Thursday, December 26, 2013

Final post of the Year 2013!!

AT LONG LAST 
I finally figured out how to use windows 8 and got a photo re-sizer so here goes....
We have gone through 8 months of refinishing our brand new house. We had two workmen who did an incredible job (starting in mid April and finishing mid December). First they sanded all the exposed beams (interior and exterior) and they also repaired all the salt blooming damage at the base of all the walls. We then actually got color on some of the walls!! and refinished all the exterior wood, put in thresholds in all the exterior doors and much more.

In the meantime this fall/winter (only two seasons here dry or wet) the garden and yard have really done well.

We will just start with a shot of the front of the house:


The flowers in the island out front are thriving


Starting outside here is what the beams look like now:


And one of the walls that we have painted-its in the living room and also shows the interior beams refinished.
bear in mind all these beams were scraped and sanded and filled and then resealed and lacquered.



Another little touch all outside wood structures and doors have been refinished, here is the gate to the orchard;


to the left of this gate  the gardeners have boxed the lavender nicely;


Grass in the orchard has totally covered the area now;


We also took this black water tank sitting in the back corner on the left:


and built a nice enclosure out of bamboo that is big enough to store spare tiles for the roof and misc.
supplies out of site.


Next, we have some potatoes popping up after only 3 weeks.



flowers and plants are thriving here Hibiscus are exploding in the orchard area


and the bougainvillea are coloring up


In the back yard outside the Yoga room window the Magnolia is starting to bloom



over in the back yards far corner the bottle-brush trees are attracting the bees


and that corner is starting to get lush


Here is a rare shot the dogs in their house


moments earlier (a small sequence of their play)


Next to where they play our patio shapes up nicely fresh repaired walls and trim paint 


a shot of the back yard from the window above the new patio furniture shows the backyard grass filled almost totally in inspite of the "boys" best efforts to dig and tear it up with the paved path to the future labyrinth.


The bread oven is nicely painted and the fire box has a new unchipped floor in it.


and behind the bread oven the kitchen yard grass is also filled in nicely.


 Well sorry it took so long to get a new post up. Will try to get it together more often next year.
Best wishes to all and thanks for coming.