Home at Last!

Plans Finally approved by Council

Throughout 2009 I'd been working towards having a garage and workshop built. We were having an extension built onto our house and it seemed a good time to build the dream shed. I went through many iterations of plans trying to come to the best compromise between, space and cost whilst trying to preserve as much of our yard as possible and keeping the local council happy.To get as much floor space as I wanted without losing too much yard, I'd need two storeys but the council rules meant that the higher it was, the further it had to be from the boundary, it was going to end up plonked in the centre of the yard. Then I discovered the loophole, wall height is measured at the eaves so a Dutch barn is only the height of a single story building. It may look silly and be inappropriate for our size of yard but its BIG.

Traveller and Moke about to go away for a few more months

It took over a year to be ready to occupy. It actually only took about 10 days to be put up, but there were dozens of delays. I could not believe how many excuses the supplier could come up with, but I had a deadline. My work was sending me to Antarctica for most of December, January and February, and I wanted to be able to get the Traveller and all of my other stuff out of the expensive storage sheds I was renting. Even though it still wasn't finished - over one very busy weekend I moved the Traveller and two classic bikes, plus a huge pile of furniture and workshop equipment out of storage and into the shed. The Traveller was at home at last. It was a momentous day!

Two days later I was in Antarctica.

Wilkins Aerodrome, Wilkes Land, Antarctica