the repaired beach deck

 

It's almost finished and it's beautiful!
David wants to re-sculpture the dune around it and that's a job for Sunday.
We just had a quick trip for a celebratory drink.

 

 

beach deck repairs

Daisy and I went on our tour of inspection this afternoon when all the workers had knocked off for the weekend so there was only us and Rory picking up his bait and informing us there has been over an inch of rain. And the two new tanks are in place with pipes running into them delivering all that lovely water.

The kitchen has all the cupboards installed, still in blue film. I'm pleased to see that the back to back pantries I insisted on work beautifully.





Daisy can fit inside the pantry. With two of these there will be lots of storage.

 

Beach deck has been lowered so steps up to it won't be needed.

 

Outside, repairs to the beach deck are proceeding nicely though you can't sit there yet. Anyway today was too cold.

 

drama on the beach deck

We had asked Eric the builder to replace the rotten floor boards in the beach deck and today he set the lads to work - being mindful of the alleged brown snake underneath. It wasn't snakes: it was rotten bearers and uprights. I was summoned down for a look and had to concur that the poor thing is like a bad tooth and has to be pulled out though maybe we can keep the roof.

 

The plumber was in the house fitting shower heads and taps, the carpenter arrived with the kitchen and two large green plastic water tanks were unloaded.

It's all go today.

 

They look like whoppers.

 

visitors for the weekend

Rachel, Ben and Tigerlily came for the weekend and today I took them down to Beechwood. It wasn't the best introduction with the kitchen area still totally bare and nothing in the frig but joined by Alison, Christopher, Daisy and Chris we set up the picnic table and lunched royally on leg ham sandwiches.

It rained quite heavily:  the rainwater tanks don't arrive till tomorrow and the downpipes are hanging loose, making little puddles and gullies in the sand. We moved to the shelter shed where Ben had a brainwave that those odd yellow knobs in the bush hut are to hold up a hammock so we tried it out on Tigerlily and it worked beautifully; she loved it.

 

When the rain stopped we went for a walk on the beach and made a sandcastle for Tigerlily to sit on. She's a gorgeous lively  three-year old,  my sister Jennifer's granddaughter.

 

The shelter shed had its rocky cement floor jack-hammered out by the footie boys and we haven't yet decided on a replacement, possibly decking. 

 

 

Tigerlily managed the hammock all by herself

Daisy, Tigerlily and Ben
A lone seagull in the background gorging on left-over ham fat.

 

 

while David is away

David has gone off to Coffin Bay with Roger for their annual blokes' fishing trip so it was up to Daisy and me to meet with the builder Eric and offer a few suggestions - namely more deck please!

I want the deck to continue and join up with a revamped beach deck. Poor beach deck has always looked a little shaky but now is downright dangerous with two broken floorboards and wobbly supports. The workers were having morning tea on the seats when I told them a brown snake has been seen sliding underneath - I notice their feet went up on the seats pretty quickly!

 

Upstairs the new window, a foot lower than the old one, is in - and what a transformation! The guys were working on it outside, standing on scaffolding, rather to Daisy's and my alarm when they climbed out through the window.

 

Greg and Benny working on upstairs window, Henrietta's Hill behind them

 

return from cruising

Queen of Beechwood

We were on the way home from cruising on the Queen Mary 2 when Alison rang with the news that our cat Henrietta is dead - hit by a car in Foote Street.
We are devastated - she was enmeshed in our lives and losing her feels like having a piece of your heart ripped away.

She adapted so well to Beechwood, handled the car trips with aplomb and ruled over both places - so it was with heavy hearts we set off towards Beechwood to see what happened in our absence.

The first thing we saw on opening the front/back door - anyway the road door - was space. The kitchen was totally bare with the new floor covering stretching away in the distance towards the new sliding door. I love the floor; ceramic planks as recommended by Karen and it is everywhere on the ground floor with no change in levels or steps, just an uninterrupted flow all the same colour.
Notice it is sand-coloured!

 

Ceramic plank floor looking towards road door

 

The sliding door opens onto a magnificent deck with imposing retaining walls six inches thick to hold back the sand dune. The builder has excelled himself here and I can't wait to sit there with a bottle of wine.

 

Inside is ready for the painter next week, the shower screen and vanity bar; wardrobes in the bedrooms and linen cupboard at the end of the hall are all done; in fact I will soon be down at Michael's Bedding hoping he has a sale on and ordering two more beds.