Our House In The Mountains: April 2010

It's been about 6 weeks since my last post. Time flies. We have been busy, as opposed to the last 6 years, when we were just busy. But I must say that since moving into the house in October things are different. Still crazy, still often unmanageable, but better. Much better.

We have done all sorts of things, Kim went to Qld to pick up a new van, here he is arriving home after 2 nights away:

He bought a Delica 4WD diesel van, another bargain he couldn't resist & we sold the old ute for about the same price, so it was a good upgrade.

What have we done on the house? Well, we now sleep in it! We have completed another bedroom & moved into it, all 4 of us.

from an empty shell to lined:

v>

and then this:

That's Finn's little bed on the far side, Ivy's is on the other side just out of the photo (oh for a wide angle lens!).

Then once that was done we had Kim's Mum & stepdad Barb & George visit for a few days & they helped install out heat source for the winter:

That's Grandma washing dishes, apart from laundry that's about all she did for 4 days & she hardly sat down! Thanks Barb!! (my laundry was so neat & organised when she left!!).

Their dog Bonnie keeping guard!

Kim put in an extra pier to support the heavy wood stove after we decided on a concrete hearth (I was hoping on a big slab on sandstone but it got too complicated just finding it & getting it so concrete it was).

Kim & Pop George had some help making concrete for the hearth (it cut the work load in half I'm sure!)

Finn had been sick for more than 3 weeks before this, you can tell he's lost weight. He had Guardia but the Dr's wouldn't treat him for it as it didn't show in 4 tests we did. We were in hospital with him twice & they wanted to admit him but that's a bit too hard for a boy with autism. They paediatrician tried to put patches on his hands to numb them for a drip & he got kicked by a screaming distraught Finn. We ended up going home.

I eventually pushed for antibiotics after he had vomited for 25 days straight. It was a bit of a trial at the time & we were very worried for a while. I just regret not being stronger in my initial belief that it was a bacterial & not viral gastro. Learn to trust your instincts!!

He's becoming more & more handsome (I know I am biased, but he's still handsome!!!)

Spectator.

pouring the slab!!

Someone had to trip & fall into it while it was drying (Ivy).

Plastering the wall behind the stove.

Kim & George fitting a piece we had made to convert the flue from a back fitting flu to a top fitting flue! It was a little fiddly but saved us about $200.

nearly there!

all done ( :It's a Stanley, made in Ireland. they are still made today, ours is about 6-7 years old. They cost about $6000 these days, we got ours from a garage sale about 3 years ago for $800.

The first lighting!

Smoke from the chimney!
And to finalise, a couple of Ivy in our gorgeous lake we are so very lucky to have just a 10 minute drive away. We spent a lot of late afternoons here this very hot summer!!