One week into being a home occupier again, and so far, so good – I think! A few hiccups for sure, the main one being discovering the hot water system needs replacing. We’re waiting for a second quote and hopefully will get that underway later this week.

It’s been a busy week, and we’ve made a start. As our very good friends Wendy and Craig were coming down from Perth to stay last night, we gave one of the spare rooms top priority with a coat of paint.

The room, by no means finished, looked a bit better, albeit still with the old curtains and the second hand dark furniture still to receive it’s Annie Sloan make over.

We’re opting for a breezy, white beach decor. Of course, we won’t remain true to any decorating style. We never do. I’m sure it’ll end up eclectic as usual, this time with a mix of a bit Hampton’s understated beach style, a bit of shabby chic, (seemingly which should never be mixed with Hampton’s style) and a bit of whatever else takes our fancy.

We had a delightful time with our first visitors, too much to eat and too much to drink as we chatted away into the wee hours while playing a Canadian game similar, but more elaborate than Newmarket.

This morning we had a typical American style breakfast of home made pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. I used to think the Americans were weird to eat such a combination – until I tried it. It’s not something I’d have often, but it really is a lot nicer than it sounds. I even went a step further and had banana with mine, North Queensland style.

After breakfast a trip down to the weekly, Sunday market, and a look at Busselton’s famous 2.2km long Jetty. Then our farewells said, Wendy and Craig headed back to Perth, promising to return as soon as we both have a free week-end.

After a welcome 24 hour break we were back to it again this afternoon. Paul started on the second spare room, while I started on the Annie Sloan make over of our second hand bedroom suite.

It’s been a hard week, but we’re already starting to see a bit of an improvement. I can’t speak for Paul, as I suspect he doesn’t enjoy the topsy turvy house makeovers as much I do. But for me, I’m loving it. A real pleasure.

We’re currently in a caravan park in Busselton awaiting settlement of our little Summer House. Settlement is due to take place at mid-day tomorrow, at which time we’ll get the keys.

With this years late spring, it’s cool here. Showery and blustery, so not very enticing for getting out and about, especially when we’re pre-occuppied with house plans. We arrived yesterday morning, and immediately went out and purchased paint, mops and other bits and pieces with which to clean, and start preparing the house for occupation.

With that out of the way, and with the weather the way it is, we were at a bit of a loss today as to what to do with ourselves. The house has been empty for years, so we figured it wouldn’t do any harm to go and have a bit of a look at how to sort out the driveway for the caravan, and to have a good look at the garden and formulate a plan.

One thing lead to another, and before we knew it our pruners were out, and a little bit off here and there soon led to a lot off….. Paul has sorted the driveway, and tomorrow we should be able to back the caravan straight in. It’s still only temporary as all of the paving needs lifting and re-laying, with extended paving for the caravan driveway, but at least our caravan can be parked out of the way of the garage allowing easier access for our furniture when it arrives on Wednesday.

Whilst Paul was getting the driveway sorted, I decided I’d do a light prune of the roses and lavender which are suffering from years of neglect. A bit of a light prune led to a bit of a purge on all the seaside daisies, dozens, and dozens of them. They’ve clearly been left unchecked and have been self sowing for years. I uncovered an additional four rose bushes that were literally smothering beneath them.

I’ve left the Margareite Daisies, geraniums, and pelagoniums for now. Eventually, I’ll probably take cuttings of the nicer ones and start them off fresh. But as with all my gardens, it’ll evolve without any definite plan into whatever it becomes. I’ll leave the roses for now and see what they all are.

It’s still a long way from anything that looks anything, but the front garden is now started. My philosophy has always been, ‘once begun, half done’, so using that philosophy we’re half way there. I’m sure in no time at all, it’ll all be looking as pretty as a picture.

Gardening (even though prematurely) – what a pleasure!

And what to do after the gardening – a short drive to Dunsborough  for  a pint and a serve of crispy hot chips with aioli at Occy’s brewery seemed like good idea. Ahh!! another of life’s little pleasures…..

Before I start babbling on about the ‘next project’, we’ve arrived safely in Perth, and we’re freezing. Spring is normally here by now, but the abnormally wet winter Perth has been experiencing is continuing into spring. Everyone told me to make sure I brought my winter woolies with me, but as our intention is to follow warm weather, winter woolies are something I no longer carry around with me. With the heater on in the caravan, and keeping busy, I’m getting by – just!!

We’ve caught up with Alice, Paul and the grandees, a very warm welcome – and all well and as gorgeous as ever. It’s funny how long can pass between face to face meetings, yet how it can seem like only yesterday that we were last sharing a cuppa and a chat.

And we’ve only just begun to catch up with friends. We had planned to only be staying in Perth for a week before we headed down to Busselton, but the weeks almost gone, and we have so many people still to catch up with, so we’re extending our time here for a second week.

And now the weather report, and the friend and family report’s out of the way, I’d better let you all know how things have turned out with our latest purchase and project – ‘the summer house’.

Today, we had our final inspection. Usually the final inspection is the last of many inspections prior to the changeover. In this case the final inspection was also our first inspection. So, what did we find:

Firstly, no surprises, the house was as we expected.

The house is a small three bedroom, two bathroom house on a 465 square metre block. The most important things are that there’s room to park our caravan, it’s a short walk to Geographe Bay beach (around 3 minutes), and it’s not part of a strata – so no neighbours telling us what we can or can’t do (it has what’s called a green title). The only covenant is that we had to be over 50 to purchase it, and the same applies if we decide to sell it on, or rent it out in the future – only to people over 50.

When I say the house is small, it really is small. We have a challenge to decorate and furnish it suitably so as to make the most of it without having it feel or look cramped. As we both thrive on such challenges though it’s exciting rather than  daunting.

The storage in the house is good. A reasonably sized kitchen pantry and pot cupboards, reasonable cupboards in the separate laundry, a good sized linen cupboard, and built in wardrobes in the three bedrooms. It has a large single lock up garage with parking for a second car in a carport in front of the garage. It also has a second driveway on the other side of the house suitable for our caravan, even though the caravan won’t be kept under cover.

The master bedroom is a small to average sized queen bedroom, and the other two bedrooms will each fit a double bed and bedside cabinets adequately. The ensuite bathroom is reasonable, and the 2nd bathroom is just a shower, loo and small hand basin off the laundry.

The kitchen is a pleasant size with a good work triangle between stove, sink and fridge. The dining room will adequately hold a small six seater table, and the lounge when furnished properly will seat both us and guests comfortably.

It was only build in 2001 but the decor looks more like 1980’s. So, we have a project to bring both the inside and the outside into the 21st century. Firstly, a good light coat of paint throughout and new carpets in the bedrooms. We should get that done in the first week after we take possession on the 10th of October. Then we’ll be able to actually move in. Until that much is completed we’ll remain in our caravan, but will park it in the driveway.

After we move in we’ll tackle the garden and exterior painting. It has a verandah around three sides of the house, supported by heritage green wooden posts, lots of them. The green just has to go…. There’s a huge very ugly shade house in which the previous owner used to tend his prized orchids. Once we demolish that we’ll have some lovely garden space, which we’re just dying to get stuck into.

I shouldn’t think it’ll take us long to get the basics well under way. The kitchen also will need a re-vamp, but that won’t be part of this years project – next year perhaps.

This week has been busy. We’ve been looking for furniture, both new and second hand. So far we’ve bought a second hand double bedroom suite in need of a shabby chic transformation (that’s my job, while Paul deals with post painting). And we’ve bought a new dining suite and second hand lounge suite. We’ve started to check out the replacement curtains in the shops, and we’ve marked things like fridges, washing machines and the other bedroom furniture on gumtree. By the time we move down to Busselton on the 10th we expect to have bought most of the basics and will have them stored up here in Perth until we have the house sufficiently ready for them.

It’s quite a project for such a little house, but what would life be without a project. We’re thoroughly enjoying the planning stages, and I’m sure we’ll also enjoy the work involved, and we’ll definitely enjoy seeing the transformation.

Of all the houses we’ve ever purchased, we’ve only ever bought one that’s been perfect at the time we moved in. It was boring with everything already done. We’d so much rather have to work to make it our own.

We’ll post the before and after photos as soon as we get a chance to get going on it all. This little house is going to be a real pleasure to work on, so keep watching this space.