A couple of weekends ago Shirleen and I purchased an electric file insert for the study and a lovely mantle which we thought would look great ion the lounge room. With that and the new cistern in the ute Skylar and I headed up the Calder around midday on Friday 12th to get the leaky toilet sorted out, inspect the recently poured slab for the garage and do whatever else we could, weather permitting.

Arriving mid afternoon we quickly had the ute unloaded, so whilst Skylar scoured the yard for any scrap bones dropped by the birds (they steal them from neighbouring dog bowls then drop them under the peppercorn tree… sort of like an Uber Eats for dogs) I got stuck into fitting the new cistern. Within a couple of hours the new cistern was up and running and all the leaks were a thing of the past, so we relaxed for the evening contemplating the following days tasks.

I decided that, as the weather was going to be warm, I would get out the pressure washer and blast the weatherboards which were covered in a thick layer of red/brown mallee dust, before starting to renail and patch weatherboards on the front of the house in preparation for future painting. But not before the usual mowing round… hopefully the last for some time given the grass (weed?) had gone to seed and the ground was super dry courtesy of the lack of recent rain.

Whilst waiting for the trusty Agnew’s Water Putty to cure I started stripping what I thought was numerous layers of paint from the front window, only to learn that it was just one VERY thick layer over the original paint. Lots of stripper required for this job!

When the light started fading at around 7:30pm I finished up work for the day cleaned up both the tools and myself and settled down for a cold beer or three.

Sunday was just the usual washing of clothes & dishes and packing packing up ready for the trip home.

The fireplace and mantle

I wish I could have stayed for longer.

Garage Slab

Clean on the left, dirty on the right

Ready for sanding

Partially stripped window