Tales of Trentham begin

It's been some time that "Our Country Life" has had regular postings. This was partially due to not having internet access since moving to Trentham late December. Now that we are pretty much settled in our new house, its starting to feel like home. The process took a full twelve months with both the administration and building.

We are often asked how we chose Trentham as our place of retirement - the answer was always, "We didn't - it chose us." It must have been 2 or 3 years ago we decided to spruce up our Mentone home to sell and move from "Melbourne - Our Home by the Bay" (remember our past blog title?)
We considered many places for retirement - Launceston, Tasmania was one that attracted us. Then there was Warrnambool on the far west coast of Victoria. Both were too far from family and friends.
Then we started looking at towns no more that 1.5 hours drive from the Melbourne CBD.

Trentham Falls in early winter

During this stage, I had transitioned to a 4 day week and on my Fridays off, we would search out houses within that time frame from Melbourne. Strangely we kept driving through Trentham. We would stop for lunch or for a late afternoon glass of bubbles. We had friends who lived here so we would occasionally pop in to say hello.

One sunny spring afternoon while sitting outside our favourite wine bar in Trentham, a local couple pulled up in their C3 Citroen and being a Citroen tragic I struck up a conversation after which they joined us for a drink. Anyway after they left, we looked at each other and agreed that we both could live here. That's when house hunting became serious. A block of land came on the market and we fell in love with the existing trees, the size of the block (not too big, yet not too small) and the fact that it had crown land behind it which also had a small creek.

Trentham Falls in mid winter when the rains came.

Trent Creek running in mid winter is at the far end of the reserve behind our block. It feeds into the Coliban River which flows over the Trentham Falls.

The thought of building a modern home to suit the climatic conditions of Victoria's Central Highlands seemed an obvious choice. We'll explain more on subsequent posts.

So! Our Country Life now changes to TRENTHAM TALES. It will bring you stories of the local history, the surrounding scenery, eating and drinking establishments, festivals and just the local lifestyle of this small and magical village of Trentham.

Leon and Sue

Still not back yet

We have been without Internet access for the last eight weeks. This post is thru our mobile phone to say - yes, we are still here and living very happily in our new home. If we could get these bloody Internet people to do their job well, we would be bringing you many exciting posts. Ah well, we will be back soon - we hope!!!!!

Luxembourg Jardine 2012

Just something to fill a spot for our next adventure in Trentham. 

Not long to go now. 

But until then, some photos of our life in France.

A place we were in 2012 of Sue's 60th.

GIMME THE KEYS

Other than some pathetic reason, we will pick up to the keys to our new HOME.... We start now start to calling it a home - not a house.

ALMOST THERE

It's been a very interesting November. We had aspirations of moving our belongings into the new home by now but certain tradies have let our builder (and us) down. I'd have to say we lost two weeks or more due to the stupidy of the Plumbers. They must rank on the high scale of dumbness that you could expect. They installed the mixer over the vanity basins and so the actual tap would have emptied water over the bench top. Doh!!!!
So then the Plasterer, Tiler and Painter had to return to fix the damage he left behind.
To add insult to injury, the full length vanity mirror due to a small wave in the tiling would not fit.

Our splash backs were damaged in transit we were told and so they needed to be remade, still yet to be installed.
Should our final walk thru be as re-scheduled on this Tuesday afternoon, there maybe between one to two weeks before handover which will make it December 20 - ouch!!!! Not a good time to move pre-Xmas but I guess we just have to live with it.

Having had our little grumble, the whole building experience has not been as traumatic as some of the tales we have heard. Ours is basically a time issue as our building supervisor has actually been very good despite having to deal with all the various Tradies.

All the floor coverings are now installed - this is our entrance hall looking to the front door.
The first opening to the right is the study/library. The second opening is a sort of foyer to our bedroom, and ensuite.

Study/Library: Not sure where the desk goes as yet or the bookshelves - all part of the fun.

This is the foyer leading to the bedroom, ensuite and dressing room. That  piece of green on the floor is the large vanity mirror that didn't fit.

Our bedroom window looks out to the hedged conifers giving us complete privacy.

The walk-in robe - dressing room was only carpeted last week due to a hitch with someone not ordering enough. 

Finally there will be room for all of Sue's Shoes.

Looking from the windows of the master bedroom, we can see the en-suite and to the right is the dressing room and then to the left is the shower and toilet. That little alcove was to be a bath but we turned it around and now it becomes Sue's reading nook for a 1.5 comfy seat, ottoman and reading lamp. And I have the Study.

We are really pleased now that the flooring is down in the kitchen, dining, family areas.
The pendant 3 lights illuminate the huge bench that Sue wanted.

Now we are looking from the back wall of the family/living area towards the kitchen. To Sue, the kitchen is the lifeblood of the house where she cooks for family and friends. 

Now looking from behind the island bench to the living area with the long rectangular  window.
This wall will house the TV and book shelves. Note the white power point on the island bench. Sue had both power points and USB ports so the iPad and phone could be on charge close by. She uses her iPad for recipes.

This time we look towards the dining area - it will all make sense once we move our furniture in.

You may giggle when we say we downsized but we reduced the plan from a 4 bedroom house to a 3 bedroom by taking up the space to convert the Alfresco area to an L-Shape. This is where we will do much of our warmer months entertaining. BBQ - Pizza Oven - outdoor furniture.

We'll let you know how it goes later in the week with the walk-thru.....Fingers crossed????