Pre Christmas 17 & 18 December 2011

It was a quasi dress rehearsal for Christmas - without the cooking and potential stress of course

Justin, Mad  & I went to the house this weekend (Fraser had too many things to do back in Melbourne, he's a social butterfly that boy)

The scaffolding is all gone now - and the roof looks great.  Not brand new, but well kept, and the finials are dark and straight now also

We arrived on Friday night (Mum was looking after Fraser) and had takeway from the bakery again.  Was quite warm, but nice and cool in the house.  Non eventful evening, hadn't brought any dvds so sat and chatted/read

Went for a long walk by myself in the morning - and bought some supplies from the IGA on the way back. Also went and bought some fruit from Diane's new fruit & beg shop -looks good, and ordered my turducken.  James had said it would only take 3-4 hours to cook - and we could check with a meat thermometer.

Read the newspaper for a bit, and then when we were ready to get to work decided to start on the bathroom - sugar soaping the walls/ cupboard, bath etc Had to particularly scrub the bath as it was quite filthy.  There was also a lot of reddish dust perhaps from Daniel pulling up the floor for the toilet and drilling through the walls/bricks for the pipes etc

just starting

staged shot!

Mad came and helped me too - after having slept for hours.  Ahh teenagers!

Gordon the roofer came by also - to show us what he'd done and he also got down the signed lead roofing cap - the original roofer signed it in 1882, and then someone else in 1901, and then again in 1991. We said that Gordon should sign it too.   Looks like its been painted over a few times so you have to look at it from a certain angle in order to see the writing.  We think that we'll strip the paint off in order to better see the writing - but then Karen said that the writing might have only been scratched into the paint, and that if we stripped it we might lose it - so we'll have to have a better think about it.  That said we plan to mount it in a 3d frame.

roofing cap

clsoe up of signatures on roofing cap

Original Gordon dropped by also - and commiserated on all of the mess in the garden, Justin's ruined path etc.  He'll tidy up for us and mow the grass again -as it's getting a bit high, and we certainly don't want any snakes lurking around.  He confirmed that the side tank was probably not empty as Justin surmised - as there was a stop cock up the top which we hadn't turned around.  Justin wants to empty this tank and then take it off the slightly leaning stand -a s he thinks it could be potentially dangerous

Got to the bottom of the other (back) tank mystery also - The roofer Gordon turned the tank tap on quite hard - and then we saw water bubbling up outside the kitchen window.  The plumbers must have disconnected the pipe to the back tap near the well, as that tap doesn't work anymore - and just left the pipe open - as it is emptying near where the new pipes have gone for the kitchen ie near where the water used to pour out of the kitchen sink at the back of the house.  So I've left a message with Daniel to come and fix it

A P & A came around  3pm, and Karen, Mark & Zoe a little bit later

So we downed tools soon afterwards

Karen had brought some pre dinner nibbles/antipasto and we had that with some wine up on the veranda - very relaxing. - and A & M went for a 10 km run down the road and back - given that we now have a usable shower

antipasto on the verandah

cold beer after a long run!

Bruce also dropped by again -asking if we wanted a Christmas tree- as he had a "spare".  With an offer too good to be true we gladly  accepted.  He initially said that he'd leave it by his back door - but  ended up walking it down to our place - which we all thought tremendously funny after a few wines. Took a few photos of this walking Christmas tree

Christmas tree's progress

onto the front path

receipt by Justin

Wandered down to the pub for dinner - and of course had a good night. Asked Enzo where we could get ice for Christmas day  (for drinks etc )   - and initially he said that he'd fill up a large esky with ice for us, and then said he had a spare fridge and freezer that he could drop around for us to borrow on Christmas Day! I was chuffed.

So - first night with a flush toilet, and I didn't even need to go during the night - what a waste!! But it's there if we need it!! Woke up during the night - too much quiet?  and took a while to get back to sleep again.


Bit rainy on Sunday

intrepid me off to get The Sunday Age

More weeding out the front - need to look our best... and didn't take too long.  Robert - head of the Lions club came and said hello.  Also more waterning -as as although it had been raining in some parts of the garden it was hardly wet

Meanwhile the girls decided to make and then sample some home amde icy poles - (maker a Christmas present from Karen)

home made icy poles (Christmas present from Karen)

More sweepinng inside - so much dust....

Justin was also getting domestic and decided to start polishing - first the old organ which was looking a bit sad and dusty, then the bookshelf and finally the stairs and banister - all looks great

some spit and polish?

Had a visit from Darren @ Bay Building as we wanted to move the soon to be rebuilt laundry from it's original spot to fristly by the back wall ,and then we decided that it would look good squared up a couple of metres away from the vegie bedsas per below.

And speaking of the vegie beds - the tomatoes that i'd planted a couple of weeks agao with Susan have crumbled into the dust, the potatoes are still there, and a couple of hardy brocoli? beetroots have also sprouted, but it's all lookign a little sad.  I  had also brought a couple fo herbs from home - lemon grass, &  oregano which I planted in there - we'll see how they go...

wheer we plan to put the laundry/wood shed (note not much happening in the vegie beds)

Wraps lunch and gingerbread cake

what a feast!

And more plastering work in one of the upstairs rooms

Alex has been skimming

Followng on from his polishing, J fixed up the wood burning stove, as there were a couple of little bits missing.  He used that stove cement that i had bought a while ago, and "glued" the missing piece in, and used a bendy piece of metal tas a base for the other missing bit.  Hopefully it will work, and I will be able to use it over Christmas!!

fixing the stove in time for Christmas

After the others had left, Mad decided to start playing the electronic piano, and then of course Justin wanted to also... They weren't so  much taking it in turn as demanding to play it while the other was still playign it.  Luckily it didn't end in tears.  I did also point out that theyorgan was available to play on the other side of the room - however maybe that's not as much fun - as it doesn't have all of accompanying sound effects etc

electronic Mozart

I wanted to wait around til, 5pm for the annual Inglewood Christmas party - to
make an appearance, go and chat to people etc

So we wandered acrossa and poked out heads in the hall as per below

inside the Town hall

Chatted to a few people - saw Robert the Lion Club president again manning the saugage sizzle - so introduced him to Justin & Mad. 

Also had a chat with Shareena, the bride, and with Don (who caretakes the hall and who had let us up there to take a photo of our house).  Don introduced us to his daughter Robin - who was visiting from Mackay - she said she had never been inside the hosue - and wondered if she could one day.  So I invited her then and there - no time like the present.  so we went back and I showed her around.  She also told us of a ghost story from her own house in Inglewood - dark shape in a top hat and tails, her brothers had seen it too.  MAd thought that was very intersting

Anyway, had to leave by 6pm or so - as Fraser was by this stage home alone and probably wondering when he was going to get dinner.  "Luckily" we didn't win the door/raffle prize,as Justin had thought that wouldn't be the done thing...If we had won we could have donated it back


view from the verandah



3 December 2011 Anniversary

I wanted to go up for a quick day trip to check the works before payment re the plumbing etc .

Susan came up with me for the ride - and of course we chatted the whole way there.

Wandered around the town first, and saw that there were a couple of new shops - a children's toy/book shop, and a small art/postcard shop etc which had some postcards and fridge magnets of the house - bought a couple.  Had a good chat with the lady who ran it.  Also saw that a new fruit and veg shop was opening in the next week

Went and had a chat with James the butcher after this - to enquire about a turkey for our Inglewood Christmas.  He told me about his success last year with a turducken (boned duck inside a boned chicken inside a boned turkey) - said it looked great with the 3 coloured meats when you cut it through - and also the taste is delicious!  So I'll probably get one of those.

picture form the internet

 He also showed us his modular bathroom - self contained bathroom unit - which you buy off the shelf and then plaster and paint over the outside to make it look like a proper room.  Could be good for our room over the garage.

image from the internet

On the way up, we saw his collection of mainly vintage motor bikes, including one like Steve McQueen's in the Great Escape, and a fancy Harley etc.  Susan was impressed as her grandfather had tinkered around with motor bikes and she had recognised some of the names

With all of this chatting, Susan wondered how we ever got any work done when we were up there

And speaking of work, once we got back to the house, I saw how much more work was required in the garden.  It was unfortunately still a mess - as there was a large pile of dirt, and large pile of gravel leftover over from the plumbing job.  Yes, Daniel had refilled the holes and trenches, but it must have been loose filled as opposed to packed as there was plenty left over.  I guess we'll use this leftover dirt to even out the ground in other places

However, on the plus side the toilet had been installed, and we now had running hot and cold town water which was rather exciting.




Daniel had also put in the laundry sink




and put in  a new shower head underneath the supersized old one.  I guess the old one wouldn't work properly - would use up too much water etc.  Or maybe the old pipes are so rusted that the water just wouldn't get through. It's also a bit sad, but I'm actually looking forward to sugar soaping the kitchen and bathroom walls when we go up next time -as it was just too hard previously without any running hot water



And the roof looked fantastic - Gordon had done a terrific job with the slate tiles, the straightened and newly panited finials, and the chimneys. I called him and said how pleased I was.  He's been wonderful, and wants to come up and show us exactly what he's done when we're up next.  Seems to be a real perfectionist.  He'll also show us the original roofer's capping ridge which was signed and should be interesting.




But, back to the garden, unfortunately nothing much was happening in the vegetable beds - most of those seeds that I had planted seem to have failed  - obviously no one has been watering them to give them a start, but there has been some rain...

The seed potatoes that I'd got from The Royal Melbourne Show have come up, and so have a couple of little shoots (interdeterminate at this stage). 




I also planted some tomato seedlings that I'd brought from home. Hopefully they'll survive.  Susan and I watered them in well, but it had become a quite warm and sunny day (had told Susan that the weather is always better after the Great Dividing Range) - and we were just in t shirts, and we certainly had sun hats on. We also did lots of further watering around the garden, fruit trees, lemon trees - looking rather healthy if I do say so. However the protea which I had quasi-saved a couple of weeks ago looked dead - quite decidedly brown, while when I had replanted it there was a skerrick of green left.



I saw that the new tap in the front had lots of small plants coming up around it  and they didn't look like weeds - but I couldn't figure out what they were - eventually  surmised that they were pumpkins! - as I'd scattered the seeds from Nin's Halloween pumpkin there - somewhat ironic that they're growing there and not in the vegie boxes.   Oh well, I can always transplant them



Susan and I also very much enjoyed the mulberries in the back garden - as some of them were ripe and delicious - sort of like a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry - except on a tree as opposed to a cane.  However you had to make sure that you ate the dark/black ones as these were lovely and sweet, the red ones were still tart and sour.



I also had a visit  from our first bride Shareena who came with a a lovely thank you gift hamper for us.  It had a bottle of Zibbibo, some biscuits, nuts chocolates etc

And so our lightening visit came to an end - we'd toured the town, chatted to quite a few people, had a sandwich on the verandah, a drink in the pub, did lots of watering, a bit of sweeping (quite a mess inside) and ended up at the viewing site up from the Botanic Gardens. I'd wanted to show Susan how encircled by bush Inglewood is