Forever House #23

Friday 26th July 2013 (cont)

The humpy wall to be removed and carport made for Triton

A lazy start today - about ten hours sleep.
One of the jobs I was thinking to ask Dave to do - was to build a lean-to carport off the side of one of the existing sheds, for the Triton. But as I thought about it, I realised I could open up one end of the humpy beside the caravan. The humpy used to house two four wheel drives when I bought the share. My sister Fran's then-husband, Andy, helped the kids and me to enclose it.

We don't use that enclosure for anything in particular these days. It's just another area that needs cleaning up. This is the cheapest, most obvious and easiest carport option. I borrowed Dave's battery drill to remove the roofing screws holding the humpy together and spent a large part of  the day converting that shed to a carport - which enabled me to do a good clean up, taking tools down to the other shed, pavers down to the courtyard area near Peita's wall, and chucking the very dead lounge onto the fire for the next time we light it. I even cleaned the caravan windows.

Before clean up

After - ready for the Triton to move in

At my petrol stop in Casino on the way out I made sure the Triton had half a tank of fuel, enough oil, and pumped up tires. Jeff is organising a solar panel to charge the battery in between our visits to the farm. It feels a bit like I have put her out to pasture. She's retired - but will get plenty of use when we go out there. My new ten year old Honda CRV will take us to and from the farm but I wouldn't be taking it down to the river bed or across the rivers. It's not a real four wheel drive like the Triton.


I brought out the old kitchen cabinet/bench which I had purchased at the tip Revolve Shop. I also bought a gas bottle and hose to render operational the two burner stove that Mum and Dad loaned me. I bought a water container with a tap and a kettle that whistles.

The temporary kitchen I put together in the 2nd bedroom

Ahh...coffee

I also bought a stove top coffee pot. I've wanted one of those for ages. Made my first mug of skinny flat white this morning and it was very good if I say so myself. Ive squeezed every last drop out of every bit of budget this fortnight, getting out here with everything on my lists. But I think that is all I need to spend for a good while, apart from Dave. There's heaps to go on with. I'm very grateful I have my paid work. It's a very flexible workplace and my job fits in well with my Currawinya project.

I'm really enjoying the opportunity this blog affords me to write. By making myself a protagonist I have to do stuff to write about. That's helping me to be productive at the Forever House, which in turns gives me more to write about.
Writing about what you know is a good place to start. I don't seem to have a head that thinks in fiction. It was required of me at uni, when I studied writing, to work in many other genres; and that was good exercise and I enjoyed stretching myself. However, people's life stories are what interest me, and biography is the area I want to write and record in. That is a venture I will be able to pursue when the Forever House is finished - people can come and stay while we get their story down.


Monday 29th July, 2013

ceiling sheets over the main bedroom

By the end of the weekend, Jeff and Dave had put up a heap more ceiling sheets - in fact they used all the painted ones and half of the unpainted ones. I was unable to prepare mud materials or do any mudding. I didn't want to get in their way, and they needed my help each time a sheet went up.

Dave and Jeff have become great friends

ceiling sheets over the bathroom and front verandah

Emptying water from the tank into the pond

I spent my time getting the carport organised and the temporary kitchen, gardening, mowing, and playing with the pond. I released water that was in a tank beside the humpy, into the pond. Dave is going to get the guttering sorted on the humpy so that tank is being filled, and then I will cut a channel for the overflow to feed the pond.

The lantana view

On Friday afternoon Dave had twenty minutes to spare and offered to remove the lantana beside the front veranda of the house. He dragged the bushes away using a big strong strap attached to the tow bar on his truck and it looks fantastic - we have our view back. How lucky are we to have Dave here and willing to help get this project done. And his lovely wife Gab brought over fresh scones with jam and cream for morning tea. They are treasures.

Dave pulling lantana out

The view minus the lantana

after planting and cardboarding

Jeff and I brought home three doors from the farm.  Two of them are going into the bathroom and mud room and one of them is the front door. They all need to be stripped. And the two for the bathroom and mudroom need to have stained glass designs made and installed. There were two old stained glass windows hanging around in what is now the mosaic shed. I am going to salvage what glass I can from those windows and reconfigure it into designs to fit these doors. The front door is hopefully salvageable. It needs quite a bit of work to bring it back to something usable I think. Not that I am any specialist on these things - I will just be doing my best to give them all a new life in the Forever House.