Settlement

Settlement day has arrived. The "Spirit of Tasmania" docked in Devonport, we had breakfast, and then it was time to meet the agent for final inspection. Initial feeling was "home", and then we looked at how high the grass had grown since last we were here. Robert had to use a shovel to slash a path to the back door!

We received a phone call just after 2.30pm to say settlement was final - so now Birch Cottage is ours!
Now the work begins!

First task was to prune some branches from the silver birches down the driveway, and to reposition a concrete post, to enable the container to be delivered.

Now our belongings are on site. We have decided not to stay here for the first few nights, we'll stay at "Helvetia Retreat" in Sheffield so we can have the use of a shower, washing machine, cooking facilites and a bed! We went to Harvey Norman in Devonport and ordered a new side-by-side fridge/freezer. The realities of now being "rural" is being told we're on the country run, and it'll be a week before it can be delivered. 20 mins from town, and we're "country"! Oh well, we'd better stay at Helvetia Retreat for a few more nights.

Robert started cutting back the growth from around the house, and light is beginning to flood in. Now we can really see what we've bought! There was a tree fern with 3 trunks in the corner between the office and a lounge window and was effectively blocking all light, Cutting the fronds off that made a big difference!

We've decided that even though eventually all the internal walls will be replaced (they are masonite at present) that we will give them all a coat of cheap white paint. It will give a fresher feel to the place, and help with lightening it up. The front bedroom was painted first - the room we will sleep in till the extension is built. We had a few litres of "Dulux Solitude" left from the bathroom in Melbourne - white with a touch of blue - so we painted our room with that. Appropriate name too.

We've put the deposit down on a rain water tank. At present the house is only serviced by bore water. We would prefer to use rainwater for the house, only using the bore to flush the toilet, and use in the grounds. We have decided to have a large tank built on site: it will have a capacity of just over 48,000 litres, be made of Colourbond, and have a food safe bladder insert. It should be installed end of January.

Robert found that the growth requires a brushcutter with a little bit more grunt than the one he has, so we made a trip to the Stihl store in Devonport and bought a straight shaft model. A man's toy!

The back of the house had a clematis vine growing up a trellis, into the gutters, and up the roof. We decided that it's travels needed to be curtailed.

It hasn't been all work. We've had a chance to look around our new neighbourhood. The fields around are awash with shell pink poppies - an alkaloid commercial crop that is grown to produce coedine. As the blooms finish, the seed pods are visible, and should be ready for harvesting in a couple of months time.