Chilly night tonight.

So I decided to give the fireplace a try. It works well enough to warm this little lounge but burns through the wood pretty quickly. Probably because its so small and can't hold a decent sized log. I had a really good look at the slow combustion stove and its way too rusted out to use which is unfortunate. There is probably no insulation in the walls to retain the heat once we go to bed and it will be freezing in the morning. I'm sure with the stove going also in it's heyday it would have been quite snug in the little old house once the fire place bricks heated up.

Trough bath!

I'm sure I'm not the first to wish I could know what's going on in the head of a 3 year old.
After invading my showers since she was able to crawl, Scooby has decided she doesn't want to do that any more. The problem here is that she wants baths and we don't have one. Going back to Nappy and Poppy's for a bath was getting a bit tedious so I offered her a bath in the laundry trough.
According to her this is the best thing ever and I'm sure she is dirtying herself up on purpose because she will say "oh oh, trough bath now" with a giggle lol.

Town Planning Application is in!

Because we are in zone with a Heritage Overlay we need to submit our plans and colour scheme to council for approval.
And now we wait. Hope they like our plans and approve them quickly. We were told "Anywhere between 2 weeks and 3 months" so I'm keeping everything crossed it's sooner rather than later!

Clearing the mess!

We have had an excavator here to start the cleanup of the back section of the yard. There is all kinds of junk in there. Old doors, a couple of baths, tables and chairs and heaps of piles of old trees from long ago pruning sessions. We have found some good things in the shed though. A table which is rough looking but will do while ours is in storage and about 50 old Home Beautiful magazines which I have enjoyed reading.

Looking from the rear corner up towards the house after several truckloads of crap have been taken away.

Le Tour part 2

Some pix of the yard. It is fenced into two sections. These first couple are the half that includes the house.
On the far left corner we have a garden shed overgrown with plants.

In the middle we have the good old hills hoist. You can see the gate into the back half/jungle feature.

Looking around the rear right corner of the house. We have some fruit trees - apple, pear and nectarine against the fence.
Beyond the gate into the back half of the yard is a total mess but I have this picture of an aviary which is just through and to the right of the gate.

Just a bit leaky :(

So we moved in yesterday. It was HOT and to our dismay, we discovered the windows in the front two rooms were nailed shut. Trev soon fixed this and we were soon enjoying a bit of a breeze. Next morning was the usual stormy change after the balmy night that this part of the world is famous for. Sitting in the kitchen enjoying my morning cuppa, I thought I could hear dripping that was a bit too loud to be outside but seeing as our bedroom window was open I assumed it was noise coming in so I went in to close it. That was when I saw the floor was wet. As was the curtains and the bed. When I pulled back the curtain and looked up, I saw that the top sash of the window had dropped down and a waterfall was pouring down the INSIDE of the window :(
The water was coming from the wall above the window and all I could do was put a container under the waterfall and wait for the rain to stop so we could safely check it out.
Firstly the gutter was hanging down a bit and spilling onto the verandah, and then the box gutter on the verandah that was running along the front wall of the house was overflowing because the down pipe was blocked. Trev's quick solution was to prop the house gutter up with some bits of timber and pull down the verandah down pipe which we discovered was blocked due to rust. Seeing as we intend on building a new verandah it doesn't seem logical to spend money on it.

A small amount of water came down the outside of the wall too.

Le tour part 1.

Pretty self explanatory but because I love a chat, I'll over some commentary to go with them...
Here we have the left hand side of the kitchen. Complete with rusted out slow combustion stove that appears to be home to several creatures of the scratchy kind.

Right hand side of the kitchen. Notice the lovely dark brown laminate splash back and teeny sink. Has a lovely view of the garden!

Miss Ruby checking out the lounge. We were left this gorgeous Art Deco style wall unit which I love!

Pressed tin ceiling and chandelier in entry way! Beautiful :)

Boys hanging out in the entry. I'm sure they are keeping their excitement internal.

My fav room in the house - combined laundry bathroom. I call it the "bathdry" but was thinking is should change that due to the fact there is no bath. In here is a laundry trough, shower, toilet and washing machine provision. The floor is crooked and I fear that I may fall through it while I'm in the shower. But at least it's inside the house and I need to keep reminding myself that when the house was first built, the wash house was in the backyard and the toilet was a dunny at the end of the footpath at the end of the yard. This is luxury!