Day bed gets its first overnight occupant

We have an old 1970s house and so, among its 'features" is a nook in the lounge room which was designed to be a bar. Yes, really -a bar! Drink bottles and a counter and such I guess. 

Don't know if anyone ever used it as such. We are the third family to live here. We have used it as a computer area for a while, and then when we were given DH's dad's piano, it found its home here in the nook.

Now that the DS and the DDILaw have just built their dream home complete with  a Music Room so I felt it was time for the piano to go to a new home. The musician son and grand daughter will certainly appreciate it.

What should the nook in the lounge room now be used for?  Well, we gave it some thought. We have been using a folding bed in DH's study for when the grandchildren come for a sleepover, and I thought we could perhaps have a daybed in the nook for them to use. It should be easier for us, as there will be no dragging the folding bed in and out of the shed, to set it up each time. It should be more comfortable for them. 

Here is the daybed in situ. Getting it here required a number of steps:

1. Moving the piano -specialist removalists required

2. Cleaning the floor where the piano had been

3. Chucking out stuff and tidying bookshelves -this was quite an operation!

4. Finding the bed we liked and could afford, and ordering it

5. Buying an nice mattress. 

6. Buying new sheets and pillows

7. Building the bed after it was delivered. DH and DD made it together, even though DH is still recovering from his second Knee Replacement.

8. Making the bed and decorating with pillows and stuff

I must say, though, that it is a lovely thing to lie on with a book and a rug! It won't be just used for the guests. This is a lovely space. 

 

Our cat thinks it a bit nice, too.

This week it was school holidays and the DGson came for a sleepover. He announced next day that it was 'the best bed I have ever slept on!".

There is a bit of work left to do. Most of the pillows on the bed in the photo were pinched from other places in the house. I am recovering from bursitis, but gradually will be making new cushions for the bed, using pillows found in opshops, when the shoulder improves. 

We are happy with this new feature in our loungeroom. 

Verging on the verge -and other garden stuff

 A couple of years ago, listening to a permaculture podcast about water and soil, I thought "I have too much brick paving on this block".  It gets hot in summer, it is ugly, it offers nothing for biodiversity. Within days I was on my knees pulling up the brick paving on our verge. The neighbours thought I was insane!

I started stacking bricks up down the driveway. A few at a time, a couple of days a week. The stacks got higher and higher. What on earth was I going to do with them? Fortunately, my son and daughter in law wanted some brick paving at their place, so they took the bricks away and helped me get the last of them up. 

I didn't do much preparation for a garden, apart from spreading a couple of loads of mulch on the top of the compacted yellow sand below the brick paving. The soil was so compacted that I needed an auger to drill through it to start planting. Quite a few things died, but some of them lived and are now thriving. Several more loads of mulch have begun to get the soil organisms growing again. Gradually I realised that I needed to use a sprinkler one morning per week for 10 minutes to keep things alive over our summer. We have a challenging summer!

 The garden keeps growing, though, so when we did the Great Retaining Wall we had leftover rocks. Some of these were bordering the garden near the house, but They were pretty bad at retaining the soil which l fell out onto the path and they were uneven. As part of our retaining wall project, we pulled them up. 

I didn't want the rocks in the garden any more, so we advertised them as "Free" and pretty quickly they were snapped up by someone was happy to get them to use to build a waterfall at their place. 

DH then used the old concrete retaining wall blocks in the old retaining wall on our eastern boundary, and made this lovely wall under the grapevine out the front. 

More Plants!

Over the autumn our city council offered free native seedlings suitable for verge gardens. I got a pack of 10, and planted 9 - gave one away because it was a grevillea and I am allergic to them. They will help to fill up the spaces in the verge garden and will be habitat for wild birds and insects. I am eager to watch them grow now the rains have com. 

The verge still has one extra parking space for visitors. It is well known in the neighbourhood because this is where I put excess produce and people come and help themselves. The limes are followed by grapefruit and lemons and olives. 

On Mother's day I was given 5 kangaroo paws of various colours.  They should do well here, despite the harsh conditions. 

I am hoping to see a lot more pretty verges like this one in our suburb. Maybe this one can  be a bit of inspiration!