Curtain Call

Well we are in the last few weeks now before we move into the new house. It's been a long haul but we are so ready to be there. After finishing the last of the painting yesterday (I never want to look at a skirting board or architrave again), it's on to making curtains.


Because of concern about rising utility prices, the fact the new house has a smart meter and that we live somewhere that can get quite cold in winter, we've opted for curtains rather than blinds to make the house as insulated as possible. I've also chosen to make the curtains myself with some help from Granny B. 


Why you ask? Mainly because I really dislike the coatings on blockout curtains that you buy ready made from places like Spotlight. They are full of all kinds of toxic nasties that off gass (predominantly fire retardants and PVC) and if the sun hits them, the smell is ten times worse. Plus since you spend so many hours sleeping, then you breathe this toxic cocktail while I feel your body is at its most vulnerable.

So we have bought some fabrics for Little B's room and then onto the rest of the household. After many discussions we will double layer the fabric in the living rooms and bedrooms to get the best insulative effect. We have also chosen fabrics that can be washed and dried by us to avoid dust build up. I've made simple curtains before but these will be a tad more complex, but armed with my trusty library books and Granny B's extensive sewing experience, this weekend the curtain making begins in earnest.


If you are into roller blinds, then the best option I found was Trevira CS fabrics - these are low VOC and meet ecospecifier GreenTag guidelines (which means they are non toxic and environmentally responsible). These are also no more pricey than having curtains made for your windows (something I wish we could afford but alas not today :-)

McDonalds Dilemma

The title says it all really. This week on his return to preschool, Little B was invited to a birthday party at McDonalds and I have to say that this threw up a bit of a conundrum for me. Little B wouldnt have a clue what McDonalds is (no brand recognition here)...he's never been to one so it's never really been an issue for us. First and foremost, McDonalds food is full of rubbish so we dont contemplate it as a food source, but more importantly it is also chock full of soy (or contaminated with soy by cooking process). So it's never going to be high on our list of places to visit.

Secondly we've just finished participating in our local communities fight to stop a McDonalds being built in our local area. We live in an area known for its national parks and gardens and many of us objected to this application.

Anyways back to the problem at hand. How to handle the birthday invite? In the past my first inclination would have been to politely decline and skip the event all together. But nowadays Mr B and I really dont want to impinge on Little B's social life by prohibiting certain places or lifestyles. After all everyone's different and lives life differently...and if we hadnt lived with multiple food allergies for the last 5 years, who knows where we would be now?? (Mind you after seeing Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock in 2004 I can pretty much assure you it wouldnt be at Maccas).

Mainly I really dont want his life to be defined or confined shall we say by his allergies. More importantly it's the first birthday party he's been invited to through preschool and outside our family group of friends.  We really feel that so much of his life is confined by his food choices and even more recently defined by his dcd (we now know that his shyness has been a result of his dcd). So what to do??

To cut a long story short, I spoke to the Mcdonalds franchise in question who assured me that there is nothing Little B can eat. And no we cant take anything onto the premises that we have made even though its only for 1 child. There flexibility knows no bounds - non? We explained this as best as we could to Little B who has chosen to attend the party to play with the kids and have his face painted. We will then have a cupcake on the way home in the car. Problem sorted, crisis averted.....for now.

So what would you do? Have you ever had a birthday invite that made you think twice?

In Our Garden

This is the daily haul from our sorely neglected garden at the moment. Normally I have more beans than zucchinis but overall I'm happy with the output. Happy in the sense that we are getting a goodly enough amount out to reduce my needs at our fruit & vegie grocers. Now if we wanted to put anything away (ie canning etc) I guess I'd be disappointed. But considering how time poor I am at the moment, I really wouldnt want more produce from the garden.

Our corn is growing really well and has formed husks or what have you. I havent grown corn since I was a kid so it's been quite exciting for us. Our eggplants produced nothing :-( and our capsicum plants havent even grown any bigger than when they were planted (no idea why). Our cucumber after many starts has finally fruited in abundance. It's not in the best position in the garden.

This is the first year I've experienced fruit fly in our tomatoes. I ripped out two plants the moment I realised what was happening and we havent had a problem since. I guess we were lucky that I was using bush tomatoes in pots this year, so they are spread out amongst the garden rather than localised in one spot. Otherwise I guess I would have lost them all???

We harvested all our potatoes. Our Nicola potatoes were amazing. I couldnt believe how many potatoes we had and they were so yum!! But our sebago potatoes were sadly lacking - only a handful really. I now know after reading Gavin's post that it was probably a sunshine thing. The Sebago got overcrowded by a blueberry plant and our eggplants, so just didnt get enough sun. But using the growing bags was a great success overall - we didnt suffer the rot problems we've had in the past when we've put them in the ground.

I have great plans for next year at the new house because the new vegie beds get sun all day around. Granny B's garden suffers from a lack of sun - some things grow great and others not. So we will plant accordingly and share the produce :-) That way we can cover off more food in the garden!!

Nature Break

Yesterday was warm and as Winnie the Pooh would say a 'blustery day' so Little B and I decided to adventure off into nature. While on our lovely walk we...

Looked at new prickly seed pods.

Checked out dragonfly's in the grass

Chatted to the sleeping ducks

Sat and admired the lake and the aqua bikes.

And of course, what day would be complete without a stop off in the playground.

It was so relaxing to get out and chill together in the nice weather. Plus I love the peace and creativity that being out and about in nature brings to Little B....we came home and played bugs all afternoon :-)

Finding a Laundry

One of the things about renovating a house is that you must find the products needed to renovate said house. In our case this is also caught up in avoiding anything toxic or particularly unsustainable as well as avoiding anything Little B could / is allergic too. Plus we cant forget mold either.

This house came without a laundry - something we obviously need. The basics were covered as we have used the same blue board, plasterboard and jointing adhesives that we used in our bathroom. We have also used the exact same tiles and tiling adhesives as well. So covered off there.

Then we came to wanting to furnish the laundry. And that opened a whole new kettle of fish. We tried going down the secondhand route but after 3 exposures to mold at three different houses, this wasnt an option for us. 

We had also hoped to use an old laundry sink we found in an outbuilding. But upon removal we found that the concrete was disintegrating beyond repair (for a laundry). I aim to use it for my vegie garden as a potting sink.

So, then my investigations began....

The things of most importance to me is that the cupboards had to be:

* E0 preferably or E1 mdf products (E meaning the formaldehyde emission level, with 0 being the best)

* they needed to be Australian made

* and they needed to be able to be installed by us (to prevent anybody else using products that didnt work for us)

At first this didnt seem promising. I even contemplated Ikea but after sorting through their sustainability claptrap, turns out their products are made in China and no-one can confirm what E level their mdf products are. The problem there as any one will tell you is formeldehyde outgassing. As 3 different manufacturers confirmed with me, imported product from China can be has high as E8 :-0

But as luck would have it my trusty ecospecifier saved the day again. After establishing that The Laminex Group use E1 products and in some case E0, I started looking for suppliers. I eventually found two different groups who could organise laundry cupboards for us, that are cut to our specifications and are E1 for all components. I'm told that over the next 12 months, their main suppliers will make the move to E0 products across the board.

The good news for us is that by the time we are ready to put in a new kitchen we will be able to use E0 product at an affordable price. The great news for us now is that our new laundry cupboards and benchtop arrive in 4 weeks after being made in Australia by an Australian company.

Hello Insulation

Yesterday we had our roof professionally vacuumed and new insulation put in. It took 4 guys most of the day to clean out the old insulation, vacuum up all the possum poo and dust, remove any debris and to put the new insulation down. But boy was it worth it.

Firstly, we knew we needed to get the roof cleaned out when our initial pest inspection told us that there was a major possum infestation in the roof. He also told us that the roof was thick with possum poo, rats nesting in the old insulation and the old insulation was drenched with years and years of possum wee. The house also had a very musty smell to it on a warm day.

We had the roof rebedded and repointed to stop the possums getting back in followed by a possum removal expert putting in a one way door to get the possum family out. We also put up a possum box in a nearby tree to give them somewhere else to go to.  They left the building so it was on with the roof clean. We didnt want to do it ourselves after the possum man told us in the era our house was built they used to throw arsenic in the roof spaces to deal with rats.

Secondly, insulation has always been really important to us. We have seen at Granny B's house how effective fantastic insulation can be. Her old miners cottage stays at a fairly even temperature during the day, never drops below 15 degrees at night (even when it's 2 degrees outside) and never really gets above 28 degrees in the heat of summer.

We only intend to have ceiling fans at the new house - mainly to keep our electricity usage as low as possible. And obviously dont want to pay through the nose for heating in winter. So insulate we have :-) We decided on polyester batts for a variety of reasons. Mainly because they are so allergy friendly but also because they dont impact on the environment as much and their manufacturers will take them back at the end of their life.

The end result? The house smells much better and today was fairly warm and the house was blissfully much cooler than before. We have high ceilings but even up on ladders painting today it was nowhere close to what we have experienced recently renovating during the heat.

All in all an early success I think :-)

The Claw

How are the school holidays treating you?

Mr B & I took Little B to his first big boy movie at the cinemas the other day to see The Muppets. I think Mr B & I loved the movie more than Little B did. Such a throwback to our childhood...I loved The Muppets and this movie certainly doesnt disappoint :-)

Little B and I have been both swimming for fun a lot and as part of his school holiday swimming program. This is a really essential part of his physio program and keeps his muscles in constant use and motion. Also keeps up his strength. It helps that he is a total water baby, so a week is not complete without a visit to the indoor or outdoor pool.

We've both been drawing...

I'm really enjoying the whole decorating the new house shebang on a zero budget. It has really made me / us get creative and find some interesting places to buy furniture and furnishings.

and as for The Claw? Well that's what I feel like after 16 hours of painting each weekend. I can feel it's time to stop painting on a Sunday when my hand is permanently in The Claw position. The house is currently a no go zone for Little B, so when Granny B gets home from work I head off to the house to prep (plaster / sand / no more gaps / clean) one or two rooms. Then I paint said rooms the following weekend when I have more time and light. We only have 4 more rooms to go (but two are big projects as their walls are the most damaged by our restumping).

Mr B has nearly finished our bathroom. I just need to paint it, then all the fixtures like the bath will be fixed permanently and the shower screen still needs to come. Mr B went back to work today, so these things will have to wait until weekends or the evenings he does have free.

I cant wait to sit back & relax (read sleep) when this is all done :-) In the meantime, I leave you with this Muppet song!!