Friends, Family & Carers Forum

[Smc]

@Former-Member, our house needs restumping as a first step, but because it was built as two structurally independant sections, that will be a bit more challenging than it would have otherwise. Electricals run through both sections. Phone only goes to the back section. Solar hot water service is attached to the front north-ish facing section, but all the "wet areas" are in the back section, so that might be problematic. Both sections had wall claddings put on after the stumps had already sunk considerably, so the interior cladding and possibly some of the weatherboards will come off along with the restumping, but the back section has AC cement as the main cladding material, so we'll have to get contractors in to safely remove and dispose of that before anything...

All of which gets me thinking that the real "first step" is building my eventual "studio" in the yard, and doing it in such a way that it can function as a "tiny house" during any stretches when the "big house" is unliveable?? 😛

[Smc]

@Shaz51, oooh yeah. Glad to hear though that your Mum has been willing to pass on things to you. At least that's a start. Mum and Dad were edgy about getting rid of anything. Even now, when I told Dad that we'd opened up the front of the shed he said "And I hope you're leaving it all where it is, and not taking it away." But he's able to be reasonable... I said "Well, we have to sell the house. We could leave it all there for the new owners to have, or we could take it away and care for it at our places." He agreed that the latter course of action was better. 🙂

I'm very much seeing that it's their lifetime of memories that we're moving on. And the same issue of "memories" attached to objects is one thing that makes it hard for us to get rid of stuff, but am hoping we're learning how to pick and choose which are the important connections and which we're better off letting go.

We're also needing to bear in mind that at some point Hubby's parents will be downsizing from family home into retirement unit, so there will be a third household in the mix... Am expecting though that their transition will be much more intentional and orderly.

[Shaz51]

ha ha there is still a houseful of stuff at mum`s @Smc 

[Smc]

Yup @Shaz51.

I read something recently, possibly on ABC's website, talking about how longer lifespans mean that inheritances (both financial and household items) are going to middle aged people who already have their own "assets" instead of younger couples who could put them to good use. We've encouraged our kids to ask us first before buying household furniture etc.. We've been able to pass some goods on to them, but other times what we had didn't suit either their purposes or their tastes.

[Former-Member]

Yikes @Smc, thankfully our place does not need restumping but there is a very small section of floor that needs replacing due to old termite damage. This is in the first room we hope to renovate. Fortunately we will not need to move out whilst our renovations are being done.

[Shaz51]

@Former-Member, @Smc  we had to restumping the house i inherited from my dad

[Former-Member]

 @Smc  @Shaz51 I really do not need any of my Mums stuff and think my siblings feel the same way. We are all now 'middle aged' and I don't think any of us lack anything. 

[Smc]

@Former-Memberyup. For us too, it's not things we "need" for the most part, although more bookshelves are always welcome... it's more a question of do we want to keep an item we already have in our house, or would we prefer one we can bring back here from theirs. "Exceptions" are the really unique things, like the pianola and the 1920s hall stand, although even in those cases, there may be other items we'll need to move on to make a good space for them. Most likely "extra" wardrobes that we've been using for storage, which is a spur to cut down on the stored items too.

[Former-Member]

@Shaz51 

Were any other major repairs required?  We have a lot of smaller maintenance issues to deal with.

[Shaz51]

the floors were made level  because it needed new stumps and then mr shaz had to shave the bottom of the doors of the rooms so they can close @Former-Member