Back to Sunny O - Sept 2002

Took a week off to renovate & shift. God it went quickly.

The pavlova plasterwork wasn't sanded as flat as we'd hoped. But the two solid guys (Bert & Ernie) who worked on it for days were buggered, and pointed out that different products had been used in different rooms, from relatively soft gibstop stuff which sanded relatively flat, to something more like white concrete, which didn't. Sealed it all though & painted it matt & you'd hardly notice it. The guys also fixed up some rotting eaves & holes in the walls where we pulled out tacky cupboards to discover there was nothing behind them.... even had M using her artistic talents to match new wallboard to the textured surrounds with polyfiller.

Spent from Saturday to Wednesday painting the place & ripping out the old carpet (disgusting job), and emptying the sheds & grounds of all sorts of objects (eg, most of a car or cars, dismantled & littered throughout the property & grown over, TVs, a bicycle, child's slide, etc) into a skip. Found very little that may be useful beyond a large amount of fencing wire & what I think is a portable farm gate, oh, and half an aluminium ladder, which I fancy myself using to prune the future fruit trees, I couldn't bear tossing it in the skip.... speaking of which, we think we've discovered a couple of plum trees, bringing the total tally of fruit trees, including a lemon tree in the most distant corner from the house, to 3.

Then, on Wednesday we started moving stuff in & had it habitable by close of play on Thursday. Everything painted except for the bathroom, kitchen & spare bedroom, all of which had some renovations to complete before finishing, including a new bathroom vanity & the sealing of the woodwork around the shower. And also a shower rail... Then it will be done (a relative term - it will be REALLY done in about 10 years time) & available for weekend pleasure as before - although more so. it rocks.

Lots of fun. Ached all over.