Cubby House Dreams

Image above from Australian House & Garden
Cubby house designed and built by Angela and Phillippe Antelme 

As a little girl, I always wished I had a cubby house. While make shift ones of blankets were regularly made, they weren’t the same as the wooden one I longed for, one with sweet little windows, a letterbox and pretty curtains.

Now that I have children, I have an excuse for still wanting one of these tucked away in a corner of our garden.  I can easily picture Grace (and Sophie when she’s older) playing house and having tea parties inside. 

We did toy with the idea of a cubby house back when we completed our garden play corner makeover.  We thought about getting a cubby house, a trampoline or a swing set.  For now, we have a sand pit in the corner while we decide what else to go with (although I’m not keen on even the sand pit lately as every time Grace plays in there, she seems to be attacked by sand flies or something and then gets a type of allergic reaction to the bites and comes out in hard red lumps).

Paul was not so keen on my desire for a cubby.  He described them as ‘spider hotels’ and I must say, the notion of them being so makes my skin crawl.  I’m definitely not a fan of spiders and we do tend to get our fair share of red backs around here in the warmer weather. 

So I had sort of shelved my idea of a cubby until a few weeks back when the Kmart toy catalogue arrived and there in the outdoor toys section was this cute one above for $399.  While it is simple and doesn't have an awning or verandah, it is wooden, already painted in colours I would have chosen anyway, comes with a fold down table and two chairs inside and has darling little window boxes and a bell as perfect finishing touches.  Its dimensions are 120cm wide by 180cm long with a height of 177cm which I thought seemed reasonable and its price includes home delivery. However, it must be ordered either online or via lay-by which means buying something without seeing it in real life first.  For someone like me who procrastinates over every purchase I seem to make, I definitely prefer to 'see before I buy'.    

Do any of you who own cubby houses find they create a spider problem?  Have they proved to be popular with your children or were they not as well used as you had hoped?  

Mosquito Free Outdoor Dining

Photography by Steven Randazzo for Country Living
found via Pinterest

With the weather over here in Perth starting to heat up (we have 37°C forecast for tomorrow), here in our little household we’re eager to spend more evenings playing in the backyard and eating dinner outdoors. There’s just one problem. Mosquitoes. If there’s one around, you can be sure Grace or I will be bitten alive. Grace’s bites often turn into lumps and I have to end up giving her an antihistamine.

I don’t want to spend the next six months indoors once dusk comes so I’m searching for a solution to keep the mozzies away. I find the green mosquito coils we place around at barbecues quite effective and the tropical strength insect repellent is fairly good too but I’d like to find something that is a bit more natural to use on a more regular basis. I already use citronella candles but I was keen to see if there were any more natural solutions that exist.

In one of my Shannon Lush books, she recommends using lavender oil as an insect repellent. Her suggestion is to wipe doors with it or to make a spray of 500ml of water and 2.5ml of lavender oil to spritz over yourself and your clothes. Another of her ideas is to place a lavender or pelagonium plant near your doors to keep mosquitoes at bay (apparently there’s a pink-flowering geranium colloquially called the mosquito plant because of its repellent properties).

What have you found works best against those nasty mozzies? Has anyone tried the lavender oil suggestion?

Homely One House Tour - The Patio

Time for some outdoor shots today. Our patio is the newest renovation we have carried out. Our biggest issue in this space was the ‘garden bed’, otherwise known as the ‘sand patch’ which ran along the windows of the house. With Asha, this sand became a real nuisance as she would lie in it and drag it all over the pavers, causing them to look dirty (not that they were attractive paving bricks in the first place). Here are some shots of the old area...




We did contemplate decking, but as our priority was for something hardwearing and also low maintenance, we stuck with the clay bricks. We repaved right up to the windows in a darker, more uniform shade which seems to flow on better from our floorboards inside to create a more seemless look. We also replaced the old, discoloured roof sheeting and a few sagging beams before Paul gave it all a fresh coat of paint.

Once again, some homely touches are needed out here. I would love a cute pot with some pretty flowers for the table and in the corner where the potplants are, I am picturing a deck chair like the ones from Ici et La where I could relax with a cuppa and a magazine. What lovely things do you have in your own outdoor areas that create that ‘homely’ feel?