One year on

Almost a year since the first guests arrived. Since then the house has fulfilled its objective of giving us a small dwelling that could be used by friends and relatives, particularly in time of need. Longer term occupants have included a nephew in need of space during a life crisis, interstate friends with a critically ill child in hospital. Friends and relatives from overseas, interstate and country Victoria have come for shorter stays. And because the living space is bigger with less furniture than the "big house" it has been used for social gatherings, meetings, even as a rehearsal space for a chamber group.

Front fence

During the winter, miniature roses are ordered, planters erected at the front, roses are planted when they arrive and in Spring, the dream of a growing fence is realised.

Flat-pack fix

We may be suffering from flat-pack deprivation. Peter decides that the house is not complete without some kind of book storage, and so it's back to IKEA. We settle on some EKAT square shelves that we can add to if needed, but so far we're happy with just three units. They take only minutes to assemble, don't even need an Allen key. What kind of fix is that?

Guests come, and keep coming

As noted in the last post, we have the link between the houses complete for Helen's birthday party on 28 July, and the family wander happily back and forth between the two on an unusually pleasant winter day.
Our first non-family guests arrive the next day and stay for over a week. The day they leave, friends from Tasmania take their place for 3 nights. We then have a day clear to prepare for a breakfast for friends in the house on Saturday morning, before our next guest, Peter's sister, arrives on Saturday afternoon. And there are two more lots of people scheduled before we reach the end of August. It's all go.

Wall extension, arch and rose wrangling

When we get the decking material from Bunnings for the walkway, we also pick up the struts and louvres ordered a month or so ago to finish off the wall to match the one between us and our neighbour at the front. Peter realises that some additional brickwork will be needed and does a neat bricklaying job. A day passes while we wait for the mortar to dry, then he constructs the screen and bolts it to the gatepost at one end, the new brickwork at the other. Looks great, and matches the rest nicely.
On Friday we start the last task, of erecting a trellis arch over the gate. This was purchased from Bunnings months ago, but had to wait for the wall to be completed. It's another flat-pack, designed to produce a free-standing arch about 2m high. We shorten and adapt the pieces to construct something that will bolt to the wall on either side of the gate. It's dark by the time he is putting on the last fastenings, and then at long last she wrangles the rather vicious but lovely Nancy Hayward climbing rose, hoisting back up on to the wall, threading through the louvres and tying it on, and weaving a couple of long branches through the trellis arch.

All done and looking good for the party the next day.

Joining the dots, or rather houses

With a daytime party looming, we need to resolve the connecting walkway between houses. She has a vision of rural-looking stepping stones made from slices of trees, and has been promised such slices by two people with farms. As these have failed to materialise, we start looking at alternatives - some kind of bridge structure. Flat-pack ones are available, but not long enough, so it's off to Bunnings to buy some mirbau decking strips and treated pine for stumps and bearers.
Over the weekend and today ground is levelled, plants are trimmed, holes are dug, stumps inserted, bearers bolted and decking planks screwed down.

As a last touch she puts a paver as a jumping off-point and extends the gravel around it.

Hanging pictures

Not many things left to do, except to progressively hang our Tasmanian/boating prints and pictures. We managed to hang one before MICMC week, and three more today.

Port Davey joins Eddystone Rock

In the bedroom, Ysabel's print on the left...

... and Cath's Koonya print on the right.