Progress

The scaffolding came down today so you can see the latest progress pics.

The interior is still being painted hence the overspray on the windows (which are protected!). There is still some exterior touching up that needs to be done but you get the general idea of how the outside will look. We are very happy with it.

This is our bedroom window

This shows our bedroom on the right, the front door in the middle and my room on the left. 

We have decided not to have a path/steps up to the front door but will access it from the driveway which is off to the left. I plan to have a bench outside our bedroom window to sit and enjoy the evening sun in winter and a tree where the green stuff is. We will have rocks on the sloping bit and I want to get some hydrangeas in there somewhere. I am still not convinced that I have chosen the right colour for the front door but will need to see everything finished before I change anything. It will have a security door in front of it which I think will make it work.

We are very lucky to have lovely next door neighbours. They keep to themselves but always have a wave and a chat if we are outside. I will miss them when we move but we have some lovely neighbours in the hew house (bar one, of course!) 

Mrs Nextdoor gave me some glorious home grown tomatoes not long after we moved in and the other day she rang the doorbell with some soap and a cat bed. They don't have pets but a friend of hers was getting rid of stuff and she knew we had cats so she took this for us. Minnie loves it - her pissed off face is because a) she is a cat b) I was taking her photo and c) she is a cat.

Coffee group was lovely. There were only four of us but we laughed and sorted out the problems of the world. I bought a couple of vanilla slices for dessert. I have been eyeing them off for weeks and today I succumbed. 

Himself has been building me a desk for the new house. It has been frustrating because his tools are packed and hard to find (see previous post) but he said how much pleasure it is giving him.

This has made me think that maybe I need to drag out my small RHL and warp it up for something. Anything. My knitting and crocheting don't seem to be doing it for me right now. 

The dogs are going to the vet next Monday so that has been ticked off the list. 

Quiche again tonight (one does us two meals) and vanilla slice for afters. 

Life could be worse!

ccccccold

We heard back from the specialist that Himself needs to see. They can't bring the appointment forward so it will be mid-June. He will stay with the Mermaid and she will drop him off and pick him up. The hospital is not far from her so it makes sense.

I have checked the diary and there may be an overlap with my surgery and his procedure. The cats will be OK on their own for a couple of nights but the dogs will need to go into kennels so I had better make an appointment at the vet for their vaccinations. It is also around the time the house will be finished and the landscaping and fencing going in. Hey ho. It's feast or famine.

Himself went to the Shed this morning to cut some timber for a desk he is making. Unfortunately their equipment is not in the best of nick but as the new boy he cannot really say anything that could be construed as criticism. The Shedders are very proud of their wordworking prowess. We will, therefore, be going into Bairnsdale to buy a saw. He can have it as our anniversary present which is in a couple of weeks. I will need to think of projects for him to make to justify it (in his mind). It's funny that I can make something because I want to see how something will turn out or because it's something I've wanted to try. He needs to have a practical reason to make something.

My washing machine is singing. I had better go and hang it all out before the cold change comes through. At least it's windy.

Later ... 

This is what is heading towards us.The speckled bits are cold, Antarctic air and it goes from left to right. We are roughly above the 4 in the 2024 time stamp. 

We didn't buy a new saw as Himself found one in his boxes of tools but he did have to go to Bairnsdale to get screws and glue and stuff. It's a Bunnings thing!

Quiche and coleslaw for dinner. It will be a cold day in hell before I eat certain foods again. As Himself said this morning, it's getting harder as the end of the build gets closer. 

I am struggling but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. So much going on and I could talk about it but not right now. 

Coffee Group tomorrow. Such a great bunch of women.

This and that

I will try writing bits and pieces through the day and then hitting publish at the end. We shall see if that makes things easier.

HImself has taken the dogs up to the block for their walk. I wonder if he will run into CW. When I had another look at the messages she sent yesterday it was as if we had come in at the middle of a conversation. She must talk a lot in her head. It can't be fun in there.

Later ... well CW did her thing of following Himself around when he was walking the dogs. I guess she is back into defending her property from us. Apparently we have copied her interior as well as her exterior. As I have no idea what her interior is like (and couldn't care less) I wonder if she has been peering into our windows!

The aunt rang. She was feeling very lonely and miserable. Tomorrow is her 55th wedding anniversary but her husband died 27 years ago and she still misses him terribly. She was also worried she might be getting dementia because she forgets things. I told her I forget things at 67 so at 92 she's not doing too badly. I made her laugh a bit and she went off to make herself a tuna sandwich for lunch at my suggestion. I wish she was closer but it is too far and too expensive to just pop up to see her. It would take two days of travel to get there from here.

While I was on the phone Himself took himself off to the Shed. He has been gone nearly 3 hours. I will take this as a good thing.

When I last stayed with One he introduced me to Broadcastify. If I get an alert on the vicemergency app or hear the siren go for the local volunteer firebrigade I listen in to the local area and can hear what's going on. Quite interesting and, I would imagine, quite valuable if something serious was happening. 

My parents lost everything in the Ash Wednesday bush fires in 1983. They were lucky they didn't lose their lives. Mum had gone outside to put something in the car and heard a call to evacuate from the end of the street. The whole thing was poorly managed and nobody seemed to be prepared or know what to do. We learned a lot from that but, sadly, not enough to prevent the shocking loss of life and property in the Black Saturday fires in 2009. Finally, with technology, we are getting more warnings and there is the ability to target people and areas more specifically. We live in a bush fire prone country and there is always the threat and worry of another big one (like 2019 which burned for weeks). More and more people are moving to country areas (like us) and newcomers need to have a fire managment plan. Also the greenies need to pull their heads in and stop hindering the various efforts to reduce the fuel load in fire prone areas. Very few seem to live in the areas and aren't well thought of but they do have the power of keyboard warriors from the safe inner suburban dwellings.

I have spent way to much time faffing around on the computer so will go and make a cup of tea and do something a bit more productive.

Later still ... Himself had a lovely time at the Shed. I wasted an afternoon. I was going to fiddle around with knitting but couldn't find the mojo. We went to the shops then up to the block. The site supervisor rang to say there was a hitch with the bathroom cabinets. The installer wasn't happy with the quality and wouldn't put them in. Can't complain about that. We are still ahead of schedule and the painting is steaming ahead.

I looked at a youtube on how to power up the new phone. I don't want to transfer data from one phone to the other. I want to treat it as a virgin phone so will have to transfer my contacts across one by one. A good opportunity to cull. 

So how did the wittering through the day go? Not sure that it made me any more erudite but at least it got fingers to keyboard and brain cells sputtering into life.

Butter chicken from a packet for dinner. Nothing like the curry I had last Friday but I fancied rice and spice.

Blah.

Yes, I have been MIA again and I apologise.

I need to work on my time management and maybe write here in the mornings.

Apart from that, though, nothing much is happening Chez Merlot worth writing about and I seem to have lost the ability to waffle creatively. 

I firmly believe that living in this house has a lot to do with the general sense of malaise that seems to affect both of us. I wouldn't be surprised if there is mould or some other nasty hiding in the woodwork. Add the constant pain from my hip (and then knees and back etc) into the mix and I am not a happy or pleasant person to be around right now.

The Man Flu lasted about 5 days and then, of course, Himself came down with it. It was a virus that hit hard and heavy and then disappeared leaving a nagging cough. 

I was able to catch up with Other Brother and Fave Sis in Law in spite of the lurgy. Fortunately we live in such a lovely part of the world that they were able to enjoy their time here without my constant presence.

Sally came to stay last week. I collected her from Stratford which is about an hour from here. Three et al had been camping at Dargo with Amy's family and friends and Stratford was the most logical pick up point. Unfortunately it was Easter Monday and the traffic heading back to Melbourne was horrendous. I managed to get completely lost in the back of Bairnsdale trying to take a detour but did discover some lovely countryside! 

I returned the child on Friday and whilst in the big smoke bought myself a new phone. I found a deal where I was able to get the 512GB version for less than the 128GB normally retails. It is still in the box as I need to learn how to drive it! Actually it isn't a phone that takes photos, it's a camera that I can make calls with - and a hand held computer. We need to stop calling these devices phones. 

We are going to change our service provider as the one we are with currently (and have been since mobile phones became a thing) has shocking coverage in the sticks and their customer service has gone to the dogs. We just need to decide which devil to go with. Optus or Telstra. That is a job for Himself. He is the seeker and negotiator of deals in this house (ie he talks to people and I don't).

On the new build front things are coming along really well. The exterior is nearly finished and I am so pleased with how it is looking. Once the scaffolding is down I will show you. The interior is also zooming along. We think we have chosen the landscaper and all things going well we should be in by some time in July. 

The Crazy Woman went quiet until today. We had stopped to chat with her immediate neighbour (Bee) as you do. As we were getting back in the car she drove around the corner, saw us and stopped and glared. Had she been a minute earlier she would have seen us chatting to Bee. Within half an hour Himself got a text from her telling us to stop snooping around her house. I replied and told her we were talking with Bee, couldn't care less about her house, were fed up with her behaviour, to mind her own fucking business and keep her nose out of ours. I was a tad pissed off. She has since sent a couple of other messages which we are ignoring.

My craft has been limited to some basic knitting. A crochet project ended up in the bin. The local yarn store has closed down but I did buy some lovely stuff for future projects. I just need a happy place in which I can create.

So. You can see why I haven't been updating or even commenting on my blogging mates. I am a bit of a misery guts and have been hibernating. Time to put on my big girl pants, pull up my socks and get over myself. Feel free to suggest other metaphors!

Sniffle cough bleh

I woke up today with a cold. I didn't go to history as we are in a confined space and I don't want to share my germs. 

I'll see how I am in the morning to decide whether to go to U3A. At least those classes are in a large room.

Other Brother and Fave Sis in law are coming for a visit. They will get here around 5.30 tomorrow evening. We will go out for dinner and then decide what to do on Wednesday.

I love sitting on the deck in the early evening with a G & T and my book. The animals join me. 

I saw my GP on Friday and have an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon in 6 weeks. Hopefully I will get a new hip soon after and can get back to enjoying life. This constant pain is ... well ... a pain!

And on that note I shall go and wallow in self pity. I have man flu!! 

Touching base

Not much has been happening. The house continues to develop. Our site manager is in constant contact with updates. 

I ended up buying all the stuff we need from the local business in Lakes. We got some really good prices and our neighbour got some good sales. I took some photos in the showroom but I'll wait until we are in our house before I show you. 

U3A this week was lovely as always. I have a chosen a good mix of things to stimulate brain, body and conversation. Today was coffee group and we had a lunch to celebrate a couple of birthdays. Again ... great company and lots of laughs.

Tomorrow I drive the two hours into Traralgon to donate plasma. This time I will take pain killers and my walking stick in case my hip (+/- back) plays up with the long drive.

This morning we had a routine rental inspection. We passed muster and pointed out some ongoing issues to the property manager. We will give as much notice as we can when we break the lease and hopefully they will find someone to take over asap or we will be up for whatever rent is due until the end of the lease which, at $2,000 a month could be some big biccies.

After a warm day yesterday we had a cold rainy change overnight but the sun has come out and I fancy a sit on the balcony with a gin and tonic and my book.

I will leave you with some snaps I pinched from Amy's FB page of the family when they were down.

Alice throwing sand ...

Sisters ...

Three being an idiot ... (but this mum was so happy to see it!)

Well, hello

I certainly didn't plan to be absent for so long but ended up taking a long break from all things blogging including reading them. I missed you all but was spending a huge amount of time reading, commenting and thinking about what to write and felt I could probably spend that time being more "present in the moment" as Sally keeps telling Three when he spends too much time on his phone. It wasn't just my blogging life - I also made an effort to cut down on my general internet presence (blogging and all things related being the biggest proportiion).

Over the past week I have dipped my toe in the waters and started reading some much loved and missed blogs and today I made a couple of comments. If I haven't got around to yours I will soon, I promise.

So what has been happening chez Merlot?

The build is going along really well. We were able to have a walk through today. The plaster is up on all the walls so we really get a feel for how the rooms will feel. The brickies did a fabulous job and the exterior walls look great. The waterproofing is being done and the tiles will go in soon. The kitchen should be installed in a couple of weeks.

If all continues according to plan we should have handover by the end of May. Which is nearly three months earlier than we expected. 

We met a landscaper on Wednesday and were very impressed with him. Instead of going for retaining walls (expensive and more structured than I wanted but I didn't know what other options there were) we are looking at creating a large rockery where we can plant herbs and colourful, sweet smelling plants in between the rocks. We are still waiting on the quote which will, no doubt, be a big *gulp* moment! But as I said to Himself, we don't move into a house without the walls being painted and I want the garden to be finished as well.

After some gentle nagging prodding, I finally got Himself to agree that we should start looking at furniture and fridges and stuff as you can't just waltz into a shop and say "want that one" (if you know the reference, you know!) and have it delivered. Today we ordered a fridge, a bed and bedside tables and are waiting for availability on a couple of dining tables. We are going with the local furniture shop and made sure we ordered from the kid young man who is our neighbour. He gets the commission and we got a really good price. Win win. 

I have chosen the couches and chairs I want - I just have to work out what configuration. 

I realise this sounds rather spendthrift but we aren't replacing everything and what we are will be donated.

I finally saw a doctor about my hip and his diagnosis was "a very bad arthritic hip". As in let's get some bloods done because you will probably need surgery. I have had xrays done and will see him next week for the results and a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon. 

CW is still causing issues but not just with us! She has a name for herself around town and it's not one anyone would really want.

Three and his lot were down over the past weekend which was a long one in Victoria. It was really hot but better here than in Melbourne. The kids played in the water and we took them all out on a boat for an hour. You don't need a boating licence and it was a great adventure.

This is what the boat looked like (not my photo).

Sally loved being able to drag her hand in the water

Life continues on. Some days are better than others. Some days are bloody brilliant.

I think it is safe to say the honeymoon period of moving to a new place is over but it is still the best decision we made.

Thanks to all who commented saying I was missed.

I guess I'm back!!