California Girl in Oz

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving in the States...eat some turkey for me, please! Business as usual here, but it started raining day before yesterday and hasn't really let up, and no end in sight...sigh! We're surrounded in a quagmire of mud...again. Time to get serious about packing things up here...we'll move out on 1 Dec. Not sure how we will go about schlepping all our stuff out to the new shed through all this greasy mud, but I'm sure it will happen somehow. Night before last, Alfonse, our little black cat, managed to climb onto the roof framing for the extension, in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. Lightning, deafening thunder, and constant rain. We couldn't find him at dinnertime and thought he'd come in at some point. That didn't happen, so at 10PM I decided I'd better make one more circuit and look for him. Wellies and raincoat on, flashlight in hand, circle the house in the rain and very slippery mud. Spotted him on the roof a

As you can see, I've managed to fill up this basket with socks for me. There are three (and a half!) pairs I've made for DH, as well, but they aren't in this basket. I've also got three more pairs for myself on the needles...I should try stopping knitting sometime soon! Here's how the slab looked when the crew finished pouring it and removed all the forming up lumber. That's the last time we'll be able to see this wide-angle view...it's now framing up and there are walls and stuff in the way. There is, however, a nice big picture window right in the middle of the wall, and French doors on either side. Here's how it's looking today. Roof trusses are going on now. Noisy, but very nice to see. There are thunderstorms predicted for later in the week, so I know they're gunning to get at least the plywood on up there ASAP. I actually started clearing out the kitchen yesterday. Can't tell you how TIRED I am of packing and unpacking!

Can you believe the size of this rig? It needed to be able to go completely over the house! Isn't this an amazing shot? Ross thought it looked like the cement was falling from the sky, it was so foggy this morning. The shiny part below that looks like a swimming pool will be our new living and dining room. The curved part where the guys are just starting to smooth it out will be the new verandah that extends beyond the living room. There will also be an outdoor "room" on the right hand side...cool, eh? A mucky job, but nice and cool this morning. As it warmed up and the sun came out, the flies also came...horrendous! Any Aussies reading this will understand what I'm talking about! The blowflies here are unbelievable. So all this activity happened between 7AM and 10AM. Now it's just finishing up the smooth surfaces. I'll post tomorrow how it looks when all the formwork is down, but isn't this GREAT?!

We've had sun for the third day in a row, and the place is a beehive of activity today. The deck that will be at the end of the addition, overlooking the dam, is being framed up. It's huge and curved, so a BIG job. In the middle you can see the new garage with its plaster on. Note the little section at the far left of the garage...that's two rooms where the kitties will live at night, or when we are away, with their own little screened in exercise yard, so they can either snuggle up in their two cozy, insulated rooms, or go outside and enjoy the fresh air, trees and birds, but still be secure. The huge truck on the left has the roof trusses for the new addition. I think we'll be seeing a LOT of work in the next couple of weeks! Hooray. The inside of the garage is looking very neat. And how about those cool stilts the taper/mudder is wearing? You can just see the kitties' two rooms behind him at the end of the garage. And lest you think I haven't been

Well, long time, no post. I have to say, I've never been in such a deep hole for so long. So glad to be back among the living after that horrible hiatus, and may it NEVER return! So, what's been going on, you might ask (that's for the 2.3 of you who may have wondered whether I might surface again one day!)? And thanks, QuiltingFitzy and Clare, for rattling my cage and motivating me to get going. We started on our renovation project in September, with the demolition of the garage and outbuildings. It's been a slow process from there, mainly because of the weather: lots of rain, mud, wind, muck. This picture is, I think, worth a thousand words. The garage has looked like this for the last two or three weeks, but today (Saturday, of all days!) there are workmen here putting on the outer "skin" of the garage. The weather is holding so far, today, and I'm hopeful that we'll have more clear weather next week. The cats will have two rooms at the fa