30th November

When Lester pulled up outside work today he said that there wasn't a park in sight because every spot in the block was taken up with builders' vehicles, all of whom were hard at work on our place at 7.00 am. How terrific!

Greg and Richo were carting buckets of sand and cement which was slightly better than the bricks they lugged up the stairs yesterday morning. The bricklayers were working on the top floor, bricking up parts of the back wall and opening up other parts to fit the new windows. These windows arrived yesterday and I was relieved when I saw them. In a momentary decision-making incident a couple of weeks ago I decided that the aluminium windows should have black frames. Having never consciously seen  black-framed windows, I don't know why I did this, apart from a residual comment which surfaced  from Charlotte, who mentioned that black frames are the most invisible you can get. Anyway, they looked pretty classy for  aluminium windows. They are proper up-and-down windows which I  prefer to sideways openers.

Lester was bemused to see the man who was there to install the roof window / skylight in the bathroom, bailed up by one of his patients in the street. The patient later came in to explain to Lester that our roof was "in good hands"; he knows this tradesman and he will do "a good job for you doc!" I am not sure how much of the window went in today. Might have just been the flashing.

And, of course, this morning it was raining - as it is supposed to be for the whole week. I received a call from Steve quite early to say that the temporary patch-up done on the wall had, indeed, failed and that there was still a significant leak. A few follow-on phone calls to the Strata Manager and the foreman from their building company meant that Luke was on the scene to inspect what was happening. I was told that until their scaffold goes up it is impossible to see "where the water is going now." I almost burst out laughing. Remember how Lester cynically said last week, "So, where is the water going now?" Ah, he's a genius!  Looks like they won't get their scaffold up and to work on the problem until next week. In the meantime we received the bill from the solicitor for the two letters (and research etc.) which we needed to convince them that it wasn't our wall and they had better hurry up and fix their wall. Well, I don't feel guilty about my tap any more. This amount would not only feed half of India but teach the entire adult population of Cambodia to read as well! (OK I am exaggerating a bit.) Bernie kept saying, allow 20% for contingencies!

Later in the morning I managed to pay almost eight thousand dollars in twenty minutes. It's easy with netbank and credit cards. You don't need real money. Our new table is finished and Grant is quite happy to mind it until we need it (so long as we pay for it, which is fine.) He says that if he leaves it in his showroom other people might take orders from it. He reckons it looks great; "If you can't please someone with Tasmanian blackwood, then give up, you couldn't please 'em with anything!"  I also paid remainder on THE tap, which arrived, quite unexpectedly at the front door in Stockton on the Winnings truck. The third expenditure was the deposit for the lighting systems. This is one of the largest expenses and I just hope we have got it right. John went through all the bits and it all seems fine to him. Yesterday, he came up with a few crucial pieces of lighting we had overlooked as well as the knowledge that we need another main line down into the switch board in the surgery. Luckily, the surgery will be closed on Thursday and Friday so they can work down there. All worked out well.

Ian came in yesterday and did a cabling reconoitre. He is going to use one "double cable" (one for Fox and other for ordinary TV) and has to get that into place pretty soon. He will come in on Friday too.

So, the place is crowded! The brickies are mixing their goo on the kitchen floor, the living area is full of kitchen cupboards and there is only a ladder upstairs onto a surface of joists. Electrician, cableguy, brickies and, hopefully tomorrow, the plumber...and the engineer and foreman from AMP. It's crazy. There is hardly standing room.

Meanwhile, on the home front I have been packing more bits and pieces. Tomorrow a fellow will drive here from Sydney to collect his eBay bargains and Paul is working on restoring Lester's desk. (It only took four hours today to clear off the detritis from the desk and drawers. I found our pasports from the 80's!!!) I must confess that I was a little distracted by another Ancestry moment today. I received an email from Pat Brady, my Ancestry buddy in England. He sent through some documents he found in Quaker records and they solved a problem which has been nagging for some years. In Charles Brady's family history, written in 1897 called "Notes on the Brady Family of Thorne W.R. [West Riding of Yorkshire] only the following information about my immigrant ancestor was given: "...Samuel, who was not, I think, fortunate and  emigrated to Australia." I was never able to ascertain why he was "not fortunate". The new information included the death dates of his parents. His father died when he was one and his mother died when he was two. So I guess he had a hard trot until he was 22 and jumped on a ship - came to South Australia - and here we all are. That was pretty exciting for me but for those of you who have glazed over already, I understand.


Cement mixing happening in the kitchen



John has been busy with more wiring

It is a bit hard to see through the scaffold but on the top floor the bathroom window has been bricked in because we are having a roof window (so we can wave at the planes!!). The bedroom window has been cut out but is temporarily boarded up. It looks nice and big.



The roof: showing holes and inadequate patching. This will be a crowded roof: solar panels, skylight, hot water, air conditioning unit and TV dish.



27th November

So much has happened within a couple of days.

Firstly, on Friday the kitchen arrived. I suspect that it was taking up too much room in the joinery workshop. It seems incredibly large stacked all higgeldy-piggeldy in the lounge room at Hunter St. but when it is assembled properly it will be fine. There was some confusion with  the carriers from Samford (Winnings) who were delivering the new cooktop and taking back the "wrong" one. They were supposed to be out at Wallsend at the factory but turned up in town. Several phone calls between Carol, myself, Bob and the carrier ensued and all was sorted in the end. Simultaneously, I had discussions with Paul, the Stocktonian who is restoring several pieces of furniture, (you should see the piano stool!), phone conversations with Luke from Kingston Property and at the time my first ever eBay auctions were closing. Jacqueline had told me that you should watch the last bids because that's when everyone starts bidding - and she is right. All up I sold a couch and the Australian and National Geographics for $150! One man is travelling up from Mosman to collect the mags. I couldn't believe it. I only put $10 on each item, thinking I would get that amount. So, I think I am hooked on eBay. It's hilarious. It was a pretty hectic couple of hours though.



The kitchen has arrived in pieces

 But why was I talking to Luke from Kingston? Guess what! The AMP owners have taken action. Owing to "the urgency of the situation", which they now recognise, (apres last solicitor's letter) their engineer will check out the strength of our roof and the erection of aluminium scaffolding of THEIR wall will start very soon. It seems that they are not confident that the temporary solution will work and they have decided to replace the complete metal section asap. It may take a couple of weeks but, for us, that is terrific. Just hope it doesn't rain and that our roof is strong enough to hold their scaffold.

This is a close up of the metal covering of the light well which will now be replaced in its entirety. Some of the rusty bits are visible. The scaffolding will sit on our roof and will only cover the width of the metal.

And speaking of scaffolding...as one does...today the back of our place was scaffolded. It had to be done on a Saturday when the car park was relatively empty. This means that next week the back windows can be modified by the brick layers and some bits and pieces of plumbing and  electrical can be finished. Lester and I were over there nice and early and watched work begin at 7 a.m. It has been encased in dustproof material and wire and is, hopefully, secure.





This is a close-up of the side wall of our top storey. It has an interesting spike attached to it. There is also some graffiti which has been there many years.

Today, we paid our first instalment to Steve. It didn't feel all that bad. In fact, there was something quite satisfying about it. (Did I really say that??) Starting to pay for it makes it really real!

This afternoon we had out first rental inspection back in Stockton. I am exaggerating. It wasn't like that at all. Our landlords came up from Sydney to meet us. We talked and talked and could have kept talking for days. We share interests in many things, not the least of which is the restoration of old buildings. It was a thoroughly pleasant afternoon and I am sure we will remain friends when they move up here. After all, we will be living less that one kilometre away from them, as the crow flies (swims?)

It has become apparent that two houses opposite us, in Stockton, are for sale. Our good neighbours are auctioning their house to move down the coast and the little rental property on the corner is for sale accompanied by a DA for a two storey house. If this goes ahead then the harbour view will be diminished which would be a shame and I am glad that I won't have to live through that. We learnt the "no-one owns the view" lesson when we lived up in Tyrrell St.

This is the view I currently enjoy from my bed. The green roof which is visible is the house which will become two storeys high. I am glad that I will be leaving before this is spoilt for me.

And finally, on Friday we sold the car. The beloved Scoobie has gone to a new home in Nelson Bay where it will be lovingly driven by our good friend Brian. Barb is delighted because she now gets her Mazda and all that four-wheeled freedom, back. Rowan emerged from a tunnel in Vietnam to be greeted with the news that "his" car has gone. When(ever) he comes home he not only won't have a car. He won't have a "home" either.

So, there has been movement on both fronts; getting closer to moving in and moving out.

24th November

Today as I was on the way to the ferry to meet Greg on site to discuss details, I had a call from Bob who is doing the joinery. While he was drawing up the template for the bench top for the Caesarstone man, it became evident that the  pop-up exhaust would not work with the Neff cooktop which we had bought. We went through much discussion when we purchased these in Sydney several months ago. Bob was able to talk to the fellow who sold them to us and I thought the specifications would be sorted out. However, two hours later there was a call from the salesman. He was devastated and embarrassed as,  it turns out, Bob was correct and the salesman has sold us something which will not work. It took about thirty seconds to weigh up the options: send to America and get another pop-up down-draught exhaust in six months time, or buy a larger cooktop which would be on site in three days and cost "a bit more". Yes, I love cooking and a larger cooktop is not unattractive. But this is how the tab grows.
Kieran came over to see the place today while Greg was there. Our "certifier",  Norm  arrived and it was good to meet him after having formed an email connection over the past months. We solved a few small problems about storage and about uneven pillars. Greg is much more exact (anal?) about detail than I am. The most memorable thing he has done for us in the past was to organise our pantry. He had to paint the interior of the pantry and so removed the contents and then proceeded to organise the contents when he had finished. He is meticulous about things being arranged by shape and size and he is particularly concerned that some little walls in this place will not be quite plumb. I was thinking about why I don't care if things aren't straight and realised that "randomness" probably describes the state of my thinking quite well.

Together we decided that the side rail of the stairs needs to be made of glass too as it joins on the little balcony balustrade which will be made of glass. It might just cost "a little bit more". Ho hummm!

We also had discussion about the survival of the front windows. While we have agreed to retain the iron semi-circular sections at the tops of the arches, it seems that their condition is so dire, that they may fall out when the aluminium  beneath them is removed.

I didn't unpack any more books today but I did sell the car. The Scoobie drove off and its horn beeped. I must admit - even though I hate cars and driving - I felt a little twinge. More to do with things changing than a sense of loss about a car.

23rd November

Progress continues :  today I chose the roof window for the bathroom. I like the idea of clear glass so we can see the clouds drift overhead whilst showering. This will certainly be a come-down from the harbour views and neighbourly happenings we currently observe at ablution time but maybe the occasional pelican (pigeon??) will fly over to create some  action.

I had long follow-up conversations with Steve about the ethanol heater, the big sliding door, the front screen door, the cistern, the exhaust fans and carpet. The best news he delivered though, was that the neighbours had sent in their builders yesterday to apply membrane over the holes in their wall as a temporary measure to stop the water entering our place. As Lester said, "But where is the water going to go now?" No answers yet. We are hoping it will rain soon when the success of the venture will, or will not be, revealed.

The issue of a screen door onto the street remains vexing. I am trying to resist living behind bars and I am still regularly visiting a site called overwrought.com  which makes creative doors. There is a great one that is a spider's web pattern and another with swirls, (far superior to bars), and several with trees and birds and even a cow. My fear is that one of these may be too attractive to the drunks and grafittists. Today I "did the test" on both Bernie and Kieran with mixed success. Bernie reckons that these doors denote  places  for Tarot card reading or Indian Take Away! I will just put this in the TBDL folder - to be decided later.

On the Stocko front, I worked all day packing and sorting "things". I have had some interest with my first eBay shedding attempt but I will have to wait a few days to see if it comes off. By things, I mean, boxes of Warhammer Games and miniatures, old architecture models and the contents of my "craft" cupboards.  I have the front room filled with boxes of books to be taken to the second hand dealer and another room with boxes of books to keep. I am torn about selling any of them, especially after what happened last night.  I went into Ancestry.com to check on my family trees and found that there had been a lot of activity, mostly people taking snippits from my trees to add to theirs, which I always find fascinating. Six degrees of separation etc. etc. By a fluke, I came across  the "UK Waterloo Medal Roll 1815" and on the list was my great, great, great, great grandfather's name. It turns out that Christopher Trevisick, (on the Brady line) whom I knew had been a soldier as he was listed as a Chelsea Pensioner, was actually a:  Private in the 3rd Battalion, 14th Regiment of Foot in Captain William Ross's Company, in the Battle of Waterloo. I immediately sprang up to consult my excellent collection of books on Napoleon only to remember that they were packed away in the front room to be sold! Needless to say, I did some UNpacking today and did a little bit of reading on the topic. I love having my own reference library. You never know when it will be handy.

The stairs and the toilet are taking shape



The cavity slider is in place.




Cavity slider door. As yet, no walls!



22nd November

This morning I ventured out to Wallsend to Bob's joinery factory to make some decisions about the kitchen. At the moment it is in its "mock-up" stage. I was quite surprised at the size of the cupboards. They don't seem to be on a human scale because along the tops run bin-type storeage cupboards. Having seen it in its entirety, I decided that the bench top should be smaller in both length and width.

I not only had to choose handles but where to place them. I had to choose the opaque glass for some of the cupboard doors. I had to decide on the kickboard material (brushed stainless steel) and placement as well as the areas which will be painted black. All very detailed. Bob is amazingly precise and patient.

Meanwhile, back in Hunter St., the stairs have taken on more structure and the beautiful blue gum has arrived. The kitchen floor is down already. All of the old cupboards have now gone, to make way for storing the new timber. Kieran is home for a few days and I was able to drag him away from his new passion (animation - he has just posted his film on YouTube) and engage him in meaninful discussion about some of the details of the build...including the colour scheme. Good fun.

19th November

Friday again!

Progress has been made on constructing the stairs and the downstairs toilet. There has been further communication about the repair of the shared wall. It would seem that its condition was worse than the consultant sent by the neighbouring side, expected. I fear this will take some time. The difficulty is that a temporary fix is probably not possible and that work should begin with the scaffold. Our roof will not support the scaffold so some other arrangement will have to be sorted. It is really a big problem! On the homefront, I put some of our "stuff" on eBay to sell, or more accurately, to get rid of.

The framework for the stairs and toilet.

 The framework for the entry stairs

This is the view looking straight up the stairwell. The fireman's pole was supporting the now overhanging corner (concrete slab).

 When I was getting on the ferry this morning I realised how clearly the wall of the AMP building can be seen from Stockon side. From a distance the wall looks quite benign.

Closer up, it can be seen how far above our building the wall rises. Our place cannot even be seen. The rusted lightwell runs below the semi-circular "window" in the centre of the cream wall. Scaffolding will have to be sizeable. (I could be very smug and say, "Not my problem". But I won't say that out loud - yet.)

17th November

Two really good things happened today.

Firstly, I received a phone call from the Strata Manager of the building next door. She has apparently been activated by our solicitor's "hurry-up" letter and wanted to arrange for her appointed builder to have access to the leaky wall, this afternoon, with the view of fixing it, in a temporary fashion, straight away. There was no mention of the fact that she had previously insisted that it was OUR wall and, therefore, our responsibility to fix in its entirety. It seems that that little impediment was brushed aside!  She went on to explain that the total renovation of the wall would take some time to organise with consultants and in the meantine, even if it took "membrane" or "fibreglass" her builder was to employ as many workmen as required and stop the leaks as soon as possible.  Needless to say, I felt much better about everything after this call. So did Steve.

The second thing really enhanced my day. I'm not sure that I should admit here that I got my days wrong. When I awoke I presumed I was lunching with Hilary and Nola at the new Maitland Art Gallery. However, after failed attempts to make contact about travel arrangements, I realised that I had the wrong day. That is happening tomorrow. I find something really comforting and quite hilarious about not knowing what day of the week it is.

So, I threw on some work clothes and proceeded for most of the day to pack books into boxes. Twenty nine boxes so far. And that's only the non-fiction. Two wizz bins full of throw-outs. I have bought a trolley- lifter contraption that means I don't have to lug the boxes. I have wheel marks embedded in the carpet from where I carted filled boxes out into the big room, to rest for the next two months before they are taken to their new home. Wouldn't you know though!? Lester came home and said that there was one piece of music he needed to play music and of-course, I have packed it. He can't live without it for two months so I will to do some unpacking tomorrow!

I have yet to get to the really good thing. First some background. Last Friday the Newcastle Herald  published a book in conjunction with their journalist Greg Ray and his wife, Sylvia, who was responsible for image restoration. The book is called,"Newcastle The Missing Years" and is a photographic history of the Hunter in the 30's  and 40's.   He  bought a box of old glass and film negatives at an auction last June. When he got it home he soon realised that they were excellent photographs of people and places and were likely taken by press photographers. They had been collected and saved by a fellow called Ken Magor who had been a fireman and transport enthusiast. It is not known who actually took the photographs but some of the well-known news photographers of the time, Arch Miller, Milton Merilees, Tom Hall and Cec Piggot are named.  Of course, I bought the book on Saturday because I am a tragic when it comes to old photographs. Milton Merilees was my teacher in 1976 when Aidan and I enrolled at Tech (now Tafe) to do a photography course. He was the most  inspiring and passionate photographer; technically brilliant with a creative eye. This collection, if not taken by him, was surely taken by cadets. The photographs exhibit all the hallmarks of a good photographer. Greg Ray comments that "scanning the negatives was like an archaeological dig".  At the end of the book there is a statement saying that this book  contains only a few of the thousands of negatives in the box. Interestingly, to me, there were two photos of our building at 59 Hunter St. They were in the background of street marches and little detail of the front of the building could be seen.

So, this morning, after I realised I would not be travelling to Maitland and before I started throwing dusty books into boxes, I wrote an email to Greg Ray. I asked him if, perhaps as a long shot, he had any other pictures of the AMP Building and the little P & O Building next door. This afternoon, I received a reply with two photographs of the front of the building both taken in the 40's. One is obstructed with bunting for a parade but the other clearly shows what the facade was originally. I have three special photographs of the original buildings I have lived in. This is the third. It made my day. The really hilarious thing is that there are TWO nuns in the picture. (We have a running joke about scoring points if we can get a nun in the picture. I once scored well with two nuns in Cuenca and Lester has captured one in Cuszco  who was wearing gold shoes, which scored good points.)

It is interesting just how much the facade has changed. There is no awning. The ground floor was comprised of three windows (no shop front - there must have been interior stairs to the upper floors.) The windows on the first floor, which caused us so much trouble with Heritage, were indeed different from the windows which currently exist. These windows opened in the central section.  I love the advertising on the Westminster wall!





This is the old photo of our house  in  Stockton,  built 1886. This photo probably taken in the 1920's.



This is the third old photo of a house we have lived in (and renovated). This is Tyrrell   St.  Our house is not clearly shown but it is the first house on the left, facing the camera. This is an old photograph as the sailing boats are visible in the harbour. This house was built in the 1870's or even earlier.

Other than that, progress has been made with the details of the kitchen, (I have changed my mind on the colour again but it isn't too late.) A representative from the company making the big glass doors came out to see the site. Steve was able to spend some time on the details of the roof garden componants. And Greg...apart from dealing with the fellow who is about to fix the leak in the wall, got on with building bits of wall. Lester said it got a bit noisy downstairs. He had a little old lady sitting in his room with her fingers in her ears.

16th November

I have had several emails from my "followers" (sounds like a cult!) who have been trying to post comments. I tried to figure out why this was not happening and I failed. Sorry. Thanks for sending ordinary emails though. I am interested in what you think. I am probably more interested in why you are interested. Is it a fascination with the odd couple who took on a troublesome building project rather than take the obvious path and buy one of the hundreds of new city appartments which currently beckon at the East End?

Today the waterproofing expert passed judgement on the existing "skin" on the roof garden. Rather than pull it up, he has decided it is best kept in place and after minor repairs, his product will be poured over the top to seal the whole area.

Steve has made contact with the Versipave consultant and further fine tuning about the kitchen cupboards  took place with a little bit of phone conferencing. I am very hopeful that an awkward narrow strip beside the refrigerator can be made into a thin, single bottle width, wine storage cubicle cupboard. Lester is even more hopeful!

Greg worked away at building the wall around the stairway in the living room which will house the meter board. Another little functional nook!

The last photo posted yesterday was, in fact, a hole in the floor of the second floor which remained after some ducting was removed. Looking down through it, the staircase below was visible. It was a bit freaky!



                                                                      Today's progress

Today, also, we posted another letter from our solicitor to the strata manager of the neighbouring building. We asked for swift action on the leaks as the problem has now halted work on the top floor.We stressed the urgency as our lease will soon expire and we need to move. I must admit, this is the only issue that I have worries about. All the rest is thoroughly enjoyable. 

15th November

John worked all day yesterday (Sunday) on the wiring and electrical installations. I didn't have the heart to tell him about our glorious Sunday catching up with groups of friends + food + wine. When I went over this morning it was a great surprise to see that Greg and Richo had bashed out the staircase between the first and second floor. They pulled out the fireman's pole and nothing fell down! So it wasn't holding the ceiling up after all. It served no obvious purpose, except possibly as an "insurance policy". The space is terrific. Pity we have to fill it in again.

I am still debating the colour schemes and enjoying playing on paint websites where it is possible to do "mix 'n matches" and even load a photo of your room and paint in experimental colours. Well, it wasn't totally successful. Lester is right, my painstaking choices are all variations of grey. He is beginning to appreciate just how hard it is to select five "greys" from the four hundred that exist! It's got to be the right grey!!!  The difficulty is actually deciding how to highlight the various beams in the room as there are crossways beams as well as lengthways ones.  In the surgery we painted them in strong contrasting colours. We probably won't do this in a living area but we still have to decide which beams to accentuate, (probably by going into lighter tones); the crossways beams or the lengthways beams. We are not anywhere near painting yet but the kitchen cupboards are about to be sent off to be painted and baked, so we need to ensure that we don't thwart ourselves with our first choice of colour.

Things moved ahead today with the organisation of lighting, scaffolding and solar hot water. Steve has ventured an estimated  finishing date : early February! That's really quite good as it gives us time in January when the kids are home for Christmas to have a couple of working  bees and sorting sessions. (Not Rowan, of course - he is heading for Ho Chi Minh City as I write.) It may not have been a good idea to flag these activities here. They may now decide to go elsewhere for Christmas! Darn!



The hole left where the staircase and the fireman's pole were.




The builder of the staircase drew out his plans on the timber.



I have been busy planning and sketching ideas. Poor Steve, I hand him scribble like this and expect him to build me a bathroom!



  

                                                 

                   Kitchen plan. (It won't be blue - it was the only  highlighter within reach)

 

The ceiling is detailed; there are five beams down the room which run up one wall, across the top and down the other wall. As well as this there are four beams which run lengthways down the room. Natural light plays on all the  surfaces giving differing coloured effects. So, how do we paint it??? It is a good problem.



Contrasting colours we used in the surgery




Amongst the rubble...what is this???









11th November

The eleventh of the eleventh is always a day of significance; Ned was hanged, Gough was sacked, WWI ceased and it is my Aunty's birthday. Today she turned 96! And of  somewhat less significance but nonetheless quite importantly, new plumbing and electrical work began at number 59 Hunter St. John and Regis made good progress both in the bathroom upstairs and the kitchen area downstairs.

On the homefront I spent more hours on the net. How did people make reno choices before the net? Firstly, whilst searching for a vanity, I found an idea which we could modify to create more space in the bathroom upstairs.  It involves more built-in joinery of-course.

 I also found a site called Overwrought which makes the coolest wrought iron security doors; ones with cows and kookaburras and spiders on them. And I then spent more time playing with colours as I went back to the Porter's Paints site. Their colours are excellent, however, I don't know if that will be the brand we will use. David sent  more information about the construction of the garden beds and the choices of plants. Paul rang to say that restoration of the two old chairs from Gosford and the piano stool are coming along nicely and he is chosing swatches of upholstery fabric for them.

In between walking Sally and cooking dinner I managed to finish sorting more books. I think I have culled about one third of our non-fiction books which is not really enough. I will do a second culling tomorrow. I have 74 books on Ancient Egypt alone. It is such a good collection that it seems a pity to split it up but I don't think I could bear to get rid of all of them. And then there are the gods; my 104 little models of all the Egyptian gods. I am not sure where they will fit in Hunter St. Maybe they go with the books. This is really hard!

My Egyptian gods collection

November 10th

Not much action today, but certainly lots of thinking and decision making.

This morning, after having talked to Chris last night, decided that I had to get my head around  the whole solar energy issue. I absorbed myself in a wad of clean energy consumer guides and am now an expert (well almost!). I now know all about REC's, solar cedits, gross and nett feed-in tariffs, TOU tariffs, smart meters and the SRES. With my brain bursting with this new-found knowledge, I felt ready to embark on a conversation with the expert. I rang the man who has done the quote and felt that our investing in the system would be a waste of money because of shading from neighbouring buildings. (Yes, thwarted by the AMP Building again!) However, I explained that we were making a decision based on conscience not economics, that we just wanted to know we were contributing something towards our usage - enough to make me not feel guilty when I use the clothes dryer in the night because I have forgotten to hang the clothes out in the day.  He was actually quite affirming and said that there should be more people like me about!  We went through the figures and they are not that bad.  So, I've agreed to go ahead. It is one of my failings; I just don't have a fiscal world-view.

Feeling well-satisfied, I then went to the hardware store and selected about twenty colour swatches and came home, spread them out and looked at them for the next three hours. After changing the combinations and squinting at them from different angles, I am pretty sure I have sorted a colour scheme for the whole place. I know that when Lester sees them he is going to say that they all look "grey", never appreciating the hours of anguish! So many hours, in fact, that I forgot to hang out the washing - again!

I found some terrific old photos of Hunter St  on the net this afternoon from the Snowball Collection. They show what the surrounds used to look like and what was formerly at No. 59. Unfortunately, they are copyright so I can't put them on the blog. I will include, though, this picture of the view directly over the road. It is the coat of arms, picked out in bright colours on the old Police Station. It's a really nice design through the trees. I will feel very safe with the old lion and the old unicorn protecting me - not to mention the crown.