Widowed in late 2008, his work/home balance became more and more out of kilter and exhausting. His son, an apprentice, had his own car and quickly resumed his life of learning his trade, going out with mates and having a girlfriend.
His daughter, entering her final year at school placed the teenage demands on him that had previously been dealt with by her mother. Both his children were unwilling to help consistently with household tasks such as cooking and cleaning. Michael remembers arriving home tired after a twelve-hour day, with no dinner preparations begun.
And gradually, their lack of assistance and absolutely no compromise wore Michael down. They wanted him at home, they rejected his relationship with me and they ignored his dog. So, Ruby came to live with me and three months later, Michael joined us all in my crowded duplex in the northern suburbs of Perth.
Our running away was hasty and intuitive. We saw a house we could afford in Beverley. Where? I'd never been to Beverley. Michael longed for the village atmosphere that had been intrinsically linked to his childhood. Then, my house sold in five days. We were suddenly committed to a move to the Wheatbelt. Within four weeks. A dinky little doer-upper, the House That Rocks, became ours. We signed the paperwork in a decrepit set of shops with very few redeeming features. Captain Helen Stubing - Real Estate Agent to the Stars and the alter ego of Captain Gavin Stubing - was renting the building and had her "office" in the first of the shops.
However, Michael was instantly smitten. There was no power in the building, so Helen helpfully provided Michael with a torch. I could hear his exclamations of delight. Then I was dragged through what I considered to be a complete and utter wreck. Rising damp, fretting brickwork, dodgy walls, a leaky roof and an overwhelming smell of damp and decay. There was a large safe left in a darkened cubicle. That bloody safe remains with us to this day...
So, we began our new life as Beverley Hillbillies. We took our cottage from tasteless to vivid. We renovated the kitchen and the bathroom, polished the floorboards, fenced the property, restored a second shed, secured the walls to the internal batons in every room and attacked the almost dead non-existent garden and lawn.
During our five very happy years there, we toiled over the garden to create a parkland paradise. We cried over multiple corpses, held our breath as plants hovered between life and death and exclaimed with relief at shrubs that blossomed after being at the brink of permanent departure. We battled bugs and grubs. We watered the entire garden every day during the summer months before we reticulated the property. The garden was our sanctuary. Eventually, we had to sell as the enormity of the garden maintenance became too much with the rise of the East End Gallery.
The former owners of the Forbes Building were eventually defeated by the scale of the renovations. We had a golden opportunity to buy the building. Everybody we knew - family, friends, acquaintances and strangers who wandered in off the street - thought we had totally lost the plot. I secretly thought Michael had totally lost the plot.
But his passion and enthusiasm were both contagious. He had a vision that I could only just glimpse. Shop 1's restoration in 2012 was completed with the help of locals as Michael had just had shoulder surgery and I was still recovering from a broken ankle. Further renovation of Shop 1 took place in winter 2015 with the superb assistance of a young and energetic German HelpXer named Madlen.
We worked on Shops 1 and 2 initially so we could source an income through renting them out. Shop 3's transformation was completed in September 2014. Michael's Man Cave was finished in December 2014. The Final Conquest was achieved in March 2016 after a marathon effort to tame to Abomidable Shop 4, the space probably in the worst condition of all the Forbes Building. The walls were leaning like that Tower in Pisa, the floor was accidentally a trampoline, the windows helpfully fell out and the fireplace looked like somebody had punched it repeatedly in the mouth. After a number of tantrums and the odd hospital admission, we celebrated the opening of the entire East End Gallery in autumn 2016.
Come the first six months of 2017. The time was swallowed by the Station House build and the seemingly endless squabbles with Western Power and the Water Corporation. When we eventually resolved these issues, after a very long seven months, we were spent.
I also had been determined to remove Michael from the winter cold from 2017 onwards. Instead of suffering from ongoing chest infections, we have escaped relatively lightly due to our absence from the ills that accompany the chilly months.
All this meant that the Forbes Building began to suffer from some neglect. This winter, Michael's workshop has leaked like a sieve and Shop 3 has not escaped either. We have marked X on the spots where containers are located to catch the drips and drizzles.
One space we no longer have to worry about is Shop 1, formerly a deli and tearooms during the 1970s. Lindsey and Kerryanne Doyle, surely amongst the most hardworking couples I know, had a dream to provide Kerryanne with her very own beauty salon. She had previously rented a shop further up the main drag, but some of the space was unusable and the rent was higher. They approached us to rent Shop 1 long term. We were delighted to accept.
Lindsey's renovation has transformed the shop, now U Beauty and Hair, operated by Kerryanne. There is no way any former punters would recognise the space, that had previously presented as tired and grotty back in 2012. We are the luckiest landlords in the world.
Don't just take my word for this. Book into Kerryanne's salon for any number of treatments. Revel in the ambience of a beautiful space and one very happy proprietor. Locals and visitors, do yourselves a favour and experience a makeover by Kerryanne. Vale Lindsey.
The last word is saved for Michael. Over the last week, he has toiled on the roof of our building. He has sealed and patched and secured and painted the workshop's many leaks. Next, he will move above Shop 3, where he has already identified the Likely Suspect Points. In spite of unseasonable heat and subsequent aches and pains, he has soldiered on magnificently.
However, today we are enjoying some free time. And all in well in our world.
Memories of the House That Rocks - Michael with Bently...
Our beloved Sascha...
A few fatheads...!
The Three Stooges on Pre-Rinse Cycle...
WTF?!
Stress relief after another long day...
Horizontal children at the House That Rocks...
Shop 1 - in The Beginning...
After the first reno...
Second reno...with Madlen...
Commander in chief...
The East End Gallery - Spring 2016...
Transformation of Shop 1 into U Beauty Country...
Dedicated Blokes Chair...
Hair washing and chair - very light and bright...
Second chair...
Beauty room...
Another angle of the Beauty room...
One very thrilled proprietor - Mrs Kerryanne Doyle.
