Having had the all clear for asbestos around the lounge room fire place, the removal of the horrible brown tiles and cement sheet backing became one of our priorities for Election weekend. Other tasks were to continue laying the hardboard underlay on the floors and to cut the “grass” before it became unmanageable.

For something different this trip we decided to travel up the Calder on Friday evening so we could get an early start on our planned work on Saturday morning.

We got started immediately after breakfast and by mid morning decided to make a trip into town to cast our absentee votes at the Charlton polling booth. On the way home we took a minor detour to see if we could find a geocache located in the park by the river.

Whilst I trimmed the hardboard sheets to lay in the hallway, Shirleen set about  demolishing the fireplace surrounds, revealing burnt timber (the result of a chimney fire some years ago) and a mummified mouse!

After completing the underlay in the hallway and entry, efforts turned to fitting new blades to the mower so i could attack the nettles and weeds sprouting in the back yard.

By late afternoon we had finished our chores for the day and headed to friends Ross and Peggy’s for happy hour, where we met met a friend of theirs who was the cousin of John O’Brien our house’s previous owner.

Sunday morning we continued with the underlay in what is to be the study until we were feeling too sore to finish, so decided to start packing up ready for the trip home, which was highlighted by a couple of detours to find some more geocaches.

Overall we had a very productive weekend and we are very much looking forward to our next trip when we expect to start preparing to paint the study. WooHoo!!

Fireplace before

Fireplace after

Hallway underlay