Like many others, I decided to add a few days annual leave to the Easter holiday making an extended break from Good Friday to Anzac Day.
We were expecting the drive up the Calder to be a little slower than usual with all the Good Friday traffic but were surprised to find it only marginally busier than normal, although the the outbound service centre at Calder Park was the busiest we have ever seen, courtesy of not only the extra Good Friday traffic, but of a large number of street rods heading to the national championships in Bendigo. Fortunately the wait for coffee wasn’t too long.
After another usual stop at Ravenswood for Psychopup to relieve herself, the only other holdup was at Bridgewater on Loddon, where the CFA were stopping traffic on the Calder to collect money for the Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal. After that is was plain sailing into Charlton.
After unpacking the car and trailer on arrival my first task was to remove the temporary drain for the kitchen waste and replace it with something more permanent so that the decking could be laid on the back verandah, while Shirleen continued stripping the paint from the dado in the entry hall. That evening we had our usual ‘fivesies’ with Philip, Janet, Ross and Peggy.
Saturday was the day the deck laying resumed in earnest, and it continued unabated for six days after which I am happy to say IT’S DONE!! Meanwhile Shirleen continued alternating between paint stripping, gardening and recovering from the rotten cold she developed shortly after arriving. We did take some time out on Easter Sunday to enjoy afternoon tea with family.
Obviously the period around Easter is a popular time for burning off wheat stubble and on several days the Charlton township was blanketed in smoke, although not thick enough to be any more than a minor annoyance.
Once the decking was finished the next task was to build a step up to the deck from the driveway. Digging the foundation for this was easier than I expected courtesy of it being located next to the water tank which regularly overflows (and certainly did on Thursday night thanks to the 37mm of rain we had) making the area much softer than the concrete-like ground around the rest of the house.
Friday night we christened the newly completed decking, hosting ‘fivesies’ with Philip, Janet, Ken and Hazel. Just as we were sitting down to relax after farewelling our guests Shirleen noticed that the contents of the fridge weren’t as cold as usual, and on further investigation discovered that the fridge had stopped working. Fortunately we have a smaller drinks fridge and freezer, so we were able to transfer perishables and frozen food and avoid spoilage.
By Saturday morning we were both feeling tired and sore from the week’s work and decided that we would head back to Somerville on Sunday morning, or if time permitted on Saturday evening. Whilst Shirleen attacked another garden bed I finished off work on the back step and by three o’clock we were packed up and ready to leave, but not before laying some mouse bait around the house in an attempt to eliminate what appears to be several of the pesky critters who have invited themselves into our house… not surprising given the predictions of a developing mouse plague in the Wimmera-Mallee region.
With the weather in Charlton becoming cooler, our focus will now be on inside work – completing the entry hall and starting on the study. Bring it on!
Looking more like a house now.
Psychopup surveying the step
Burning off stubble
Back deck now
Back deck before (sans Psychopup)
East side deck
