We are in the middle of extending our home (hence my username). About half way through the extension now. However, our home is a constant work in progress. Always something to re-new or add to. We built it in 1985/86 and have renovated twice since then before our 30th anniversary extension.

ladyrob1

Sure sounds a fantastic lifestyle!

We had a cat [named him Garfield] picked up as a stray. Looked identical to yours, and vet said he was the largest cat he'd ever seen. He weighed 22lbs. Sadly he was about 12 years old when we found him, and is now dead, but we gave him a good 6 years until the end of his life

@ jeannie...that's Oipe, my dancing Queen...despite her size she's very nimble and does a little dance for her bowl of dinner. She's a Norwegian Forest cat. In the winter she grows another coat on top of her shorter curly woolly one...not FUR but a long straight coat of waterproof wool! Here sh'e in between seasons so no "Puss in Boots" UGG BOOTS and no gaucho pants! Can you imagine that!? After one litter she decided she wasn't doing that anymore...and I was sort of glad too....with all that wool around her nether regions! She gets shaved mid Spring, looks very funny but its more comfortable for her. Her favourite red mate 'Yodle' is smaller. Oipe is classed as 'red' ( ginger) even though her coat colour is much closer to a pale apricot. Have a friend who collects all Oipe's wool from her periodical groomings and her annual shear, spins it, crochets baby clothes and sells them...much in demand, better than Alpaca and as rare as....cat wool! I think Oipe weighs a bit more than 22lbs.

Everyone is taken by her and she's such a " lol-about and couldn't give a darn" that she allows all the attention and loves it.

My lifestyle is every bit as fantastic as it is just plain hard Aussie 'yakka'.
I planned that this house would be where I lived and died. All sounds so romantic and close to Nature...and it is...but one can get really muscle sore, and brain weary working oneself into this lifestyle. Thankfully I am quite a strong Aussie country woman now..but getting here from being a thin city lizzy with not much strength, let alone country naus, was an ordeal I thought I would not survive. I've needed every bit of brain and braun I could accrue... and all on my own. I've met some wonderful country folk who have taught me bush skills I never knew existed. Did you know, for example, that we should never kill ants? Black ants are the natural enemies of the white ants or termites. You need to know where your black ants live and keep them fed so they'll stay outside and hunt the termites. If you find termites just surround them with a handfull of sugar and bring a clump of dirt and black ants to where they are...you won't need to spray...ever! Once they know they'll alert all their relatives near and far and anything wooden in your dream home will be safe.

Glad you all like my story..THANKS...it makes all the hardship all that much more worth it!

Oipe reaps the full benefit of my, at times, sore, tired body. When I'm flaked out on the lounge from hauling in the heavy ironbark firewood for the night...she just ambles up and plonks her voluminous self right in my lap and up my chest and decides I need grooming and exfoliating with her raspy tongue. Then I get a massage! She purrs and vibrates like an idling diesel engine...its kinda relaxing!

P.S. Never thought anyone would catch me wearing Jeans! The only place I wear a skirt is to church..and sometimes I'm too tired to be botheredironing it...so have a pair of Sunday jeans ...there's no such thing as a day of rest...but time for the gentler jobs...like cooking enough to last the week! All the girls get together for that...NICE.

I think I'm one of the lucky people!

@ mazpt Ahhh...but don't you sometimes wish, whilst you are striving, that your dream home would all come together in an instant...maybe...like the TV renos, a projection into the future just for a glimpse and for the experience of seeing what all your labours were focussed on and for that feeling of final satisfaction? Only once in my life I found ' a house made to order'. I had a clear picture of it in my mind, so vivid I could almost smell it! My sister was dying, we were both alone, I knew what I needed to care for her at home. None of the Agents could give me any hope, all said I'd not find a w- in- w- out as I described for the price I wanted and in the location I needed.....So I sat on my vision and waited. Finally the Agent came and led us to the exact place....A bit of magic? An answer to a prayer? Fate? The power of faith? Anyway, the experience was overwhelming and we moved in within a week, nothing else to do but get through each day and enjoy the cosy environment. It made her passing ever so much more worry-free and relatively easy....there was time for just enjoying. I'd not made that place but it was as if my Fairy Godmother had set it all up for me to find. It would be great at this point in the life of my final reno, my own little nest made of "twigs and coloured finds" just like the Bower Bird does, if something magical would happen to finish off all the rest that needs doing here...so I could "Just Sit"...like in my rocking chair with my cat on my lap, instead of " Sitting and Planning" and stretching money like pasta dough. It's getting to be the hard part now, the last slog!

I watch the TV renos and often wish that something like that would happen to me at this point....a Team dropping out of the sky to finish it all off in a wink...so all there was to do was to relax after 30 years of "Yakka" . Some of those TV reno teams are truly ingenious and they are encouraging too. So mazpt, I feel as if I can join the 10% Club because time, money and strength have all slowed down so much...its like being in a time warp. I'm still one of the lucky ones though. And, all courage to you too!

Living in my not so dream house, and saving up to build my dream home. Could be a few years yet.

I will never be able to offer my dream home, even tho it is a modest weatherboard with a garden...

But I managed to buy a flat. It's small, and dark but being to go on that property ladder in this market is an amazing feeling.

To lostinreno....must be the weather here...I could go to sleep standing up its so balmy and I'm so vague...but, " lostinreno', apologies, I did not quite understand your post...do you think you could re-word it please? I'd like to know what you're up to.

Oh, maybe I misunderstood the poll question, ' how close are you to reach your dream home?`

Well, seeing that my dream home is a little weatherboard cottage with a picket fence and possibly some chooks in the garden and that in reality I live in a small and rather dingy flat, I was trying to say that I'm more than 100% away to reach my dream home...!

Basically I was feeling a little sorry for myself... The heat must getting to me too!!

my dream home is a nice period weatherboard with a picket fence..my present home is a modern apartment..

how close am I ? zilch as the practical me wants something easy to look after..the romantic in me still wants that house with a picket fence

Thanks lostinreno....I've Understood now. Sorry that the picket fence and the cottage is far beyond the reach of many these days.

Ladyrob if you don't mind me asking, were are you in Australia?