Mum, Roberta and Ellie

Mum trimming and sorting daisies with her arthritic hands.  Roberta polishing cutlery and Ellie looking for lizards.

Saturday has returned to normal = visit Mum around 11 to do the SMH Quiz.  She has mild Parkinson's Disease and arthritic hands but she pushes on regardless.  Mum and Dad have always had a garden.  I'm not sure who cuts the daisies but I'm guessing it's Roberta.

Roberta comes for a few hours on Saturday mornings to help around the house.  There was not much outstanding for her to do today so she polished the old and tarnished silver-plate cutlery.

Ellie, as always wanting food, on her way back from having fun chasing the water dragons who live in the rock ledge that makes up one side of their triangular flower garden.

We started the day visiting trade shops: aluminium windows, wooden floors then uPVC windows.  We are planning on renovating our humble home next year in readiness for living the next 20 years hoping that we can stay out of "care" for as long as possible.

We have a single storey largely original 1960s weatherboard house on a fairly flat block of land close to a very regular bus route and a very well serviced eclectic (for our region) suburban centre (Dee Why).  The house will shortly need either significant work or demolition (or a much younger and energetic couple) and moving is financially foolish so....

Our experience over the last few years with parents moving, aging and, as is inevitable, dying (only one so far) has made us determined to stay at home for as long as possible.  I'm guessing that Australia's not alone in having an aged care system in tatters.  We live in a country that is reluctant to pay taxes but then shouts from the rooftops about how crappy care is.  There is significant mismanagement and waste, of course, but it's come about from years of neglect.  Roberta, and others, come to help Mum and Dad as part of an "advance care" government package - the care system works when you now how to use it (which my Dad does) it just takes years to get on to the train.

Anyway, face reality, it is what it is and we're getting closer to needing those services so we're equipping ourselves as best as we can.

We have limited resources but we can still work and are so so much better off than many others and, of course, better off than most of the world.

Blessed.

And as it's turned out, I've discovered "passive housing" in the last few weeks which is not big in Australia (mainly because we have a mild, not cold, climate for the most part) but I'm starting to see that the principles hold true for any climate - they just need tweaking.  Bottom line, spending a little more money now while we have the chance will not only save significant sums in the short and long term, it will also make our lives more comfortable (in my case, less humid inside without using much energy).  We will certainly not be building a certified "passivhaus" and we will still live often with windows and doors open, but for the times when it gets really sticky (in the evenings, in the height of summer and winter) we should be able to be very comfortable without using much energy.