Thank goodness for small mercies

Sorry it has been a while between posts. We have been extremely busy with work, looking after baby birds, packing up the unit, battling tilers (who finished their third attempt at the shower today!), Mick having to trek to Orange for two days and his Dad and brother kindly helping out with the unit renovation. Plus we hope to move out of the unit this weekend, before Mick has to go to PNG for two weeks....then there's Christmas... Phew!

I still haven't completed the landscaping plan (having not had the free time at the unit to sit and do it, and because the software we bought has virtually no Australian plants in the library! So I have done what I can with that software and now need to do the hard part of exporting the image to SnagIT and making amendments there...almost wish I had paid a landscape architect $1k!). With regards to the house, we have been asking a million more questions of our long-suffering builder mostly about lights (downlights cost a fortune!) and raked ceilings. Thankfully my mother has managed to find a good electrician who can wire up our media room and do any electrical work we'd prefer to do ourselves after hand-over. Here's the thing though, we've fallen in love with the idea of raked ceilings which we're considering doing to the back-half of the downstairs (i.e. anywhere without a floor above it excluding the Alfresco area). To afford it though, I'm considering trading-off the spa bath and timber floorboards...with the idea that these can always be installed later, whereas a roof is nearly impossible to rake after hand-over. It would also, I believe, give a "wow-factor" and make the two skylights "pop." Hmmmmm....decisions, decisions....

In the meantime, I have managed to purchase a Lulu Drinks Urn from Domayne (as seen in Donna Hay Magazine), which was no mean feat! Taren Point Domayne had sold out and explained that our only hope lay online where there were only a few left. I managed to order one and have it delivered to Taren Point so I avoided shipping costs and we picked it up today! They are now completely sold out and the worst part is, their catalogue featuring the urn only came out this week! And their supplier can't get that particular urn in for quite a while (it's from Spain). They will be getting another type of urn in over the coming weeks, but I prefer the Lulu.

http://www.domayneonline.com.au/christmas-drinks-by-louise-stewart.html

At this point I'm very proud of my (small) triumph :)