Friday present

Hi there.

Well I've finished my first house! It felt really good to shake the owners' hands and say goodbye. Their place will always be memorable for me. Saying that, I'm glad to be onto a new project which we started today. It's much closer to home (about 40 minutes compared to 1hr 20), and is a renovation on a really old heritage listed Edwardian home. The owners are serious about their garden...there are three large vege plots (you'd appreciate the property Christy!) with everything from beetroot, beans and broccoli to grapes, strawberries, and pears.

Inside, we're knocking down a few solid brick walls and re-doing the kitchen, laundry, bathroom and adding a couple of rooms upstairs with dormer windows projecting out of the tiled roof. We are demolishing the existing staircase (built for tiny but agile people!) and moving location for a new one we'll make in the middle of the house with skylights and an open well.

I'm excited and a bit apprehensive about it! The age of the house means that there is a lifetime of crud built up in the roof cavity (dead insects, unidentifiable dustiness, cobwebs etc) and in the walls. The brick construction means a lot of heavy lifting for the apprentice! And the vege garden at the back of the house makes for tricky maneuvering of materials in and out of the property. On the other hand, the property really needs some attention and I think that the final product will VASTLY improve what is there now. Plus, renovation is a key skill I'm hoping to employ on future investment properties.

In other news...
Min and I went to Phillip Island on Saturday to stay with Ruth and Charlie for the night. We arrived at about 530 in the evening because Min and Charlie were working. The sunset was beautiful and the two hour drive went by smoothly. It's always nice to drive over a hill and be met with a sea view. The rolling green farmland curls around to cradle Phillip Island which is reached by bridge, under which passes a speedy flow of tide at just about any time of day.
We cooked some market sourced fresh snapper and veges and washed it down with a few beers and some wine.
When I was at the market waiting for our snapper to be cleaned and scaled I noticed some great looking rainbow trout. I couldn't pass them up and decided to try one as an entre. Incidentally, how much do you buy snapper for in NZ? $13.90 pkg seemed very reasonable at the market.. and the trout was the same price!

We played Trivial Pursuit near a wood burner for most of the night, with Charlie and Min winning by a tense penalty shoot out!

In the morning we rode our bikes along the waterfront, poking our noses out on the wharf as we went by, to a hidden cafe that R+C hadn't been to before. It was very successful, even if our waitress seemed to have e x a c t l y the same accent as Prue from Kath and Kim!

We drove back after breakfast because Min was working at 2 and I had gondola in the evening.
Only an hour and a half back to Sandringham Hospital with time for a croissant and cheese twist before dropping Min off.

Gondola was a bit different last night as a thick fog developed during the evening. There are large gas flame displays on the hour outside the casino which looked spectacular last night as the fog meant that the entire southbank area lit up orange when the flames were ignited. There were no proposals, but I did get a twenty dollar tip which was appreciated!

Congratulations if you've made it reading this far! Thanks for checking out what we've been up to. Hopefully next time I post a blog won't be as far apart as this one was!

See you soon,
Joff