We had our first open house day on Saturday and although we won’t have all the feed back until Tuesday, according to the real estate people they were very pleased with the turn out and interest. Sixteen groups went through and it would appear they were very impressed with how the house was presented, so our hard work was obviously worth while. Of course there were the obligatory neighbourhood sticky beaks but there were a couple of very good leads that are to be followed up by the experts. We’re not greedy; we only want one group to want it enough. However we don’t really expect to sell it on one showing but wouldn’t it be nice.
David has gone, as mentioned in my last post (sounds ominous) he is currently in the Philippines with his cousins, when he returns he will be going straight into our unit. Our tenant is in the process of vacating and over the next week we must get David’s belongings (crap) shifted in, already our house looks lovely and tidy and for more than a few hours. Getting back to the open house they told me there was an awful lot of interest in my paintings that are hung all over the house, so for future open days I’m thinking of putting a sign up saying “If you don’t make an offer on the house, at least make an offer on the paintings”.
For those of you that live somewhere other than beautiful Queensland, our weather has been great lately, cool but not cold and warm days although last week we had some cold wind blowing from the south west but it was beautiful in the sun. Probably rain tomorrow now.
Watercolour classes are progressing very slowly as I learn technique, but as it is a medium that is all about technique we are going about it in the right manner and to be quite honest I have been so busy with the house, I haven’t had much chance to carry out as much follow up practice as I would have liked, mind you that should all change now. I would love to go back to my oil painting classes but that will have to wait for a while as according to Nancy I can’t afford to do both at the same time, (watch this space).
We went out for dinner last night to celebrate our good neighbour Kurt’s 50th birthday, had a lovely alcohol free evening at a Sushi and Chinese bar great food great company. Poor bugger had to fly out today for Switzerland to bury his mother.
Well this is enough for a Sunday night, I have to make Nancy a cup of tea and there’s delicious left over birthday cake to force down.
Cheers
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
How time flys - 17/05/2011
17th May 2001
How time flys, it’s nearly a month since my last entry and it has been work, work, work. Originally I made out a list of jobs I needed to do to spruce the house up and at that time we weren’t quite sure what we were going to do. Well I keep adding to the list as fast as I tick things off but at least we have a better idea of what we are doing. It looks like we will be shifting David into the unit in the next couple of weeks so that will get rid of the last of the crap in our place and we have put the house on the market. Not a good time to sell but we have decided to test the market. If offers don’t look like getting near what we want, we will take it off and probably rent for 12 months, we want to keep travelling and can’t very well leave an empty house.
David’s cousins have invited him along on a trip to the Philippines, not to Manila but to the provinces where Merl comes from. Apparently it is quite beautiful in the provinces, situated at the base of an active volcano that they intend to climb, life is fairly basic and that is one of the reasons they want him to go so he can see how life is for some people not so fortunate. I hope the message gets through.
Timing is good he will be in the Philippines when it is time to shift him so we will be able to get his gear into the unit without a lot of un-necessary drama and he will be away when we have our first open house, which makes things a little easier to organise. Nancy and I will just disappear to the caravan that is currently parked behind the house Lisa is renting at Manly.
I have finally managed to start watercolour art lessons, 1 – 4 pm each Monday at Scattered Arts where I did my oil painting classes. Maria Field the teacher is a self taught artist who has become a well known and respected artist and much sought after teacher. Apart from the fact she is an exceptionally good teacher, Maria is also an extremely nice person and I was fortunate enough to get to know her well when she was a volunteer at Scattered Arts during my oil painting classes. Being a friend of Marias I was able to jump the queue when a vacancy arose, so that was a stroke of luck.
Just on watercolours, if anyone is considering taking up art don’t think for one moment that watercolour is easy, “it aint” there is a lot of planning, thought and technique in watercolour painting but it’s very intriguing and a wonderful medium. The good thing with this type of medium is the small amount of paraphernalia you need to take on a painting trip. If you prefer to paint in a studio atmosphere, it is relatively easy to make small field sketches and tonal paintings to capture a scene, ambience and particularly light contrasts, then paint it later once at home. Small colour notes the size of a postcard don’t take long to paint and are ideal when travelling for reproducing larger at a later stage.
It will be interesting to see how I go over the next month or so, I am hopeful that I can achieve a reasonable level of skill so I can use this medium when Nancy and I start travelling again.
We will be cat sitting this coming weekend, Lisa is running in a half marathon at Noosa so we have to feed the cat and give it its injection for diabetes!!! We did the same last week end when Lisa sailed in a two day yacht race. Mow the lawns, fish and chips Saturday night and sleep in the caravan, go home for a late breakfast. At least we get the chance to check out the van.
Nancy went to “Braille House” last Monday to do some voluntary work like she did before we went away, I don’t know if it was a one off or whether she is going to do it on a regular basis again, it was something she enjoyed and certainly helped stimulate the old brain.
Keep you posted
How time flys, it’s nearly a month since my last entry and it has been work, work, work. Originally I made out a list of jobs I needed to do to spruce the house up and at that time we weren’t quite sure what we were going to do. Well I keep adding to the list as fast as I tick things off but at least we have a better idea of what we are doing. It looks like we will be shifting David into the unit in the next couple of weeks so that will get rid of the last of the crap in our place and we have put the house on the market. Not a good time to sell but we have decided to test the market. If offers don’t look like getting near what we want, we will take it off and probably rent for 12 months, we want to keep travelling and can’t very well leave an empty house.
David’s cousins have invited him along on a trip to the Philippines, not to Manila but to the provinces where Merl comes from. Apparently it is quite beautiful in the provinces, situated at the base of an active volcano that they intend to climb, life is fairly basic and that is one of the reasons they want him to go so he can see how life is for some people not so fortunate. I hope the message gets through.
Timing is good he will be in the Philippines when it is time to shift him so we will be able to get his gear into the unit without a lot of un-necessary drama and he will be away when we have our first open house, which makes things a little easier to organise. Nancy and I will just disappear to the caravan that is currently parked behind the house Lisa is renting at Manly.
I have finally managed to start watercolour art lessons, 1 – 4 pm each Monday at Scattered Arts where I did my oil painting classes. Maria Field the teacher is a self taught artist who has become a well known and respected artist and much sought after teacher. Apart from the fact she is an exceptionally good teacher, Maria is also an extremely nice person and I was fortunate enough to get to know her well when she was a volunteer at Scattered Arts during my oil painting classes. Being a friend of Marias I was able to jump the queue when a vacancy arose, so that was a stroke of luck.
Just on watercolours, if anyone is considering taking up art don’t think for one moment that watercolour is easy, “it aint” there is a lot of planning, thought and technique in watercolour painting but it’s very intriguing and a wonderful medium. The good thing with this type of medium is the small amount of paraphernalia you need to take on a painting trip. If you prefer to paint in a studio atmosphere, it is relatively easy to make small field sketches and tonal paintings to capture a scene, ambience and particularly light contrasts, then paint it later once at home. Small colour notes the size of a postcard don’t take long to paint and are ideal when travelling for reproducing larger at a later stage.
It will be interesting to see how I go over the next month or so, I am hopeful that I can achieve a reasonable level of skill so I can use this medium when Nancy and I start travelling again.
We will be cat sitting this coming weekend, Lisa is running in a half marathon at Noosa so we have to feed the cat and give it its injection for diabetes!!! We did the same last week end when Lisa sailed in a two day yacht race. Mow the lawns, fish and chips Saturday night and sleep in the caravan, go home for a late breakfast. At least we get the chance to check out the van.
Nancy went to “Braille House” last Monday to do some voluntary work like she did before we went away, I don’t know if it was a one off or whether she is going to do it on a regular basis again, it was something she enjoyed and certainly helped stimulate the old brain.
Keep you posted
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