summer time

30.1.2012

BUILDING NEWS

Yet another Monday and we are all back at house construction. Richard rendered a wall in the small bedroom and Josh put the first covering of paint on the bare half of the kitchen ceiling. I had grouted the rest of the hall floor over the week end and Edd had made door frames but today we had to go off and collect the geo-fabric needed to cover the scoria when it goes on the roof.

This involved driving to Dandenong so we did all the other jobs on the way. We have collected almost all the lights needed for the outside of the building from various Bunning’s and brought tools to make doors and architraves. The next problem is to select wood for the doors and the vanity tops. I hope to have all that is needed here before the plumbers and electricians arrive to complete their work.

The weekend was very hot but with most doors closed the new house stayed rock steady at a temperature of 22 degrees. In contrast the donga hit 40 most evenings about teatime. I now wonder what will be our base line temperature in winter. Nothing is going to stop me living in there when winter arrives this year.

Josh has organised his twelve-volt emergency lighting system and has the wires out of their respective ceilings ready to light up. We tried it out in the storeroom and it was amazing how much light one of his tiny LED globes gave. Tom has still not returned with the cupboard doors but worse, we hear that the stone top people are un-contactable because they have taken a month off over Chinese New Year and do not start again until the February 6.

OTHER NEWS

We did get to the sea and it was glorious. Last Friday we milked the goats really early and had a whole day off. We even had enough time to visit Bob and Gil at Loch and see all the work they have done on their home and garden. The sea was great with some huge surf waves that knocked us off our feet several times. We got thoroughly salinated and sand blasted and felt much better afterwards.

Al and his three kids came over on Sunday and found a bucket full of blackberries to take home. We are now getting more tomatoes than we can eat and there are zucchinis and cucumbers to add to our diet. I have had to spend the evenings watering to keep plants alive and this has given me time to do some much needed weeding. The real delight is the peaches. Who can resist a ripe juicy peach straight off the tree? This is the first proper summer we have had since the fires and if you don’t mind the heat the living is easy.