Country Retreat - 15. Retreat Chapter 15

“How dare you speak to me that way, I am your mother, show me some respect,” my mother said in a loud voice, which made me stagger back to the vehicle. “Selena, you are clearly not thinking of what is best for Oscar’s health and well-being, so we will not be staying here this weekend, tell Myles that I will give him a call later this evening, to discuss more permanent arrangements for Oscar’s future,” Gramps said to Mum, as Gran guided me back into the vehicle and I secured my seatbelt, before closing the door.

I could see that my siblings were visibly upset about all of this and were confused about what was happening, and all I could do was just give them a little wave, as Gramps drove off the farm driveway, and headed south. “Well it is getting late, what do you suggest we do?” Gran asked my Gramps, as I stared out the side window.

“How about we splash out a little and make this a short holiday, maybe Lancelin or Ledge Point?” Gramps suggested, and I saw Gran smile, as she retrieved the mobile phone and looked up some information, before making a call and booking a two-bedroom Villa at Ledge Point for two nights.

Once we quickly settled into our accommodation, we headed to the local Tavern for a quick meal, and after a quick shower, I headed to bed early as it had been a long and stressful day for me. The following morning, I didn’t wake up until well after 9 am, and I staggered into the living area. “Gran, did you organise for Jarrad to mid the horses while we are away?” I asked, “Yes dear, I spoke to him by telephone just before we left home yesterday afternoon,” Gran replied.

Moments later I heard the front door open, and Gramps walked in, holding a grocery bag, and the smell of fresh bread made my stomach growl for food, and Gramps retrieved fresh bread rolls out of the bag before Gran started to unpack and put away the groceries. “I think we will go to the property today, and show you what progress we have with that project,” Gramps announced as we ate breakfast.

“What changes are those, Gramps?” I asked, “You will have to wait and see,” he responded to me, and I continued to eat, before assisting with cleaning up afterwards, as I was keen for us to be on our way back to the property. It was just a 12-minute drive from town to the front gate of the property, and I climbed out of the vehicle to unlock and open the gate, waiting for Gramps to drive past before closing and locking the gate again.

Once back in the vehicle again, we headed south-west towards the larger of the two blocks of land, and about ten minutes later we came to a stop in a small clearing of the low shrubs on the property, on the side of a slight incline that faced due west, with a wonderful view of the coast.

“What is all of these piles of dirt here Gramps?” I asked I climbed out of the vehicle, to get a closer look, and we walked around to the western side of the groundwork, where I saw two large level areas that had been dug into the side of the sloping hill. What surprised me more, was seeing thick walls of what looked like concrete and sand, with each block being about four times bigger than a standard house brick.

As I walked closer to the front of this area, I could see that the wall was well over two metres tall, maybe closer to three metres. I walked around the massive area, which I guessed to be about 40 metres wide and about 120 metres deep, and there was another one nearby that was about the same width but about 40 metres less in depth. “Ok, what on earth is going on here?” I asked, realising that I made a slight joke about the situation, which made Gramps chuckle.

“Yes, that is right, earthworks, with some of the dirt that was dug out, will be used to backfill up to the wall, to make it look like there is nothing here. Let's go back to the vehicle and I will show you the plans that we have for this place,” Gramps suggested. From the back storage area, which is seating when the seats are folded up, Gramps retrieved a large tube, which he pulled out a set of plans, which he rolled out on the flat surface of the back of the vehicle.

“As you can see from this, we have these modular six-sided buildings, that can be linked together in many different configurations to make a home and work complex to whatever size we want, that fits inside this hillside area. The other excavation is for a larger work area, to be able to accommodate a large number of different kinds of machinery for the property,” Gramps informed me, as he rolled up that layout, to reveal another plan under it.

“This is what we want to suggest to you as a starting point for this complex,” Gramps said as he revealed the start of his plans for the complex. “We felt that you need a place where you can feel safe, a country retreat of sorts, where you can just relax and enjoy your surroundings with a magnificent ocean view,” Gran said to me, as I began to study the plans.

“This is great, but it is going to cost a heap of money to get all this built,” I commented after a quick scan of the plans, “You do not need to worry about that Oscar, we have done extremely well with our investments, and we have more than enough to build this and still live very comfortably for the rest of our lives,” Gran said, as I looked back at the plans, where I saw a group of buildings, as stated earlier, most of them being six-sided and many of them were joined together.

“As you can see there are two stages, the first stage is the Master Pod, two Staff Pods and the Multi-Purpose Admin Centre, the Solar Power Stations, and the Solar Panels for half of the complex,” Gramps explained to me, and I studied these specific areas more closely. “Why is it to be Muli-Purpose?” I asked. “That would be because the Admin Kitchen & staff room, will be the main Kitchen while the Dining area will be in the central meeting room until the main Kitchen and Dining Hall are built at a later stage,” Gramps explained.

“What’s this strange-looking doorway at the front of the complex?” I asked and Gramps chuckled at this comment, “I’m glad you asked, there will be a camouflaged low dome-shaped roof over this complex, to hide its existence, and to protect it from the weather, and at the front will be a wall of double glazed tinted glass. As you know glass can and will reflect, especially when the sun is setting to the west, facing the glass.

So to stop the reflection, we have come up with the idea of having these steel panels, spaced a metre apart, angled as to still allow natural sunlight, but stop any reflections off the glass,” Gramps explained. “The staff pods are for you to have friends over, who maybe in the future, will stay over and maybe establish some kind of business with you, and the Sports Hall is just a large indoor space, where you can have parties, or play indoor sports of any kind,” Gran added.

“There is still a hell of a lot of space left, even once these are built, what else can we put in here?” I asked, “That is why we have suggested Stages 2 & 3. Plus we also have this…” Gramps said as he revealed the next set of plans underneath, which showed larger buildings for workshops and the storage of vehicles. “I am guessing this is for the area next door?” I asked. “That is correct. As you can see there will be a joining passageway between the two complexes, with the machinery complex also having a camouflaged low dome over the top, “ Gramps replied.

“Why is the vehicle entry on the side and not at the front?” I asked, “Well the land topography or lay of the land slopes away on the side to allow for the main vehicle entry to be on the side, so there will be no need for any trickery to hide any reflections at the front, also next door has been dug a little deeper, to allow for the taller buildings, without having to have a higher roof, and talking about higher roof, the Master Pod at the back has room for an upper level, which I am considering, to increase the living space,” Gramps replied.

“I think this is wonderful Gran and Gramps, thank you so much for doing all of this for me,” I said as tears started to build in my eyes, and I quickly wiped them away with my short sleeve. “You are most welcome dear, we are doing this so you can have a place to feel safe, we will be including a lot of security features at this complex as well,” Gran added and wrapped me in a tight comforting hug, which made me sigh happily.

Gramps drove us down to the western boundary fence, which now is a lot more secure with the low limestone wall and tight ringlock fence on top of it. Once out of the vehicle, we looked back towards the complex, and I was pleased to see that there was no sign of any of it, including the large piles of soil that had yet to be backfilled, due to the height difference and the low saltbush shrubs in front of it.

“Not a single sign of any work on the paddock, that is great to see,” I commented, “Yes, we wanted a place where you have a great view, but it is high enough for anyone down at beach level or even boundary level to see any buildings of any kind,” Gramps responded.

Taking off our boots and shoes, we went for a nice walk along the beach, which made me very relaxed, but sadly there was evidence of recent vehicle activity along the beach, which was a bit worrying. “Not to worry about that, I have asked the council to erect some sort of barrier to stop any future intrusions,” Gramps announced.

Once back in the vehicle, we headed for the front gate, which I unlocked and opened to let the vehicle through, before closing and locking it again. As we approached the highway, instead of turning left to head back to Ledge Point, we turned right, heading South.

“Just a short stop down the road to show you something else,” Gran said to me before I could ask where we were going. About four kilometres down the highway, we slowed and turned right onto Greenwood Coast Road, which was compacted limestone, so it was an easy and fairly smooth road.