This trip’s highlight came at the end of the long weekend on the way home. Whilst passing through Inglewood we were stopped by the local police for a random breath test. After winding down the drivers window so I could “blow in the bag”, Skylar’s head suddenly appeared and a battle ensued to see who the first to wrap their lips around the device’s “straw” would be. Fortunately I won, and after a scratch on the head for Skylar and an all clear for me the policeman sent us on our way.

Rewind to Friday and we were up early’ish to pack the trailer with the outdoor setting from the spa room, which we decided would get more use at the Charlton house than at the Somerville one.

The trip up the Calder was highlighted by a detour into Toolern Vale to pick up a gate which I was planning to install at the well used Waugh Street entrance to provide easier egress to Philip and Janet’s, and particularly whilst carrying food and drink, which we more often than not do.

On arriving early on Friday afternoon we unloaded the car and trailer then I set about mowing all the grass whilst it was still dry(ish), but not before a trip to the servo for mower fuel, which I seem to go through a lot of… not surprising given we have 2/3 acre of yard. Whilst I mowed, Shirleen set about hacking out more of the overgrown front yard, until the cold started setting in and we retired to the warmth of the lounge room and  glass or two of sauvignon blanc.

On Saturday morning whilst installing the gate, local contractor Randall stopped by to let me know he would call in on Monday with his backhoe to dig out the stumps from the old and ugly trees and palms we had chopped in the front yard. Half an hour later I heard a racket out the front and went to investigate, only to discover that Randall had changed his mind and decided to rip the stumps out straight away. Bonus!

The remainder of Saturday was spent loading the trailer with all the stumps, roots and other stuff Shirleen had ripped out of the garden ready to take to the tip on Sunday morning. Two more trailer loads on Sunday and the front yard was looking a lot clearer. I did another run with the mower before finishing up early as we were hosting Ken, Hazel and mum for afternoon tea. We had a lovely time with them before heading off to Ross and Peggy’s for happy hour at 5pm, which turned into happy 5 hours, eventually staggering home well after 10pm. We had a really lovely night.

Monday morning we did a little cleaning up around the house and measured up for some timber edging for the front yard and for replacement architraves and skirting, before heading off home around 11:30.

Given painting isn’t recommended in the cold Charlton winter weather, our next few trips will be dedicated to grass mowing and sawing firewood.

Maybe Skylar might test positive next trip…

Randall at work

No more ugly trees

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

The only fools this April 1st were those who didn’t like the Charlton weather this weekend. Never mind the April sun in Cuba, take me to the April sun in Charlton!

Our trip for this long weekend (I had annual leave on Monday and Tuesday) started later than it would have normally – our usual attempt to get to the house on Friday evening wasn’t possible this trip due to the cricket club presentation night being held on Friday night. I’m glad I went too, because during the evening I was honored with life membership.

The trip up on Saturday morning was typically uneventful, with the usual stops at Calder park for coffee and for Psychopup to pee, and again at Ravenswood being a piddle stop for us all.

Arriving around lunchtime we unpacked the car and trailer, made some lunch and took some time to inspect the work we had done during the week, namely the re-connection of the hot water service to both the water and power. I was nice to have hot water again after going without on our last trip. We spent the remainder of Saturday relaxing before “fivesies” with our dear friends Ross and Peggy.

The aim for this visit was to complete the sub-floor for the rear decking ready for the decking boards to be laid over the Easter break, and take the growing green waste pile to the tip, so bright and early Sunday morning I set about loading up the trailer with garden clippings Shirleen had piled up on our last visit and proceeded to the tip, with Skylar coming along or the ride.

Once home again it was all about setting up string lines, saws, hammers and drills and getting stuck into the sub-floor, whilst Shirleen started attacking the overgrowing vines and jade plant surrounding the old water tank.

After 2 days work and another trip to the tip with the fruits of Shirleen’s labour we had achieved our aims for the weekend.

Tuesday morning we packed up and prepared to head home, looking very much forward to our next visit – another extra long stay over the Easter & Anzac Day weekends.

Bring it on!

Sub-floor completed

Tank before

Tank After

We were joined by Emily and Abbey on our trip to the Charlton house this Labour Day weekend, so we decided to take two cars. I left directly from work on Friday afternoon, and the females of the family, Shirleen, Emily, Abbey and Skylar travelled up on Saturday morning. Being a long weekend we were expecting slow heavy traffic, but the opposite was the case – the traffic wasn’t overly heavy and the trip seemed quicker than normal.

As a result of taking two cars I was able to load up the ute with some excess furniture we decided might be useful at the house – a couple of small cupboards and a folding table. After unloading them on arrival I set about clearing up the room we had been using as a work/store room so that we could re-purpose it as a bedroom (as originally intended) so that Emily and Abbey could have have a room each providing both privacy and independence. Once cleaned I set about assembling the bed, hanging a curtain and laying some rubber underlay on the floor to protect feet from nail heads, given we hadn’t yet prepared the floor as we had done in the remainder of the house.

This trip was also to be a little different due to the fact the we had no hot water, as the electrician had disconnected the power to the HWS in preparation for moving it from the east side of the house where it could be seen from the street to the west side, where it would be closer to the bathroom and out of sight.

After an early rise on Saturday morning I started setting out string lines for the decking sub-floor at the rear of the house, and contemplating the order in which I needed to do things. I soon realised that two things needed to be done before the joists could be cut and hung – one of the timber plinths had warped to the extent that it couldn’t be straightened into place, and an old twisted and termite ridden bearer and bottom plate on the kitchen wall, from which I was planning to hang the joists needed to be replaced. Shirleen and the girls arrived shortly after so I took a break from deck building to help unload the car, play with Psychopup who was behaving as if she hadn’t seen me for a month, and catch up with their latest news given I hadn’t seen them since Thursday evening.

Throughout the afternoon I continued working on the decking whilst Shirleen took up from where she left off last visit, attacking the front garden with axe, mattock, saw and rake, ably assisted by Emily, Abbey and Skylar, whilst Abbey also got to work on scraping the flaking paint from the entry hall walls.

Philip & Janet, Shirleen and I had already decide that for dinner that evening we would take mum, who had turned 86 a couple of days prior, to Timeless Treasures and Tea Rooms in Charlton for dinner, where Bruce and Annette, the proprietors, make the most wonderful pizzas. We had an lovely evening and mum was especially appreciative of spending some time with her youngest granddaughters.

Sunday’s work started with shovel and wheelbarrow on dirt which had piled up under the house during the laying of the sewer – I wanted to be sure that there was sufficient clearance under the antcaps to prevent those pesky termites from feasting on the subfloor. This was followed by draining of the hot water service so it could be relocated, and making good the water supply so we could at least have a shower that evening, albeit cold!

Work ceased at around 3pm when Ken and Hazel visited for a “High Tea” – scones, pikelets and Ken’s famous zucchini cake, in celebration of Kens birthday next week.

Around 5pm we headed off to Ross and Peggy’s for our almost obligatory “fivesies”, but not before removing weatherboards from the wall where the hot water service had been relocated to, so that the plumbing could be concealed in the cavity. That night, Emily and Abbey decided they were bored and wanted to scrape some more paint from the walls, and much to our delight they finished the job!

Monday was a typical “prepare to go home” morning – tidying the house and yard, securing building materials, taking photos, putting out the rubbish and bidding farewell to the wonderful place we cant wait to call home.

Until next time…

Paint flakes

Foliage gone

All ready for plumbing

I decided to take a day’s annual leave either side of the Australia Day public holiday to make for an extra long weekend to get a good run at the decking.

Leaving home at around 9:00 on Wednesday we encountered heavy traffic on the Monash with overhead signs indicating a rollover on the on ramp to the Bolte Bridge with lengthy delays. We decided to take a detour through the city, much to the delight of Skylar who was able to hang her head out the window as a result of reduced speed and take in all the smells of the city.

After our usual stop at the Calder Park service centre for coffee we made good progress, arriving at the house at around 1:30. After unloading the car we did some minor chores around the house and then just kicked back, in preparation for an assault on the tasks we had set for the next few days. Mine was to lay the decking boards and Shirleen’s was to continue preparing the entry for painting, and specifically this trip to strip the numerous layers of paint from the door and doorway.

For the next three days we did just that… decking and paint stripping, stopping occasionally to eat, drink and rest.

The end result, as can be seen below was worth the effort!

The west side of the house has been transformed… from this when we bought the house:

To this after this weekend’s work.

Preparations for our 10 day stay at The Charlton House started well before Christmas with a major grocery shop to restock the pantry and a trip to Dan Murphy’s to restock the beer fridge.

With trailer fully loaded with said groceries, beer and wine (oh… and some building materials) we set off mid-morning on Tuesday December 27^th with an extra passenger on board – mum had been visiting her sister in Melbourne for Christmas and we were bringing her home.

On arriving in Charlton early afternoon, we set about unloading the car and trailer and once finished went for a walk around the grounds to see what the warmer weather had brought to the damper ground of our September visit. Weed and grass growth had generally stopped but the fruit & citrus trees and grape vines, which Shirleen had spent many hours pruning, feeding and watering since we bought the house had flourished, and we look forward to harvesting some of the fruits of her labours in the coming months.

Our grounds inspection also revealed a huge hole, courtesy of some plumbing work we had carried out just prior to Christmas – the sewer had to be extended along the back of the house to pick up the new bathroom fittings and existing kitchen sink and this had to be done before I could complete the replacement of the decking, which was again the focus of this visit, along with the installation of some new waterpipes fixed to the decking sub-floor.

The weather on Wednesday was hot and overcast and humidity was high and we decided to limit the day’s work to a few odd jobs and then head to Boort to buy some paint for the plinth on the deck. This enabled Shirleen, who was still recovering from a broken ankle, to do some work whilst sitting down and not aggravate the swelling on her ankle.

Over the next few days we settled into a pattern of work which saw me continuing building the decking and Shirleen alternating between painting the plinth and sanding some of the dado in the entry hall, and of course her obligatory scraping off the flaking paint from the entry hall walls. Evenings of course were spent in the company of various friends and family for our now traditional five o’clock drinks and nibbles known as “fivesies”.

The plan for this trip was for me to return to Melbourne on Tues 3^rd Jan to purchase the decking boards given we were anticipating completing the sub floor by then. Unfortunately, because we had driven up in the station wagon (remembering we had an extra passenger and Psychopup of course) which can only tow the lightest of trailers, it would have meant returning to Somerville with Phil’s empty car trailer, swapping to the ute to tow the timber back to Charlton, then returning to Somerville to swap back to the station wagon to take back to Charlton. Instead we decided that Phil and I could make the trip in his car, reducing the number of trips required. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry – loading the 1075.8 lineal metre pack of decking onto the trailer proved problematic as the timber pack, whilst under the trailer’s carrying weight, was too long to allow enough weight on the tow ball to safely tow the load back to Charlton. So, after unsuccessfully trying to secure a one way hire of a larger car trailer we decided that the best thing would be to return on another day to pick up the decking. Accordingly, Shirleen and I decided to bring forward our return to Somerville to Thursday 5^th Jan and that I would take the timber to Charlton on Friday.

After an early night Thursday I set off for the timber yard early on Friday morning via the local servo to pick up a large trailer. This time there were to be no issues loading the timber and after a slow and uneventful trip up the Calder the decking boards arrived safely at around midday. By 2:00 pm they were unloaded into the shed and I was on my way back to Melbourne.

Roll on Australia Day long weekend when I can start nailing them down!

Sewerage Works

Western verandah ready for decking

PsychoPup ready to go home

Decking boards express(?) delivery

For the first time in a long while I was able to spend more time renovating than mowing! With the weather getting warmer and the ground drying out, the grass was nowhere near as lush as it has been for the last few months, so mowing wasn’t as time consuming.

This trip was a lone one for me… Shirleen was still unable to travel to Charlton courtesy of her broken ankle, and as I left directly from work on Friday afternoon Skylar was unable to accompany me. It was strange and lonely being there without them.

After arriving in Charlton around 6:00 and having dinner with Phil & Janet I fired up the mower and was able to finish the Waugh Street block before darkness ascended. This left me with less to do on Saturday so I was able, with Phil’s help, to continue laying decking joists as well as fitting the plinth rails, the timber for which we bought back in September but hadn’t had the chance to do anything with because of the need to spend most of the last few visits mowing grass.

Sunday morning I was able to do a few more joists before packing up around lunchtime in preparation for the trip home.

The time really flew on this visit and I’m really looking forward to the next one so I can be nearer to the time I will be relaxing on the deck rather the building it!

Deck taking shape

The purpose of our visit this weekend was twofold… firstly to continue the work on the decking and in the garden that we had started on our previous trip and secondly to visit the annual Charlton Show on Saturday.

We left around 6:30am on Friday in an effort to get a jump on the peak hour traffic into the city and were pleased that it wasn’t too heavy. After the usual stops at the Calder Park service centre and again at Ravenswood for Skylar to have a pee we arrived in Charlton around 10:30.

After unloading the car we immediately got to work in the yard and I was pleased that the new mower we bought helped get through the weeds in half the time of the old one, meaning more time to do other work.

Decking taking shape

front yard trees reduced to stumps

Once the mowing was completed I set about continuing to lay the joists for the decking whilst Shirleen started attacking some unwanted plants in the front yard, work which was to continue well into Saturday, but not before attacking some of the areas of the yard which were inaccessible to the mower with the weed sprayer and a litre of RoundUp.

Around lunchtime we took a break from our work to head off to the Charlton Show and on entering the pavilion were pleased to discover we had both been awarded first prizes – Shirleen for a beautiful framed craftwork and me for a photograph of a rainbow lorikeet.

After returning from the show we worked into the evening  on our respective projects only retiring for our obligatory wine when daylight and tiredness got the better of us.

Sunday saw a continuation of work in the garden and on the deck, but we did have the opportuinity to break on a couple of occasions when we were visited firstly by local contractor Randall who we asked to remove more rubbish we had accumulated, and secondly by some family of the previous owner of the Charlton House who were interested in the progress we were making on the restoration.

We eventually started packing up around 2:00 ‘ish and reluctantly left for the trip back to Somerville around 3:30pm extremely happy with our weekend’s achievements.

Roll on Cup weekend when we have four days to achieve even more.

Days 5 to 13 of our school holiday stay at the Charlton House seemed to mirror the first few… alternating between cleaning water and mud from the stump holes before installing further sections of the perimeter bearer for the deck, mowing grass (or rather weeds) removing overgrown plants from the garden, wrestling to remove some of the many star pickets which appear to grow wild in the garden and scraping sheets of old paint from the entrance hall walls.

In between we took some time out from working around the house to make a couple of trips to Boort to the hardware store and to do some geocaching around the shores of the lake there. We also made an impromptu trip to Bendigo, a trip of a little over 100km each way, to shop for some food for us, some treats for Psychopup and to look at some timber mantles which were on special at Early Settler.

Day 11 Abbey and Emily decided to make the trip up to see our progress as they hadn’t visited for quite a while and we had a really nice time with them, culminating in dinner at the East Charlton Hotel before we all headed back to Melbourne on the Friday before the AFL Grand Final.

Overall the two weeks were quite productive although the persistent rain meant we didn’t achieve as much as we had wanted. My expectation to fully complete the sub floor of the deck around the house was downgraded to just completing the perimeter bearers and securing the verandah posts, a feat we acheived comfortably.

Next visit is Charlton Show weekend when all I expect to do is mow… 🙁

Perimeter bearer complete

Joists

Scraped paint in the entrance

digging mud from the stump holes

After hearing the weather forecasters predict torrential rain for central Victoria I considered building an ark instead of a deck.

Fortunately the predicted rais never arrived, just a few drops in the early morning.

Nevertheless I decided to have an easier day than the last two and spent most of the day finishing off the hardboard underlay in the front room, then tidying the Hawthorn Room and arranging the tools for easier access. The time spent will be saved many times over when looking for tools etc.

Shirleen did her bit for the local community today, helping Janet deliver Meals on Wheels throughout Charlton, and then finished her attack on the shrub at the side of the driveway.

With fine and mild weather predicted for tomorrow the focus returns to construction of the deck.