After a lull in activity at the Charlton House pending completion of the garage, things are now starting to get back to “normal”.

Completion of the garage meant we were now able to empty the storage unit in Somerville where a lot of our excess furniture and boxes were being stored, as well as clear out stuff stored in some of the rooms at the Charlton House so we can get back to renovating in earnest.

First in the order of business was to set up some shelving in the garage to create a workshop, complete with mezzanine style storage above enabling me to move all the tools which had been in the workshop at Somerville out of the sleep-out, freeing it up for boxes being stored around the house.

With the study now free of everything bar the furniture which will eventually housed there, I was able now to continue work on the study. This involved moving the furniture onto the deck (a relatively easy task as I had it stored on dollies) so that there was space to move around, so I was able to finish the third coat of paint on the walls as well as a couple of coats on the skirting boards. All that now remains is to finish stripping and repainting the window (something I have been unable to do due to the heat over the Christmas break), fit the new door out onto the deck (which I am hoping to do on the Australia Day long weekend) and install the new fireplace and surround, which I can now do thanks to my last trip when I partially demolished the brick fireplace so that he new electric fire would fit.

Our New Years trip to Charlton was a little shorter than we had hoped, courtesy of the mid to high 40’s temperatures which were predicted for the the first week of the year. We did though manage to cut the grass (weeds?) which had grown over the last few weeks, courtesy of the 75mm of rain we received earlier in December. Much of the weed appeared to be the dreaded “Tribulus terrestris” otherwise known as Bindii. A trip up the road to North West Ag for some Bindii and ant killer ensured we were busy for the rest of the visit, Shirleen attacking the mountains (literally) of ant hills whilst I sprayed the yard with Bindii killer – unfortunately the pump on the spray tank we tow behind the ride on mower was broken so the spraying was by hand.

On the trip home we detoured via Bendigo to take advantage of Harvey Norman’s sale and interest free terms and purchase three new reverse cycle split system air conditioners for the bedroom, study and craft room. Installation is scheduled for 29th Jan so they will be operational for the hottest part of summer.

Thanks to a work trip to Mildura I spent the following weekend at the house finishing the fireplace in the study and completing a few more odd jobs around the place, including further bindii spraying and continuing to organise the workshop and clear out the sleepout in preparation for storing boxes and furniture during the next phase of renovation.

Looking forward to the next couple of trips when we can finish the study and make a start on the kitchen – YAY!!

Workshop Storage

Preparing for the new electric fire