Categories: house-building, family, life-in-general, beautiful-husband, jd-the-amazing-blue-heeler, christmas
Date: 11 December 2009 09:51:50
I love 'em ... so here's ours :)
Well, where to start!
(I didn't include pictures for wibbler's 'cause you've seen them !)
It's been a huge year, which has gone enormously quickly but also incredibly slowly. Building a house is enormously full on, especially when you both work full time and are contributing to the building - not just sitting back and watching the builder do it! Not to mention the poor puppy, JD the blue heeler, who needs to be walked morning and night, regardless of whether it's dark and cold and raining (which seems to have been a great deal of the time this year in Tasmania - apparently we've had the wettest winter since 1974!). It rained solidly for about 12 weeks - I didn't use the clothesline for over 4 months! … blessedly we were working on the inside of the house at that point though it has been VERY sloppy and uncomfortable generally.
For those who are unaware, Mr Tasmania has owned a block of land for many years and this was our year to build our house on it. The land (now house) is about halfway between where we've been living for three years and my workplace. Mr Tasmania works half an hour inland from … so there has been a LOT of driving this year, many many many early mornings and late nights and random meal times, a lot of things have fallen by the wayside, hopefully to be picked up in 2010!
We had my mum and dad and my brothers and their families all down here in late January to celebrate mum's 60th birthday at Jolly Rogers Restaurant at Boat Harbour. They were all able to stay in various places near us which was fabulous even though the weather was interesting! Luckily they are all Highlands kids so well used to random weather over summer!
We've managed to fit in only 1 trip to Hobart this year, though we've seen Mr Tasmania's niece and great-nephew's twice up here on the North West Coast, which has been great. We thoroughly enjoyed staying with friends in Hobart, and Mr Tasmania has recovered from the nervous breakdown he thought he was having whilst watching me order all the lights for the house in one go at Beacon Lighting [I enjoyed myself immensely!]). Also fun was the tapas and red wine for dinner! Oh, and a tour of Salamanca Markets is always a must!
We also managed to make it to Launceston for a one night trip - the bathtub at the Sebel was a hit! Whilst he visited chromers and car places and the like I pootled about shopping - getting my department store hit at Myer and wandering about the Body Shop and various book and shoe shops … being remarkably restrained on the spending too :)
We have been essentially hermits this year in terms of seeing people however lots of people have been very kind and shown great interest in the house and, as they've definitely known where to find us, have visited us often on weekends whilst we've been working away.
We started moving in shortly after my birthday in October, which is a little later than we'd wished but not too bad considering the rain and a few other little delays. After a whirlwind trip back to the Southern Highlands over the last weekend of October for early family Christmas (mine), a belated birthday celebration, and a quick catch up with friends in Sydney, we spent our first official night in the house on Monday 2 November 2009 - hooray! Of course, that was spent on a mattress on the floor … the bed base was still in the shed - but we were in!
And things continue … we've put my lovely wooden bed base together so we are now on a 'real' bed … there are only (as at 11/12/09) 6 doors and one French door that need their architraves painted … we have had couches delivered so there is somewhere other than the dining chairs or the floor to sit! …. the apron at the front of the house has been concreted so the Starlet has been parked in the garage all this week (first time in a garage since my grandpa gave it to me in 2004!) … plants are going in (trailing plants at the top of our 'cliff') … gravel is being carted around … blue metal is being flung around … endless dusting still continues (plaster dust is very stubborn!) … Mr Tasmania has almost finished building the beautiful walk in wardrobe …. crates are being gradually emptied and their contents filtering into the house … and the list of jobs still to do seems to increase not diminish :)
We won't have a deck for quite some time but that's okay we are certainly satisfied with what we have now!
But we're in our house and we (and the dog) are loving it! We've had our first house guest (one of my Sydney flatmates) and she loved the BATH … oh, and the house :) … and we're looking forward to having Mr Tasmania's family for Christmas (and won't we all love our air conditioning if it's a stinking hot day!) and welcoming my parents for a fortnight shortly after Christmas … and hopefully many more visitors through the coming year.
Wishing you a very blessed Christmas and a wonderful 2010!!!! Love and hugs
Mr and Mrs Tasmania, JD the blue heeler, the turbo chooks (native hens), 'our' two hawks, the wallaby family, and the big black bunny who lives down the bottom of the hill!