Touchwood

I recently posted a pic of Lyndon's 1960's Australian Seacraft timber power boat, Touchwood. One of the necessities of boat ownership (however small) is maintenance. Over the past few months Lyn has been busily taking the engine apart for a makeover and has been building her a new trailer. The last one had become very rusty and therefore rather dangerous.

Molly relaxing in the middle of the construction

part way though and missing lots of bits - a long way to go yet!

The very industrious 'master of the tools' Lyn decided to build a trailer from scratch which included learning how to weld. It's not quite finished but I thought I post some shots anyway.

testing out to see how the boat fits

the bare bones being smoothed out

Part of the process involved lifting the boat off the trailer (welding close to a timber boat - a big no-no!). This was a rather scary task but thankfully was successful. I was scared that the carport was going to give way!

hanging in mid air!

I'm looking forward to getting Touchwood in the water. Lyn's not sure it will happen this coming summer but I hope so. We have had such adventures out on the Derwent River. Lots of fun times cruising around and some scary times too eg breaking down out in the middle of the very wide river!! We've been towed by another boat, caught in super rough water (the sea breeze comes up so quickly!) and had friends scream along behind us on the ski-biscuit. SO much fun.

at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival

Quirks of old homes (and a hot pink ensemble)

I suppose one of the downsides of owning an old home is that things all start wearing out.
The other night while I was cooking dinner I noticed the lights dim when I turned on the oven. Lyn came in from his shower to say he felt tingles off the taps and shower head. Hmm, a bit of a problem.
We went through the house and check the earth connections, the fuses and behind the panels in the switchboard (the benefit of being an electrician) and discovered a problem with the earth.
We decided if I was going to have a shower the next morning I would have to wear thongs so off I went to Kmart to buy some lovely hot pink thongs (flip flops for those of you outside Aus). Now, if I was going to shower as safely as I could that would also mean rubber gloves, and being the fashionista I am, luckily they were also hot pink. I like to be co-ordinated, even in a potentially dangerous shower situation. Can you imagine it?? What an hilarious picture.
Anyway, Lyn rang the power supplier who came around and discovered we had a broken neutral where the power enters the house - so they fixed it! No need for my hot pink showering ensemble after all :(

While we were checking the earth on the hot water cylinder (which is in our ceiling and is ancient - please don't leak!!) I thought I'd stick my head up there for the first time. WOW! There's so much room, in fact room enough for a large master bedroom and tonnes of extra storage. I had to take some pics but they don't really give an idea of the height and space.

Ours is probably the highest pitched roof in the street. I've been daydreaming ever since about a gorgeous attic room with dormer windows (the view would be great), maybe a cute little juliet balcony?

A girl can dream.

This pic (though not great) shows the light streaming in through the holes and gaps in the roof :) Amazingly, it doesn't leak in downpours (knock on wood).

Ah, the joys of an old home  :) I love it!

ps macaron recipe coming up in next post!