30 June 2013

Drive-in...

Rick has been doing a mighty fine job of shaping the driveway, with the added bonus of tidying up a good chunk of the overgrown and messy areas near the entrance and fenceline.

Wow... what a difference a few days with the excavator can make!!!

Despite the fact we have a huge amount of rocks scattered all over the place, and Rick has worked very hard to dig up each and every one of them, we needed more and took delivery of 2 truck loads, along with extra topsoil.

 We have hot water now which is really noice!  Carpet is being installed on Tuesday so we've been frantically working to finish all the painting jobs in time.  MOTH invested in a bewt 10ft ladder so that he could reach the highest points of the rendered walls in the loungeroom as they needed sealing before the carpet was laid.  The ladder also came in handy when a smoke detector started chirping today.
PS: Nama & Fuzzy got to move in yesterday. It's our turn next weekend. 
woo hoo... house packing this week

23 June 2013

Are we there yet?

The moving truck has been booked for 6th July... trusting that everything will be in order for us to physically access the property with a removals truck.  Rick and his excavator are due to start work tomorrow, and using the power of positive persuasion, the driveway will be ready in time!

It's all hands on deck every spare minute of the day until that time.  Floor coverings are booked to be laid a few days prior to moving day so the last of the painting is being done... and yes Dr Paul, your suggestion to use a roller with head specifically for oil based enamel paint was a brilliant one.  You could have mentioned it earlier tho as I've only got 5 doors to go (after today). 

Today I painted 3 doors in record time, with ease and much less paint and pain!  May I also say to anyone interested... that painting enamel in the middle of winter, especially when the temp was 6 degrees celcius when I arrived this morning, is not recommended.  The paint gets quite thick and gluggy, but oh that roller made is so much better.  I even bought a pack of 10 replacements to save me from having to clean them... ha ha

and BTW, having a door makes going to the lav so much more clandestine!

With Rick arriving, MOTH needed to finish digging the utilities trench (taking services from the shed to house) and hooking up some final connections, as it will be covered up this week.

Fuzzy also showed me the collector tank under the house.  This is where all stormwater will first be gathered, then initially, re-directed to the overflow.  Once our water tanks are in place, the contents will be pumped across to the storage tanks for general use at the property. Refer to post dated 17/03/13 for more info.









The tank is tucked up neat and tidy under the lower balcony.


09 June 2013

Here's the fancy steps along the side entry between garage and house and the closed off porch from two angles.


08 June 2013

Exciting News !!!

The best possible news of all is that we now have permission to live in the house.  A "Claytons" inspection was arranged for yesterday, primarily so we could find out exactly what was required to finish the house for satisfactory final inspection.  Although the inspector did point out a couple of items that require attention, alas a final inspection certificate was not issued (no surprises here), he did give permission for us to occupy which hit us all like a bolt out of the blue.  Naturally, we are over-the-moon happy with this news... a massive step in getting outta where we are currently residing!

Nama & Fuzzy are pretty much all ready to move in.  Once the hot water service and oven are delivered, no doubt we will bid them farewell.

The remaining sections of the house still have some painting to be completed, mainly architraves and skirting boards, then the carpet can be laid in readiness for our furniture to come.

Stay tuned folks cos we're hoping to move out of the rental in a month's time!  woo hoo...

Items to be attended to for the fair dinkum final inspection aren't major, but we have time and aren't too concerned about it.  What does need immediate attention is the driveway.  At the moment there's no way of reaching the garage on wheels from either direction so Rick and his excellent excavator will be starting work very soon to level out one side and finish with gravel topping so we can at least get a removals truck to the door.

Note to anyone visiting:  Unless the garage doors are open, you'll need to access the front door/porch via the side entry, between garage and house.  Due to the OH&S hazard (big hole in front of the porch), we have blocked off the access.