The hydrangeas may have received little attention in the last few years but that hasn't stopped them this Summer. I came home to this lovely arrangement yesterday.

House name - suggestions?

We have been in the house a month now and have toyed with a number of names.  Our house is 20 metres away from Cuckamus Common and this name came about because there was:

possibly, a cucking stool: the village pond at the northwest end of Common Road was referred to in 1759 as Cucking-stool pond. Known later as Cuckamus pond, it was filled in c. 1968. (Crossley et al)

A Cucking stool or Ducking stool were horrendous to say the least but borrowing the 'duck' I came up with Duck House. Piers told me 'Cuckamus View' was too prosaic. So, I put it out there for name suggestions.

Why? The view

Given the state of the house and the jungle of a garden you may be asking, why? Here is the answer...

The garden (aka jungle)

The previous owner was obviously a keen gardener but it was a little difficult to tell how good she had been with about 2 years of untamed growth.

A lesson in 1960's decorating

The house hadn't been lived in for approximately 18 months and certainly doesn't look like it had been re-decorated since it was built in 1965...

The master bedroom facing north

The master bedroom facing south

The second bedroom/study

The family bathroom

The third bedroom

The fourth bedroom

The downstairs toilet (think there might have been a sale on yellow paint at some stage...)

The pantry 

The kitchen

The dining room

The lounge room

We ripped up the carpets in the lounge room and found parquet flooring (unfortunately the photos don't do it justice).

The keys

Finally on the 30th June, 2012 we had the keys to our new house!

6 months of trials and tribulations

After months of back and forth with the seller, surveyors, structural engineer's we were a little bit closer after some underpinning work on a crack at the back of the house...