How is it really going?

April 2011
Is it now we should be reporting torture and doom? We know you want to live vicariously and hear all the tales of woe from living with the in-laws and dealing with builders. So we are sorry (although we aren't) that we actually can't report much trauma from recent months. There's been a few bits and pieces that have come up which we didn't expect (eg the look of Hebel internally) but overall it's been OK.
We are officially two months behind schedule with no penalties to apply. This is mainly because of the wet weather last year. Now we have a roof the rain shouldn't be so much of an issue. Jenny is having stern words with her Bureau colleagues - surely they can manage the weather for us?
Our neighbours have generously headed off around Australia for six weeks so we are housesitting and have the pleasure of living next to our very own building site. Not long after they get back, we are going to housesit our neighbours house on the other side of our place.
The main challenge of the next month is to keep the five chickens, two rabbits and eight goldfish alive.

In the frame

February-March 2011

Back of house (faces north)

Front of house

Kitchen and dining area

Lego for grown ups

January 2011
So much for builders disappearing for all of January. We had people on site from the first working day and before long the Hebel walls were going up. 
Hebel is an aerated concrete brick which is larger and lighter than traditional bricks but with much better thermal and insulating properties. It does not require any supporting structures and the blocks just get glued onto each other - Lego for grown ups.

More than a slab of beer

Christmas 2010

After all the angst, Santa looked after us and presented us with a lovely new slab just days before Christmas. 

Which will come first - the slab or Christmas?

Ours was going to be the project than ran super smoothly, to budget and on schedule. So where should we start the litany of woe?

Well, we're two months into our contract and we still don't have a slab. The builder is blaming the rain (and we agree, it has been wet) but perhaps if it hadn't taken so long to clear the rubbish from the block in the first few weeks the slab might have been poured before the rain came. In other events:

• the relocation company managed to severely damage our beautiful gum tree as they moved the house. They also tore up four nature strips - ours and three of our neighbours - and cracked a neigbours' fence post then refused to take any responsibility for the fence post. A few stern conversations soon reversed this position.
• the builder has so far managed to disconnect our neighbours phone not once, but twice. Excellent effort. The first time it took six days to fix and the next time the neighbours sorted it out themselves in a couple of days. He's also managed to tear up some of their plants and put equipment on their property without asking them first. At this rate we won't be welcome back. 

On current form the only slab that we might have by Christmas is one that we buy from the bottle shop to sooth our homeless sorrows.

Leavin' on a Big Truck

All my stumps are packed I'm ready to go

I'm waiting here close to the road

I hate to say good bye to my old folk

But the traffic's slowin' it's early morn

The truckie's waitin' he's blowin' his horn

Already I'm so cut I'm almost broke

So fix me and send me far away

Tell me that you'll visit me

Give me paint and a new family

Cause I'm leavin' on a big truck

Just hope that I will not get stuck

Oh Kew I'm leavin' you

All jacked up

Roofless and stumpless - the dear cottage is not quite as cute as she used to be.

It's all jacked up and ready to go. We're now just waiting for the big trucks and the VicRoads permits.

The house will be loaded onto two trucks during the day and moved in the wee hours of the morning when traffic is at a minimum.

The relocation company will do a letterbox drop to all the homes in the street asking them not to park their cars on the street so the trucks can get past. We are wondering what happens to the cars that don't get moved.