Whew, things are happening Friday 4 February - Thursday 17 February 2022

Justin and I drove up separately on Friday afternoon, me in the ute as the advance guard, and Justin in the passat.

Looked around at Vic's plastering work, and we were pretty pleased (except for the broken light shade)

Saturday morning and it was all go once we'd had our traditional breakfast in bed - then we had to prepare for our pre gondoliers venetian drinks and nibbles. I  made watermelon bites with whipped fetta, and cucumber cups with lemon tuna, while Justin draped prosciutto around pieces of  cantaloupe.  And of course we had to refrigerate the dozen bottles of prosecco

Next, we had to change - me into a Gondoliers outfit - striped t shirt, black pants,  straw hat, and Justin in a formal outfit - channelling the duke of Plaza Toro.

Mark from RA came around 12 to set up - and our guests started arriving around 1

The normal crew - ie Terry, Damo & Nicole, Arlene & David, Maile & David, and also had Nin & Clare, Carolyn & Tim, and Rachel

Was a lot of fun 

Mark filmed us making merry, eating drinking, chatting etc 

And a local reporter from the Loddon Herald also dropped in and took a photo of me and Rachel hamming it up.  Unfortunately my black stick on moustache kept falling off when I smiled - so I'm clean shaven in the photo

Trooped over to the Town Hall around 2.20, and most of us found seats at the front

And the show was gorgeous - colour, action, music - was a lot of fun

Rachel and I hammed it up a bit more after the show also

And then back to ours for more prosecco and nibbles, and later some takeway pizza from the pub.  The pub had unfortunately forgotten our order, and in fact denied ever taking the order, until Justin showed the receipt on his mobile phone.  So we had to wait another 1/2 hour for them to be made - not very good service -  but at least we had our nibbles, so weren't starving 

I also managed to get a few shots of the commodore next to his official ute

Sunday, and a slow-ish start 

After breakfast, Clare and I sampled some peaches from the small peach tree (which was sold to me as a nectarine).  They were delicious - juicy and sun warmed.  Unfortunately a few days later the remaining peaches turned to mush with fruit fly, as April and I picked some and they were ruined.

Justin, Nin & Clare left on Sunday afternoon, and I remained as Alex and April were coming up later in the week, and I also wanted to get some things done. 

Vic returned with John on Monday - and they're doing a terrific job.  I guess that's the difference between enthusiastic amateurs such as Justin and myself, and professionals like Vic.  Vic has chased out all the cracks, and filled them with mortar, and ripped off the blown plaster to the brick and mortared there too. 

They hired a scaffold from Bendigo, at first I wondered why they didn't use our one, but this one is higher and larger - so more practical

While they were doing this, I was doing admin work on my laptop in the dining room.  I also had a video job interview on Monday, and a follow-up one on Wednesday.

During the Monday interview they commented on my background - thinking it was fake - with the wallpaper and lamp etc (which I thought most amusing)

And, I was offered the job - yay - starting on 28 February - which means that I won't be able to come up here during the week anymore - just weekends and public holidays. But, we 'll have more money to pay for all these renovations.....as we hadn't budgetted for Vic - I guess I thought I would do it (no where near as good though)

Also had a Town hall meeting on Monday evening - and then Pauline came back here afterwards and I showed her what we'd done, and gave her a drink.

I did go outside a few times - and saw a magpie on the wood pile with a mouse in its beak

    

More plastering - in fact they were there every week day (apart from Friday).  They arrived at 7am, and left at 3pm - very punctual.  I set my alarm for 6.30, so that i could be showered and dressed and having breakfast by the time they arrived

I drove into Bendigo one day to get $700 worth of cornice cement, top coat, plaster etc - was about 300kg worth.  Good thing I had the ute! 

On Thursday Terry very kindly came over the show me how to fix /re-cord a sash window.  I took copious notes and lots of photos, so hopefully will be able to do one by myself next time.

We did one in the kitchen with a broken sash cord - and of course it took longer than anticipated as there were some broken components that Terry took back with him and fixed.  

It was also incredibly dusty/dirty, decades worth of dust/dirt

So we worked on it for hours and afterwards I took down the curtain rod holders from both windows - which pleased me.  Actually there were a couple that I couldn't remove  (Justin did so a few days later) 

Denise had also told me that she'd saved a copy of the Loddon news for me - as Chris the reporter had said that Rachel and I would be on the front page - and we were

I went up to the IGA to grab a few copies (yes I know I showed this photo before)

Meanwhile, on Thursday - the bee room looked like this - they're starting to do the skim coats now 

Maile had invited me to dinner at the Empire (he regular Thursday night affair) - so I went along.

Was very surprised to see lobster mornay on the specials menu - and because I'd just been offered  a job yesterday - I thought I'd treat myself

Was marvellous  - also came with 4 x oysters kilpatrick, salt and pepper squid, and of course the ubiquitous hot chips

  

Terry returned on Friday morning with the repaired window pieces, and put the window back together

 

Alex and April arrived around lunch time - and were impressed by all the progress

Justin came back early Friday evening  and we had drinks out the back veranda.  It was great to be able to open that window for the first time ever, and pass food drinks, plates etc through there

- and we watched a movie in the dining room after dinner -court room drama, I was falling asleep, so went to bed, wasn't that interested in it to be honest.  

Saturday, and we went to the Bridgewater pub for lunch - sat outside in the beer garden.  Was very pleasant - looking out onto the green grass and the river beyond

On Sunday, Justin thought he'd paint our "new" kitchen window - just an undercoat, but it looks so much better!  Just getting rid of those stupid knotted lace curtains made a difference, and now that its painted it looks great!

Justin had also made a few purchases from Joels while I was in Inglewood - a couple of oversized toucans

And some more Kokeshi dolls - Alex had thought that they were multiplying!  (I didn't take any photos of them)

And I was lucky enough to receive a number of food and drink presents.

Firstly Terry brought me some delicious nectarines, and then Alex, April and I went and picked more another day.

Colleen brought me a dozen eggs - from her chooks

Vic brought me some of his home made salami, and 2 bottles of red that his mate had made

and Anne brought me a box of vegies and fruit - I felt very spoiled

Justin left Sunday afternoon, and I pulled out bindis, in fact the next day I pulled out more than 500!!.  I had hit ground zero, and was very pleased to get them out of the ground

I also weeded around the kiwi fruit plants - as that pesky "fluffy" weed was choking them - I assume because of the water

While I was doing this - Alex and April were reconditioning the smaller dining room pelmet.  Firstly brushing it down of all the decades worth of grit and dust, and gently washing/wiping the tin.

What we might have thought would take 10 minutes, took at least 1/2 a day, as they were very careful

And then into the next day too (Monday) - as we had to cut the replacement backing material (I'd bought it from Spotlight a while back), and then tack it on

Alex also had to put the existing board back onto top of the window frame  - as the pelmet was attached to that originally

 

And then he put the pelmet up

Looks great, can't wait to get the big one up, but we would really need 3 people 

Meanwhile, Vic was keeping busy - making 3 x metal forms - One for the cornice in the bee room, one for the skirting in the bee room , and the last for the skirting in the stairway

He basically drew the form over the cornice - to make it all neat and even - what a perfectionist! 

  And further plastering work continued

I also took April driving in the ute, as she hadn't had much practice, and the roads were relatively quiet  around here.

Alex and April left on Monday afternoon, and I decided to make a start with taking off the wallpaper in the hallway - and also saving some for posterity

Vic lent me the tool on the right -as it had a sharper edge than the regular scraper

It was very hot work, so I rewarded myself with a homemade gin and tonic

I should also mention that there was some "excitement" the night before (Sunday night) - when I was cooking the dinner - eggplant parmaigiana.

I had turned the grill on in prepapation to melt the cheese - but had the door closed (I checked with Karen, and she subsequently said that it should have been open)

Anyway, I was working away, and saw that smoke was starting to come out of the grill, and when i opened it there were flames!!! I closed the door again quickly, hoping that the fire would die out through lack of oxygen - no such luck.

I tried again another few times, but still flames.  I obviously turned the power off, and closed both the  kitchen door into the scullery, and the scullery door into the hallway to contain the smoke which was getting quite thick

Meanwhile April was in the dining room, and Alex was upstairs having a shower

As you can imagine, I wasn't wasting any time taking photos of the flames - for this blog

Luckily we had a small fire extinguisher in the scullery so I took that, read the instructions, pulled the pin, opened the griller door and depressed the lever and pointed

Flames out immediately, and a LOT of white dust everywhere

Emergency averted - but quite a lot of cleaning required - won't actually bother with the griller however - as we'll never use it again - our new stove (an Aga that I've treated myself to) should be coming soon.....

While here, I contacted Chris to see when he might come back to re assemble the dining room mantle piece

As it was, he could come on Wednesday, but wanted me to buy some more of the black spray paint epoxy and also some Sika - which basically glues cars together its that strong!

On the way to the IGA - I cam across some unseasonal mushrooms - which I

 thought was a bit strange for Summer

So Chris came on Wednesday, and our first job was to remove, even up and replace the hearth stone.  Much easier said that done, did it multiple times, and the hearthstone was getting heavier each time we moved it 

Chris had to ensure that it was level - and this took a lot of finessing

Once it was deemed level enough Chris made up some cement

Troweled it on

And yes it was level

then a quick wet sand to get the muck off the stone

And a final press down 

And then the actual upright bits

Will do the rest next time

Chris also suggested that we might put some simple frets? on the back veranda - seems like a good idea to me 

And of course Vic and John were busy working upstairs in the bee room

 

I also contacted my friend Nicole from CWA to ask if she was interested in putting together a wallpaper display for us - of the old wallpapers  that had been on the wall originally

These are some of the fragments that I have

Lastly, I'd planned to maybe take the jacobean lounge couch suite to the repairer to be recovered and French polished - but I'd run out of time, as I was also taking back the 2 x cedar drawers that I'd bought for Justin from the salvage yard in Castlemaine - as they were too small

So, I just went to Castlemaine - and then onto Melbourne