Newport - 37° 50' 46" S 144° 52' 37" E

Home ... for a little while

We currently have a residence in Australia - the home Kate left just before she came to Canada in 2007 for a "six month assignment." The property has been rented for almost a decade and we have decided, for a number of reasons, to sell it. The house needs some attention and TLC, so we have started to fix/paint/repair/replace all the little things that need to be done.

Traveling to the house every day from either of Kate's family homes in Flinders (a 2 hour drive at the best of times) wasn't really a viable option, so we decided to borrow an air mattress from a friend and camp there while we did the work.

3.5 tonnes ... that should hold everything!

During the preparation period (the tenants had been given notice and quickly found another place to rent a few blocks away, and it was available immediately), we were sharing our plans with everyone and heard that some friends were staging their house for sale and had stored most of their furniture in a garage, and would allow us to use just about anything there! We suddenly had a free furniture store to help ourselves to. A moving van was quickly rented and we plundered their storage, nicely setting up the house with a lounge suite, three beds, a dining room table, lots of artwork and some assorted kitchen and house nic-nacs. Other friends came forward with plates, bowls, linens and towels and suddenly, we had a complete house.

We assembled a home just in time, because we had a guest on the way from Calgary. Karen, our musical neighbor, had come to Australia to join us for a Findlay Family Christmas, and whatever other adventures we could dream up. We were able to host her here on Woods Street, take her along to Horsham for a family gathering, visit Sue Bell's winery in South Australia, drive the Great Ocean Road, send her off to Hobart to see the finish of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, then come back for some Flinders time with the family.

Although the house is livable, there are many repairs and improvements that we have planned. Karen heads back to Canada tomorrow and then we start house upgrades in earnest. Let's see how many we can get done before the property goes on the market!