So, the next part of our Crazy Adventure (life) starts.
Our new place (Part of Sara’s parents new place) hasn’t yet got power connected (the pole is in place), no doors yet, and still has lots to be done. But today we informed our realestate that we’d be out of our house in 2 weeks time. Yep, in 2 weeks we’ll have packed everything up, moved it all to the new place, and be living… somewhere.
We actually have 4 weeks to get stuff finished. In 2 weeks we head to Perth for Helene’s wedding, and all my exams. It turned out easier to do my exams in Perth, than to fly after 2 exams, arrive in time for the wedding, then do my last exam on the Monday, all in a very short space of time.
So, that means we have 4 weeks to finish our “house”. The best way to think of the house is to divide it up into it’s parts. It’s being built out of old arm barracks, so we are taking 3 “rooms” and building a house inside them. Each room is approximately 30 square meters, although one is bigger. The bigger of the 3 rooms is what we are calling the common room. It’ll have a kitchen, lounge and dining room all in one, and can be used by everyone at the new place. So when people are around for worship group or someone staying in the crisis accommodation they’ll use that room for kitchen/lounge/dining. This room now has a ceiling, and the kitchen is in there waiting to be put in. A bit of work on the walls still has to happen, and a coat of paint before the kitchen can be put in properly. Oh, and there is a hole in the floor where we’ve taken out an old entranceway and we’ll rebuild the floor so you’ll never know it was different.
The next room down, with a door into the dining area, is split into 2 rooms. One side is a bathroom and laundry, fairly spacious compared with our current place, and this will be the “common” bathroom for our side. The “complex” is rather big, so it’ll be the common bathroom for people on our side of the complex. The other half of this room is our lounge room. Probably a similar size to our current one. This room has a ceiling, and also has the wall frames up, the bathtub frame in (waiting for plumbing to be finished before it gets permanently locked in), a toilet (without cistern atm), the laundry cupboard, bench and tub, and the internal sliding door. Still to be done includes painting, plumbing, doors between the lounge and other areas, and wall paneling.
The next room down is divided into 2. One of these is our bedroom, and one is the kids room. It was going to be divided into 3, so I’d get a study, but it’s been changed into 2 now, with my study being part of our bedroom but kinda around the corner. It works out better and is more flexible for the future. This room currently has nothing, just the door frame from the lounge, and the outside door that was already there. The old ceiling came down today in preparation for the new one, and until today, it housed our kitchen as it was one of the first rooms that was watertight when the new roof was done.
The reason there aren’t any pictures of the layout for you, is each time I do them up, the plan gets changed! So I figure I’ll wait until the wall frames are in, and then at least the plan is more fixed in place.
So in the next 4 weeks, we have ceilings, painting, plumbing, walls, kitchens, doors and plenty more to do! And I’ve no idea when the floors will get done!
Today as a test we started stripping the paint off a window for cleaning it up and repainting. The outside of some windows is very weathered so needs a decent sanding back once all the paint has been stripped. Surprisingly, once sanded the beautiful silky oak wood colour came through really nicely. The windows were previously painted white, but it looks like we much just varnish/oil the windows and go for the beautiful wood colour. This has made me very excited, as we have hardwood floors that will polish up beautifully (similar colour to Jarrah), VJ ceilings, and traditional VJ walling (half way up the existing walls) and VJ paneling for all new walls. So while the ceilings and walls will be painted, the floors and windows (and maybe door frames) will be beautiful woody colours!
So thats just the craziness of the new house! We still have the craziness of packing up and cleaning the old place, doing uni assignments (I’ve got one left this semester) and studying for exams! But lifes an Adventure, and we like crazy adventures, boring adventures are just so boring!
And I’ve not even started on the kids. Elisha has put on so much weight, he’s now around 11 lbs, looking so much bigger than when he was born. We aren’t getting great nights of sleep, but he’s getting better at sleeping longer. Nathan is talking heaps, and loves doing his sight cards. Molly (the dog) has already moved to the new place, and for some reason is very lonely and has tried everything she can to get back home here. She’s chased Sara (and Me) down the driveway a few times, she sneaks into peoples cars and hides there all day hoping they won’t notice her at home time. But other than that, she loves the block, has plenty of room to run around, wildlife to discover, and motorbikes to run with. I’m really enjoying having her there and can understand how people working/living out in rural places end up with a dog as their best friend. She’s generally not fussed with all the building noises, and often comes in to see what we are doing. If you hadn’t noticed, life at the moment involves the new place a lot, we are there almost everyday. Nathan loves playing there, and we have many cute photos of him trying to help with the building. He’s learnt how to hammer in nails with a real hammer, as well as how to hit himself in the head with the hammer. He’s learnt that shoes are important on a building site, although he hasn’t dropped anything on his feet yet. He tries to help Sara with denailing salvaged wood, and he knows that the fire is not to be played with, although that’s taken some teaching as early on he threw his shoes in the fire! He’s no longer as scared when the aircompressor turns on, and he’s learnt to be scared of snakes (that’s an inbuilt fear I’m sure), even if they are friendly carpet pythons. And best of all, he gets to see “bikes” up close (motorbike), which he’s developed a keen ear for hearing from a long way off, and points them out when we are driving along.
Thats all for now, more to come soon.