CHAPTER 14. HOME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY (P.3)

As the fire season ended I hit the ground sprinting around 120%, cup of tea in hand, thanks to Holly. I figured if I wasn’t going to be able to see dad as often as I wanted to, then I was going to hold up my side of the agreement and make him as proud as possible of what we were all working towards together.

By now it had become clear to me that even though I was completing the majority of the work day-to-day myself, this project had required a team of people to get it to this point. Even after I had relentlessly sound- boarded ideas at her for over two years, Holly

still had my back, no matter what, she was always there – just like mum, and just like dad, this meant everything to me.

So I made it my mission to finish the house before the next fire season and vowed to document every minute of it in the process. Documenting came in the form of a new update every morning on Instagram, meaning dad could start his day in isolation by following the journey as closely as possible. Naturally he would access Instagram the only way any 80 year old logically would, by turning on his laptop and typing “Instagram” into Google each time.

I call this part of the project, “the perfect storm”. A culmination of dad’s cancer, covid lockdowns and the imminent beginning of the next fire season. This part of the project was pretty much a blur, I would wake up at 5:30 in the morning and work 12-14 hours a day. I did this for 167 days of a possible 181 and operated at a level far beyond anything I’ve ever operated at before and possibly ever will again. For me, it was simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating, almost like I was stuck to a giant snowball that just kept travelling down a hill whether I liked it or not.

Lesson learnt? We are capable of more than we know.

During the fire season I had been gathering lots of materials for the impending off-season. I wanted to have as many materials and items for the house ready to go when the season ended so that I could work as efficiently as possible. Thankfully I had started assembling the arsenal of materials prior to Covid becoming as big as it did, so we were well ahead of the imminent national shortages.