Yuc yuc yuc

Back in the '80s and '90s there was a bit of a drought and yuccas were a popular plant in many new estates. They were probably great in pots. Funky even.

But people planted them in gardens. And those fuccas grow. And grow big.

And their leaves are really spikey and could poke an eye out or puncture a lung without warning. But they do have rather lovely flowers. Unfortunately they only flower once a year and they don't last long but whilst they do ....

They look as if they should have a delicious scent and maybe they do but I am not risking an eye or a lung trying to climb up to smell them.

The latest development in the Lakes move is to considering building rather than buying an established property. This is something Himself has wanted to do for a long time. We have built twice and bought off the plan once which gave us some input. I thought it would be hard to get a builder who would go that far out of Melbourne (it's a tad over 300kms and just shy of 200 miles) and we couldn't afford an architect/builder. It turns out that some volume builders (including Simonds who we have used before) do build in Lakes. 

So this afternoon we went looking at display homes. 

This is always an interesting exercise to see what the current trends are. It seems at the moment random rooms for sitting in are popular. Not the main living area or even the ubiquitous theatre room (seriously?) but just a random space with a couch and maybe a television. Lots of televisions in the display homes. 

Open pantries because I want everyone to be able to see my disorganised storage and half opened packets of stuff. Not, I hesitate to remark, a butlers pantry. They had them, too. A couple were done well, but hells bells people. We are talking small suburban homes, not grand mansions that actually have a butler. I don't need two sinks within cooee of each other. And I don't want to have to cart my dishes into a separate room to put them in the dishwasher. Under the bench is fine.

I rather hope we do go down this path as it is fun. And we would have the money to make it just the way we want. The problem will be finding land although it doesn't seem to move as fast down there as it does here. Here, we could buy a block of land that MIGHT be ready to start building at the end of 2025 if we are lucky. I kid you not. That is how the developers make their money. Sell the land and THEN develop it. The other issue will be working out the finances to buy the land, sell this place and rent while the house is being built. Nothing is impossible.

And we could just as well stay here.

The Mermaid is thinking like we are. Here one minute, there the next. She is going down for 5 days on 15th March and has booked some activities. She wants to see what it's like living there as a single person and see if she could see herself doing it.

On the way to the display homes we saw this ...

I have no idea either. Australia does love its big things but this is ridiculous!