I am not a great photographer but, I have a wonderful library of photos I can look back on and get a thrill out of seeing where we have been.
Ade and I bought this house out of desperation!.......
In 1994 we brought our retirement forward and spent two decades traveling.
In 2009 we had a mortgage on an apartment in Sydney, $250,000 to our name, and a rental house to call home....we were literally broke!
This place came on the market in June 2009 for a song......but that is what it was worth, it was derelict and unlivable!
There was this building in the back yard, if you could call it a back yard......
and from the moment I bought the property I wanted to put it to use and try and claw back a bit of money to live on in our retirement!
God it was a mess, but my rationale was....people build houses from scratch and I have already got the bones here, get on with it..
The garden was always going to be a feature of our property......nothing to do with me, that was Ade's province....she just loved gardening.
As time went by though and her legs deserted her she would sit down under the verandah with a glass or two of bubbles and bark instructions at me to the point where the only gardening I wanted to do was dig a hole big enough to climb into and bury myself in!
But first year we started to eat our way into that cracked concrete.....
Next year we got a bit further......
And each year the cottage got more and more livable. We home-stayed international students for our neighbouring high school to make sure we could actually tolerate strangers around our property!
That turned out to be a run-away success to the point where we have named our cottage after one of the students we hosted for three months....
Lots of tears when we had to put Auri on a plane and send her back to Italy.
I was hooked, hosting was for me!
My first Airbnb guest was in May 2016....we had the cottage looking very homely and comfortable........and we got a great review!!!!
But we were continually faced with this old cracked concrete! No matter how much effort we put into the garden.....
What's that old expression, you can't polish a t*rd! That concrete let us down.
So three months ago in the depths of winter I decided I had had enough!
I have repaved the rear garden, bloody thousands of old red bricks....
The only thing missing is summer and the flowers.....
Well, they are on the way!
I can't wait for summer to come. This will be our best year yet, it's been a lot of work but I have Airbnb to thank for that! It has given me a focus, my last 47 reviews have been 5 star and I am now quietly confident I can make 100 in a row.
Thanks Airbnb you have brought a sense of achievement back into my life.....I have gone from not knowing where the next dollar was going to come from to having a great fulfilling life!
Cheers.........Rob