16/04/16 wiljen blog update. By Will.
Hi everyone, hope life has been treating you well.
Jenny and I are going good, not to much excitement in the travel department, sadly the jobs to achieve our future traveling freedom are dragging along slowly.
One & half weeks ago we finally placed our home on the real estate "For Sale" market. This has been a big effort for us and there were many jobs to get it prepared for sale.
Some of the work we have completed on our house are:
# Professionally paint whole house inside and out.
# Complete electrical inspection, new fan, some new & additional lighting, replace smoke alarms & new Hot Water Heating Element.
# Oil & Repair Decking
# New carpet in 4 rooms.
# Repair sunken paving.
# Decluttering & of course gardening.
Check it out at:
It's a pretty tough market at the moment, so we are testing the buying interest out there & if there isn't much action we'll consider a more aggressive sell price.
The Mandurah Reno house is moving along at snails pace. We have employed a Builder, commissioned a Drafting Company, purchased a large lock up Garage. Made a start on replacing the fences. Next week we commence some demolition, should be therapeutic.
Now we wait for Mandurah City Council to approve construction permits, which is a very slow process.
The Mandurah Reno House Plans, Above is now, Below is pretty close to the final floor plan.
Unfortunately we have also been broken into twice at the Reno House and had some "possessions" stolen. It really sucks & has cost us at least $800 so far.
Only the building is insured & not the contents, so that means we have had to bring any valuables back to our current house & jam them into our already full garages.
Both break ins were reported to the Police & we have a fair idea who was responsible for the second one....a local "Crack Head" !
Work continues on the Kombi, we keep running into road blocks that slows our progress. The latest hold up is the new Vinyl Flooring. Initially we were going to lay wood look vinyl planks that we had left over, but during a "mock up" it didn't look very good & the planks lack sound deadening properties.
So after a long search we finally found a product from Gerflor which looked the part, only to discover it had been discontinued. It took another week to find the next piece of suitable Vinyl Flooring which we purchased through Solomons Carpets Mandurah. It has to come ex-east on the slow truck. Hopefully it will arrive next week.
In the mean time I've been focused on upgrading the auxiliary 12v electrics. I've installed a "house" battery & run all the wiring into the bus in preparation for the cabinet installation. I've also installed a temp gauge.
Jenny has started covering new interior body panels in a funky orange colour.
What is the plan once the Kombi is ready to hit the road, you may be wondering ?
Late March 2018 is the 30th anniversary of team wiljen hitting the road together, it was our first trip around Oz in a Ford Falcon Panel-van. Wow where did the time go....?
Sometime between now and then we are planning the "Great Aussie Kombi Road Trip" duration unknown !
Meanwhile Jen & I have been focusing on our personal fitness, with regular gym visits & some cycling.
We have also been honing our motorcycle riding skills. By riding the big 1200 Yamaha Super Tenere & Honda CB500X around heaps in preparation for a 2 month trip later this year, keeping the exciting details of that tour pretty quiet at the moment, but all will be revealed soon.
We have also been planning a 3 month cycling trip around New Zealand & are aiming for a mid December 2016 departure.
As you can guess, we are really hoping the House Plans all come together between now and then.
Here are some more photos of our past months exploits
Jenny gets friendly with a snake.
At the Orchard celebrating Colin's Birthday.
Later in the week we caught up with Alison, Keith and their Kids at Donnelly Mill. They were over from the UK for a quick 2 week visit.
The local wild life are extra friendly !
All that remains of Donnelly Timber Mill, closed down in 1978.
It's been a long, hot, dry summer in Western Australia's, South West.
Lots of infamous Leyland P76's were there.
We were Warm Shower hosts to "Amy" who is cycling around the South West.
