I have noticed with increasing regularity the growth of home and the shrinking of the housing lots that they are built on.

I was flipping through my Queensland Homes magazine subscription that I got as a gift for Christmas and I notice advertising for a new gated community where the houses were quite big, but the lots in comparison were tiny… The new communities here in Townsville are pretty much the same with the sizes of their lots.

You can see what I mean on their web-site, Park Avenue Residences.

I have found that in most of the older communities the housing lots seem to be bigger.  In fact most of the ones in the community that I live in are 1/4 acre (1024 m²) or 800 m². Our block is about half that at 500 m², but it still leaves room for a big backyard, which you can see on my previous post Our Back Yard.

I had a fun time reading this post over at the House in Progress website:

House in Progress: Busy Weekend, Redefined

Tamara and I are expecting our second kid to be born in the middle of April, so I am sure that there will be a lot of changes for us to go through with everything that we are doing around the house as well as every other area of our lives.

We are still aiming at getting the house lifted before the baby is born. That would be good to reduce the noise factor as well as the dust that will no doubt be created as all the walls under the house are knocked out.

Tamara wrote this on one of our other web-sites, so I thought that I would cross post it to this one.

You may be wondering what a "Donkey" has to do with settling into our new place. Well, I kind of wondered that too when I first walked into our home and saw it all over our wall.

I HAVE ONE INCREDIBLE HUSBAND and since Caleb and I returned from Adelaide, I have not been able to stop bragging about the amazing transformation he did on our house. I would now like to say that us Hutchisons live in one of those show home types, you know….the ones you see in magazines and drool over a little. Well, we’re still waiting for the installation of our air conditioner into our living area, but the rest is amazing!!

Bill gathered together a small army of people from work to complete a major paint makeover on the rather sickening green walls that we initially had when we got the place. Hence the "Donkey" that is in our home. I love the names that paint creators gets to use when they name their products.

We have "Donkey" on the tongue and groove walls that border the bottom part of the walls and "White Shadow" on the top parts. Not too sure if the photos here will give it the justice it so much deserves.

I not only had fresh paint when I walked in the door – there were new halogen drop down lights in the kitchen and dining, flowers on the table and in the bedroom and everything was unpacked.

Yes I cried. However, due to my pregnant state, I did have to reassure Bill that this time….the tears were ones of joy and happiness.

Apparently Bill had been planning this project for some time. He had even worked hard at trying to convince me to stay for some extra time in Adelaide. Now I realise that he wanted more time to get some other things done and not to throw mass parties afterall. Bill also arranged one of our friends to casually throw me some paint sample cards when we were out to lunch one day before Caleb and I headed South. I wonder if my pregnancy had anything to do with me not catching on to the plans Bill was organising. However, I know deep down that it was Bill who pulled off one incredible surprise for me.  

I was wondering where the camera crew were. But then I simply realised that it was all Bill’s doing!!

Yes, I have made some wives around here a tad jealous and as for the husbands…..well, they’re wondering how they can compete with such a man. Hee, Hee!!!