RIP Norman

Live by the street, die by the street.

We haven't seen Norman for months. He was never going to be a house cat, so why am I so saddened by his absence? He was a lovely cat, I keep telling everyone that he has found a new home, dog free, where he can sit by the fire every night, on someone's lap. The reality is, well, I guess I don't want to talk about the reality. Norman loved those special nights he got to come inside, when we kicked the dogs out.

A few months before he left, we adopted another cat called Fergus. Fergus turned out to be a girl, whose gender we were never sure of until ol' Norman started showing a little bit too much interest, even when Fergus was a non gender specific (to us) kitten. Anyway, Fergus (the girl) loves the dogs, and they love her. And Luke isn't allergic to her. The story goes that Luke's dad came across a girl in the carpark at Marion giving away kittens, and if she didn't give them all away that day, her dad was gong to kill them all with a hammer. I just don't get the cretins that live in the world today. Anyway, thankfully Luke's Dad took one of them home, and knowing that I wanted a kitten offered him/her to Luke, who wasn't allergic to her. So we have a new kitten in our lives (kitten being used loosely, as she is now about 9 months old).

House is going well, and slowly. I have a new camera, whose leads I know where they live. When I get organised, (and broadband would help) I will post some updated photos. Suffice it to say we have been showering in our new bathroom for many months, and most recently I have a laundry. I cannot express how exciting it is to not need to use the local laundromat, or our parents' laundries.....

The bathroom is going to be one of the first big jobs to be done inside. The shower cubicle leaks and has caused salt damp on that wall, so we're ripping everything out, fixing the salt damp, putting in a fibreglass shower cubicle to try to stop future salt damp and then retiliing the bathroom so it's slightly prettier! I think the stained-glass window will be going, but the claw foot bath will probably stay if we can get rid of the rust stains.

If we weren't so fussy (and if we didn't have to retile anyway) we'd probably leave the bathroom as it is. Aside from being filthy and a bit daggy it's actually not too bad (aside from the yellow paint). Love the huge mirror!

The scary-I'm-afraid-to-use-it toilet! Could they not have finished tiling??? Even though it's the same ugly tiles as in the hallway, at least finish the job.

More inside the house

The old wood fired stove. All Luke needs now is someone who can teach him how to use it! All I can say is, thank god for the electric stove! (and bring on the gas stove when we can afford it!)

The, ummm, hallway? Now sure what it was used for, it has about 13 power points in it! The real estate agent loved the tiles. I told her if we got the house she could have them. Now we just need to rip them up, lay down some floor boards and find out where the RE agent lives. Oh, and maybe get rid of some of the power points. And put in a linen cupboard along one of the walls.

Main bedroom. For now all it needs is a paint and to get rid of the asbestos ceiling.

Sexy laundry looking out into sexy toilet. What is with the colour scheme?

Inside the house

The fireplace has a combustion heater just waiting to be put in it. We drove all the way to Watchem in Victoria to buy it from a farmer. (not as good a story as the day we drove to hay to buy a Kombi gearbox from a midget, but that's another story).

The wall between the lounge and the "third bedroom"! If you look closely through the door on the left you can see the start of some excellent paintwork done by a previous owner. Everyone loves dark burgundy walls with yellow skirting boards! Almost as good as the fireplace, red and green! The plan is to knock down this wall and make it one big lounge/dining area.

Gotta love the ceiling materials in this place. We're trying to work out if it's meant to be sound proofing material or just dodgy seventies design.

The kitchen. Although country kitcsh isn't really our thing, it's not so bad and will stay for a while. Need to redo the floors and ceilings though, as with every other room in the house.

Outside photos

The very gorgeous outside entertaining area! Note the "planter box," highlighted as a feature on the house plan from the real estate agent. In fact it's a shallow pile of dirt sitting on top the the concrete. At least the wooden sleepers will come in handy in the vegie garden.

One of the highlights, the toilet which looks like a water tank!

Front of the house. With fresh paint and new gutters and barge boards it should do up.

Front yard.

Fences

Aplogies for the blurry photo, hopefully it's too small that you can't see it! The fences are almost done now, but I haven't got any recent photos. They look awesome! But for now, here's the lovely view down the long side of the block, and the fence in progress.

Norman