On the approach of summer

One of the first quotes we decided not to go with was for insulation.  It was less than a third of the quote to buy some more-than-needed-for-the-job insulation from someone off Gumtree, then just a matter of getting the batts up the ladder and into the ceiling.

We bought the insulation before the house settled, and lovely friends P and D stored it for us.  A bit of it went in several weeks after we moved in.  Then it got put off and put off.

Last weekend we set this up:

Then the practical reinventor, who does not have a head for heights, and does not do ladders, folded each batt in half and passed it to the creative reinventor in the ceiling.  That's five packs of 16 batts.

We're very glad it's done.

We hate painting, but...

You have to admit it makes the biggest difference.  And you're always glad when it's over.
The mudroom (we believe) was last painted in the 1940s.  It spent something like 50 years as the kitchen, and it doesn't appear the walls were ever washed.  Don't think about that too much.  The last owner was a smoker.  Don't think about that either.

Here's the creative reinventor making an enormous difference.

Thus inspired, he kept going.

Getting rid of the hospital green has always been a dream.

We've had a mistint tin of this lovely, buttery, sunshiney yellow for a while.
When the plumbers put in our inside toilet they had to dig up some of our (admittedly dodgy) concrete.  Mostly that bit of the back verandah has been home to firewood or packs of insulation.

Once we'd cleaned out all the rubbish and rubble, and painted the wall behind it, we put some plants in.

So now we have a little garden right at the back door.

The left hand side

Right at the beginning, the left hand side of the back garden looked like this:

Then winter hit, and with all that lovely rain, we got this:

As of last weekend, we have this:

We are looking at it from the other side, but that was where the sun was. It includes one of these:

Which is just your standard grafted purple Nellie Kelly passionfruit, but it'll make a magnificent, edible screen.