A house sitter, a holiday and a stint in hospital

My house sitter Stephanie duly arrived just after the painting was finished and the furniture was in place.

After quickly showing her the ropes, I took myself off to Mackay for a bit of rest and recreation with my friends Waltraud and Brian and their pets.

If that's not R&R, I don't know what is.

After a glorious week with them, I stopped over in Sydney for a couple of days for a bit of a catch up with Amal, Diana, John and Rena before coming back home.

Still in holiday mode, I took Stefanie over to Bruny Island for a day out.

As always, the dogs were part of the outing and enjoyed some cheese tasting with us.

Stephanie had to run up to the light house by herself as there were too many cars for the sparse parking spaces and I had to stay with the car to keep moving it as other cars left or arrived.

The weather was absolutely glorious

November 30 arrived and I had to go to hospital for a back operation.

I couldn't leave home without first taking some photos in the garden.

It was a very hot day, but I didn't notice the heat much as they kept me pretty cool for the operation.

After a few days in hospital, I was moved to rehabilitation where I spent another few days doing physiotherapy and walking the corridors as well as the foot path outside.

Visitors came bearing gifts like flowers, fruit, chocolate and even wine. I lived like God in France.

And then one day, house sitter Stephanie arrived with Cameo and Teepee.

That was a very special day indeed.






























Cameo, in his usual laid back kind of way, settled at my feet once he had established that was where I was hiding, confident that I would soon return to them.

Poor Teepee was very excited to see me and also grateful for having been brought in to see me. She kept running between Stephanie and myself, dishing out her affectionate licks evenly.

A couple of days later, they all came to pick me up. Naturally, we had to stop in Kingston at the beach for a walk.

Stephanie stayed on for a couple more days, taking care of things and helping me settle in. Then she returned to Canada for a white Christmas with her family.

Then I had to rely on some very kind friends to take us for walks and deliver some shopping.

There was some home help organized for me - for one hour a week which was not much, but better than nothing.

We had a couple of very quiet days without walks as it was Christmastime and my friends had other commitments.

One friend breezed in with this heavenly Christmas present. Oh my, they were lovely.

For the first time in my life, I didn't stay up to watch the fireworks on TV on New Year's Eve. I still had to do plenty of resting.

The beautifications continue in November 2017

Having extensions built and painted really made the rest of the house stand out as terribly ugly. 

In the spare room - my old bed room - the walls were discoloured from the mould that used to grow there before I had the central heating installed.

The lounge room looked particularly dirty because there used to be a wood fire.

There was nothing for it but to get painting furiously.

I had a back operation scheduled for the end of November and I knew I wouldn't be able to to anything much for a few months afterwards. Besides, I needed the spare room for a house sitter.

And so, work began in earnest. Moving stuff around and painting, painting, painting.
Given that I was running out of time, I engaged a bit of help for this big job though.

 As soon as the painting was done, the floor covering people moved in to lay new vinyl everywhere.

The biggest piece had to be brought in through the front window.
Trust me to come up with that solution.

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These chaps worked hard and fast and helped move all the furniture back into place. Before the end of the day, the whole house was looking like new.

And of course, there was a lovely room ready for the house sitter.

Settling in - 2016/2017

When the moving into the new extensions was successfully done, it was time to tend to the garden which had not only been a bit battered and neglected, but had also changed shape.

The first move was to establish a new garden bed alongside the new bedroom wall.

Next, I decided I'd like to add some hens to my menagerie, so I went and organized a little flat pack hen house. Transporting and unloading was a lot easier in bits rather than in a single pack.


It didn't look much to begin with, but an afternoon's labour resulted in this rather stately accommodation for my chickens to come.

The first four chickens were a mixed bunch and quite colourful. Unfortunately, two of them turned out to be roosters.

I didn't mind them really, but as they grew big, boisterous and bothersome, pushing the two hens away from the feed - not to mention raping them -, I decided it was time they had to go.

The white hen, Janet, had laid many eggs and eventually started to sit on some of them and consequently hatched two cute little chickens.  








Sadly, these too, grew into roosters. They had to go as well.

Instead, I acquired two lovely brown hens.

At last I had the four hens I'd wanted to start with.

Gradually, they all began to lay eggs for me, all different colours. My little lemon tree that lived in a pot and was moved in and out daily for safe keeping produced quite a little crop of lemons. The first lemon was quite a celebration.

There was now a timber walk way all the way to the shed and to the back gate.

The hen house is flanked by camellias.....one day, they will be nice and tall and bushy and full of blossoms.

The two raised vegie beds were removed and a new, bigger enclosure built.

On the southern side of the house, I set up another new garden bed in front of the water tank and planted some native shrubs in it. The idea is to eventually hide the tank a bit.

Not every member of the family settled in with the same speed. When the bathroom was first opened up, Mitzi and Lucky immediately started to run around the block. They thought this was great fun.
Cameo took quite a bit longer to get used to this route and Teepee was absolutely terrified for many weeks.

Home extensions continue in 2016

Soon after my return from Antarctica and New Zealand, the work on the extensions started up again.

The concrete floor of the back porch was covered with a timber deck.

Windows began to appear, to be fitted into openings that did not yet exist. 

The entry took shape, electricians pulled the necessary cables in, but the bits of roof were not 'married' yet and so it came that rainwater collected on the floor instead of going into the tank which had not been hooked up.

Then it was time to knock out the back wall of the existing bathroom in order to turn it into a two-way bathroom.

The beautiful door panels I had rescued from the homestead in Coonabarabran, were fitted into the brand new front door that looks like a million dollars.

A beautiful timber walkway now leads from one of the new back doors to the studio to be.

As soon as we had lock up stage and all the ceilings and walls were clad with plaster board, it was time for me to take action and get painting.

This was quickly followed by the laying of some vinyl.

The new laundry part of the bathroom with the bi-fold door leading into the sun room and  the bedroom.

Looking back into the bathroom from the sun room.

The next thing was to add some finishing touches to the front door, finding some furniture in the shipping container and re-arranging the spaces.

Finally, in June I was able to move into my new bedroom. So much space now.

Home extensions Spring/Summer 2015

Spring was a good time to start with the home extensions. Work went as far as possible before Christmas arrived.

Then in January, my trusty house sitters Kaye and Bob Hunter arrived and I went on my big adventure to Antarctica and New Zealand.

Work begins with the new bedroom

 This is the part where work advances in leaps and bounds. Floors are laid and timber wall structures go up.

At the same time, the central heating is installed in the existing parts of the house.

At the front of the house, I have an entry room added which will stop the weather coming straight into the lounge room.

The new bedroom as it looks by Christmas time.

The next chapter can be found in a separate blog:

https://antarcticnz2016.blogspot.com.au/