house painting update

Dave and Dad have been working hard on painting the old house, with some extra help from my sister Jen who spent 2 days working with them this week. Thanks a lot Jen!

They've made amazing progress. In the end they decided it was best to just get a coat of paint on rather than faff around with replacing and repairing weatherboards. This way they'll at least all be protected until we can next get back to work on them, and it turned out that not that many of the boards need replacing anyway.

I really love how the colour is working out. You can see the ultimate planned colour scheme here. It should look equally good when both green, as here, and in the height of summer when everything is parched and orange.

fences and water tanks

Vida, my stepmum, writes with more news about progress at Amherst, and best of all photos! They've got only one more working day to go after this before they return to Melbourne. Dave then has another 5 days or so to catch up again with his family and friends before finally jetting back to London.





I can't get over how big it is. There are over 50 posts in it apparently. They have just one final thing to do to it, Vida said, which is to put extra wire around the bottom to stop rabbits. They're planning to do that tomorrow.

The tanks too look brilliant. I really like how they're different colours and how they've put rocks around the edge, it almost makes them look like sculptures. We had at one stage been toying with getting metal tanks from the supplier Eric recommended but Dad sourced these instead and seeing them in place, I'm glad he did. They stand out, yes, but I like it.







Email from Vida 16th August:

Hi Lyn

I've just returned from Amherst. As it is Saturday I decided to cook Dave and John some decent food and save their time from cooking. I arrived at about 2p.m. and it was time for lunch. I enjoyed watching them eating the food as if they were eating the most delicious dish. I told John not to eat anything for lunch so they were very hungry. Dave made nice coffee for us.

After lunch I walked around and took some pictures. Dave's parents brought two olive trees so I helped Dave plant them to replace the dead ones and later we loosened the wire enclosure around every olive tree to let them grow wider. Dave has done colossal work building the big enclosure around the olive grove.

When I was there, a man brought the second water tank. I was lucky to be there at that moment so I took the pictures of them. Enjoy the photos.

Love Vida

Ebay win: stained glass lampshade

At last! I've lost track of the number of these I've bid on over the years. Finally I won one. It's an old stained glass lampshade, which will be perfect to have as a little feature light above the front door of the cottage.



From the description:
Here we have a traditional period antique exterior stained glass Canopy Porch Lamp shade from the 1930's. This beautifully shaped shade comes in very good condition for age. All stained glass panels are intact and display no cracks to the coloured glass

even more news

From Dad's email 10th August:

Work proceeds well at Amherst. This week we will focus totally on painting and preparation. If the olive tree enclosure doesn't get done it will have to wait for another trip, but I will continue to hope for completion. I am very pleased with the state of repair of the old weatherboards despite the peeling paint. The old paint comes off fairly easily with the grinder. Dave has done most so far because I have had to build the access scaffold for the other side. I will do more of preparation and painting this week however.

Dave has been fairly warm. The chiminea has performed well, especially since I removed the heating plate because of the damper effect it was having, causing too much smoke. I need to make more space for the firebox to vent so will add spacers and see if it has both draw and is close enough to effectively heat water. At least it is a great comfort for Dave to lounge in front of at the end of his working day... I will repair the door of the little van this evening so he can properly close it and make better use of the small gas heater which Dawn provided. My antique kerosine heater has performed really well for my van and adds to the candles to provide adequate heating even when it is below freezing outside.

It was good to come home for a respite as we were very exhausted. Dave has taken a few pictures for you. Dad

hunting for the Crown Title

I got in touch with my solicitor in the vain hope that they might still have the original Crown Title (after learning last weekend that the previous owner, Steve, didn't).

Sadly, when they checked their files, not only did they not have it, but they had no record of having ever received it from the Titles Office.

Given that the Titles office would have sent it to them, if anyone, we are now hoping against hope that it's still sitting in the Title Office files. Mum is going to go in there in the next few weeks to see what she can learn.

According to the solicitor, the normal approach when an electronic title is issued is for the original to be stamped "obsolete" then sent on to the new owner as a keepsake. We're just praying that for some odd reason it fell through the net ... it will be awful if they just destroyed it.

Keep your fingers crossed. :-)

Photos of the campsite

Dave is staying on-site at Amherst while he's working up there. It's the middle of winter so absolutely freezing, so Dad built him a great shelter. Dave has the little old caravan that used to belong to my Gran, which Dad restored, and Dad built an annex alongside with a fireplace, so he has somewhere to cook and keep warm. (Dad is staying in his caravan a bit further down the hill).

Here's some photos Mum took when she visited:





It's hard to see but the pots are on top of the chiminea, Dave is using it to cook on. I also love the bricks, Dad laid a little patio floor!


This is the view from the front of the annex. You can see the poles laid out to build the Olive grove fence. (The dog is called Angie, she's my Mum's)

more news on progress

From Mum's email 7th August:

Amherst has more work than they will get done this time, even Dad said so. Dave’s van and annex is lovely, very cosy, good views – I rather wish I could stay there sometime! It has apparently rained quite a bit – more than here anyway. All is green though short grass, dam is fuller than it was but far from full, and the drive is very slidey. I almost did not get up the hill to the house. Jess and Tony went up, staying overnight in Maryborough and going home this afternoon. Big tank coming Friday, 5000 gallons I think they said. Huge, 12ft in diameter? Ir 16?? Hope the truck gets up OK.

I went off for a drive to photograph ruins etc – Asked Dave if he wanted to come for a drive but he wanted to get the work done. I lucked on Talbot museum open (normally only Sun afternoons) and dropped off my family names; ordered pies for lunch; drove about Majorca and Red Lion and got photos of about 8-10 “ruins” and decrepit houses in Talbot etc; went back, ate, and came home. I was back by 5.25pm having missed the worst of peak hour by using the ring road which was slow but not as slow as coming through the city.

Vida is going up Friday evening to get Dave so he is back for the weekend and he will go back with Dad (who is coming back Sat) on Sunday. Everyone seems to be working out how we can spend time with Dave! I have said I will go up to the market next Sunday – not this one – and Dave MAY be there then. Peter has said he will come with me if Dave is up there to talk about what he wants done. He almost took the day off work yesterday but I said it was not a good idea without prior arrangement if he wanted to keep his job.

Ebay win: stained glass bird windows

So these were a little bit of a splurge, but it's rare to find two handpainted sections of this size and (almost) matching... plus I really liked them. :-)

They're even nicer in real life, I'm using them here just propped up against one of the conservatory windows, but at Amherst I can see these could work well either side of a door perhaps.



From the description:
Two beautiful and lovely traditional hand painted and stained glass panels, depicting two different birds. These would have been made using traditional process of hand painting, staining and then kiln fired to make all work permanent. They could be incorporated into a stained glass or leaded panel, as decorative glazing or enjoyed just as they are as light catchers. All glass is intact. The centre glass is a clear rough rolled texture and the border is a blue/green of a similar but slightly different texture. Size of each panel is approx 28.2cm x 23.5cm

update from Dave: progress!!

Dave is actually *on the ground* in Amherst for the next 2 weeks. I am SO envious.

He's working with my Dad to get the house stripped back, weatherboards repaired and painted. From his voicemail today:

"The guy called as he couldn't make tonight, so we're going to see him tomorrow instead. (This is the structural engineer Jeff he's talking about).

We had a fair crack at doing the weatherboards today, I got the side on the right hand side of the house as you come out the door half stripped, while your Dad's been doing bits and pieces. We'll get our way through it, it was a really good day today, so hopefully the weather will hold and it'll be fine"

I am just so happy to feel that real life physical actual tangible progress is being made on the house, with more to come. It's just brilliant to be getting properly stuck in - I just regret I can't be there to help. :-(

Old miners certificate for Talbot

I just stumbled across (thanks to google alerts) an image of an old Miners Right certificate for Talbot.

You can see it online here (including ability to zoom in close) but just to make sure it doesn't get lost I've also copied below.

Beautiful old document, I wish they made official documents as pretty as this today.