End of Week 10...1st -8th Dec 2015

Xmas seems to be coming faster than ever this year!
I have my very own Xmas decoration out here in the street, just outside my window, so no probs about having a topper on my Xmas tree!

All is good here, weather is perfect for me. Occasional sprinkles of rain, cool days, warm nights, cloudy/sunny or plain overcast days. Perfect for jogging in the mornings, working in the yard or just going into town and sitting around, watching the people go by!

Nice chicken with fresh shallots and tons of capsicum plus a nice hot spiced wine for dinner! Yummy...

Looking out my front window to my very own Xmas decoration in the street! Not 20 feet away. How lucky am I?

Saw a nice sunset starting last night as I was coming home at 3.30pm on Wed arvo!  Don't you love it? Pitch dark at 4pm....So I raced around the paddock, trying to dodge houses, caravans, trees and sheds before it all faded away on me.

At the end of the paddock now and it's getting better!

Now back in the middle of my paddock...

Then I looked towards the opposite sky and wow, that was pretty too.

Had to try and get rid of the blessed trees and things blocking my view, so tried a closer up shot.

Not too shoddy...but can see I'll have to put a window upstairs in the attic after winter, so I can take decent uncluttered pics. 

Cooking lunch of chicken and vegetables in capsicum sauce with  a pot of hot spiced wine. This is only the water and dried  spices and fruits cooking for the first bit, as I don't yet have another pot big enough to use. When the chicken is cooked. I'll transfer the hot spiced semi syrup to the blue container and add a cup of wine and cook below simmer for a further 30 mins. Yummy lunch today...well, it will be 3pm by then, so it's really my tea, the last meal for the day! Better go have some avocado and cucumber on a few rice cakes I think, whilst waiting!

Yaaahy, the walls in the end room are almost finished! The only reason they have taken so long is firstly, we ran out of sand, then when I did buy more, it was the wrong type to finish this very fine coat...4th time I got it right.

So pleased with my Friday effort. I worked from 8am, right thru without a break or even a cuppa, to 3pm! I was amazed the time just flew. But I got the herb garden finished and all the edging done! Now all that has to be done in this pic is to complete the paving you can see in bottom of pic. The whole path to the garden gate will get done in next 2 days

Zoltan outside Saturday, trying to connect the sewer pipes, but we need a 45degree angle connector...I bought a 90degree angle...So, this is another job for next weekend. We have to dig the waste water pipe trench also to meet up with this trench, so there's plenty to do to fill in time!

Was shifting a pallet of these thermal bricks, wondering about the colours for the place...and would you believe this? On the side of the bricks are the firing /cooking marks from the furnace. Beautiful! There's my colour palette! I'll take this brick into the paint shop and get these colours. Loving them very much.

Here is the same brick up against the white pillar...Of course I'll tone it to the depth of shades I want.  Nature has delivered for me and solved my dilemma. I can't believe the difference in colour that moving the brick created. Never mind, paint is cheap, so a bit of experimenting is on the cards here after Xmas!

Zoltan has just completed the first run of the end room...yaaahy!

That means, he comes back tomorrow morning and completes the 2nd application to the end room floor.
Then he's just informed me I have to buy 2 bags of some micofinish stuff for the walls...it's a type of glass finish that they coat over the walls to smooth the cement render with...different to the floors.

Anyways, it's almost 2,000ft a bag of 5kgs, so it must be good stuff.
$20.00 Ausd all up, so that's OK.

Have to also buy 20mtrs of waste water pipes, a couple of 45degree angle bends for the septic pipes and waste water pipes.

Then they'll dig the last bit of trench for the waste water pipes, lay them all in and then everything can be connected...It only took 18months to get this far...Well, half that time really, as I was only here for 9 whole months all up.

Getting a bit excited about all of this coming together at last.

Rainy today and quite dark inside. Finishing touches to the new doorway...

The first of 2 special coats to the end room floor...

Just had to cart everything from the end room into the bathroom area to get the end room finished to-day.

Half the end room floor first coat done...

Coming up to completion....

Looking schmik, is it not? 2nd coat tomorrow...Then a coat of some type of wall finish, tidies up the walls...and then it's all ready to paint. Yippee! That messy looking thing on the floor is the cellar door. It comes up ok once they clean up. I think when I get the rails around that part, I'll take the door off and make a door downstairs so the cellar gets used. If I leave a door on the floor, it will end up cluttered with stuff and the cellar will never get used. 

The doorway is finally patched up and nice and straight, all ready for the timber paneling to go over it, plus the little step  on the floor, between rooms. The 2 inch high steps seems to close off the drafts from zapping under the doors. I'm adding them to both  new doorways to keep the authentic look throughout the place.

OK...all done for this week folks.

Now that the end room walls, new doorway and floor are almost finished, it's onto completing the septic and waste water pipes, garden path finished, trenches all filled in, yard leveled and the new windows finally cleaned.

The new dividing walls inside and hand made doors can wait until May or so, when everything has dried out properly inside.

Will still have a bit of work to do on filling in some gaps in the ceiling around the beams in the end room, but that's only women's work, not man's work! I classify jobs as man or women jobs. I get the easy ones, the guys get the digging, cementing and heavy ones!

Also, will connect up the loo, probably after I get back from Serbia in late December. Am going to Budapest and Belgrade for a few days after 15th Dec and will be back for Xmas here...I think. Depends upon my visa...If it comes through OK before Xmas...it's due this coming week...7th-14th December.

I have no idea if I can go across borders or whatever with the resident certificate/card, so will have to sort that out when the time comes.

Will have my birthday in Belgrade with Jelena, meet up with other friends for coffee etc and have lots of hot spiced wine while walking the streets, looking at the people and lights. All of this while being enveloped in the heavily laden air, filled with sweet aromas of nutmeg, cinnamon, spiced rolls,  hot gluewein and other Xmas treats cooking in numerous wooden stalls.

Happy December all...