Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing

A bit of personal news about our move to a new house. Matthew and I have moved into together and bought a rather large house, which we have named Dweebenhiem (Dweebhiem by Matthew). It’s a bit grander than what we are used to. I lived in a normal four bedroom house with lovely views over Queanbeyan and Matthew lived in a two bedroom flat with books oozing out of it. There was a path to the bed, the bathroom, kitchen and computer. Merging houses is an interesting experience. We aren’t quite there yet. The books are still in the garage, along with shelves and various other bits.

So far we’ve had a housewarming and Christmas celebrations here. We aren’t quite settled yet. Matthew said to me last night it feels like we are in a writing retreat house. We explore all the bits but it feels like we will pack up and go home. I’ll post some pictures of the view etc in a bit. While we are quite happy here (and we are managing to keep it clean), there were issues. The first morning here, Matthew was in the shower and I went downstairs and water was pouring through the ceiling. We’ve been very lucky as the company that did the house inspection (they are compulsory here in the ACT (Canberra))  is organising to repair the two upstairs bathrooms and the damage to the ceiling downstairs. It was missed when they did the inspection. I was a bit traumatised at first but now I’m okay about it. It’s being fixed. We’ll get passed this.

The other amazing thing was the buses. There is a bus stop at the end of our street. One route, the 788 takes me to Barton and it’s a short walk to work. Matthew can take three buses as he works in Civic. Two expresses or the normal bus. I was so excited about being able to take the bus. It’s so convenient and cheap with a Myway card. On my first ride, a fellow traveller said that the route 788 was being cancelled. I wrote to Action buses and they said the decision was under review. Thank god for that. Convenience at price get people like me out of their cars and onto public transport. That’s better for the environment, traffic congestion and hip pockets. People of Banks, Gordon and Conder get on your bus or you’ll lose it and it’s fab.

Now that I have found a bus, I’m on leave until February. But then I have to make the call, give up my parking spot and commute regularly. I can do it if there is a bus.

Now for views. The house is two story and we face the Brindabellas. This is the view right now from my office.

The ensuite in mid repair. Tradies are on holidays until early to mid-January.

The lounge room or TV nook.  We have names for all the rooms, I think.

The dining room, with my new knitters loom, yarn and other guff scattered about.

The garage full of stuff and mess from Christmas (yet to be disposed of)

The games room. Spot the pink coffin shaped dolls house we bought the grandchildren. It’s a vampire villa.

The guest room. Suspiciously normal looking.

The front of the house.

And the gargoyle.

So we are here in this big house, hoping we can fit all our crap inside it. We have yet to unpack the bulk of the books. We are yet to decide on where all the shelves will go, and we’ve bought new ones. One day, we’ll be settled and we can kick back and relax. Right now we have to change our Drivers licenses over before we get a fine.

I’ll have another couple of personal posts before I resume the author interview series.

Cheerio.