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