The "Jobs" continue to drag along !

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.

 The Decking scrubs up pretty good after a fresh coat of oil. Top job by Jen.

Clearing out all the "stuff" and relocating it to the other house in preparation for the photo shoot.

Check it out at:

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-south+yunderup-122335718

It really is a great place to live, especially if you love boating & water.

Jenny & I spend way to much time sitting out here relaxing.

The main living area is huge about 75m2.

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.

Bloody Crack Heads !!!

Both break ins were reported to the Police & we have a fair idea who was responsible for the second one....a local "Crack Head" ! 

Time to unwrap the new Kombi Cabinets, by Kombi Cabinets, Gold Coast Qld. Thanks Tony, they arrived undamaged thanks to your excellent packing.

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. 

Mock up of the cabinets & wood vinyl floor panels. Wood Floor Panels look wrong so we go searching for alternatives.

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.

Lots of 12 volt auxiliary rewiring being done. There is stuff every where.

It's a tight fit in the Kombi engine bay.

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 ! 

Found this old photo from April 1988 of team wiljen's first road trip together. It's funny, coincidentally the Ford Panel Van was built the same year as our Kombi, Dixie...1976 !

Meanwhile Jen & I have been focusing on our personal fitness, with regular gym visits & some cycling.

Jenny doing some cycle training and checking out the local camels, can you spot them ?

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 take the Big Bikes up towards Gingin and camped at Willow Brook Farm.

We have also been planning a 3 month cycling trip around New Zealand & are aiming for a mid December 2016 departure. 

The following day we pack up the Bikes and head for Colin & Helen's Orchard.

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.

While our friends, Darren & Delys with there son Mitchell have a laugh.

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.

Me teaching Aunty Helen how to do a selfie.

Jenny & I also went to a local Car Show in Waroona last Sunday.

Lots of infamous Leyland P76's were there.

A couple of Ford XC Falcon Coupes, the blue/white one is a Cobra, they only made 500.

We were Warm Shower hosts to "Amy" who is cycling around the South West.

We ride with Amy into Pinjarra, about 14kms away. Amy is very well traveled & interesting to talk with.