7 years later........

Here it is now for all and sundry to view, my blog experience of the renovation. I moved here in July 2004. Went to USA for 4 weeks in August 2004. I fell in love with this place. It sits on a hill overlooking Mt St Leonards. The garden was picture perfect cottage garden. The decking lovely for drinks on a summer's eve. BUT! I was ill, very ill. It took many many years to convince any doctor that I was ill! I had moved here to get away from all the stressors of life. I had lost my energy, my job, my social life, my 3 beautiful young children. They went to live with their father, my ex-husband. It took till 2007 to be heard by a doctor. He believed in me and sent me to a surgeon. Turns out I had undiagnosed Hashimoto's  (an auto immune disease which attacks the thyroid) and nodules on my thyroid. I had thyroid cancer. Life sucked big time. My intent to do this place up within 12 months and sell on for a profit has now long gone by the stuff of dreams. I am still after 18 years struggling with this rotten thyroid disease, and live on a low income. My friend owns the house, not me. I can't afford the mortgage.  He is a good friend, albeit one who drives me nuts most of the time! We have a good friendship and he understands how important it is for me to do this place up as I intended years ago. 

  I wish I had started this when I first moved here. I will try to show you regularly before and after pics of the previous works we have done. In 2007 we discovered termites had been using my place as a McDonald's drive through. Well, when I say we, I mean I fell through the workroom floor that I had hoped would finally be usable for me to start making some money. ( I do beading and craft work amongst other things!)

   Did I mention we live on a 22 degree sloping hill? That the drive access is at the back? The front has no road access? There are no fences? There is no drainage? Oh golly, the list goes on!

  I always wanted to do my renovations as cheaply as possible and have as small a footprint on this planet as possible. I have always been a bit of a greenie. I want to reuse as much as possible. On my low income it becomes even more an issue to not spend. I really do not like the modern houses of 'designer this' and 'designer that' which go out of fashion in a week. I want warmth, both physical and for the soul. A house is a house till it has a personality from the owners then it becomes a home. So I shall endeavour to entertain you with my progress. It will be an interesting journey, that I can guarantee you!