A present from the builders

All we need is a big red bow!! The house is wrapped up ready to be bricked.

It's looking great and well on truly on track. The weather has been exceptionally kind which has enabled the tradies to get out there and get everything done on time or ahead of schedule.

All of the electricity has been done (ahead of schedule) and we are heading down tonight with Dad to pre wire for data and alarm system .... and our good mate Tony is coming down from Stawell on Sunday to finish off the cabling ready for the plasterer on Monday. Good on ya' Tone!

Blink and you'll miss it

2:00pm ... having a moment of madness at work so I decided to hop in the car and go down to the house. According to Peter's schedule, the roof tiling was due to commence tomorrow so my plan was to check that the tiles had been delivered to site and check they were the right ones (that way we could stop any work and have the right ones delivered).

On a scale of 1 to 10 ... 10 being the highest 1 being the lowest .... my shock factor was 11 when I saw that our entire roof had been tiled!! The tradies were working on the guttering and bits and pieces and when I asked the young guy when it would be finished he said 'tomorrow morning'.

After the initial shock, my next shock was to inspect the tiles and was a little bit disheartened when I saw that the colour was not what I had expected. We had chosen 'chocolate brown' roof tiles, and the tiles in the sun appear to be a reddy/brown colour. They look great, but not what I had expected. I have put a call into the builder to find out if in fact they are the correct ones. I'm thinking that perhaps when you have one tile you don't really get a good feel for what it's going to look like.

Anyway ... even if they are wrong I'm not too fussed because I think they look good.

Mood - really excited.

Gutters and supervisor (not a Guttered Supervisor)

Gutters are on - just have to be painted.

Plumbing is in - just need the rest of the house built to be able to see if it works!

We met Peter (our Supervisor) this morning on site. Nice bloke and not bad looking either! Seemed to know what he was doing (which is always a good sign). He is very happy with how everything is going and hasn't come across any delays (yet). He tells us that the roof will be on by the end of this week and the bricking will start next week. Our next door neighbour (also building with PD) is having their bricking done at the same time so he is supervising both crews.

Wiring for the electricity will be done by the end of next week also, so we will get Tony down hopefully that weekend to help John put all of the data cabling through.

WAY exciting.

Our Valentine's Day gift

Who needs flowers, chocolates or tools on valentine's day when you can go down to your block (with effect from this post, the block is now favourably referred to as the house).

As we drove down the street, we both let out a 'woo hoo' when we saw what is going to (very soon) be our beautiful house.

Peter (our supervisor) & the gang have done a great job (we think so anyway - I'll get Dad to come and check out their work) and are certainly working to the timelines that they have said they would.

We are meeting Peter on site on Monday morning so will be good to get an idea as to how he thinks the project is tracking.

Enjoy the photos! We sure did.

Base of frame laid out & windows delivered

Now where are those instructions?

Visit to the site today revealed that our house had been delivered on the back of a truck and is ready for assembly.

John looked at the bits and said 'hope he's got the instructions for that lot!'.

I'm sure the builders know what they are doing .... let's hope so anyway!!

With a bit of luck, all should be put together by Friday!! More pics then..

Concrete down

Well as you can see by the photos above - the slab has been laid! It was good to be able to really get an idea of how much (or should I say, how little) backyard we have. Good thing we don't want to raise sheep and chickens. We are sure the dogs will have enough room anyway, as they have a much smaller area now to run around in.

Frame starts middle of the week hopefully. Will update on Friday ... so until then .... farewell.

2 latte's please

Well the 'coffee cups' have been laid ready for the pour of the cement today.

For those that don't have a clue what I'm talking about, we are using the Waffle Pod System to lay the slab. It looks like a sea of upside down coffee cups ... perhaps the builders use them at morning tea as well?

Last night we took Zach and Roxy down to have a look at the progress of their new home. They had a ball running around, checking out the neighbours house and smelling everything around the building sites. Must have been puppy smelling heaven!!

The Piping Fairies have been

The concrete cows have been

It appears that the concrete cows have been and deposited large 'cow pats' on our block!!!

We were thrilled to drive down the road and see the following:

- Temporary fencing

- Piers have been done

- Lines drawn ready for plumbing

The block next door is also a Porter Davis home and they have put temporary fencing around the 2 blocks. They already have the plumbing in (no piers required on that block) - a big difference to day 1 of building when they had nothing done. Amazing how quick they actually work when they start.

See you in another couple of days with some updated pics!

There was movement at the block, for the Supervisor had got around ...

23 January 2007 ... a momentous day in the life of John and I when Porter Davis started work on our house. It feels like this day has taken forever to come, but now that it's finally here, it's a bit scary to think that in just a few months we need to start thinking about packing up the current place and moving (if all goes to plan).

We still haven't heard from the Supervisor (apparently his name is Darren) but we're taking the fact that they started as a very good sign.

A bad sign from last night was when we ran into Sarah and a new friend she has made in her street. They were riding around the estate and happened to be at our block when we arrived. Sarah introduced us (in a very adult way!) to Kristie who proceeded to tell us that they built with Porter Davis and during the building of their home they had 2 fires, a flood and a cracked wall!! We were quick to say goodbye to Kristie as we didn't want to hear any more horror stories in case the bad luck bug jumped across to us.

The photos above show the block, scraped of all grass and debris ... the very important porta-loo for the builders .... and Sarah doing a 'da daaahhhh' showcasing the block.

An Ode to Priscilla

The plans arrived,

We took the time,

To check that they were right.

A minor change,

Here and there,

Even added a light.

But lo and behold,

What’s that we saw,

It looked just like a truss.

Now don’t be daft,

Don’t be silly,

It’s just a Hippopotamus

Stuff is getting done!

First day back at work yesterday for both John and I *groan*. By midday when the last 2 week's holiday were becoming a distant memory and I was on to my third coffee, an email popped up from the lovely Megan (our PD Consultant).

How sweet to see the words "we are currently ordering the materials for your new home"!!! Cheers of elation were heard throughout the office. We will find out who our supervisor is this week (hope he's nice!) and on Friday he will start to arrange his crew for the start of the build process.

Ripper Rita!!

Merry Christmas to all

Well the year is almost over. It's been quite a year for John and I and we are really looking forward to what 2007 holds for us.

Thank you for sharing our journey so far and we look forward to updating you on the house and other ramblings when everything starts up again.

Site start for the house is the 16th January so until then ... merry Christmas to you all. Stay safe and have an awesome christmas and new year.

Love to all

John & Andy

x

Picnic at Hanging Block

Settlement Day - felt like knob heads sitting on a blanket on the block drinking wine but we had fun! Our neighbours (not really neighbours as such but the closest house that has been built to us so far) were out in the front yard seeing off a visitor. We waved and they waved back .... we thought perhaps their conversation went something like this "... oh dear, look at those people sitting on their block. Just smile and wave and move slowly back into the house - no sudden movements. Lock the door as soon as you get inside." :-)

12:30pm today we are much poorer

Well it's official.

We are a large sum of money poorer and own 649 m2 of dirt.

Breakfasts at our favourite restaurant have been cancelled and we expect more invitations for meals from our friends and family :-)

I love being a grown up

Andy
:-)

We settle tomorrow

Well tomorrow is the day ... that a small piece of this fine earth becomes ours.

After what was a very trying week last week (won't bore you with the fine details but it has to do with Australia Post taking 5 days to get something from Melbourne to Brisbane), the mortgage documents finally arrived and the all clear given to proceed with settlement at 12:30 on Tuesday, 12 December.

John starts his new job tomorrow so when he gets home we are going to put the picnic blanket in the car, grab a bottle of bubbly and head down to the block to have dinner .... will locate our ample bottoms somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen.

Very excited.

:-)

Good luck will surely run out soon ....

For those that regularly read our blog, you will know that I made a sweeping promise a few weeks ago about a 'non related house blog. Unfortunately I am breaking this promise and giving you another snippet into the lives of John and I.

So ... I give you the opportunity now to close the window and not to read on any further if you are only interested in house updates.

OK ... so you're still with me - thanks for sticking with us :-).

Friday was an awesome day ... AWESOME. Why? Well firstly because I took the day off to spend with John. He drove down from Hamilton on the Thursday night as he had an appointment with the ENT Specialist on Friday morning. I have resigned from my job so what do I care about using up my sick leave (shocking work ethic I know but that's how I feel about this place).

Anyway ... we set the agenda for the day as there were a few things that needed to be done.

Agenda went as follows:

1. Breakfst out at our favourite breakfast place
2. Pick up Season 2 on DVD of SG Atlantis (just released)
3. Specialist appointment for John
4. Interview for John (for a job in Melbourne)
5. Sign documents by local police and return to lawyer (nothing serious to worry about for those that have just had images of us dealing in some form of illegal substance).

Outcome of the day's agenda is as follows:

1. Breakfast was lovely
2. Season 2 purchased - the Raith are back in full swing looking to dominate the Earth once more
3. Specialist appointment revealed that John's burst ear drum from 2 years ago (whilst Scuba Diving in the Whitsundays) has completely healed and he has been given the all clear to get back in the water again
4. John scored a job in Melbourne (this is the best new that we have had since the engagement this year!!) For those that are unaware, for the 3 years we have been together, John has only worked in Melbourne for 12 months of that time .. all other work has been commuting to country areas or interstate. This is brilliant for us as 2007 is a huge year for us.
5. Documents signed and returned

So all in all, Friday was an awesomely successful day. If we could have more days like that I reckon life would be perfect.

On another note, Sarah had her CPCA performance on Saturday. She did brilliantly!! She looked so confident up there singing and dancing. I am really thankful to her dad and his partner for allowing her to do this out of school. She really seems to love it and I am so proud of my little girl. Her dad did take some photos so I will see if I can get a couple off him so that I can display my gorgeous girl up here.

Mood: Deliriously happy

Settlement Day is almost upon us

Wooooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooooooooooooo!

We have just been advised that the land title has been released and settlement day is the 12 December 2006.

Can't believe that it did actually settle 'any day'.

A very very exciting day for us is ahead. It appears that the fun/easy part is definitely over however as we are finding all sorts of things either wrong or need clarification in the Engineer's report.

The loan documentation has come back .... for the 3rd time .... for signing and it appears that ... once again .... the amounts are not correct with regard to the land portion and the construction portion of the loan.

Anyway .... I'm so excited that it is about to settle. We can sit back and enjoy some good hard eating and drinking over christmas and return to Melbourne for the start of what will be an amazing year for our family.

Bring on 2007!!

Andy
:-)

How quickly we get disappointed

The previous post (submitted only moments ago) had a feeling of great expectation didn't it.

Pity the great karma train has decided to run smack bang into my ass again. In my excitement that perhaps Porter Davis would start before christmas, I contacted Megan (our lovely PD customer liaison officer) who was pleased to advise that our start date is scheduled for the first week of January.

Booooooooooooooooooooo ............ hhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Oh well ... I guess the thing to see a positive in that little blow is that when we return from Hobart, we may get to actually watch the first dig of the ground. John is home until the 8th January so maybe that can be the new goal - that he can meet the supervisor and watch the first turning of the soil (like some dodgy politician).

So this is me out for a while I guess.

Could it be .. could it really be?

"Have now been advised that the Application for approval of the Plan of Subdivision has been lodged at the Land Registry Office. The Plan should be approved any day. Once the Plan has been approved settlement will be effected within the fortnight."

This is what we received from our Conveyancer today. John rang with the good news and then emailed me the note ... of course today I am very cranky having had the phone slammed down on me for no reason whatsoever ... but that is another story .... anyway, as I was saying, this news just appeared to be the same thing we have heard for the last 2 months.

However I am assured that the 'Land Registry Office' is the new piece of information and this apparently should cause great excitement as it really is a fact that the land should be approved 'any day'.

So I will continue to wait patiently. Of course our best scenario has always been to have the slab down by christmas, allow it to cure over the celebratory period (where no builder works) and the frame should go up on a very solid piece of concrete. I'm told that one of the worst things that can happen is that the slab goes down and the frame goes up a week later ... therefore not giving the concrete enough time to settle therefore dodgy frame etc. etc.

Anyway .. let's hope the last bit won't happen.

The gorgeous half of this duo

Seeing there is nothing happening with the house, I thought I may as well say something to fill the gap of silence.

John is growing a moustache for 'Movember' ... a great cause to raise money for prostrate cancer. He started as planned on the 1 November, and I am told that he will shave it off on the 30 November.

It's starting to fill out (afer 21 days of growth) and you will see by the attached photo that he is trying out for the role of Construction Worker with the Village People!

I still think he's gorgeous ... even with the salt and pepper growth on his face!

:-)

Who ever said no news is good news?

I like to think that I'm normally an optimistic person ... however my optimism for having a slab down by Christmas is fading as quickly as the water storage levels in Melbourne.

The land needs to be titled by mid November for us to even contemplate a start towards the end of November. As it is now the 8th and we have heard nothing, I don't anticipate that Porter Davis will give us a site start in December ... which would mean that December and January is a write off.

Crap.

Mood: Particularly unpleasant

An unrelated blog

I will try throughout this process not to digress too much from the house, but for those that know me well, know that I'm a bit of a chatter and like to tell people what's going on (even when they are clearly not interested!!).

Anyway, 2 things happened this week that I have been very pleased with.

1. On the night of Halloween I got a very unexpected text from Sarah's 'step-mum' (not really sure what the title is of an ex's partner so that will do) with a photo of Sarah dressed up ready for trick or treating. Now you may not find this strange, but believe me, it was unexpected and I was so thrilled that she sent it to me that I got one of those real genuine feelings of happiness. It was one of those times that I looked back and wished that things were a bit different but they aren't, and I highly doubt they will ever be any different, but it was just a really nice thing to receive. Call me simple but it's simple pleasures that are the best ones. Oh and if you were wondering, Sarah was dressed up like a clown .... she looked WAY cute. If I can get a copy of the pic from my phone to here, I'll load it.

2. Pulled out the bike last night (with about an inch of dust all over it) and did an 11km ride. Well, I exaggerate .... I probably walked 5kms of the 11kms. There is a big hill on Canterbury Road as you head up to my house and no joke, it feels like it is about 10kms long .. when in fact it is actually on 2km. I haven't been on the bike since I rode with the aforementioned step-mum (which I think was early last year?? could even be the year before .. not quite sure as I've erased the pain from my memory). This ride was 62km and we rode from Jells Park to Federation Square and back again. The person I rode with appeared to do it easily while I was in far more pain than I'd ever been in my life. Needless to say, after that ride the bike was stashed in the back of the shed never to be ridden again. UNTIL NOW. Anyway, that was my 2nd good thing for this week ... while the pain was hideous, I had a great sense of achievement at getting the bike out and riding it.

OK ... that's it. No update on the land yet (curses to the council) but hopefully any day now ... any day :-))

Andy's ramblings (it won't happen again :-))

The promised pics

As promised yesterday, here are the photos of the street now asphalted (is that a word?) and blocks ready to go. I think the poor neighbours who have had it very quiet for the last few months are about to be bombarded with trucks, visitors and all sorts of labourers.

I really really love how flat the block is because you can do so much with it. I can just picture what it will look like in a few years time with some lovely trees growing (drought resistant ones of course).

With the survey pegs re-done we were really surprised at how long the block really is. Once the slab is down most of it will be taken up by house but there will be enough back yard and side bit (is that side bit still called 'yard'?) for the puppies to run around and play in. Sarah was telling me that in her new garden she is going to build a fairy garden - how cute. I think if she tried to do that in ours, the poor little fairies would get trampled by the over-playful dogs!! I'm glad she's going to take an interest in her garden though - I'm no gardener (although I love the look of a lovely garden) so hopefully her dad will keep encouraging her to stay keen. Maybe she can give me some tips!!

Have a happy hump day!

Andy