Cool discovery

One of the best bits about this old house so far has been peeling back the layers and finding out what's underneath. It helps us piece together a bit of its history - or at least some snippets from which we can imagine a history.

Like most renovations of buildings this age, we've found faded wallpaper and peeling paint, but the coolest thing we've found is this note on the plaster underneath the wall that was hiding the fireplace.

It's a note from an apprentice carpenter spruiking for future work. He writes:

"I'm an apprentice carpenter and in ten years time ring me up and I'll build your house"

It's dated April 1988 - so twenty three years ago (interestingly, almost to the date of when we signed the contract). I've done some research and - if I have the right Malcolm Monk - it seems that his enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit didn't leave him and he became quite a large property developer. Unfortunately, it seems the GFC wasn't too kind to his business and he's shut up shop.

But still - what an esoteric and charming find. I hope there are more as our journey progresses.

The beginning

We've bought a house. An old house. An old, run down, slighly odd and upside down house. It may be that we took leave of our senses when we made the offer, but if that was the case, we still haven't come to our senses, In fact, we're all still a little giddy with excitement. Actually, that's not entirely true - Puddleduck is underwhelmed by it all. I suspect because the house doesn't have a TV. It does, however, have a cat that visits and she thinks that is fairly cool. I don't think the cat will be such a frequent visitor when our dogs arrive.

Join me on my journey as we transform this old office into the home of our dream!