The Golden Land by Di Morrissey

canal and the houses opposite with their fancy swimming pools and thatched Balinese-style cabanas. Many of them had boats moored to their own private landing or pontoon.
    â€˜Mark, we’ve got the experience. I’ll draw up some of my ideas for you tonight,’ said Natalie with confidence.
    Mark stared at her. ‘The renovations we did at our place were cosmetic. Paint, carpets, a deck, garden. This would be structural, you’d need an architect or at least a builder who knows what he’s doing.’
    â€˜Let me show you. I can see it,’ insisted Natalie.
    Later, they talked into the night, discussing their budget and working out a rough costing of Natalie’s ideas. With the knowledge that they could eventually renovate the house into something very special, they went to the auction with enthusiasm and enough money from the bank to buy their dream home.
    After they’d bought the house and moved in, they spent the first few days settling, getting to know all aspects, good and bad, of their new home. It was soon apparent that the massive renovation job together with their bigger mortgage and the expenses of the move meant they had to re-evaluate their financial position.
    â€˜Finding the money for the renovations is going to be more difficult than I thought,’ said Mark. ‘And are you still thinking of another baby?’
    â€˜Of course I am! I adore being a mother. But, well, it isn’t really the right time, is it?’ Natalie said with a sigh. ‘And I’m disappointed about the renovations. You’re right. I don’t think we can find enough time and money to do them quickly. How are we ever going to save enough to do the really big jobs, like the bathrooms and the kitchen, let alone fixing up the pool? Maybe I should go back to work.’
    â€˜I’m not sure about that. By the time we pay for daycare, babysitting and another car, I don’t know that your teacher’s salary is going to cover what we’ll need. And we’ve always agreed that being at home to look after the kids while they are little is the best thing for them. I think we should stick to our plan of you having these years off and only going back to paid work when they’re older and in school,’ said Mark.
    â€˜I know,’ said Natalie. ‘Perhaps we should do as much work on the house as we can ourselves, and then when we’ve saved up a bit, we’ll do the more expensive bits. We’ll get there.’
    Over the next few weekends they began to renovate the house. They ripped up the carpets and painted the walls in one of the spare rooms.
    After dinner one night when the children had gone to bed, Mark poured them both a glass of wine. ‘Sit down, I want to talk to you, Nat.’
    â€˜Hmm. Sounds serious. Or have we won the lottery and you haven’t told me?’ she asked lightly, not liking the look on her husband’s face.
    â€˜Look, this renovating the house bit by bit isn’t going to work, is it?’
    Natalie was about to disagree with him, but in the end she quietly nodded her head. ‘You’re right. We’re spending every weekend working on the house, but it’s so hard with the kids around. They just get into everything and you have to watch them all the time. You know what Adam did with that paintbrush. I mean, it only took a couple of hours to fix up the mess he made, but it wasn’t helpful. We are living in chaos. We can’t have our friends around because there’s nowhere nice to entertain them. At least we didn’t get carried away and rip out the kitchen, but it’s so awful to cook there because the stove barely works and the oven takes an age to heat up. If it weren’t for the barbeque, we’d never have a meal at a reasonable hour. I don’t regret taking on this place, but I wish we could speed up the renovations.’
    â€˜I’ve worked out a way we can fix this place up