Well, here we are; we’ve been living in paradise for over a year already and I see that it’s been a year since I updated the blog. How did that happen? Where has the time gone?
We’ve done a huge amount to our home in that time and are thoroughly enjoying our life here. Every day we sit on our back patio and ask ourselves, “how lucky are we to live where we live?”
Seeing that this is the first update in over a year, I’ll do a monthly review of our time here since my last post. I’ve realised it will probably all be too much for a single post, so this will be a multi-part blog.
February/March
The big excitement for us for Feb was the arrival of our furniture and other belongings. It was so good to have the comforts of furniture, a real bed to sleep on, different clothes to what we’d been wearing for the past few weeks, kitchen utensils and appliances, gardening tools… I’m sure you get the idea.
It took me a few weeks (months for some things) to get all the boxes unpacked, to get our art hung, and everything in it’s right place. Some of the reasons it took so long were: beginning our garden clean up (we discovered orchids in our frangipani), getting to know the locals, walks along the beach (and finding sea-shore wonders), and renovations.
Late in February life was not so exciting for 52 of our local families, who had their lives changed forever. An unexpected storm event in late February caused catastrophic damage with some families losing everything in the flooding. Many lost their homes, farm and business equipment, livestock, and even family pets. Luckily, no lives were lost. The community and local businesses pulled together and provided meals every night, as well as donations of anything that might be needed. We gave one family a box full of cleaning supplies that were left in our house. It took days for the government to declare it a natural disaster, and some of the insurance companies didn’t want to pay out. I think there may still be families living in rentals while still paying mortgages.
We began our renovations with the bathroom, as well as installing a doggy door in the laundry. We replaced the vanity in the main bathroom. Then totally transformed the ensuite after discovering we had cracks in the shower grout and that moisture was getting in. The master wardrobe (inside the ensuite) was the smallest in the house – not much bigger than a single – so we filled in one of the doorways from the bedroom (yes, 2 doorways from the bedroom into the ensuite) and created a very nicely sized walk-in robe. We also pulled out the shower, retiled, and put in a bath under the new shower. I do love a bath, and there isn’t one in main bathroom. I’ve tried to include some before and after comparisons but I forgot to take before photos so have had to use some from the sale photos. They don’t really do justice to the change.
