The inside has now been completely gutted, and the breezeblocks along the west wall of the carport have been removed to make way for the framing of what will become the other bedroom (visible in the right-hand side of the top picture, and the centre and right-hand smaller ones. I really need a WordPress tutor to show me how to do this stuff…).
It’s so exciting to see it coming along and we’re really, really pleased with how it’s looking. The sliding door/window is now in place, which makes a huge difference. I’m dreaming of long summer twilights sitting on the deck, with a beer and a guitar, watching the sun set over that wide, wide horizon…. But at the moment the temperatures are down close to freezing overnight, the frosts have started, and days are short and muddy.
Inside, PJ and Dad spent a couple of days moving piles of bricks and tearing out the wood-veneer panelling on the walls. The lounge-room ceiling has been pulled out and the roof will be insulated then either plastered or lined with painted tongue-and-groove. We’ve decided to leave the timber frames exposed as they are, for both structural and aesthetic reasons.
This was a passing visit – we spent fours days with my parents and fitted in a day-trip for dinner in Melbourne with PJ’s family, then off to Bright for a week with our kids and grandkid. And I’m not on leave – work is crazybusy so I spent a good portion of time pounding away on my laptop. But it was just long enough to prowl around and scheme schemes, dream dreams, and plan plans.
The block is very green, with a thriving assortment of weeds. The trees my sister and her friends planted for her 50th birthday, all indigenous to this area, are looking spritely – apart from the three that are dead, but they’ve been dead a while now so that’s not news. Rainfall has been very high, after the baking hot, fiery summer, and the dam is about 20% full (my estimate, who knows, really – highest we’ve seen it, anyway). The tanks are full, gumboots are the preferred footwear…it is a landscape transformed, and will no doubt transform again.
This was it 18 months ago:
(In case anyone’s wondering, the Golden Wombat spent a year with me, from one Christmas-in-July to the next, and chronicled its experiences during that time. This photo is from one of the chronicles.)
We will return home with a clearer idea of what we need to decide on: light fittings, wall finishes, floor covering, window covers. Mumma is about to have Things To Contribute. Yay!
Oh, by the way, I’ve also just finished Michelle Obama’s book “Becoming”. Great read.
And I’m knitting a black jumper with a circular Fair Isle yoke, which will be nice and snugglywarm for when we visit next. That is scheduled to be a month from now, if we’re still able to travel…the Victorian curve seems to be upticking…
Books and Chooks 
Wow! Progress indeed. It always seems funny to call it “progress” when there’s actually a lot less there than there was before, and I could probably fit a few more “there”s in there but I won’t. So there.
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I have to remember to read the previous post and check my photos – seems I was feeling joyous about a couple of things I’d been joyous about before. Never mind, who’s to complain about a bit of superfluous joy.
Your post made me laugh. Also, here was not a single incorrect there there, and as you would know, this makes my heart sing.
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