Up Mayo!!!!

The county is going wild!  The last time Mayo was in the Championship final was 2006.  The last time they won was 1951.  So people are VERY VERY excited for the upcoming match against Donegal this Sunday.  There's flags and red and green (or should I say green and red) bunting everywhere!  Here's our flag!  A perfect place to mount it -- a pile of rocks sitting in the middle of where our driveway is supposed to be.  When they cheer on a county team here, they say "Up -- (insert said county name here)".  Hence, Up Mayo!!!!  It's particularly funny if you're from County Down ("Up Down!).  So if you are abroad, this Sunday find an Irish pub that subscribes to international match coverage and cheer on Mayo to 'bring Sam home'.  I can't help the enthusiasm, it's infectious around here.

As for house stuff, things are puttering along.  The biggest push is that we finally have a utility room which rocks because I can finally do our own laundry (my in-laws have been doing ours since we moved in!

In the process of adding the utility room to the back of the house

It's nice & big, plenty of space for storage but we'll probably keep it unfinished for the moment until we see how the budget is getting on.

The other big work finished up was to get the septic tank and percolation area up to scratch.  Waiting for good enough weather to get on with it took some time this summer but atleast all is done now. 

   

Stevie's also been busy laying loads of pipes to get our drainage around the house sorted and this week I think he's moving onto footpaths.  I think footpaths are another one of those things that really make a difference to the house looking like it's made progress.  There's loads of stuff that needs to be done leading up to it but it's that one step that makes an obvious difference.

Welcome Wagon - Happy to be Here

Since moving to the 'country' -- (yes, yes, I know I've said it's only 5 mins to town), little things pop up regularly that make me happy to be here.

For example, it's pitch black at night.  Our last house in town had a streetlight right outside our bedroom window.  In Montreal, the house I lived in overlooked a freeway.  I can regularly see stars at night -- well, as regular as it doesn't rain.  There was a full moon last night and it was just picture perfect above the forest in front of the house.  Unfortunately my photography skills are not up to scratch (Add 'master night shot settings' to my 'To Do' list).

The other morning we saw two hares in our yard.  And they didn't just scamper off, they jumped around the backyard for a bit, chased each other, moved back to the side of the house and then finally took their leave.  Alannah was delighted.  I think she thought they were cats though.

And we have a lovely view.  The house is on a little hill and we're the first house on the road so our living room windows have an unobstructed view of the green hills and farms in the distance.  I am caught up in the daily habitual movement of sheep wandering up and down 2 farms I see in the distance.  And I've become fixated on comparing the amount of rain and angle of direction of the drops each time I look out the window when it has been raining (and it has rained a lot since we moved in!).

The last thing I want to mention are the neighbours.  We've had a real lovely welcome from a lot of people living on this road.  Perhaps it helps that we know some of them or know of many of them from around town but we probably know or have met as many people on this road in the last month than we knew in our estate/subdivision in town (and we lived there for seven years!).  Two ladies from down the road dropped by to with the most wonderful welcome basket (and what a basket!) and flowers, I just had to take pictures.

 Gorgeous hydrangeas cut from her garden.  Everyone loves hydrangeas, don't they?!  And she has a lovely varitey that have a pretty blue centre on the white petals that I've not seen before!  And of course in neighbourly fashion, she's offered to make a cutting, set a plant, and give it to me when it's ready for planting (well down the way of course but how kind!)

 Bottle of white wine, homemade coffee cake (DELICIOUS -- thankfully, the walnuts were just decorative and I could eat every bit of the rest of it!), homemade gooseberry jam, and fresh picked veg from her garden.

Selection of veg:  yellow courgettes (even Stephen ate them in the pasta dish I put them into), purple peas, french beans, and garlic.  Let me tell you -- fresh garlic is something else!  So easy to grow and SUCH a difference in taste and freshness!

I am itching to start our own garden now!

And a gorgeous orchid too!

For the Little Miss

Of all the rooms, Alannah's playroom is probably the most complete.  It is fantastic to have a room right off the main open plan area that is designated for her toys and play.  Now she's still too young to be off there all the time on her own but it's great to chuck everything in there and have far less stuff to trip over in the kitchen, living room, hall, etc...

It was originally a bedroom with a north facing window.

However, the renovation plans include the creation of our laundry room/utility that will be behind the wall where the window is.  So first step was to move the window.  A fantastic move because now the room gets absolutely amazing light when the sun is setting (on the days of course that it is not overcast or rainy).

The previous owners had already fit a skylight in the roof so we just needed to open up the ceiling to access it.

The trip to Ikea in June was definitely worthwhile as we picked up the Klippan sofa, Expedit unit, and Lusy Blom rug to finish up the room.  The Expedit unit I'll have to say is perfect for the size of the room and Alannah's age.  She can get in and out of the boxes easily and there aren't any drawers or sliding units to break or catch herself.

Here's our before/after:

 

And Rocky (our dino slide) loves his new home.  As do we.  In the old place we had to put him up on the couch to get him out of the way when not in use!  

Everything else we already had.  Alannah loves playing with the foam mats (as do all the kids who come over) and taking the mats apart are a lot more fun than putting them back together.  A lesson learned is that it takes a lot longer for us to tidy up a mat that looks like ours:

As opposed to these other mats that I've seen at the store:

And there's a lot more smaller pieces that kiddies love the chew (thankfully Alannah never did but most every other kid who has come over seems to enjoy doing so).  So if you're thinking of getting some of these, bear this well in mind when deciding what to buy!

As for the finishing touches we just need to get some pictures on the walls.  I'm thinking a small gallery of pictures of the kids or brightly coloured prints.  And I saw a cute set of decorative flowers in Horkan's last weekend that would be a great cheap and cheerful addition to the white walls too.

The natural light from the two new windows really makes the room a surprise gem we didn't expect and it makes sitting or playing in here great for both kid and adult.