The Noonit 2
Without Prejudice
Shilo. The only girl child
Renovating from yard
Yorkshires
The Bedroom
You will have to forgive me for breaking my story in to parts, but Google blogs that I use, seems to have no idea of length for a blog and once I reach a certain amount of words I can't add any more without breaking off and starting a new page. So you will just have to bear with me.
Also I no longer have a share button. Thank God, some of you may say, but then I figure if you have read this far you must be slightly interested.
When I first decided to " cocoon" with my child it was mainly a financial decision. OK, yes I am cheap. But I was heartily sick of paying over $300 a week private rent. A woman of a certain age like me was not brought up to be a career girl, just a wife, homemaker and Mother. Not JUST a wife and Mother as to me there is no more important job in the World, but they were our choices in the seventies and we hardLy knew of Women that went to work full time.
I had lived at my last address for two years, and every year without fail, the Chinese couple who were my landlords put the rent up. They spoke not a word of English and did any necessary repairs themselves. It drove me nuts. My Chinese was very limited ( none ) and their English was the same so it was fun and games when the dishwasher leaked all over the kitchen, or one of the many heaters shat itself.
They were very nice people and nodded and smiled a lot but really made little difference to my day to day comfort so I had no qualms in jumping ship and leaving for destinations anew. My child and I had discussed a shared property situation before but a Son In Law talked me out of it as he said the kids would be on my doorstep night and day.
I had lived under the same roof as my child many a time and apart from a few years we lived in Main Beach, Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast with just one child, it never seemed to work. The boys were too rowdy, I needed peace and quiet and a sense of self, my child needed to be Mistress of her own domain and scream at her boys as she saw fit. I had had four girls and had no concept of male children. Nor how to raise them.
My child did. She had five sons and went on to have two more and finally a girl child, last. The last three in the nine years I have lived behind her. The "Noonit" took exactly one month to install in her sizeable back yard. Forty men came with lorries, forty men swarmed all over the place putting up walls and roofs and ceilings. Installing a kitchen, bathroom, one bedroom and lounge. And left.
That took a week.
The rest of the month was spent waiting for inspections and connections to be done. That seemed to take the longest time but finally it was done And as the two inspectors handed me the keys, I cried.
I had a choice of two units, one a square of 5 metres by 5 metres or a rectangle of 8 metres by 5. Of course I took the rectangle as I wanted all the room I could get.
Downsizing was daunting. I kept muttering to my self about fitting a gallon into a two pint pot but persevered through lost runaway dogs, mud, EBay sales, lashing rain and howling wind, flooded floors ( twice ) excited kids, and criticism,
My child
My Child
Alena standing in the kitchen
You will have to forgive me for breaking my story in to parts, but Google blogs that I use, seems to have no idea of length for a blog and once I reach a certain amount of words I can't add any more without breaking off and starting a new page. So you will just have to bear with me.
Also I no longer have a share button. Thank God, some of you may say, but then I figure if you have read this far you must be slightly interested.
When I first decided to " cocoon" with my child it was mainly a financial decision. OK, yes I am cheap. But I was heartily sick of paying over $300 a week private rent. A woman of a certain age like me was not brought up to be a career girl, just a wife, homemaker and Mother. Not JUST a wife and Mother as to me there is no more important job in the World, but they were our choices in the seventies and we hardLy knew of Women that went to work full time.
I had lived at my last address for two years, and every year without fail, the Chinese couple who were my landlords put the rent up. They spoke not a word of English and did any necessary repairs themselves. It drove me nuts. My Chinese was very limited ( none ) and their English was the same so it was fun and games when the dishwasher leaked all over the kitchen, or one of the many heaters shat itself.
They were very nice people and nodded and smiled a lot but really made little difference to my day to day comfort so I had no qualms in jumping ship and leaving for destinations anew. My child and I had discussed a shared property situation before but a Son In Law talked me out of it as he said the kids would be on my doorstep night and day.
I had lived under the same roof as my child many a time and apart from a few years we lived in Main Beach, Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast with just one child, it never seemed to work. The boys were too rowdy, I needed peace and quiet and a sense of self, my child needed to be Mistress of her own domain and scream at her boys as she saw fit. I had had four girls and had no concept of male children. Nor how to raise them.
My child did. She had five sons and went on to have two more and finally a girl child, last. The last three in the nine years I have lived behind her. The "Noonit" took exactly one month to install in her sizeable back yard. Forty men came with lorries, forty men swarmed all over the place putting up walls and roofs and ceilings. Installing a kitchen, bathroom, one bedroom and lounge. And left.
That took a week.
The rest of the month was spent waiting for inspections and connections to be done. That seemed to take the longest time but finally it was done And as the two inspectors handed me the keys, I cried.
I had a choice of two units, one a square of 5 metres by 5 metres or a rectangle of 8 metres by 5. Of course I took the rectangle as I wanted all the room I could get.
My child and two of the boys.
Downsizing was daunting. I kept muttering to my self about fitting a gallon into a two pint pot but persevered through lost runaway dogs, mud, EBay sales, lashing rain and howling wind, flooded floors ( twice ) excited kids, and criticism,
