The end is in sight . . .

Well, not actually in sight, that might be a bit optimistic as it is going to take years til we finish. However, we did receive our Certificate of Occupancy on the 14th of August which was a big milestone for us.

That means only one more inspection and we can  have our final certificate for the house, but of course we have to finish the two glass bottle walls and the stone wall before that can happen, my best guess is about June 2015 for that to happen.

My last post was in July, that’s five months ago, so a lot has happened since then. We have been steadily working on the house and garden, both of us working two days a week, and all the usual social goings on and even fitted in some travel.

We tried our hand at panning recently and went to the Weld River at Moorina and also to Gladstone. We can’t tell you exactly where as we don’t want a lot of freeloaders turning up and jumping our claim. We had a picnic with friends at the Blue Lake which was spectacular on a fine clear day.

We recently celebrated our 9^th anniversary by totally forgetting about it until the day after. That’s what happens when you get busy!! Still another milestone and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather share my life with. I must put it in the diary and try again next year, 7th December 2015 will be ten years.

Back in August we travelled up the eastern seaboard to visit the grandkids, and the kids too. We celebrated Jenny’s birthday with a family get together at Ellen and Jordan’s place in Newcastle, Phil came down and we had a great time seeing Levi (and his little brother Caleb arrived just after we left).

Then on to Townsville so see Alida and Gavin, we took William and Madi to school every day and were honoured to take part in a Father’s Day BBQ. Belgian Gardens School is excellent and they even provided vegan sausages for us at the BBQ. We did quite a bit of sightseeing and particularly enjoyed Queen’s Garden with all the tropical flowers and greenery.

Back on the home front Bryon has tiled the bathroom and it is great to have a nice hot shower at home instead of heading down to the recreation ground. You cannot imagine the luxury compared to last year.

The mosaic mirror deserves special mention as it took a long time and a lot of patience on Bryon’s part to finish it. The small tiles are the smallest glass tiles in the world according to the supplier, and I reckon they are correct, Bryon was there night after night sticking them on.

Most of the walls are painted and we have started doing a few things to make the place feel like home. There is too much stuff and we will have to do a garage sale. Coming from a large house to a 97sqm house means we have way too much furniture and also way too many paintings with no wall space to hang them on. The house is already pretty full and we still have half a container and shed full.

The vegan lifestyle is going well and Bryon has many recipes that he has made up so I will have to do a cookbook soon. It was noted recently that he is a good cook, and I am a good eater, so it’s a match made in heaven.  He borrowed a bread making book from a neighbour recently and has been experimenting in that area too. Everyone that comes for a meal goes home with a recipe or two. When I went for my latest blood test results the doctor said anyone would be glad to have my blood, high iron and B12, so much for needing to eat meat to be healthy. A friend of mine recently said she loved animals and couldn’t stand any cruelty, then passed the roast lamb around. Of course she was talking about dogs and cats, not cows and sheep.

Springtime has been a nice time, I won’t rattle on about it, just look at some of the photos.

We had the pond liner delivered recently so that will be the next big project. We will have two ponds, one for the Japanese Water Iris and one for a fountain. There will be a bridge between the two that leads to the front door.

Our work at St Helen’s Neighbourhood House is going well. We enjoy the social side and it is a great place to work. We will be continuing there in 2015 but are having a few weeks off over Christmas. I am on the board and also see clients for counselling two days a week. Bryon mainly works in front of house.

Bryon finished the architrave and skirting boards recently and wanted to do something different for the corner treatments so he came up with the blocks you see here with Chinese Feng Shui coins with glass tiles, and some with glass beads. It looks good and it is nice to have something a little different.

We are going to Launceston less than once a month now which is good. This is mainly because we no longer have to keep picking up building supplies. I have to go down for professional supervision every six weeks so we make the most of the trip, and also try to catch up with friends while we are there.

We shop locally as much as possible and had a local sawmill cut planks for our compost bins which will soon be in full production. We have so many plans for our holidays we will need 10 weeks off!!!!

We had to get our waste water approvals so we could apply for our Occupancy Certificate. That was a bit of fun, I won’t bore you with the details but as you can imagine there was a bit of red tape to cut through. I thought I was almost there when I lodged Form 33 and the as installed draftsman drawings, but was then handed Form 54 and Form 56. The fact that there are even 56 forms say it all. And we wonder why the economy is bogged down and development stagnant, who would even bother trying to do anything within the environment our legislators have created for us.

The solar power is ticking along well, the batteries fully charged by mid morning on these long days. The LED use so little power you can have as many on as you need without worrying about it. The wiring is all finished so there are power points everywhere and the house is lit internally by 28 4w globes (usually have six at most on at once to light the room we are using for reading or craft, sometimes only one 4w if watching a movie. The outside is lit by seven 9w LED globes and if they are all on it lights the whole home paddock up and that’s only 63w. And the best part is being off grid so no energy bills and the system will pay for itself in well under eight years.

The hot water had to be drained so the plumber cold try and fix a few things and we discovered that it holds 540lts of hot water. So far we are finding that we need to light a fire three times a week for an evening and it is enough to keep it hot. The passive solar design of the house is keeping a pretty even temperature, and we have lots of fly-wired windows and doors for ventilation as required, and are installing more blinds as even with the eaves we are finding there is a bit too much sun (especially for artworks).

Here are a few more shots of what’s happening around the garden . . .

We finished 10 weeks of Italian lessons and enjoyed every minute. So we can now say hello, goodbye and swear in Italian. That would have been handy to have done before we went to Italy but “nessun problema”.

The gravity feed water system works well but as we are on top of a ridge we have to pump up once every three weeks. We will soon be using excess solar power for this job as there is so much going to waste. We will be having some more work done in the new year as we have a few problems with the plumbing. It is important to make sure your plumber is familiar with low pressure gravity fed combustion systems as there are a few quirks to watch out for.  Our water storage was looking a bit sick after a dry winter but late spring rains have ensured that we have a years supply of water for the house and quite a bit stored for the garden. A couple more inches of rain and we will have 75,000 litres in storage and once the dam is in our worries will be over in that regard.

The front and back verandahs are finished and that has really made the living space more versatile and we have a nice sunny spot out the front and a shady one out the back, plus shelter from rain if we want to sit out when it’s wet.

The possum proof fencing is almost there, the home paddock is surrounded by a sturdy fence with wire netting that has a skirt dug into the ground at the bottom and will soon have a floppy top attached, I have clipped 3,500 wire cleats by hand over the past two weeks so will finish the job when the blisters have healed!! Then no wallabies, kangaroos or possums will be able to get in, and vulnerable fruits will be in the netted enclosures. Once the main fence is finished we can start planting out the 200+pots that are waiting. We bought a ute load of plants at the Poyntons Nursery closing down sale which means there is even more to be put in now but have some really great unusual plants and many beautiful ornamental shrubs and trees.

So it looks like we are in for a busy summer and have a trip to the Melbourne International Flower Show at the end of it all.  Then it’s back to the grandkids in June when things are a bit cooler.  We had a great Christmas Party on Saturday night for work and then spent a lovely day in Hobart at a BBQ with dear friends, despite this Christmas just doesn’t seem as busy in the country. So now we are looking forward to Christmas with family and friends and hopefully seeing an end to a few more projects (so we can start 10 more!!).

Love to everyone for Christmas and the New Year.