Full Moon Over Suburbia

I'm sitting at the lights in our suburb of Mentone. I'm listening to Neil Young singing "From Hank to Hendrix". Cars flash by at 80 kms and faster and I think, "what would this full moon look like in Trentham? Will we see the full moon clearer, will we see bright stars in the night sky.

Do we see things clearer in the country? 

I'm being a little philosophical maybe.

33 years and now under the hammer

We've been here for 33 years. We were married in the back yard, 2 boys grew up here, an extension after the first 10 years our house has now seen about three incarnations to this final project to offer for sale.

Saturday we had our first open house inspection with we are told that 24 groups looked through our home. Our neighbours say that there have been several cars passing by and inspecting the sale sign.
Before the Auction on November 14 we have both Wednesdays and Saturdays open house inspections.

What will we miss when we leave;
Family, friends and a house that has always been a family and friends house of entertainment. One of the lovely things we will miss is something we only just had repaired. The spot light that illuminates the iconic Australian trees - a Gum and a Jacaranda.

In the summer months we often spend the twilight on the back deck with a glass of wine with dinner. Tonight as we admired the floodlit trees, lightening illuminated the skies with the sound of thunder.
A small amount of drizzle fell on the grass but not enough to retreat inside.

I hope that the new owners enjoy the house as much as we have - whoever they may be in three weeks time.

We Bought Land

We've mentioned Trentham in past posts on the Blog before - it sits on the Victorian Great Dividing Range at 700m above sea level and in winter it is one of the few towns than can get snow. It is a cooler climate area. There is a population of around 1400. Much the same size of the French villages that we have stayed in during our travels in rural France. Living in rural France has always been a bit of a fantasy of ours but Trentham just might be a small compromise of the dream.

It just so happened that we saw advertised, a block of land for sale during last week and so we decided to travel up to look at it Friday - only out of interest. We liked the look of it and then went to visit friends who live in Trentham. They came back to look at it with us and before we knew it, we were back at the real Estate office putting in an offer - it was accepted. Panic stations!!!

The block is a town block which is less that 500m from the main shopping hub of Trentham. Amongst the usual tourist shops are the bank, news agency bakery, two hotels and several cafes. I'll never be far from a good coffee after a ride.

I guess we have to start looking at what type of house we can build on the block. It needs to be energy efficient and sympathetic to the local environment. It might have an early style architecture, or then again maybe very modern. One thing for sure - it will have Sue's dream kitchen.

This is the front of the block facing the street. The two small trees to the right will need to be removed to allow for entering the block. The size is 1110 square metres. 

Looking down towards the other end of the block just beyond the last lot of trees you can see what is a Crown Land Reserve that gives an impression that the block is almost twice the size. 

In the fist third of the block is this magnificent tree that has come into full bloom. It could make a great summer retreat if we trimmed the lower branches. 

Now looking from the lower end of the block towards the front.

Trentham takes its name from the English town in Staffordshire with the first survey in 1857. Acreage from 99 to 595 were sold not much later. 1864 was the year that the area was surveyed for the town with most blocks being around half an acre. Trentham was built on the timber industry and prospered when the railway came from Daylesford. Timber was brought by dray to the railway and transported to Daylesford. There are still several of the early buildings surviving and although the railway has closed, the station remains as one of the town's attractions.

Much to Sue's liking, Trentham and the surrounding towns encompass a very enthusiastic foodie culture that promotes the local produce.

Just about Completed.

A big weekend it was. Our good friends rallied around this weekend as we are now only three days away from having photos taken of the house to go on the internet. We'll send you a link as soon as we know.

I spent most of the weekend finishing of the en-suite to our bedroom and just have a few finishing touches for completion such as the shower door. BUT, the amazing thing was that we had several of my cycling mates  give up their Saturday to paint, cleanup, move furniture and fix things that needed fixing.

Then on Sunday our son and his gardening mate, Luke put our garden in shape for the photos this week.

On Saturday afternoon, Bet and Denise, Sue's stylists arrived to turn the house into a movie set - its all working. We are now only a little less than 5 weeks from auction day.

Now that we have pretty much completed all the work leading up to the big day, we might just get into some normal routine and start posting a bit more.

It's Now Real

It's the real thing now - the sign is up to let the neighbours know that we are moving out soon. November 14 is Auction date. This weekend our friends are coming around to help with all those little jobs that we've missed. My sons are cleaning up the garden and mulching. The ladies are styling the interior. The blokes are doing a bit of painting.

You would think that friends and family would be doing all they could to make us stay but they realise that its what we want to do and are all the way behind us - we are blessed with great friends.

I hope that the letterbox that looks like a exclamation mark is not an ominous sign.

Once we get back to a more relaxing life, we promise to get back to being diligent bloggers.
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