Gordon the builder
My father, the builder, could put his hand to any job he tried, big or small, and make it look so easy. Over the years I have lost count of the number of things Dad has built for family and customers. One of Dad’s first building projects was the family home in Bellevue. He started building using the Australian Builders Guide, the book for building in the fifties. He soon ran out of money and had to ask the bank for a loan. When the Bank Manager came around to inspect the work, he was quite amazed at the workmanship. Needless to say, he approved the loan with no problem.
Keith & Mary Sharp were now Mum and Dad’s new neighbours, becoming lifelong friends. Keith was also a builder; he and Dad worked on many projects together, they even built a speedboat in the side shed.
Dad’s next project was building the new family home in Pickering Brook after Joe Neave sold off part of his block to them. Dad was now travelling up on the weekends on his motorbike with his tools in the sidecar. The family moved in once the house was completed to the point of bare necessities, but unfortunately this didn’t include windows, not like today where every last item is finished to a tee before the Shire will let you move in.
After the family home was built dad moved onto more important things, like a big shed 60 x 40 feet as all Grosvenor boys need a big shed, using the water pipe from the old orchard irrigation system to make all the steel structure, post and trusses, at this stage Graham was working Chamberlain John Deere and had learnt to weld so this new skill became his job welding all the structure up, even teaching dad a thing or two when it comes to welding.
Dad ran a successful business for many years providing for his family, overseeing owner/builders home construction, renovations. These are some of the jobs he did, overseeing the building of three homes on the Pickering Brook town site for, Molly Weston, Bob Brede and Reg Payne. This is when Doug went to help Dad pour concrete and broke his arm on the second day of his long service leave. Roof span between packing sheds for the Mazzardis brothers, full kit home for Murry Smith, trusses for Peter Newing new chicken shed, plus countless other jobs, home extensions, kitchen & bathroom renovations, I think Dad become the go-to guy for Pickering Brook in the day.
Dad has helped every member of his family many times over on different projects. Laying the sand pad on Graham & Gail’s home were Dad drove a bobcat for the first time. He ended up tipping a bucket full of sand on himself, but Graham did one even better driving into the leach drain. Major extensions on both Judy’s home and Doug’s home, full home construction of Brian and Sonia’s home, extensive renovations on Sharon’s home in St Kilda. Helping Graham with the construction of Tracy & Grant’s home in Kalbarri. Dad also did a huge amount of work on both the bailey & Cagney road homes. Not to mention all the patios, sheds, gazebos, fences, decks, water bores he worked on for all family members.
Later in life when the grandchildren came along, he made good use of his Cagney way workshop setup: saw bench, wood lathe, drill press, thicknesser, router and a full dust extraction system, here he made rocking horses, cubby houses, wooden Thomas the Tank train sets, miniature kitchenette, sit on diggers, for the grandchildren. He also made lamp stands, wooden bowls, jewellery boxes, windchimes, furniture, TV cabinets, a copy of Nanas cupboard, you name it dad would do his best to make it from scratch, quite often collecting good timber from the roadside collection to recycle into something new again.
These skills have been passed down to all Grosvenor children in various ways, each all taking some of Dad’s skills and also doing amazing things themselves from a truly amazing craftsman, father and husband.
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