Retro

So this is the mighty retro living room of our new house, which we will get the keys to on Friday, if all goes according to plan. Note the wonder of the 70s clock, sofa and awesome carpet. This is probably going to be the first room in the house that we try to renovate. We will rip up the carpets and sand the floors, possibly put in a few extra sockets, and paint it a nice clean off white colour. The wooden furniture in the room is lovely so we'll keep that, but maybe get a new couch.

Rumour has it that if the gas heater is pre-80s (most definitely) that the gas company will replace it with a new model for free. Sweet! Also a bit of rendering on the fireplace may bring it into the 21st century.

Golf Ho!

I finally got my first game of Australian golf. This was last week with mom and George in their club in Mount Lawley. It's a long course, lots of par 5s, and plenty of bunkers. Everywhere you want to aim your drive, in fact, has a giant bunker. And the committee must be a bit o.c.d. as whenever you use a rake, you have to put it back half in the bunker with the handle perpendicular to the edge. Or else.

I've not gotten into the swing of working here yet well enough to master taking afternoons off for golf, but soon ...

Coode Street!

Myself and Hugh have finally gotten mortgage approval for our very first house! It is north of Perth city in the suburbs. From here I can cycle to work in half an hour (at great non-perspiring leisure) and hugh can drive to work in 12 minutes. There is a bus around the corner that will take us to town in around 15 minutes. Also it is a 10 minute walk from Charlie and Jane at the Strand. Get this though, they have also bought a new house and it is across the road from ours ha ha! 100 metres door to door, and that's if we walk straight across the road. If we take it at a diagonal it's even less.

Our house is in need of some renovations. We were a bit worried looking around as there are water marks on the ceilings of both bedrooms, and there is a slight sag in the big bedroom ceiling. We had an engineer come in to have a good look at everything though and he says that the house, in its day, was built brilliantly. The timbers in the ceiling are as good as the day they went in, and the only problem is that it hasn't been maintained very well. A few small jobs need to be done to raise and dry the ceilings, and the roof needs to be painted with a waterproof coating, but that's it. After that it's all cosmetic, and modernising. Phew! We are looking forward to getting going on painting and redoing the kitchen and bathroom. And installing a cinema, enormous barbecue and a pool.

Also, there is a very large sleepout room at the back of the house, which we are going to turn into a third bedroom as soon as possible, so we can fit millions of guests in lavish comfort (hint hint).

We get the keys on Friday 29th and we will move in on Saturday. First house yay!

Hugh's Tuba Gig

Hugh has just started playing for a bout of shows in subiaco. He is the solo tuba (only tuba) for the Sound of Music for a few shows covering for our friend Bill who is off doing an iron man competition. We thought that the trombone was a pain in the arse to cart around, look at the size of this thing! (and Hugh says it's only a baby one that he "borrowed" from school)

Veggies

We've all been on holidays for the last 2 weeks, so there's not been much blogging time. I'll try to gather together some pictures soon, but down to business. These are the vegetables I'm growing at the moment, all in pots in Charlie's front garden.

I've got lots of lettuce leaves, peas, potatoes, herbs of various kinds, beans, courgettes and most obscurely, watermelons. They are absolutely thriving in the sun. I've no idea if it's the right time of year or anything for them, but I've got a book now so can troubleshoot the problems when they start baking in their pots.