The Joy Of Unusual Spectator Sports

Building a house has been quite the experience. Part nightmare, part frustration, part insanity and eventually triumph are all key ingredients. I've heard that building a house is one of the great causes of stress. How about we throw into our mix (over the last eight years) Michael's forced retirement through ill health from the mining industry, relocating to a country town, buying a crumbling building and attempting to wrestle her back to a sort of quirky gentility. And money. Reliant on our Centrelink benefits as our primary income, we have skittered close to the edge of the financial precipice on more occasions than I would care to remember. Somehow, we always have held our nerve, held our breath and saved ourselves from fiscal disaster. How? Usually wishful thinking and receiving an unexpected windfall in the nick of time.

So, we are not trendsetters or socialities or beautiful people. Our idea of a great evening was last night's pub meal with fellow artist, dynamic woman and fab friend Jan George followed by watching the delicious Aidan Turner in "Poldark". Oh, be still, my beating heart!

And we can become quite excited about what others may view as mundane or boring. Take building Station House for example. We never knew that such activities could be seen as spectator sports.

Watching the surveyors peg out the block with pink ribbons. Demolition of the neglected foliage. The site works performed by Dan Wilkinson from Little Eco Hill. Even the cat explored his big boys' toys. Preparation for pouring the slab. Plumber Craig scampering around installing all the necessary plumbing before the concrete truck rolled in. Robbie Higginson and his team from All Round Concrete pouring our house slab.

The house frame shot up in no time. Then the roof sheets and our walls. And bingo, we had a shell of a home. Internal work and electrics completed. Kitchen, laundry and bathroom fittings and then the tiling. Internal painting to Michael's Executive Officer Gary and backpackers Aude and Seb. External painting by Michael and Gary.

All orchestrated in style by John Rozema and Lindsey Doyle, Avon Builders to the Stars.

Along with the good has been the bloody awful. Shenanigans by Western Power and the Water Corporation, which literally took months to resolve. An extension cord from the Forbes Building to Station House was our connection to electricity for five months. And the dreams of our courtyard were delayed by the Perth-based Water Corp elite who refused to believe the water main was on the edge of our property. Once the crews were actually allowed to fix our problems, the water and power issues faded into a vague and distant nightmare.

Our courtyard has been built and has exceeded our wildest dreams. Many thanks to Mark Libby and Joel from Kernowstone for a beautiful addition to our property, using one hundred and twenty-year-old bricks salvaged ( by Michael and Gary) from an underground water storage tank situated on our front block.

And Friday brought the penultimate chapter in the story of our home. Robbie and his All Round Concrete team laid the two carports' slab in a fantastic few hours. We are almost at the end.

We're taking a breather and having a few weeks off. Come August, we want to have our two little seating areas - front porch and the guest room's private outdoor space paved. We are almost too thrilled to think of the end of the project. But, our house will be completed in the spring, eighteen months after we began this incredible journey.

I wonder if I'll put my feet up then...

A very condensed version of our build March 2017 - June 2018