Day 1 in Sydney
Leena went for accommodations with a view. Check the window shot. Score. We’re in the Potts Point section of Sydney.
We didn’t get a Holiday card out this year, so here you go… Happy Holidays!
We walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens to the Opera House and caught the 13:00 ferry to Manly beach without a minute to spare. Snapped this one from the ferry.
We enjoyed a drink at the Fountain Cafe in the early evening.
Leena wonders: “How is the Aussie Chardonnay?” (Yum.)
We mastered boiling water in the Southern hemisphere and enjoyed dinner with our lovely view. We forced ourselves to stay up until 21:00 before glorious sleep…
Getting to OZ
Part of the idea of traveling to OZ/NZ now was to escape our winter (and enjoy their summer). Check. We left snowy Portland early Saturday.
The flight for Sydney left at 22:30, so we spent our stopover in San Francisco with friends. We got to their place just before noon — perfect Mimosa time.
We flew in an Airbus 380. They’re huge. We were in row 73; there were a few rows behind us. We slept well enough on the flight and arrived just before 08:00 to a beautiful Sydney morning. You can see the tail of our plane with Sydney in the background.
Storm
Snow today in Portland, which is pretty rare. Just an inch or two. We’re in for some really cold weather this week — for Portland at least.
Yard Project
The project started with a simple problem: water damage to the front stairs and railing. When looking that over, Kevin (contractor; former home inspector) also noted that the grade of the yard was too high. Dirt was up on the sills of the garden-level basement windows, and up against the mud sill on top of the foundation. More potential for dry rot. We couldn’t just lower the grade near the house — that would create a slope towards the house. We decided to lower the grade of the entire yard. With the yard coming out, we decided to lose the lawn, lose the ivy, and redo the landscaping from scratch. We also decided to replace the front concrete stairs that go from the sidewalk to yard level. They’re broken and uneven and would now be at the wrong grade. And since we’re now doing concrete work, we decided to replace the driveway retaining walls — one was leaning badly. And while we’re fixing the driveway, let’s widen the garage door from 7 to 8 feet and re-pour the driveway too.
Work started in early November. The yard came out first — about 40 yards of dirt. Next was the ivy. The driveway retaining walls have been re-poured and the garage door opening has been prepped for the new door coming Monday. And the landscaping for the yard is mostly done. We’ll just fill in around the concrete stairs and driveway after work is complete. Here are some in-progress pictures!
Yard from the north:
Yard from the southwest:
From the west:
New driveway retaining walls and larger garage opening. New door comes Monday.
