September

Since 1992 we own a little flat in Balmain and after more than 12 years having had tenants in it, it needed serious renovations. We worked on it hard with some help from a friend. And the longer we were there the more we loved the place. The view over the harbour and the city was fantastic, ever changing. So it did not take long that we decided that we wanted to live there. The flat was very small, just one bedroom and only a kitchenette off the living room. But how about living in 2 places, in the cottage in Katoomba and the flat im Balmain. That way we were close to the children with families in Sydney and also could be with the youngest grandchildren, the twin in the mountains. The ideal solution for over 10 years. 

 August

The little cottage in Katoomba and the small flat in Balmain we owned became vacant in 2004. Both needed urgently some renovation. So we stared working in 2 rundown places. After a long hard working day we returned back late  just to sleep in our beautiful big place. Soon we had enough of this mad back and fro and decided to sell Mt. Hay and live in the smaller place in Katoomba. This was even closer, in walking distance to our daughter with the youngest grandchildren, the two year old twins. There was a big garden too and many parrots visited.

The two of us lived there till 2014, often only part-time.  

Our daughter painted the old concrete fence

 

 July 

We retired early in 1990 from our permanent jobs, both not yet 60 years old. After a few years of consultant jobs, and travelling around Australia in 1994 we decided to move out of Sydney to a quieter place. We travelled around NSW country side a lot looking for a place of tranquillity. Finally we settled for a beautiful new house close to Sydney in the Blue Mountains with bush on two sides. It was a huge two story place with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, one with a spa , 2 large open space living areas, one with a dining area, a huge kitchen, 4 balconies and a large garage and workshop. All was new, just finished being built, still we had, with our friend Ron’s help to change, improve a few things. There was no garden at all, just native bushes on a large (endless) block on a slope. This place was big enough to accommodate the whole family for holidays and parties. 

So we sold our house in Neutral Bay and moved to Mt Hay Road in 1996.

Since it was only 100km from Sydney our children and families could visit us easily and grandchildren stayed often with us during the holidays. And best one of our daughters and family lived only a few km away. We both did many great bush walk there in the Blue Mountains National Park. Once we were right in the middle of a bushfire.

We loved this place and had 8 great years there.