I returned to the land of the living today, well to work at least. sigh. It was the same old but a novelty to drive again and all the plants and trees outside looked so nice - funny how everything becomes 'new' again once you've been stuck in bed for a week...
We live in a 1924 character home - I cringe a bit saying 'character' home or 'old' home after we travelled to the UK last year where houses can be considerably older than 1924!! I love our place though. It had a very dodgey extension added to the rear of the home - apparently an eccentric Viennese architect lived here many years ago and used the front of the house as his office - just the type of character you want 'tweaking' the house. He did a few odd things to the front and the gentleman we bought if off had also added bits and pieces to the back, which made the back of the house look a bit Alice in Wonderland - it sloped a lot and the back narrowed right down to a tiny back door with the ceiling just above your head. We decided to retain the majority of the original home - the bedrooms and kitchen - and demolished the back to make space for a sympathetic rear addition, including a bathroom, lounge/dining, new kitchen, laundry and an extra bedroom - basically a new house stuck on the back of some front bedrooms!! It's actually been a (touch wood!) smooth process so far - although it did take 12 months to get plans drawn up and approved. Here's the back of the house as it started to be demolished...
Matilda was very impressed when the old loungeroom floor was ripped up...
Then it all came down and it felt a bit strange...
But while I was sick, they put in a sand pad...
and then a concrete pad...
Hurrah! Despite living among towers of cardboard boxes in the front of the house and having everything in such a mess all the time and having to shower out on the porch in a makeshift shower made from bits of our old pergola, it's been fun. It feels nice too to be fixing the house up, as if the house knows and it's saying thank you to us for caring about it. Now, if we can just get the garden to say the same thing eventually....
If you're in Perth and have any interest in ancient Egypt, the Egyptian antiquities from the Louvre exhibition will be here 21 July - 28 October, 2007. Artefacts and art from ancient Egypt will be on display, including jewellery, ceramics and linens - I am just awestruck that these things have survived for such a long time. Pre-exhibition tickets are on sale now.
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