@midesign0401, Hi Megan, yes it is heaven, I take a look at it all and sigh in happiness!!! As for the house, there's a bit of money to go ahead but this is now our busy time of the year, as we are hay contractors spending many many hours in tractors. However, I intend to get onto the next job ASAP which is laying the sill tiles around the veranda. It's a bit of an old fashioned look but these tiles will protect our limestone bricks from water stain when it's raining constantly in winter. The water will run off the sill tile and drop just a little shy of the bricks. Limestone is not only rough in our case but very porous and we also plan to have these tiles on all the window sills too, like the old tan brick houses from the 50's and the chocolate brown sill they had on their windows,only ours are cream not chocolate. It will be easy to wipe the sills from time to time and keep the house neat and clean. Once these tiles ar in place, 80mtrs of tiles, then we can concrete the veranda and then the roof iron can go on hopefully before Christmas. We have all the bricks for the home but need to find another $16,000 for all the rest of the windows. We are only using our own income, not borrowing at all so we have to do a budget and see if we can allow the money for the windows as the income we earn from Sept to Dec, is about 90% of our income for the entire year. It's taken 7 years now to get to this point having spent more that $80,000 already as I'm keeping a diary of spending. Goodness knows how much a 30+ square home with pool would cost if we had to pay a builder!!! We are owner builders and we've done everything ourselves including digging all the foundation and laying over 5000 standard bricks and digging the hole for the pool and fitting the pool including all the plumbing. We put in all the concrete stumps, layed the floor and fitted all the underfloor plumbing with a plumber friend guiding us along. We also put up all the framing and roof trusses, so we are absolutely chuffed with our abilities and progress.

Old post but thought I'd update. We have finally moved into our forever home and on occasions, obviously in winter, we still have crying window (sob). We have the wet windows on the south side of the home which is the shady side so not unexpected but also on the north side where we still get lovely warm winter sunlight streaming in and I still do have all my windows slightly cracked open and it does help. Incidentally I have glass bricks in our bathroom on the south side and there is no condensation on this window at all. Our home has insulation in both the exterior and interior walls and we have double insulation in our roof, so factor 7 unlike the usual factor 3.5 not that it probably has any bearing on the moisture issue. We have a 1.8mtr wide veranda surrounding the entire home so the windows are some what protected from the elements but when the temperature gets fairly low and can be almost zero in winter, it seems impossible to prevent this crying window sindrome but I can live with the fact it is fairly easy and quick to remove with a Karcher window vac now, brilliant little machine at $99 and it only takes a few minutes. We have an exhaust fan in both bathrooms that is vented outside so the moist air does not go into the roof space and in fact even my rangehood ducting is vented outside too!! We even had condensation in the roof cavity as well to the point of having a rainforest up there but since fitting another whirlie into the roof making it three in total now, it appears to have almost entirely eradicated that problem. I can say catagorically now that crying windows are a very difficult problem to eradicate in very cold climates where obviously the inside of the home being heated at night is going to create the perfect conditions for the condensation to settle with the inside being far wamer than the outside and there in lies the problem which canot be changed. I have blinds and curtains that I close ever day before dark but it makes no difference. As I have aluminium windows and doors throughout, so no timber anywhere, it isn't such an issue for damage but annoying none the less but life goes on and I do so love my beautiful new home!!

we have a "cosy cottage" style house where we have dormer windows in the 2 bedrooms upstairs with timber cathedral ceilings. Causing some problems with having wardrobes for clothes storage. In our spare bedroom downstairs we solved this problem by installing a built in wardrobe with mirrored sliding doors. This room is right beside the bathroom so it works really well as a dressing room.

We're already at the "old age" with problems stage, so have gradually adapted most areas to suit our limitations. What has amazed me is how suddenly the body changes have seemed to come all at once. We have a 4x2 on a quarter acre close to amenities, and I would hate not to have it. I love having all our varied fruit trees and raised garden beds, but admit I have a strong young man to help for 2 hours a week. Had spinal and knee ops last year which has limited what I can do. Bad part of getting old is the mind staying young - tells the body to do something beyond it's present state. Example is lifting a huge bag of fertiliser out of car boot. Result was spinal surgery, and being told that lifting heavy objects will put me back under the knife. The 1 thing left to do in the bathrooms is install higher toilets, as the knees don't bend so well any more. Walk in showers, bidet toilet seats, and heated bathrooms are a boon, and grab rails are well used. We have a small step to the patio, but have installed a ramp for that, otherwise we have no other steps. Rugs and carpet have been replaced with tile which is easier for using walking frame. Installed more and brighter lights for OH,s fading eyesight, and replaced our t.v. with a larger one. Have enclosed part of our huge patio to create a sunroom off the family room. This brings more warmth into it when the sliding doors are open, and we can vent the heat in the hotter summer months. Our next project is to replace our [only] 4 years old kitchen so we don't have to bend or stretch so much to reach what we need, especially all my appliances and gadgets. Now all we have to do is hope we live long enough to enjoy it lol !