That Was Quite Some Year
Tasmanian Devil at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, Hobart.
It seems strange to think that a year ago, almost to the minute as I post this (time zone difference accounted for), Mike and I were taking up our allotted seats on Hobart’s waterfront in Tasmania, eagerly anticipating the fireworks to welcome in 2019. We’d already come face to face with cassowaries in Far North Queensland, driven half way round the south coast of Victoria, sipped wine in McLaren Vale, cohabited with sixteen kangaroos on the island of the same name, bought a fitbit in Sydney and still had the outback of South Australia and WA’s glorious Margaret River region to come. Now many of those places are threatened by fire. Or smothered in the palls of smoke that the wildfires also bring. It is heartbreaking to think of the devastation and the catastrophic impact on the wildlife. Nor is the burden of responsibility lost on me.. we burnt up an awful lot of fossil fuel on that journey. (It all started here.)
On the home front it hasn’t been plain sailing either.
Prior to this Christmas Eve the last time we actually sat down in the sitting room was back at the end of March. Then it looked like this:
Oppressive black painted beams and wood chip wallpaper, three layers thick in places.
Between then and now we’ve had no shortage of surprises, some of them even nice ones: an old brick floor hidden underneath a thick layer of screed. It took Mike several days with a hammer and cold chisel to uncover it all.
And an even older cobbled hearth, likely original to the earliest part of the house.
The builder initially reckoned it would take three weeks. “Just a bit of patchin’ ‘ere and there..”
But you know how it is, the more you delve into something the more trouble you reveal.
(The Makita boom box radio was an early casualty. If it had stayed the distance either it or I would have ended up in the river.)
Peek-a-boo..
But you never know when a live-in building site is going to come in handy. If there’s a late frost the very same week you choose to demolish the greenhouse.. well, then it becomes very useful indeed. No carpets to spoil.
Along the way the sitting room became a desert.
A minor tsunami deluged the dining room.
And, good grief, even a tornado?
No. Just duct tape that’s lost its stick!
Whatever would we do without the sanctuary of a garden?
We built a wall..
And then took most of it down again, a project that may feature strongly in the months to come.
Strelitzia reginae. A bird of paradise raised from seed.
There’s another flower spike growing for next year too.
Much remains to be done to get the sitting room back to rights, it was a project that surpassed even the most pessimistic projections of time, cost and disruption. Even more so in the dining room which we mothballed a month or so ago in an effort to get at least one of the rooms habitable for Christmas. Yet more beam cleaning, wall painting and floor scrubbing, three doors to hand make from scratch, four roman blinds, a full length double curtain and enough cushions to fill a design emporium.. we may still be here this time next year.
But I know you won’t let me leave it just hanging in mid air. So here’s a sneak peek of work in progress:


Whatever awaits us through this coming year I hope 2020 will be a happier, healthier and a safer one for you and yours.
Take care, Jessica x
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Wow, you finally have a lounge room again. And very nice it is, especially that floor. Best wishes for 2020 to you Jessica
I’m delighted with the floor, it brushed up quite well. Not that I’d want that job again anytime soon. Ah. The dining room!
I do hope that next year is a better one for you, take it easy Gwenfar.
Ah…. “all is calm, all is bright”… or perhaps this year “some is calm, some is bright”? I love it. Best wishes for a spectacular 2020
You too Penny. I look forward to seeing so much more of your gorgeous garden!
Have a wonderful 2020 Jessica. I hope it’s smoother than last year. X
That’s the plan. You have to recharge the batteries sometime and next year may be that time. Now, if only the rain would hold off..!!
That was quite a year! And you survived it. I send wishes for smooth sailing in 2020.
There were times when I didn’t think we’d survive it. Sod’s Law still holds good. If it can go wrong.. it bloody well will.
I think your very good-natured writing during the year led us (or at least, me) to believe it was just a few hiccups along the way. Seeing the full reality of it taking nine months to redo a not enormous room and thinking of you camping (kind of) for all that time makes me realise how stressful and painful it must have been. But, as Barbara says, you survived! I also wish you smooth sailing from here on in (and a few more Tassie devils thrown in for good measure!). Happy new year!
From three weeks to nine months is a bit of a leap isn’t it. I must get a decent project manager next time..
But 2020 it must be back to the garden. I’ve neglected it for far too long. And after all, the very many seeds I’ve got growing in the greenhouse have to go somewhere!
You have achieved so much during 2019 – do give yourselves a well earned rest for at least part of 2020, but I hope that it will be a happy year for you both.
You were so fortunate to see those Tasmanian Devils as I understand that they are suffering with a virus that scientist are busily working hard on in order to eradicate it and save them.
Yes, the prospects for the Tasmanian Devil do look rather grim. Bonorong and other places in Tasmania are breeding disease free insurance populations. Once the cancer has run its course or, better yet, a cure can be found, the captive devils will be re-introduced to the wild.
Good to see that there’s an end in sight, you’ve had quite the year! Your new sitting room looks very lovely, you must be impatient now for the dining room to also be finished. As you like to say ‘Onwards … ‘ – I look forward to reading of your further adventures. Happy new year, Jessica, and good fortune in 2020.
Unfortunately we have to walk through the dining room to get to the sitting room so we’re reminded of the inequality several times a day. I can’t wait to get it finished! But it was the right decision to leave it on hold. Had we not focused on the sitting room we wouldn’t have it now.
It’s certainly been a most eventful and memorable year chez Rusty Duck. Thanks for sharing the highs and lows here. Wishing you a happy and peaceful new year!
Thanks Anna. Next year’s target is just to shift the balance between the highs and the lows to something a little more comfortable.
What a year you had! A 3-week project your builder said?! I wonder if they all suffer from delusions, something in their DNA perhaps? Still, your new sitting room already looks fabulous and I can’t wait to see what you’re doing in the garden, when weather permits you getting back out there. The news out of Australia is distressing indeed. While California has its own battles with the impact of climate change, Australia seems on its hellish front. I’m hopeful about the movement the younger generation world-wide is driving to address the problem and shamed by the denial still evidenced by too many of my own generation.
Possibly if builders told you the truth at the outset you’d never employ them?
In reality our lot have been as frustrated with all the setbacks as we have and yet they’ve just taken it all on board and got on with it. I really can’t complain.
Times they are a-changing I think, led by the young. After all, it is they who shall inherit what is left of the earth. 2020. The year of perfect vision. If ever we needed one, now is the time.
It was indeed, and we are happy that you took us with you.
Thanks Derrick. Talking helps!
All the best for 2020, (I look forward to your blogs brightening my days as I sink into despair with Brexit!)
We are on the same page re Brexit. History will most likely see it as an irrelevant distraction when we should have been focusing on a real problem: climate.
What a journey it’s been for you; and one that I’ve very much enjoyed following. Best wishes for a wonderful 2020, one that doesn’t have too many unexpected surprises (there are bound to be one or two with your project, after, all) and some time to enjoy your garden and travel.
Thanks Jane.
I’m so looking forward to getting back to the garden this year, all I need is for the weather to play ball. And I’m sure I’ve got a new shoot growing on my Banksia blechnifolia! Now that can’t be bad.
Be careful out there.
You have a sitting room at last! Wonderful!
Our planning has gone in – already we are expecting to do a survey on wildlife and newts etc for where the barn will be. Um, where the barn will be are copious amounts of voles – bank and field – rabbits aplenty, foxes, a wandering badger, some deer, but the newts are down by our house in the pond – an area that isn’t going to be touched! Actually not much bank left as the rabbits and voles have made so many holes! Good for bees if the voles have vacated! So something simple already becoming a little more anxious for us! Next year we will be on tenterhooks! But seeing your transformation makes me feel it will be alright in the end.
Soooooo on that note, have a wonderful trouble-free, drier weather and happy New Year to you all. Many thanks for showing the photos and the flowers again are a cheerful sight in this gloomy weather.
xxx
It has been so gloomy hasn’t it. I can cope with the cold if there’s some sun to brighten it, it’s the unremitting grey that depresses me so much.
Good luck with your plans for next year. It’s never easy taking on big projects. Just keep telling yourself it will be worth it. ‘Cos it will!
Happy New Year Jessica. May 2020’s projects go smoothly, to time and budget … let’s Wish-Big here ! Your Bird of Paradise looks wonderful – will it perhaps give more than one flower as it matures?
On time AND budget? That will definitely need a Big Wish!
The Bird Of Paradise is in a pot and will have to stay that way in our climate. It develops a large rootball so I can see I will be repotting it from time to time but I doubt it will ever get as big or floriferous as it would in the ground. I shall be very happy if it sends up two flowers, as it did last year.
Oh my goodness what a good time to check in and catch up! You’re still going with this house of yours. Well done and that terracing once you are happy with it. Hope it makes gardening truly pleasurable. Happy New Year (-:
Hi Jeneane, great to hear from you.
The terracing gives me the only flat area of ground I’ve got, so far easier than anywhere else! Hope all is well in your corner of the world. Happy summer.
Oh my, I am always amazed (and slightly appalled, I admit) at everything you have gone through with this project and I am in awe of your perseverance. But, as you say, you always have the solace of your beautiful garden. Happy New Year and may it bring much progress in your undertaking.
We’re getting there slowly but surely and that’s what keeps me going now to be honest. I told the builder there was just one more project and he reminded me that it’s actually two..
Your sitting room looks gorgeous – calm – serene. I especially like the smooth curves around the window and door, and the soft colors of the floor. I hope you find it a truly relaxing place to be – whenever you get to relax! I’m looking forward to garden posts, which will have to keep me satisfied about gardening for a while, as there isn’t much gardening for months to come here in Minnesota. Snow shoveling hardly counts, even though I enjoy doing it (I do pace myself…).
It’s been so wet here the last few weeks I haven’t been able to get out on the soil at all.. I just squelch and sink. But this week it has been better so I’m hopeful. I’d almost prefer the snow, at least it keeps things nice and bright. Eternal grey skies are so very depressing.
Snow shovelling is good exercise but do take care!
Well, you certainly have had quite a busy and exciting year! The remodeling is coming along, and of course your garden always looks great. Best wishes for much health and happiness in the new year!
Thanks Beth. I’m so ready to get back into the garden. There are a few bulbs starting to pop up now. At this stage I get to thinking Spring must be just around the corner, I forget there are two hard months to get through yet and for you even longer.
Your sitting room looks fabulous. I love that floor! You have the patience of a saint and it’s paid off. Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and more straightforward new year! x
Having the sand blaster in, for both the beams and the floor, made such a difference to the final look. I’ve almost forgotten how traumatic it was at time!
What a year you both had! Happy New Year! I hope you get some rest and relaxation, then continued projects go smoothly and you find satisfaction and joy in your wonderful garden . Above all wishing you good health in 2020.
Thanks Linda.
I just hope we have a good spring and summer. I’m so behind with the garden, it pretty much got ignored last year. Loads of catching up to do!
Happy New (Productive) Year. The sitting room looks fabulous and is a long job well done. Roll on Dining Room! I look forward to your posts, thank you for taking us with you.
Mike started painting in the dining room today so we’ve made a start. At the moment it’s old slippers in the main part of the house, change into work shoes to walk through the dining room, change again into new slippers (of course) for the sitting room. That’s way too much of a faff to continue for long!
I can only imagine the first time you actually sat down in your beautiful, serene lounge. Did you laugh or cry? Or simply breathe a sigh of relief…for that portion of it, anyway. All admiration of the two of you. A year that stretched the limits of your good humour, but one that proved resilience is a trait you also carry in spades. Now, time to take a spade into the garden. Here’s hoping you have many sunny days ahead. You and Mike certainly deserve it.
Mostly what we’re doing is trying not to spill any wine! As long as it only lands on the floor all will be well. Given what the floor has been through over the last few months it can cope with that. I am amazed it scrubbed up as well as it did.
Now the builders have left the hard work starts for us. The challenge will be to keep up the momentum and get the thing finally done!
WOW your sitting room looks lovely, the walls, flooring, and those gorgeous beams. A beautiful transformation. Happy New Year to you and Mike.
Thanks Polly. It wasn’t until I saw those two pictures together I realised how much of a transformation it is. Just as well really, imagine if we’d been through all that and it looked no different..
What an amazing project, it frightens me just looking at the pictures of your room being ripped apart. But the end result is fabulous, you really are perfectionists. I am baffled as to why you built a wall then dismantled it but I expect all will be revealed. Happy New Year Jessica, I hope you get to enjoy your home and garden this year without all the stress of endless renovation.
It frightens me looking back at it all.
The focus will be more on outside projects this year, far less stressful and I’m looking forward to getting into more gardening posts. I shall do a proper post on the wall soon, then all will indeed be revealed!
It looks absolutely gorgeous! I hope the dining room is soon finished and you can turn your attentions to the garden wall and spending time in your new greenhouse. Happy New Year!
Thanks!
I can’t wait for Spring this year. So much to catch up on, some of the garden has returned to wilderness again. An incentive to get on with the inside work if ever there was one.
Getting the balance between the inevitable (?) highs and lows sounds like a good idea
All I need is for the weather to play ball. I tried getting out again today but the soil is still saturated.
Goodness I feel exhausted just looking at it. All I did was a bit of painting and gardening. We had friends from Australia visiting a few days ago, news is not good. I think they are going to have to have a long hard look at where they live and how they manage their environment going forward. Still my new obsession is learning about the water management system on the Somerset levels, oddly fascinating and actually of practical use, as it is all around me. As things stand there is little chance of wildfires here for a few months at least. Have a great 2020.
The situation in Australia is horrific and seems to be getting worse by the day. Remember my posts from Kangaroo Island? A third of the island was burnt out yesterday, including almost an entire national park teeming with wildlife, a koala sanctuary and one of Australia’s top hotels. The hotel can be rebuilt, koalas can’t. It is truly heartbreaking. Having spent so many happy hours there it feels a part of me is gone with it. Perhaps I should stop complaining about all our rain.
Dear Jessica,
I bumped into your blog this year, and read it from the beginning like a novel book. It was very entertaining, funny and inspiring for me! Though I do gardening in a much smaller scale (a backyard), I’m also in an everlasting, neverending renovation. Your cheerful view of life helps me a lot in surviving the most hellish days!
Thank you for all that inspiration and cheer, and I wish you at least the same health and joy and endurance fot 2020 and the future!
(Ps: You are the one to blame for my newfound love for hellebori, just for the record. 🙂
Hello and welcome! And thank you for the kind words.
It’s not easy doing major renovation work is it and you have my heartfelt sympathies. But if you’ve been doing it for a while you’ll also know the satisfaction that comes from transforming something that wasn’t right into something you now love. Keep going, it will be worth it!
And if all else fails it will soon be hellebore season. I spotted loads of flower buds today.. 😃
Lovely how the colour of the carpet comes back in the beams! But what a wrench to let that sofa covering go… could I have a piece for a tea cosy… ha!
I wish you two a really really happy new Year!
Now if I’d only known I’d have saved you a piece!
It was right for its time twenty years or so ago but I was glad to see it go. The only thing is the floral fabric was great for hiding dust and dirt marks, which the light blue most certainly isn’t!
It really looks amazing and I love the color of the sofas. What a remodel/rebuild that was. I get nervous just moving furniture around. I hope 2020 is less crazy for you and you can get back out into your garden. I’m hoping we can travel more now that my husband is thru transplant and well again.
I hope you do get a chance to travel more, you deserve a break after such a difficult year.
The garden is going to be a real challenge this year, a lot of hard work. But if there are fewer contractors coming and going perhaps I will have more time to spend on it. I can but hope!
Wow! It’s looking fabulous, although you’ve been through hell to get to this point. Here’s to the remaining work going well. All the very best to you both for 2020. xxx
Thanks. It’s been quite a journey hasn’t it!
Hi Jessica and a Happy New Year – wow just catching up as I have returned to the blogging scene. Yes terrible re Australia xx My heart bleeds xx
Hi Denise and welcome back!
Australia seems to be going from bad to worse. Awful when you’ve actually seen some of these places and can picture the devastation, not to mention the tragic toll on their unique wildlife.
Wow, wow, wow. What a year! And what a transformation. It looks amazing and I bet you’re thrilled now that the major work is done.
It’s a huge relief. There are still some big things left to do but hopefully we’re nearly there. With this room at least!