Last week saw a new roof put onto the shed, the flooring almost completed, the lounge painting completed, the kitchen almost completed, and some other small jobs finished, or on the way to being finished.

Don’t let anyone tell you laying laminate flooring is easy – it most definitely isn’t. Poor Tom and Paul would put anyone straight that would suggest it’s easy. It took them three solid, hard days, most of which was spent on their knees. They finished around 3.30pm on Friday, but at 2pm I seriously wondered if they weren’t going to curl over. They looked absolutely done in. It’s almost finished now, with just a small amount of edging quad to go in on Monday morning.

Whilst the guys were laying the kitchen floor, I finished off painting what I could in the lounge. After Tom went home each day, Paul would finish painting the bits in the lounge I couldn’t reach, behind the fire place and most of the ceiling.

Last night with the painting virtually finished, and the floor almost completed, we moved the lounge suite, rug and TV unit back into the room, and we hung the curtains. What a pleasure it was to be able to sit in front of TV in a nice room, with curtains shutting out the world for an hour or two last night. None of it’s a perfect job. How could it be in a far from perfectly built house. But wow, what an improvement. We’re very, very happy with it.

Today Paul had made several tip runs to get rid of a weeks accumulation of rubbish. On the last one he brought back a trailer load of pine chip mulch. It’s not a mulch I particularly like, but it’s very successful at retarding weeds and lasts well. My sister, Wendy, came across from Lonnie for the day and helped me to cut old carpet into strips which we’ve laid around the edges of garden beds and then piled the pine bark mulch on top. Hopefully it’ll keep the gardens easy care and weed free for tenants. Then they’ll only have the lawn to content with, and hopefully when we can come back to the house, the hard work we’ve so far put into the garden won’t have been completely negated.

The kitchen is almost finished. Still to do is the tiling, a bit of painting around the windows and door and hang the blind. We have valances that match the lounge curtains but I don’t thing we’re going to get a chance to get them up. It won’t matter. Hopefully Paul will get those small jobs finish tomorrow.

Next week the guys will complete the shed ready to store our belongings at the end of the week. We have the real estate agent coming on Tuesday to photograph the house for finding a tenant. By Saturday it all has to finished, everything has to be in the caravan ready for when we can come back. All our other belongings have to be packed in the shed. Our caravan and ute have to be in storage and our bags have to be packed for the UK. Next Saturday and Sunday we’re staying with my sister in Lonnie before leaving for Melbourne on the Monday.

It’s been a hard, hard slog, but we’re on the home stretch now. Well, that’s the home stretch on this side of the world. We haven’t had time to think about what awaits us on the other side of the world yet. We just haven’t been able to let ourselves think further ahead than taking each day as it comes here, head down, bum up, and nose to the grindstone.

We’ve had a busy week-end painting.

Paul has almost finished painting the kitchen. There’s still some trims to paint around the windows, and the tiles still to lay above the bench.

My sister Wendy and I painted some primer on the lounge room walls. The pantry was stored in a corner of the lounge until the painting was finished in the kitchen, so we couldn’t paint that corner. Also we couldn’t reach to paint above the fire place, or above the window and pelmet. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get to finish the missed corner, and if Paul lifts off the pelmet I should be able to paint above the windows. I’ll try and reach the ceiling beams too as they have to be painted with primer before the ceiling white’s painted on. Paul will have to complete above the fire as there’s no way I’ll reach that, and he’ll do the ceiling. We’ll put the top coat on between the two of us.

We’re happy with the progress made so far. We still have a long way to go though. We’re hoping at the end of this coming week that all the painting will be finished, the kitchen will be completed, the flooring laid and the curtains and blinds will be fitted to the lounge and kitchen. Plus we’re hoping the outbuilding is finished ready to store our belongings.

We have done soooo much, but theres still soooo much left to do. We’re whittling it away, and each job completed is another job less to do. At the moment though there’s a lot of jobs in progress nearing completion, so still feels like a momentous task. But it’ll only be a matter of days and there’ll be loads finished, and it’ll feel like we’re nearing the end.

The end of day four into the kitchen renovation.

Today the remaining 70s brown carpet was removed from the dining end of the kitchen revealing some very colourful old tiles, and we’ve also found the remnants of some plain grey vinyl tiles in another part of the kitchen.

Under the carpet we found the remnants of what must have been the wood fired oven. The boys have had to chip away concrete from over the bricks and have poured in a self levelling compound to smooth over the floor. Unfortunately, the local hardware store were low on supplies of the levelling compound, so we’re hoping what they had will be enough. We can now see there once was a single door going from the kitchen to the lounge.

We can see the original kitchen was wall papered. Then at some stage the wood panelling was added over the original walls.

We keep asking ourselves why they didn’t do the job properly and remove the existing wall finish before adding the wood panels. Now, because we’re short of time and because we’re tidying the house up to be used for renting, we’re doing what the last people did. We’ve added another layer rather than remove the existing layers.

Some time in the future we may be re-doing the kitchen for our own use. This will include adding a wide verandah and cutting out french doors from the kitchen to provide access. At that stage the house will have been rented for some time, so a new kitchen, or at least a bit of a make over will not doubt be needed again, and that’s when we’ll do ‘the proper job’. If, however, we don’t get to add those touches for ourselves then I’m sure some future owner will be scratching their head and wondering what on earth possessed this particular owner to add ‘yet another layer’.

Paul’s dad has been moved from hospital to a temporary medium level care facility. He’ll stay there until we arrive. We’ve booked our air fare for 14th October. So, we’ll fly to Melbourne on the 13th and arrive in Manchester on the 15th. OMG! I hope we get everything finished.

Tom the builder is here and has ripped out old kitchen. Paul is acting as his apprentice, and he’s loving it.

This is the kitchen we’ve been living with. The hole above the window and the unfinished wall beneath the window have only been there since the new double glazed window was fitted. We had to raise the window to allow for a bench to be fitted underneath.

Paul’s chipping away the remnants of some 50’s carpet that had been left in place under the cupboard unit.

We’re in speed mode now. Paul’s dad is in hospital for the second time this week and isn’t doing so well. We’ve been told medically there’s no urgency, but he’s not able to cope caring for himself at the moment, and it’s doubtful if there’s any chance for improvement. He is being assessed over the next few days. We don’t know what the outcome will be for the short, or long term.

We’ll be going back to the UK as soon as we can, to do what we can. Our hope is to assist his dad to live out the remainder of his time in his own home. Until we get there we hope the Social Services will perhaps place him in some interim care. If, however, the time has already arrived for permanent full time care, we’ll need to be over there to organise the sale of his home. We hope that’s a bridge we don’t have to cross.The joys and tribulations of either being an only child, or being married to one. Especially difficult when we live a 30 hour plane trip away.

Although we had been expecting this, the suddenness of the situation becoming urgent has us at sixes and sevens trying to get things organised here. We have two choices, the first being to take a short trip to the UK leaving this house vacant. We don’t like that idea for many reasons, not the least of which is, it would prove a costly drain on our finances.

The second option, which we’re pulling out all stops to make happen, is to get the house rented out so as to be able to stay for as long as needed in the UK. Tom, the builder fortunately has agreed to help. They should get the kitchen finished this week. Then Tom will patch the ceiling in the lounge. It really needs replacing, but we’re going to make do for now. We’ll be using our evenings to paint the walls.

After the kitchen is finished Tom is going to help Paul to get an outbuilding re-roofed and weather proofed. We’ll use that to store and secure our belongings. That will probably take another week if we don’t hit any hiccups. Then our laminate floor can be laid. Again, Tom has agreed to help if needed.

We’ve put our little car on the market, and later this week after we’ve taken the old kitchen to the tip, we’ll put our little trailer on the market. Hopefully they’ll sell quickly without us having to sell them at too much of a loss.

We’ll put the caravan and ute into paid storage, ready for our planned two year trip around Australia. Our original, tentative plan was to get the house ready and rented for the end of next summer, with our belongings secured on the property, and then we were going to set off around Australia for a good two year period. So, plans aren’t deviating to much, just not as relaxed getting to the departure date for Australian trip, and we don’t know when it’ll start.

We’re hoping 3 – 5 weeks will see everything finished, and see us on our way. We’re due for some good luck this year, so we’re hoping it arrives now. I hope we’re not hoping against the odds for that 3 – 5 week grace to get ourselves organised.

The house is taking shape despite outward appearances.

The bathroom has now been completed.

The old, brown bathtub was removed to make room for the addition of a toilet. The window has been replaced and relocated, and we now have a lovely, big shower cubicle complete with both a removable and large overhead rain water shower head. What a difference – especially nocturnal loo visits which previously meant a trek to the back porch. Although enclosed, the porch is freezing, so nocturnal visits were only manageable with slippers. Now its a quick barefooted visit to the bathroom adjoining our bedroom, and we hardly need open our eyes. Size constraints meant we had to forfeit having a double vanity, but we can live with that.

We’ve had the windows to the living area and our bedroom replaced with double glazed aluminium framed windows. The kitchen window has been raised which meant new weather boards were needed, and also on the same wall a lot of weather boards had deteriorated so needed replacing. Our kitchen has been ordered and we’ve booked Tom the builder for the 21st of this month to come and fit it. Paul will be his labourer.

The hedges and trees have now been pruned, and garden beds have been started. New perennial plants ordered on line are now planted, along with cuttings, bulbs and other bits and pieces donated from both my sister, and our good friend Peta.

Rather than remove old concrete slabs around the property, we’ve utilised them. One concrete slab had the remnants of an old built in barbecue on it. We’ve placed the old brown bath on that, have filled it with good soil, and have planted some herbs and spring greens. We intend to place large pots of herbs, cucumbers, tomatoes etc around the bath garden. In a month or two I think that’ll not only be looking aesthetically pleasing but it’ll be supplying food for our table as well.

On another slab Paul erected a little green house that just fits perfectly. We now have a good few containers of seeds sprouting in there ready to transplant when the weather allows for it. So far we have Sweet Alice, Cosmos and Snapdragons for the flower beds, and several heritage types of tomato seeds planted.

Digging new garden beds is a lot harder here than in the sandy soil of Perth WA. This garden bed dug out of the lawn took almost a full day to dig. It was like digging refrigerated butter. Hopefully the three Just Joey rose bushes planted here, along with some Bearded Iris, peonies, geraniums and dianthus will thrive and reward us for our hard work.

New garden beds aren’t all hard work though. Years of pruning neglect inflicted on the hedges and trees around the garden have resulted in mounds of hidden leaf litter underneath. Now the pruning has been done the result is lovely friable, easy to dig soil underneath. Whilst the garden beds are yet to be defined properly, I’ve started planing in them anyway. A bit of pea straw to mulch and a bit of lawn edging will define the beds when we get around to it. I’m hoping the recent plantings of Oyster Plants, Peonies, Hostas, Lambs Ears and Foxgloves will soon be providing a spectacular show.

Despite all the hard work though, apart from the bathroom, nothing else looks very different yet. Most of the work done has been groundwork, both inside and outside the house. Give it all another 4 – 8 weeks though and I think our hard work will be showing. The kitchen will be in, the laminate flooring to the living area will have been laid, and the gardens should be well on the way to flourishing.

Tasmania is experiencing an unusual cold snap. Snow is a normal winter occurrence in parts of tasmania during the winter months, and certainly the Western Tiers surrounding the Meander Valley and Deloraine gets a good picturesque covering on their tops. Its not common though for snow to come down as far as the township.

However yesterday Deloraine, along with the majority of Tasmania was treated to some really good snow falls.

I had a dental appointment mid morning. The dentists surgery is in with the general medical centre in town, so there were quite a few patients in the waiting room. What an air of excitement in the room. Doctors were lined up in the shelter of the front porch with cameras in hand. Patients were gathered behind the window looking out to the tiers excitedly watching the snow falling outside.

The dentist commented to me that, “snow makes people smile”, and indeed, he was right. Strangers all talking to each other with smiles from ear to ear.

Paul saw a man skiing downhill across his paddock, and children (and some adults) have built snowmen in their gardens.

Today, although freezing, it’s not snowing, and the expected hail and storms haven’t as yet arrived. Hopefully they won’t materialise. we still have a small amount of snow on the ground in our back garden, but most has melted away – just slush now. Im looking forward to going for a drive later to view and photograph the tiers. I’m sure they’ll be special at the moment.

As promised, a photo of the curtains in one of our spare rooms. The other spare room has the same, and as soon as our new windows have been fitted in the main bedroom, we have the same curtains for in there as well. The curtains for the lounge are different, but they won’t be hung until after the room has been painted and the new windows fitted.