating. We also took some time off over two weeks with our son turning three one weekend and then throwing him a birthday party the week after!

We got the base coat on the hallway walls for the feature rendered wall

We painted the majority of Israel's room with only a couple more coats of colour to go.

We plastered up the nursery.

We created the space for the nursery wardrobe, unfortunately this wardrobe will be smaller than Israels, as we needed to take some of the space for the ducted heating air intake and I wanted a shoe cabinet in the entrance so the shoes, bags and coats are nice and tucked away. 

We had some more progress on the plumbing, but as my main goal is to get the nursery wardrobe complete, so I can start unpacking some of the boxes which are cluttering my formal living area. 

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST & A FOOD SWAP.

And so another weekend is here, and my hubby is required to work it, so there will be yet another week of no progress *sigh* I think that makes 3 weekends in a row now! The drainage is still half done, but at least the flooding issue has been resolved. And the house is still upside down, when everything is going to get finished I have no idea, lets hope it is presentable in a couple of months time!

But this is not all bad news, it means I get to go to another food swap. It's been hard for me to get to one lately as I have been so wrapped up in house renovations, I just haven't had the time to spare, a couple of hours is a big deal when you are trying to get stuff ready and renovated around the house and only have one or two days to get it done in. I am looking forward to being able to attend in summer when the weather is glorious and the produce is varied. In winter there just isn't the same amount of variety, but it is still lovely to catch up with fellow gardeners who are passionate about growing their own food.

This is the produce I took to swap:

A couple of bunches of Rubin Lettuce.

A couple of bags full of Lollo Bionda Lettuce.

Three bunches of Lemon Thyme

Four Bunches of Flat Leaf Parsley.

Five bunches of yellow silverbeet.

This is what I brought home:

A lemon

Yellow Limes

Some oranges

Some kumquats

A couple of kiwi fruits.

Some grapefruit.

Some kaffir lime leaves.

A couple propagated grape cutting.

Some seedling trays.

And some large trays to house the smaller trays.

All in all I think I did pretty well swapping my excess produce for things I don't grow or have!

CRAZY

I am exhausted.

Renovating exhausted.

The house is a mess.

A bomb.

Please don't pop in for an unexpected visit.

I don't have any clean clothes.

They are all dirty.

Or don't fit.

So I may be in my holey trackies.

Or like today my jimmies.

It's too cold and wet to wash.

My inside line is full.

The clothes have been hanging for half a week, refusing to dry.

REFUSING.

ALL I ASK FOR IS MY COMFY UNDIES TO DRY.

Is that too much to ask?

The back yard looks like someone has been digging for lost treasure.

As soon as we make some progress, something else has to go wrong.

Like the bloody drainage.

I curse owning my own home.

I curse owning my own home for the past 6 years.

Damn It!

I am over renovating.

I think I said that already...

Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones talking.

Or maybe it's because I am inhabiting less than half the house.

A space smaller than our first house.

Which was T.I.N.Y

tiny

My child is sleeping on a mattress on the floor in a living area also used for storage.

Because 3 out of the 4 bedrooms are being demolished, plastered, or painted. 

Oh Lord we are hosting a huge party in less than 9 weeks.

Get me a paper bag while I hyperventilate.

Breath. Breath. Breath. Breath.

I have bitten off more than I can chew.

I am getting closer and closer to the end of this pregnancy.

And I am feeling heavy.

Heavy as in I struggle to walk up stairs because someone is hitching a ride reverse piggy back style.

I am scared that my nesting instincts are about to kick in.

Or maybe they have?

That's the part where I go crazy.

Like crazy to live with because I can't handle the mess.

The dust.

The crap everywhere.

Oh Lord, crazy just like this post!

JULY RENOVATION PROGRESS

It feels like we haven't achieved anything this month, yet it also feels like we have done so much. And we have, we just haven't been able to tick anything off our list, but a lot of projects are nearly complete.

We installed the french doors in the study/4th bedroom

We plastered the walls in the study/4th bedroom. You can see the original french doors that were purchased. These will be repurposed for the formal lounge.

We plastered the old hallway

We created the new entrance hallway, which meant we had to demolish the walk in robe in the nursery and build a cavity wall to keep a section of the old walk in robe for the nursery built in robes.

We undercoated and put a first coat of colour on in Israel's bedroom.

We are now just waiting for our windows for the formal lounge, and then we can install them and finish plastering that room. We can then stop up all the plaster which means that we can then paint and decorate. We can then also hang the doors in the nursery, Israel's room and the study/4th bedroom. We need to also choose a front door to complete the entrance way. We can then render the front facade. So infact we are nearly done (although it doesn't feel like that at all).

We have had a few set backs this month which meant that a few things couldn't be completed.

We encountered a load bearing wall in the new entrance hallway which meant that we had to change our plans slightly.

We had purchased beautiful tall french doors for the study which would complement the doors used throughout the house. When we first went to install them upon removal of the plaster we found that half the house's electrical wires ran through that wall. So we had to wait until an electrician came out to rewire that section.

On the second attempt we discovered that although the doors fit inside the house, they do not fit externally due to the lintel being too low.

After purchasing new shorter doors we were finally ready to install them, this time with success.

We also had to deal with some drainage issues which took longer to fix than anticipated (and is still not fixed completely). We have always had an issue with some of the guttering overflowing when it rains, which caused water to pool under the house and ultimately the stumps to rot. The previous owners had build the alfresco areas roof over the gutter making it impossible to deleaf. This caused a blockage in the gutter, when we tried to remove the leaves in a downpour, this caused a blockage in the drains, not helped by them being invaded by tree roots, and years of neglect. So we are in the process of replacing some of the old plumbing and I am hoping this solves the water issues of this house. That means we won't be in such a hurry to rip out the alfresco area and it can last us a few more years so we can do it properly and design it the way we want instead of on an incredibly tight budget.

We were also all struck down with a nasty cold and cough for two weeks, which meant that we needed to take a weekend off. So hopefully in August we can cross a few more things of our list and be that much closer to having half the house complete before bubba Will comes into the world!

LIGHT SWITCHES

We have come to a decision regarding light switches. You wouldn't think it would be a hard decision but oh how it was! We are on somewhat of a budget. We are on one income as I am a stay at home mum so that leaves us less cash to splurge on lovelies, but still want to finish the house off with quality fixtures.

I have three options for my house, two that I love and one that I could happily live with.

 These are our favourite. Everything in our home is going to be square, so these fit perfectly. They are push button and have an LED light. The only problem is that they are $271 each excluding GST (10% goods and services tax) for a single gang. So just a little out of our budget!

The next is Clipsal saturn ocean mist light switches. They have a glass plate and a push button, they come with or without a led light. If we were to go these we would have led on all of them excluding the bedrooms. These are gorgeous and the moment I laid my eyes on these light switches I knew I had to have them in my home. The only problem is that they come in a circle button only. These are much more affordable coming in at $35 each excluding GST. It seems like an obvious choice but to fit out the whole house it will cost well over $2500. Below are the matching powerpoints. I am not a huge fan of the fake silver and the layout of the plug ins. We would use these only in the kitchen, bathrooms and hallways as these come in at $50 each excluding GST. 

The last option is Clipsal slimline push button in white. It's pain but better than the standard light switch. These are the cheapest option coming in at just over $6 excluding GST and the powerpoints at just over $9 excluding GST. The powerpoints are a bit more average, as they do not come in push button, but if we were to use these they would be in inconspicuous areas, behind the TV unit, in the pantry and laundry and in the bedrooms behind bedside tables.

So the decision we have made is to use the Clipsal saturn light switches using led throughout except bedrooms, clipsal saturn power points in the kitchen, bathrooms and hallways. The rest of the powerpoints which will be in inconspicuous areas will be the clipsal slimline.

It has been a hard decisions and has taken us a long time to make, but I think we have finally come to a decision.

MY DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

Unfortunately there is an ugly side to renovating. A dirty, messy, close your eyes and hide under the covers sort of ugly that goes along with renovating! Add nesting tendencies to the mix and we're in all sorts of trouble!

Come and have a look at my dirty little secret...

Crap all over the floors

Dust covering every surface!

3 rooms and a  linen cupboard boxed up and piled into one of the living areas

Said living area doubling as a workshop and laundry drying room

Our portico entrance covered in junk

That junk extends into the carport and driveway waiting for the last room to be gutted until a skip is hired to cart it all away!

More dust, all over the floors! My once shoes off house has now been converted into a shoes on house - that is until the demolitions has been completed!

Holes in floors where old walls once stood

The study transformed into a garage

No plaster on the ceiling

 or walls for days come weeks

Hopefully the pretty at the end will make up for the ugly endured now!

HOUSE PLANS

I had a lovely set of plan drawn up to show you the before and after plans for our home but hubby asked me not to post them. So instead I will verbally tell you.

This is what our house looked like when we purchased it 18 months ago.

We have 4 bedrooms 2 with walk in robes, 2 bathrooms ('conveniently' located next door to each other), 3 living areas, dining, kitchen and laundry and an outdoor entertaining area.

We are using the walk in robe in the nursery as the new entrance hallway as it backs onto the tiny entrance we now have, and at the moment we have to walk through the formal lounge and the rumpus room to get to the lounge/dining/kitchen area, which is the area we use the most.

We are knocking out one of the bathrooms and using that space along with the rumpus room to extend the master bedroom and lounge/dining/kitchen area. Therefore adding an ensuite to the master bedroom and pushing the kitchen forward 1.5 meters and having a long walk in pantry.

I think that is all of the floor plan changes that we have in place. I love knocking down walls are re-creating spaces, and making them more user friendly as the layout we have at the moment is so ridiculous, and I question what the people were thinking when they extended. They could have made the space so much more functional and practical!

We have chosen the colour schemes for 3 of the rooms that I would like to complete in the next couple of months. We were lucky enough to receive some free paint vouchers through a promotion from dulux who are one of the suppliers at Paul's work, so that took care of 2 rooms. Monument will be the colour of the furniture and the holland blinds that I have have a mixture of monument and white duck in it (which is the main wall colour). Bedroom 2 and 3 will have one feature wall and the study/4th bedroom will have two feature walls.

CURTAINS

BEDROOM 2/ISRAEL'S ROOM



BEDROOM 3/NURSERY



STUDY/4th BEDROOM