Last days in Geraldton.... July 2010.

Before we headed off back to our travels, we caught up with a few special people ...

The Family....

Ian, Tracey and the kidlets were heading north for a holiday and we got an opportunity to see them on their way up. Here are a few piccies

Me & my earmuffs (earmurfs?)
Ben showing us his amazing ability to fit into his little sisters clothes... note my very concerned expression. (concerned on many levels)


Ian & Dave (next to Caleb) messing up the little kids game on the swings (big bullies)
Uncle Dave & Caleb sharing a pretty little cosy blankie... so sweet.


Two beautiful neices...

Levi's Birthday,

Lucky us, just before we left we got an invite to his Birthday... he had a "mooshi monster" cake.

Cathe and little Matilda having a cuddle
The Boys about to blow out the candles.... they have a 'ritual' (yes, at their age) where they all scream like big girls once the candles get blown out...... it is VERY noisy.

fun times... and then we up and left for QLD.

THE RENO - BEFORE!!!

These photos show what we were faced with when we decided to move our tenants out and fix it up a little - initially our thoughts were to do the kitchen, paint some of the rooms and see how that turned out before putting the house up for sale..
Weed infested lawns - dying off. Reticulation busted
Dead and dying plants - bin left in front

Overgrown plants in back, patio looking rundown, bits falling or broken off. Holes punched and patched in outside wall...

Poor old back lawn - big round bare patch from kids swim-pool left there too long

The toilet -oyvei.. (this is as close as I got) and the bathroom not much better... FIRST THING INSTALLED, a new toot!

The kitchen as it was on first inspection




and then somewhat cleaner after departure (no close up on sinks or ovens - for your sake)


Two of the bedrooms... we initially slept in the third bedroom which had floorboards - as we didn't trust the "crunchy carpets" I wore shoes/thongs for the first 5 weeks! Only took them off for bed.. or in other peoples houses!

This carpet was the worst... except for where the couch was (quite clean by comparison)

This is the only 'true' before photo of the "yellow" room - by comparison it was in fairly good nick except for the broken window and artistic texta work on the doors...

I love this photo of Dave - it shows clearly the moment the enormity of the job ahead sank in...

With a sense of humour, you take it on... and following this post are photos from the next part of this journey!

THE RENO - DURING

Just some of the work that was done - too much to capture here though...




Luckily we had some help...

This is how we did most of our cooking..


Our Bedroom - and my sewing room (for rare downtime)












The last job...

THE RENO!!! - AFTER

This is the end result of all our hard work....