The homestead we lived in previously was very old and was actually two houses that had been joined together to make one HUGE homestead. It had at least eight, way-larger-than-your-usual bedrooms though we used a couple of these for other purposes eg a school radio room and adjoining schoolroom for my kids' School of the Air lessons.

It also had a large laundry; enormous kitchen/dining area with a large walk-in coldroom that covered one of the walls; family room with plenty of space for a lounge suite, daybed, fish tank, stereo, pool table, dartboard etc; walk-in pantry; large room where we stored extra freezers and fridges; extra playroom for the kids; office; bathroom and toilets; two internal verandahs (one almost as big as half of our current house!) and quite a few other rooms we used for storage etc.

The story goes that two brothers once lived on the property and didn't get along, or had a falling out (all way before my time!!), so they built a second house attached to the original dwelling and so thereafter lived side-by-side, yet apart (on 135,000 acres of land you'd reckon they'd have been a little spoilt for choice with regards to the position of the second house so I'm not sure why they chose to live side-by-side when they couldn't stand the sight of each other!). They had everything they needed on their own side so, subsequently, we had an eastern-most bedroom that housed a massive, old wood stove in it !

It was all getting run down so needed replacing, I guess (I was out-voted when it came to the crunch !). I am very old-fashioned so really miss it and its 'country' character, with its lovely polished floors and open, breezy rooms but, on the very optimistic side, we have kept quite a bit of the wood (silky oak doorframes etc) so think of all the gorgeous BOOKSHELVES we could make!

As for the size of the current house, it is a run-of-the-mill, standard-sized Glendale home that was transported on trucks from Townsville to the property, and planted only a metre or two from the eastern-most point of the old house (we were still pulling the old one down at the time). As far as houses go, I guess it would be considered quite large with four bedrooms; a large, open dining, lounge and kitchen area; coldroom; a whole room off the kitchen shelved for a pantry; office; laundry; bathroom and ensuite (ok, so it sounds more than adequate when I list it like that!) BUT, it is still like a little box compared to the old one and most of our possessions are now sitting in old shearing quarters in the next paddock.

Hmm...I feel rather silly now and no doubt you all think I am ever so spoilt ...living out here in the middle of nowhere, I guess I do tend to take space for granted! Not deserving of sympathy at all !!

Moving on...(!!)...I think worse than moving is moving a couple of metres away, handful by handful, as opposed to by truck but will get there in the end and, no doubt, it will feel more homey when I do.