Hey guys,

I am back from a weekend spent in Weribee.

We left Friday afternoon to stay in a fully self contained cottage.

This is the place we stayed:

Carter Cottages

Although on their website it does not mention a fully contained cottage they have just acquired 2 more houses on the site which have just been completely renovated (in fact I think we were the first ones in there) and are very cool also.

We had decided a few weeks ago to go to the open range zoo and we though it might be cool to make a weekend out of it...hence the stay here.

The zoo was excellent!

Weribee Open Range Zoo

The kids had a ball and for just under $55 it was money really well spent!

At 11:30 we jumped on a bus to go for a tour around the park. (included in entrance fee!!!) It was great fun...Our driver, belinda, was excellent and whilst touring around the park kept us well informed with her witty repertoire and a constant supply of items from the animals we were passing (like fur and horns etc)

The tour went for around 50 minutes and was a great opportunity for photo's and for the kids to learn about the wildlife.

We headed to the bistro for lunch and again were pleasantly suprised.

2 adults meals and 2 kids meals (really good restaraunt quality food) and drinks came to $55.00. We dined with the Meerkats on the opposite side of the window. (geez they like to dig???)

After that we headed off on the walk around the park to see all the other animals...This was also very cool. They kids did not get 'bored' once and were always looking forward to the next display.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to going back again to do some of the special Unique experiences also offered by the zoo.

10/10 from this family!

Some pics:

Bored and on holidays....

I cannot be held accountable for what happens when I am asleep .... nor for what happens on my holidays when I am bored ;)

see below for further information:

http://www.cyberkart.com.au/











Guess what I have been doing for the last 2 days :()

The 'little something' for the dining room wall...

Hey All,

So Katie decided that the wall in the dining room was a bit plain and that it needed 'a little something' to spruce it up.

This is the before:


SO after a week or so of shopping around for the right mirror we finally had it delivered yesterday.

The couch behind it is a 3 seater!!!



This is the 'little' something .... :::

So after a few adjustments and a bit of measure twice drill once here is the end result:





And a close up for the curious


Secretly I like ... just don't tell anyone ;)

Spectra @ Carlisle Homes - the tour...

Hey all,

Ok so a couple of weeks ago I was invited by the owner of Carlisle Homes to visit the new colour selection centre and take some photos etc.

He asked for my honest review....so here goes.

The sign out the front of the building gives no real hints as to what may be awaiting inside.

After walking up the stairs and making the U turn to head to the offices the SPECTRA logo on the right lets you know its there .... but still not what it is!

When you step through the doors into the display centre (after getting your pass from the front counter and signing the visitors book and chatting with the best receptionist on Earth! ) the first thing you notice is the wild angles and the full on light fitting. I managed to capture neither of these really well in any of my pics ;)

As you walk down the entrance hall the first thing that strikes you is the Kitchen display and just how bright the area is.

You can tell there has been some real thought put into the colours in this part of the display with provactive colours and really sensational lighting. The colours are definatley representative of current styles in design.

The flow of the layout is a little muddled from a walk around by yourself point of view ... no doubt this would be less of a problem with a guide :)



Some of the sections were still 'in progess' but you could see what they would become in time.

One section that was not ready for this visit was the electrical section. If I am lucky I may get an invite back when it is complete.

Some of the bathroom ideas were just mind blowing and again the designs are very up to the minute.

The feature wall display is truly outstanding with a massive selection to choose from. Again the lighting makes choosing much easier. (The electricity companies must be loving this place) :)

The brick wall selection and render walls are well laid out with plenty of room to stand back to make decisions.

Where was Dulux when we signed up? :( The colour selection wall is nothing short of incredible. Take the swatches you like from the wall, stick it in the scheme machine and watch in amazement!

This is one of the best colour walls I have seen (even better than my lifelong favourite BUNNINGS) ;)

When we chose our doors we didn't even get a brochure :( Just a few black and white pics. Have a look at the selection here. Each of these doors pulls out for you to see before you buy :) Some of the selections were a little wild but some were really cool too!

Again .... we had swatches :(

The tiles selection hasn't changed a lot ... perhaps it was good to start with?

So in summary is it any good?

I have to say that when John (from Carlisle Homes) took offense to my comments about the colour selection centre being terrible I thought he was pulling my leg, but after spending a few short minutes in Spectra I can see just how far the company has come in 18 months. This is very professional indeed.

When I went through the colour selection process it was a small room with limited selections that really seemed 'slapped together' and compared to this was honestly a joke.

This selection centre seems well thought out and, in my opinion, would make the experience of choosing colours and designs for inside your house a whole lot easier.

John, I have one question!

Where was SPECTRA when I needed it??

Decorating the hallway...

Hey all,

After purchasing my new hall table:


Katie decided she wished to decorate ...

So this is the first bit - The table top:



Up until this point I was pretty happy but it is the next bit I need to ask some opinions on:

These are the pics:



The pictures are sensational, black and white and they look awesome ... Just not sure if this is the right spot for pictures of the kids?

Am I wrong?

I think family photos, like these, need to be displayed but not in the entrance to a house...

Does this look OK....What would you you do?

Should I just pull my head in and leave the selections to Katie and stick to my theatre room?

SPECTRA ... The low down...

Hey all!

Last week I went to Carlisle Homes for a visit and was invited to look around the inside of the new colour selection centre called Spectra.

To say I was impressed was an undestatement... :)

Where was this when I did my colour selection process??

I took a bucket load of pics and I will start loading them up in the next few days.

Stay tuned :)

The new hall table...

Before I begin I need to say a big thankyou to Phoenix who found this for me on ebay!

Late Friday night I got an email from her saying there was one of the tables she has (in her house) on ebay that I have been looking for and that she had contacted the seller on my behalf.

I emailed the seller on Saturday and after a quick phone call I bought the table. I collected it last night.

Because the wall is 6 metres long I needed to get a table that was around 2 metres long and IKEA used to make one called the Malm that was about this length.

Around the time that I wanted one, they stopped bringing them in so up until this point I have been looking, but to no avail...until now!






Now to get to the job of decorating the wall and the table!!

New clipsal range of light switches...

Hooray .... I got my first one!

This is what I had:


They were nice, slimline etc ... but they were always a pain to keep clean 'apparently'

enter the new style:


Light switches on - ^^^
Light switches off - vvv


This is looking down towards the front door ... a little freaky at first I will admit!



Looking forward to getting the switches replaced with these :)

This is the new range:

After a discussion on the homeone forum here:

http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=16399

I decided to post this here!

....

We put light switches in for the recess above our bedhead in...

It has replaced the bedside tables and I love it!

The light switch to the right (under the wedding pic) is the main one for the room and the one on either side of the bed controls both lights in the cutout above the bed.



And speaking of mood lighting:

The Plumbing - the outcome.

The short version first.

Think about where you are placing the Hot Water Sservice in your plan and if you are concerned about water usage / waste get yourself a recirculation system as part of the house.

:)

The longer version...

Ok so over the last few weeks as you are all aware I have had a couple of inspections carried out on the house in regards to the plumbing.

The reason for this was what I considered to be an unreasonable wait time for the hot water to reach my tap in the kitchen.

I have learned a lot in the last few months in regards to plumbing, how it works, dead legs etc and after this reading I decided to employ the services of Casey Inspections (they do work for the Plumbing Industry Corporation) to inspect the plumbing in my house at a cost of $495.

The results of the inspection were simply that the plumbing was to all the appropriate standards and the only issue was a lack of lagging (the rubber insulation on the outside of the pipe) near the Hot Water Service.

The gas lines and pressure were within tolerances and the water lines, although long, were also within tolerances.

Casey Inspection Services sent out 3 people to perform the inspection which was extremely comprehensive and covered all aspects of the plumbing through out the house.

The conclusion that was reached was that I should install either a permanent Hot water recirculation system with a return line back to the Hot water service or an underbench reticulation system.

In other parts of the world, like Canada, these are almost mandatory (for different reasons like frozen pipes etc) but devices such as these keep hpt water at the ready at the touch of a button.

The next part of this will be the installation of a recirculation system.

It appears this may have been a case of money not so well spent :( But the piece of mind was worth every cent!!