Shadows Dancing in the Sun - 11. Shad Chapter 11

“You could say that,” Uncle Mitch began, smiling broadly. “I had my lawyers draw up a few legal documents, the first informing your step-family and mum, that the house is owned by Bradshaw Investments, and that now that Tobias no longer lives at the family home, if they wish to continue living there, they must pay fortnightly rent of $480, which is dirt cheap for that area of Perth.

They also have to keep the house and grounds of the property well maintained, and that there will be a bi-monthly inspection of the property, which has to pass at least five inspections, before the lease can be renewed for another 12 months,” Uncle Mitch said to me, and suddenly it occurred to me about what Kyle has said to me and I burst out laughing, while Uncle Mitch just stood there looking confused.

“Care to let your uncle in on the joke please?” he asked me, and once I had calmed down enough, I explained to him what Kyle had seen yesterday afternoon, at my former home, and that is why he was cursing and grumbling. “I hope he wasn’t using your half siblings as child labour?” Uncle Mitch asked me.

“Not that I know of, Kyle said that there was no one out in the yard except my tired and grumpy stepfather,” I replied before bursting out laughing again, as Uncle Mitch left me to continue laughing. Returning a few minutes later, “If you have quite finished laughing your arse off, I have ordered pizza, and it will be here in half an hour.

Go and have a look at the plants that I bought for the semi-outdoor areas, and let me know what you think,” Uncle Mitchell said to me. Once I had crossed over the access bridge, I found myself in a completely different place compared to last time I was here.

“Wow, this is incredible, I said out loud, “No need to shout, I am right here, now go and explore,” Uncle said quietly, “Ok and sorry,” I replied, as I headed over to the climbing wall, which was only three metres high, but it was a great feature to the area, with the ground covered in thick artificial turf, and scattered around the area, there are real rock boulders.

Large pots of dwarf trees, including Red Flowering Gums, Ficus Benjimini, Paper Bark, and shrubs of Westringia, Lily Pily, Callistemon Bottlebrush and Casuarina, with the large pots hidden by groups of different boulders, with a mixture of ornamental native grasses coming out of the spaces, forming an impressive rockery garden.

“I had a team of eight garden landscapers working here most of the day, firstly laying the turf, and when the crane arrived, moving all the rocks into place, then all the trees and shrubs. I hope you like it,” Uncle Mitch said to me, “I don’t like it, I love it, thanks Uncle, this is awesome,” I replied, as I turned and gave him a big hug. “By the way, who is Bradshaw Investments?” I asked.

“Bradshaw is your grandmother’s maiden name on your father’s side of the family, and the company has a single owner, that being you, but I am your legal administrator of the company, until you turn eighteen,” Uncle informed me.

On the other side, the ground is also covered in thick artificial turf, but it has a layer of yellow sand on it, to make it more suitable for ball games, with a half basketball court at one end and a half tennis court at the other end, with a tennis net stretched across the wall, giving it the real feel of a tennis court.

Above the doors to the storage room, is a basketball ring and backboard, and the turf has all the correct marking lines for both games. This time there are large pots of different palm trees and ferns, scattered around the sides, to give the place a real tropical feel to it.

“This is so awesome, Uncle,” I said when I saw him approaching, “In the storage shed, there is a table tennis table that can be wheeled out, plus four wrought iron round tables and chairs to match. In the other storage shed, there is a barbeque, and six more wrought iron tables and chairs, so we can easily entertain out here,” Uncle Mitch said to me, before looking at his watch.

“Set up a table and two chairs either here or next door, and I will be back with dinner,” he said as he rushed off back inside. When he returned with arms full of pizza boxes he was not alone, as Mrs Appleton and Kyle appeared. “Wow, what an awesome place,” Kyle said to me as he gave me a quick hug.

“Hello Mrs A, and welcome to our new home,” I said to Kyle’s mum, “Thank you, it was nice of your uncle to invite us,” she replied. “Right grab a plate and select what you want, while it is all still hot,” Uncle Mitch announced, but before I did, I realised that I need another table and two chairs, so I rushed over to the store room to grab them and set them up around the native garden and rockery.

After dinner, we showed our guests around the penthouse including the new additions to the semi-outdoor areas, and the roof outdoor area. “This is incredible, what are on the other levels of this building, and what is the other building for?” Kyle asked, “You will have to wait like everyone else, when the official opening takes place, during the school holidays, just be lucky that you get to see a small part of the complex,” Uncle Mitch replied.

Uncle Mitch and I quickly settled into our new home, and for a week, we spent a few hours helping Giorgio and Maria with cleaning up the house and gardens, before making it available for guests, with advertising already in full swing, and plenty of enquiries.

With the four ensuite bedrooms in the main house and the guest suite out the back, it would not be long before we would be getting regular guest bookings.

As part of the extra work each afternoon, straight after school, we planted more trees and shrubs in the garden next door, added another gate between the buildings, leading off the end of the carport near the kitchen, and built a large octagonal gazebo on the concrete pad of the former house, with large pots of shrubs and roses around it, to help hide the rest of the concrete slab, plus a pond with a feature fountain in the centre.

We were just finishing up our last day of work, when Uncle Mitch’s phone rang. “Hello, what can I do for you Xavier” I heard my uncle say, as he saw the frowned expression on my face and lifted his right eyebrow in question, “I see, well I am on the property now, I will go and have a look, thanks for letting me know, bye,” Uncle said before ending the call.

“Xavier said that he has seen our advertising for making this place a guest house, and he wanted to let us know that the property next door at number 21 has just gone on the market, and he has made an offer on it, before anyone else scoops it up,” Uncle Mitch informed me, and we both headed towards the front of the property.

Sure, enough we found the ‘For Sale’ sign at the front of next door, with an ‘Under Offer’ sticker over the top of it, and there was a car in the driveway, so we headed for the front door. “Are you enquiring about this house, yu will have to speak to the real estate agents, I am just in the process of packing up,” the lady said to us.

“No, we know about it already, as my friend is in the industry and told us about it, we actually own the property next door, “Uncle Mitch replied, “I was informed that you are intending to make it into a guest house?” the lady enquired, “That is correct, I am recently separated, and the place is too big for just the two of us, so we moved closer to my work, and we wanted to ask if we could look around your gardens, before it is sold,” Uncle Mitchell replied.

“Yes, that will be fine, now I must keep going, or I will never get this finished, goodbye,” the lady said before stepping away from the screen door. Walking slowly down the driveway, we saw the garden had a nice mixture of native shrubs, and ground covers, and near the back it opened up to a small amount of lawn, a large pond, and a double garage near the back corner, situated under a very large tree.

Looking back at the house, it appears to have had two extensions, the first is in the north west corner of the main house, and looks like to be a few decades old, while the newest extension added to the first extension, looks to be only a few years old., with a large box tree located in the corner of the house, providing plenty of shade and protection to that part of the house.

When we heard the sound of a door squeak open and close, the lady appeared smiling. “It is a lovely house isn’t it, I will miss living here, but I can’t stay anymore, as it is way too big for me,” she stated. “She definitely does look like a nice home, I see you have had some extensions recently,” Uncle Mitch replied.

“Yes, we had our daughter and family living with us for a few years, and it was getting too small for four adults and four children, so we added a self-contained granny flat on the back which is where my late husband and I were living in, while our daughter and family lived in the main house, which had three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The first extension consists of a large kitchen and dining area, with a small lounge space included, so it worked very well for all of us, as we at lunch and dinner as one big family,” the lady replied. “Thank you for allowing us to view your gardens, have a nice evening, and enjoy your future journey of retirement,” Uncle Mitch replied smiling, and we headed back to the house.

“Giorgio, I have some bad news for you and Maria, next door is for sale, and we may add it to being part of this enterprise, which means more work for you and Maria,” I said, when we saw Giorgio returning the tools to the garage. “Oh! Is that all, I thought we were going to lose our jobs?” Giorgio replied.

“Not at all, it just means that you will be given extra hours to allow you more time to get all the work done,” Uncle Mitch said, “That is wonderful news, thankyou sir,” Giorgio said smiling broadly. With my second academy training session happening the next day, we headed home to relax and have an early dinner, so I wasn’t too tired for training in the morning.

The first training session was quite full on, and also exhilarating but the down side of it was after training when I felt tired and exhausted, but doing some laps in the pool at the Guildford house helped to relieve some of my sore and tired muscles.

When Uncle Mitch collected me from the academy training, he announced that Xavier had purchased the house at number 21, and gifted it to us as part of the settlement.

Uncle informed me, that he has spent the last few hours with Maria and Giorgio having a good look around the property, which is in excellent condition, with some furniture and new curtains needed to get the house ready for guests. Over the next two months, I was kept busy with school and academy training, while Uncle Mitch was spending a lot of his spare time over in Guildford, getting the four properties that have now become one, ready for the first lot of guest, who would be arriving at the start of the school holidays.