Time for a catch-up post.  It has been some time after all…

It’s been some hard times…

It’s been one of those times when I have had to take some time to work it all out (again!). 

It’s been a time when we have taken time to celebrate the lives of people we have loved and admired.

I have attended three memorial services in 3 weeks and another to come next week.  It has been hard, that is for sure, and I have been a bit off-kilter and I had to search hard to find my answers to get back on a bit of a more even keel. 

It was the words, “Celebrate a life well-lived” that made sense to me eventually ­last week.  The memorial services all celebrated lives well-lived, and I realised that the legacy of the wonderful people who had passed is that we can celebrate our lives by living well now, by celebrating life every day that we are given and most of all, by celebrating the things that are important to us and that help the world be a better place – family, friends, the environment - our hopes and dreams.

So, in a very low key, quiet and somewhat difficult way we are celebrating.  We are celebrating living life.  And the house passing the shire inspection.  Most of all - we are celebrating our family and friends and their contributions to our lives.

When I took a day off work to try and clear my head a bit, I loved that I could spend it working alongside Michael and have that time to work things out a bit. 

He got the skirting boards all finished – sanding them (recycled jarrah of course), coating with wood oil and then drilling and nailing them on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He also fixed the shelving in our linen cupboard – again recycled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And he came up with the brilliant idea to use the overhead cupboards from our recycled jarrah kitchen in the pantry – don’t they look stunning?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(And see the chopping board he made from some off cuts of jarrah floorboards?  So, so clever and beautiful!)

He has also filled and painted plenty of doors (*all* done now).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Outside, he has patched render and secured copper pipes.

And he has cleaned the house from top to bottom - all by himself - hours and hours of windows, moving every little and big thing out, scrubbing tiles on his hands and knees today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(while I have been at work, or walking to clear my head, or keeping to myself, or with my family saying goodbye or sleeping to aid healing).

So now we are taking the time to quietly celebrate.  Quietly, not raucously (I hope that will come too!) – but this adventure is worth celebrating and the people we have shared it with are certainly worth celebrating too!

Cheers!!  We have finished!!!

(Inside at least, almostly…let the adventure continue…)

Well…we have gone and done it!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pages are with the Shire.

And it feels good!!!

Now to finish our home!

What a week it has been!!

Michael’s folks and Aunty Joan have been here to help us again J - and the motivation to complete projects with 4+ workers has been great!

As always, they have worked so much to help us achieve so much too – so the whole house has had 3 coats of paint courtesy of Michael’s Mum.  Michael’s Dad has added timber to the end of the kitchen cupboard, built our boot seat and filled in all the old hardware holes in our second-hand internal doors.  And Aunty Joan has cleaned all the windows and frames for us.  No small jobs, any of them – and such a fantastic, amazing, enormous boost to us!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And chief supervisor, Lucy dog.

While they toiled, Michael and I also did what we could – him working on electrics and plumbing and helping everyone, everywhere – and me, some painting of walls, some painting of cupboards in the hobby room and tiling of the kitchen splashback – and plenty of cleaning in between.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday – yesterday, was a bittersweet day, a milestone! 

We said, “finished” (yes, lower case is intentional), to Harold, Pauline and Aunty Joan – and to Ryan, who was here on Thursday and Friday to finish off the architraves and bits and bobs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that is the end to an era for us and Ryan – I can’t imagine how he feels to drive away from this house that he has put so much time and effort into – what an amazing thing he achieves being a carpenter!  We will forever be grateful for what he has provided for us, with the help of many, many, many others.  Our home is so much more than the sum of its parts – when we look at it, we can see the sum of the love that so many have contributed – and it is a very special feeling to know we will live with that love forever.

XXXOOO