Houses, horses and welcoming family

By some strange coincidence we have two family houses up for sale/auction at the moment. Rod's house at Jerrabomberra is being auctioned this coming weekend and our former house at Mawson is up for sale/auction two weeks later on the 6th September. 

It's exactly ten years since we sold our Mawson house and the same agent, Brett Hayman, handled that sale and the current one too (as well as Rod's house now!!). We're all hoping Brett can work his real estate magic and sell Rod's house easily and well this weekend.

In between trips back and forth to Coogee we were able to spend a few hours last weekend watching Abi and Sammy compete at Equestrian Park as members of the Canberra Lakes Pony Club - in two jumping events - the 70cm and 80cm.

Sammy is as cool as a cucumber travelling to, and competing in, pony club events these days.

He jumped well in the 70cm event but Abi said he was a bit "too lazy" and hard to get moving as fast as he usually runs. She said he was much better in the 80cm event and she was really happy with how he jumped and responded to her directions. 

We thought they both looked amazing in each event and over all those scary looking jumps!!

We're looking forward to more of these pony club days. They are great fun for us to be a part of too.

Last Monday it was back up to Coogee for two nights. We wanted to finesse a few things in the apartment before the arrival of the London branch of the family and shop for a few more odds and ends we needed to make the place home. We cooked our first proper meal on Tuesday night in our beautiful new kitchen. The first of many more to come, no doubt.

It was back to Canberra on Wednesday and another 3 nights there before heading back to Sydney again, ready to welcome the London mob for their 5 night stay in Coogee.

We arrived to unaccustomed sunny weather on Saturday. We took a late afternoon walk along the beachfront and admired the clarity of the winter light in this beautiful part of the world.

I sent these beach pics to Davey - by now the family had landed for their overnight stay in Singapore before the final leg to Sydney. We received this pic back from them ... happily checking out the amazing shopping and eating at Changi Airport Mall. We thought they looked amazingly fresh after that nightmare 16 hour leg from London-Singapore.

They landed in Sydney yesterday afternoon - a few minutes early and they were with us in Coogee, to much excitement, barely an hour later (betcha couldn't do that in London!). The London mob were still firing on all fours last night despite their jet lag as we did over all the foodie delights of Coogee Bay Road together.

Everyone slept well and we took advantage of clear weather(?) this morning, walking along the beachfront to our fave Barzura for a long brunch session together. 

 This girl already looks like she belongs in Coogee!

The rain started an hour or so after we settled in at Barzura and really started to pour......... just like it has been for the past month or so!!

Around noon Rob and I left the London mob to enjoy this rainy start to their Sydney stay. We drove back to sunny skies in Canberra with big hopes they can find things to do at the beach, in between heavy rain showers and cold winds!!! We'll really look forward to seeing them again in Canberra at the end of the week. 

Moving back in

The last week or so of July was an intensely busy and stressful time for us .... Rod's house went on the market which involved us in lots of paperwork and hands on action getting the house in top condition. We also moved Rod into his new home at Aranda (aged care) on Monday 28 July which involved doing hours of finance planning and analysis alongside some very stressful decision making and more paperwork. On some days we just wished this phase of this unexpected year could be over!!

But, in the meantime, our Coogee reno is finished - and thankfully, (and joyfully) we were able to move back in last week - over 5 very wet, windy and cold winter days in Sydney.

We achieved so much in these 5 days - doing a complete clean and unpack, ordering (and having installed) new kitchen blinds and getting a sleek new fridge delivered. We are so thrilled with the outcome and grateful to neighbour Greg who oversaw and managed the whole 4 and a half month long project along with his team of talented tradies. We think it all looks beautiful - and we could not be happier with our new Coogee apartment!

As a final surprise Greg restored the brass doorknob on the bathroom door to its original glory for us - a sign of the old alongside the brand new.

We've worked out its been over seven years since we've been truly "at home" in our Coogee apartment. We moved everything out in April 2018 so we could rent it for a few years (and use the rental income to fund this renovation). We ended up renting it for longer than intended due to all the pandemic lockdowns in 2020 -2021, so it wasn't until September 2022 that our tenants moved out and we could move back in - ready to get the planned renovations underway as soon as possible. 

That didn't happen as it turned out as 2023 was a crazy year for finding available tradesmen and building materials, and our builder Greg had a serious workplace accident and was out of action for MONTHS. By 2024 we all got distracted by the disruptions (and damage) caused by our major window replacement project and Greg's own bathroom renovation in the unit next door. 

After all these delays it almost came as a shock when Greg announced he was ready to start our job at the beginning of this year. So its been a full seven and a half years since we've been able to really think of our little Coogee place as "home". It's been nice to zhoosh up our other rooms in the apartment as part of the process too.

In amongst our stressful days leading up to the 28th (and Rod's move to Aranda) our zygocactus plants in the winter garden decided to have their best flowering season in as many years. They are such hardy plants.  Hopefully its a sign of better times ahead for all of us. 

July break

We were lucky enough to share the weekend in Coogee with the young ones - the last weekend of the July school holidays - a welcome break from wintry Canberra for us and all the difficult things we've been doing related to Rod's affairs.

We drove down early on Friday morning and Ella was able to come with us. It's always a great way to start a beautiful weekend in Coogee with her..... lunch at the Coogee Bay Hotel.....its our tradition! 

.... and a walk after - just to catch the beach vibe!

We also got our first view of recent progress with the reno on our apartment. We could not be more thrilled with how it looks and the standard of work that Greg and his team have achieved for us. It all looks truly amazing! We could not fault a thing.

The job is 99% complete now - we're just waiting on the glass shower screen, the final silicone finish around the bath and new skirting boards for the kitchen. We intend to head back up to Coogee next week and "move back in" - unpack all our boxes, clean up the remaining dust and have the joy of living in our beautiful "new" apartment. We are so excited about doing all that! 

Josh, Jody and Abi got to Sydney around 10pm on Friday, but they were all set to go on Saturday morning - ready to tackle our favourite walk again, the 4klm coastal path from Coogee to Bondi Beach.

All the beaches along the way looked stunning under the clarity of our bright winter skies.

Gordon's Bay......

Clovelly......

Heading to Bronte.......

Tamarama........

..... and rounding the bend to Iceberg's at Bondi Beach .......

Bondi was pumping, as always. There was even an ice skating rink set up on the beachfront (weird??)

We always head for the Bondi Hotel for lunch at the end of these walks - another family tradition!

Dinner together on Saturday night is always pretty special too. We didn't have to go far this time - to La Spaggia on Coogee Bay Road, a five minute walk from our accommodation...... Coogee's oldest Italian restaurant and an absolute classic.

It got our seal of approval.

.. and Yo-Chi for dessert for the girls later ... a popular choice

We celebrated Sunday with a lunch together at Cabramatta before heading back to Canberra in time to catch a spectacular sunset around Goulburn. Now our apartment is habitable again we are so looking forward to more time back in Coogee and sharing more of these wonderful times with the young ones in the future..... 

As a side note to July I finished my first patchwork quilted project at last. A long time in the making, it's going to do service as a sofa cover for our Coogee apartment - hopefully strong enough to withstand lots of couch time after all our beach and walking activities. I learnt a lot with this project - not sure if i would embark on another - but rewarding to solve all the challenges and get it finished!