Once again for Grand Final weekend we did the opposite to the majority… instead of heading into Melbourne for the Grand Final Parade on Friday and the game on Saturday we headed out of Melbourne and up the Calder to Charlton.

We were joined by Emily for the trip up on Friday and Matthew came up on the Saturday… the last chance he would get before the start of cricket season. Abbey decided to stay home and look after the cats, given she had visited the house with me only two weeks prior.

The major tasks for Friday were to repair a leak in the toilet and to mow. Any other work inside the house was restricted given it is hard to paint around the furniture and boxes stored there. There is however light at the end of the tunnel… after the necessary planning and building permits were finally granted, the garage commenced construction, with an unexpected but very welcome visit from the concreter on Saturday to set up for the slab.

After helping with the mowing, Emily did however did strip some more paint from the dado in the hallway in what is  becoming her favourite pastime when in Charlton.

Saturday’s weather was glorious… sunny although a little cool, so once Matt arrived we took a walk into town to the supermarket for supplies, followed by a visit to Mum, before having some lunch and settling on the back deck to watch the Grand Final. At the half time break we were joined by Skylar for an impromptu and amusing game of cricket in the yard. Psychopup would make a great fielder if not for her refusal to return the ball to the bowler!

After the final siren we headed off to Ross and Peggy’s for ‘fivesies’ followed by dinner at the East.

As usual Sunday came along way too quickly as we packed up for the trip home, having had a very pleasant family weekend at The Charlton House.

The focus in the next few trips will now be to relocate the boxes and furniture to the garage so we can get back to the fun of renovating.

Silly mid off

Digging the garage foundation

Ready for concrete