News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 35

Was a big day on Thursday as we took possession of our new car. After a stressful day on Tuesday when the vehicle came up for Auction and going through the auction process hoping to win Lot 12 the hammer fell in our favour.

We had seen all the photos and read the description and everything pointed to it being a white car, when we took delivery of it yesterday we were pleasantly surprised to see that it was actually a lovely iridescent white pearl.

We hadnt seen it at all because the auction process was online and a live simulcast of the auction. We could see and hear the auctioneer and it was a case of just hitting a button to bid.

The increments that the bids go up are set by the auctioneer and all we had to do was bid and counter bid other bidders.

It was all over in less than a minute….. they sure dont muck around! We have only ever named one other car weve owned and that was a Black Fairlaine called Black Betty.

But this car just screamed at us to give her a name and the obvious choice was Pearl. So Pearl is a Nissan X-Trail and has got all the bells and whistles which will take us not so technological minded people a bit of time to get used to all the smart features in her.

Today we are off to get some new seat covers and a dashmat.

Already ordered the weather shields for the windows too. Going to have fun with her as she is a 4 WD so if and when we go exploring around the state it will mean we can go to places we previously wouldnt have been able to venture.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the terrible flooding that we had and how my sons truck went under.

Well the end of an era came when the insurance company wrote his last remaining truck off.

Originally my son had 3 trucks as he started off his business about 10 years ago. He started with a small refrigerated truck carting goods for Woolworths, he then got a second truck and put a driver on.

Although the money was good and he was able to put on a second driver and went into the warehouse, he wanted bigger things so he brought a bigger prime mover and put one driver in that and began to cart steel.

That was better money so he brought a second prime mover and started driving that himself. He then sold the two smaller trucks to just be doing the steel.

Three years ago he had the terrible accident when he fell off a ladder at home and fractured his skull and had a bleed on the brain.

He hasnt been able to drive since but still had the two trucks hauling steel on the road. Then last year one of his drivers rolled the first truck and it was written off so he only had the one truck working.

Now with the flooding he has lost the second truck. Although the insurance paid out on both trucks, it wasnt enough to get more trucks so in effect his business is now closing down.

We took him up to the yard so he could salvage what he could before the tow truck came to take it away.

I felt so sad for him as Im still kicking myself for not saying to him on the Saturday of the floods to make sure his truck was out of the yard as the area it was parked in at work is notorious for going under.

But the floodwater came up so quickly that it probably was already not able to be driven out.

He went in on the Sunday, waded through waist deep water and moved it up to as high ground as he could and we were all praying that the water wouldnt get that high.

If it got to 7m it wouldve been ok but the water went to 8.2m which totally flooded the yard.

When we went up there was 15 semis that were all write offs and several trailers that insurance said were write offs also.

So its the end of an era, one Im sure my son is sad about but I am sad too as he worked so hard to get where he was.

Not sure what hes going to do now but he said it wont be anything to do with trucks. The photos are the day we said goodbye to the last truck.

Renovations have started on our new home. We purchased the property sight unseen due to Covid and just from the photos on the real estate ad we knew there was a fair bit of work to be done to it.

What we werent prepared for was just how much work needed to be done. My son had seen the property and said that all the ceilings throughout the house needed to be replaced. But due to the steel structure of the property we knew it was structurally sound. Only one photo of a bedroom showed significant damage (this room we named the holey room).

Another bedroom we named the blood room (as blood was found smeared on the back of the wardrobe doors) and another room was just the light blue room.

The first room as you walk in will be the office rather than a bedroom and then there was the master bedroom.

So last week, my daughter and son came down and we got stuck in and ripped out the walls and ceiling in the holey room, the ceilings in the blood room and the light blue room (the walls in these rooms just need patching not total replacement).

Over the weekend hubby and I put the walls up in the holey room and then Tuesday my son and daughter came again and we got the ceilings up in all 3 rooms.

The place already looks so different and now not worried about what might lurk in the walls.

We have a family member that is a plasterer and he will come in and do the cornice and plaster all the joints for us.

Our next big job is replacing ceilings in the family living area and the office. We will be also doing a fair bit of changing some walls around and totally rebuilding the kitchen. But the Renos have begun and lots of sore muscles ahead.

Excited to see it all coming together over the months ahead.

Well the weather gave us a reprieve for about a week and then decided to drench us yet again.

Brisbane wasnt too bad with only a few roads flooded but further south, just over the border into NSW it unleashed on towns like Byron Bay, Ballina and Lismore (and those in between).

Poor Lismore has had 3 major floods now in 4 months. We had steady rain but not to the point of any flooding around here. Now some forecasters are saying a cyclone next week. Hope they are wrong because we certainly dont need more rain!

Meanwhile, the frogs around here are loving it. I cannot find the photo of the big fat green frog that likes to sit on our kitchen window sill.

But we have others that visit regularly but my favourite is the big green frog that likes to sleep behind a wall plaque on the wall beside the front door.

He will pop his head out around 9pm and when I get up around 5am hes sitting on one of the chairs or coming out of the leaf catcher on the gutters, then hell hop across the patio and up onto a chair then waddle up the wall and disappear in behind the plaque.

Its almost like he thinks oops Mums up I better get home. Then the other night we had a small one on the kitchen window. Havent seen it before so will be interesting to see if he visits regularly too.

Grandson Riley competed in the State Open competition in Taekwondo last weekend and so very proud of him as he came home with a Silver medal.

He won his first fight and then was against someone who was in a higher grade in his next fight as there was no one in his class for his next fight.

So to do so well is a credit to him. Seems it runs in the family as his Aunt held 3 Australian titles in 3 different types of martial arts a few years ago.

He has been doing Taekwondo for about 3 years now and has managed to place in most of his competitions over that time as well as doing his gradings.

He has to work on his cardio as these competitions call for several fights which can be tiring but his Dad was saying he doesnt do much exercise out of his classes.

But being a teenager exercise isnt high on the list of things to do.

He enjoys doing Taekwondo so it will be great to see how he goes in the future.