The void that has filled our hearts

It took more than two months from the date of handover but were finally back in our own home!

I’m not a gifted enough writer to properly articulate how happy I am to be back home after more than a year away. I suppose I feel a bit like this:

The process and pace of “finishing” the house post handover has been painfully slow. Engaging contractors who never turn up when they say they will – if they turn up at all – obtaining and comparing quotes, waiting for your tradie to then carry out the work, and making sure they carry it out well. These are things which take a lot of time and effort.

It’s an experience that leads us to believe once again that Eden Brae was worth every penny of that builder’s margin.

And if you’re like me, you believe that time is money or rather there is time value of money (a nod to the finance nerds out there), that just adds to the attraction of getting your builder to do as much as they can.

Window coverings were one of the very first things we started thinking about as handover approached. We even started conversations with people prior to handover but, like I said before, this process takes time. We didn’t agree on a supplier until a few weeks after handover. It took another two months for it all to be made and installed. Two months we could have had back had we gone with the builder’s supplier.

That’s not to say that we’re not happy with what we have – we are. Very happy. It’s amazing how a simple curtain can lift a space.

All we need now is something nice in the backyard to look at when sitting in the nicest part of the house. Right now, the yard is a pile of dirt. Except when it rains, then it’s a pile of mud.

Getting this particular curtain up was a bit of an ordeal.

The installer needed scaffolding as a ladder wouldn’t have been feasible because there wasn’t enough wall above the window frame to rest a ladder and screw in the curtain track.

Putting up that scaffolding was very much a two man job. Given the curtain designer who accompanied the curtain installer was a very lovely lady in her 70s, that second man ended up being yours truly.

Reflecting on my efforts while enjoying these new window coverings, it’s possibly the most rewarding piece of manual labour I’ve done while building this house.

It was certainly more rewarding than putting up a 3M hook in the pantry to hang possibly the world’s ugliest apron.