Things have been happening lately in our house and garden. We’re making progress around the place and it feels so good.
For the last 4 months, we’d been in a lull. We’d done nothing. There’s only so long that you can really feel enthusiastic about painting and repairing shit around the house and garden. Eventually you get to the point where it’s all too overwhelming, there’s too much to do, everywhere you look there’s another job, so why bother? So, it’s a nice feeling to be back at a place of excitement and inspiration about our renos.
We’ve decided to start approaching things in a bit more of a balanced way. Rather than having 10 major projects on the go simultaneously with ridiculously unachievable timeframes, we’re being a bit more strategic and realistic. Firstly, recognising that we do in fact have 3 young children and would like to spend some time with them over the weekends to go on adventures together, as well as, make sure they are dressed, fed and somewhat entertained. This means there are only so many hours in the day/week/month that we can dedicate to house and garden projects.
Secondly, working out what our priorities are, so that we can focus our energy, resources and time on those tasks. Making sure we’re on the same page with our projects and priorities. What are we trying to achieve? By when? Why is it important? Does it contribute to our common goals in life (family, financial, lifestyle)? If it doesn’t contribute in a positive way, why are we doing it in the first place?
Then, we get down to planning.
That’s the big one. Planning. It’s what sets us up for success or failure every time. Before jumping in and doing the ‘doing’, we have got to pause and do the planning. I fucking hate planning. If we’re shifting furniture around in the lounge room, I’m just going to want to start shifting the furniture. But no, Hubby stops me in my tracks with a tape measure and some bloody useful suggestion like “Let’s measure to see if it will fit first”. So annoying! Because he’s right. (Don’t tell him I said that!) Doing the planning saves so much effort, time and often money.
Good planning is a bit like good communication, everyone has to play their part for it to go right. I told Hubby a few years ago that I wanted an archway in the garden. So, he drew me an archway.
“Nope, not like that”, I said. I drew him a simple sketch of what I was after.
“That’s not an archway” he said, staring back at me when I was done.
“Sure it is”, I said.
“There’s no arch. So, it’s not an archway” he responded, matter-of-factly.
He was indeed correct. “It’s a silent arch” I responded, matter-of-factly.
I suppose other people call it an arbour.
Good communication and lots of clarification is very important in planning, and throughout the project.
We’ve got two projects on the go that we’re hoping to have finished by Christmas Fest (more on that another day):
- Painting the exterior of the house
- Building my Dream Garden
Over 18 months ago, we started sketching out, in one of the kids scrap books, the master plans for my dream garden. In my mind, this garden is bigger than our house and can completely provide food for the family, with spare produce to share. I drew a few shitty sketches on paper. Hubby drew these to scale, making them look beautiful and measuring out what supplies we would need for the project.
12 months ago we had the supplies delivered for the fencing.
6 months ago, fencing posts were in the ground, and with the help from a lovely Uncle of the 3WRs, the arbour was built.
It’s the beginning of October, and after another week off work, Hubby has built all of the fencing, the timber has been oiled and we have steel cables up and even festoon lights. It’s incredible. Fabulous. So fancy.
It’s kind of blowing my mind seeing the that the master plan for my dream garden is coming to life. Lots of work yet to do, but at least we’re feeling motivated and inspired to keep at it.
To anyone out there doing your renos, working hard to make your house a home, whether big or small, I hope you can feel inspired to keep on going. You can do it! You’re amazing.
Much love,
MumOf3WRs
Note: This blog is not sponsored or affiliated with Milwaukee Tool in any way.
Side Note: Hubby would totally be interested in coming to some sort of arrangement if Milwaukee Tool are interested.
Here’s a few progress photos.
It is awesome to see the project coming to life, it has taken a quite a few years to get the ‘planning’ phase right to the point i don’t dare start construction yet until i have a signed off drawing which avoids accidentally build an archway that isn’t silent! It is very motivational currently with the garden and the new paint on the front of the house in full view as you come up our driveway, makes it hard to arrive home and not have a smile on your face excited to see our home continue to evolve.
It is definitely very exciting! Thanks for making this dream come true xoxo