If I was to recommend one thing from our trip to Ireland - it would be the Rock of Cashel. We went out of our way to see it and it was well worth it. If nothing else, the drive there was lovely.
We initially got lost trying to find the entrance, but it turned out well as we managed to get a view looking at the structure without much scaffolding.
The Rock of Cashel was the traditional seat of the Kings of Munster. It has an old cathedral and a lot of history to go with it. There is a lot of restoration work going on and in one area they were removing whitewash to reveal beautiful paintings underneath. I'd love to go back and visit once they're finished with the revealing of the paintings.
The (remains of) buildings were amazing, and the views of the surrounding areas were fantastic. You could see the ruins of a nearby Monastery and probably at least half of Munster from The Rock.
Here are some pictures we took at the Rock of Cashel:
The view from when we were lost.
The front view - scaffolding is to help restore the building so it's safe.
Looking through the wall to a nearby Monastery.
View from outside.
Some restoration work, you can see what they think the painting underneath looks like.
Last week I wrote down our to-do list for our garden which you can find here.
This week I am going to talk about the list of things we should do around the actual house. Also has quite a few expensive things on the list which will be done when we can afford them (maybe we should start buying lotto ticket...).
Home
Front door. Those people who have come to our house in the last few years have probably been baffled by the fact that we don't use our front door (salespeople have - and gotten quite annoyed - ah well :P ). Basically, a few years ago I was rushing out the door on my way to work (back when I worked at Farmers) and the door wouldn't shut. I tried multiple times and it wouldn't catch. Not until I put my full body weight behind it. It also opens outwards. So anyone on the front doorstep would then have to step back off it if we were to open it. So yeah, we need a new front door...
Ceiling insulation. There is some there at the moment but it's not very good. And it blows around. AJ went up there yesterday to move it around as we were getting patches of mould on the bedroom ceiling. Sure enough, the places that had no insulation matched up with the mould patches on the ceiling. We have no idea how old that insulation is so at some stage we'll just need to get it replaced. Ideally we'd like to get insulation in the walls too but this is unlikely.
New windows and windowsills. This is a big job. Whether or not we ever get around to it only time will tell. Basically, a lot of the windowsills are starting to rot. Mainly because the windows themselves have no drainage points at the bottom to let condensation out. So it just gathers on the windowsills. We wipe them down, but the damage has already been done from previous people who have lived here. Also the seals on most of the windows don't work.
New ceiling in living area/kitchen. Originally we were wanting this done when we first moved in.We have the horrible popcorn ceiling that was popular back in like the 70s or something. We were able to get it taken off in the rest of the house, but in the living area it had been painted over so many times that it couldn't be taken off without damaging the ceiling. So need to have the whole ceiling replaced at some stage.
New doorknobs. Some of these have been done already. But others still need to be done. Ideally we want them all to match.
Clean outside of house. This will be done in the summertime. Probably when I can put on my togs (swimsuit) and go out there with the hose and a brush. It's way too cold to do that right now.
Painting. The inside walls of our house are all beige. Anything is better than beige. So hopefully at some stage we'll be able to paint our walls some nicer colours.
So there's the to-do list of various things we need to do around the house. Some very expensive things on the list. So whether or not we get them done before we sell (at some stage in the future), we'll just wait and see.
Of course there's normal housework and stuff that I always have to do but that goes without saying. Speaking of which, it's kitchen day today so I need to go give the kitchen a good clean.
Hope you enjoyed reading our massive to-do list :)
So I've been really slack with this theme lately. So I've decided to do two themes a week until I've caught up. So without further ado...
Name:
I went to Waikumete Cemetery recently to see my paternal grandparents grave. I don't remember my paternal Grandad but I knew my Nana. Even when we lived in the States as kids, we would talk to her regularly. She was a truly inspirational woman - I might actually write a post about her at some stage.
Together
I went to the bedroom yesterday and saw this scene. There's only one other person in this house who could have done this and that's Andrew. He's so cute and is going to be an amazing father one day.
A few years ago we bought our little 3 bedroom house here in Papakura. It's on a section of about 500 square metres and was (and still is) overgrown. The house itself has a few things that need fixing too. While we're glad that we're able to own our own home - especially in a suburb of Auckland - I don't think we'd quite realised what comes with it.
So here is a list of things that we need to do - when time and money allows (garden this week and house next week):
Garden
New fence on the back part of the section. Now, this might sound relatively simple, but there is a massive kiwifruit vine right there that has collapsed onto the old chain link fence that's there. There is also old tree stumps and all sorts of creepers growing around there. And a big tree about half a metre away from the boundary. This is getting higher on our list though as the dogs from the property on the other side are escape artists and keep coming into our yard. We've done a bit of a bodge job to try and keep them out for now, but it needs to be done properly at some stage.
New gate. The entrance to our property has a massive gate. Which is all well and good except that it's made entirely of wood (that I suspect isn't treated, so it gets waterlogged) and is massive. It's another thing that we bodged a bit a few years ago so that it can actually be closed if need be. But it's getting on more and more of a lean now. And it's so heavy that I struggle to close it. So ideally the whole thing needs to be replaced.
Re-do lawn. We don't like a super-short lawn like a lot of people. But we do prefer it to be grass. There are all sorts of weeds growing through it right now. So ideally we need to spray it out and put in new stuff.
Paving. We have a few areas that we want to pave around the place. Basically we want places to sit outside in both winter and summer. Shady for summer and sunny for winter. Got a lot of stuff to clear first.
New shed. Our current shed can't actually be used as a shed. Unless you want a shed with holes in the roof. That and it's a crappy little corrugated iron one. AJ wants to build a bigger one and in a different place. He has a specific plan in his head though so when we can afford it I'll just leave him to it.
Re-do cactus garden. AJ loves the desert and everything that goes with it. So we like to keep a little cactus garden. Our only problem is keeping it under control. It's so hard to weed through stones. So it's quite overgrown right now, and there's some frost-damaged plants that we'll need to tend to.
Re-do vege garden. Right now, our vege boxes are empty (except for weeds). Need to clear them out and plant something. Not sure what to plant in the wintertime though. Through summer/autumn we have huge success with different capsicums and chillis.
Weeding. Everything always needs weeding. So there's lots of it to do. Whenever it's a nice day this winter I'm heading out to do a bit more weeding.
As we work on various things, I'll do my best to post before and after shots.
So there you go. Our garden/outside to-do list. I think I mainly wrote this for me to refer back to but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless :)
We stayed one night at a Bed and Breakfast in Ventry which is on the South Coast of the Dingle Peninsula. It was a lovely old farmhouse with fantastic views over to the Ring of Kerry.
We started the day by heading along the road in search of the beehive huts that we'd heard to much about.
View from inside looking at the roof. I suspect they used mud to seal the gaps
After we'd found and looked around some of the huts, we then drove on and enjoyed the views over the sea. In one picture you can even see the Skelligs :)
Then we found the site of the oldest church in Ireland.
Me loitering in front. My clothes are horrible but we were running out of clean ones by then.
A really old grave marker.
From there we went back to Dingle town so we could drive over the Connor Pass to the other side of the peninsula. Along with every other tourist in the area it seemed. The views were spectacular though. The road was quite narrow and there were people driving the other way who didn't seem to understand the concept of 'keep left'. Worth it though. Only if you're a confident driver - preferably with a passenger who can tell you how close you are to the edge :P (thank you AJ).
Now, those of you who know me know that I'm a bit of a geek. When you're married to one for almost 8 years it kinda rubs off on you. And I couldn't be happier.
Our latest (well, if by latest I mean the last year or so) obsession is with Geek and Sundry's show 'Critical Role'. It's where a 'bunch of nerdy ass voice actors get together and play Dungeons and Dragons'. It is seriously so entertaining. It features Matt Mercer, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Liam O'Brian, Sam Riegel and Ashley Johnson. And it used to also have Orion Acaba. You'll definitely recognise a few voices in there and when you look them up you'll get a case of the 'ooooh, they did that voice!'.
Anyways, I digress. Critical Role is seriously so entertaining. Well, it's not really serious at all. It's a time for them all to let lose and play their alter-egos - a group of misfits called 'Vox Machina'. They go on all sorts of adventures, rolling dice to see what happens and a fantastic story has come out of it. They all do special voices for their characters too which is amazing. There's fighting, love, camaraderie, personal struggles and so much more. Matt Mercer is the Dungeon Master and does an amazing job weaving the story together (and does some amazing voices for non-player characters as well!).
My description of this show really doesn't do it justice. You really should watch it for yourself. Though, be warned...each episode is AT LEAST 2.5 hours long. And it's addictive.
Here's the link to the first episode from Geek and Sundry's youtube page (I'm a massive fan so claim none of it as my own!).
