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.

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

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.

Summer is over...

Apparently Melbourne has just had it's final days of warm sunny weather.  The weekend temps were around 25c which was just beautiful, alas now it seems we've hit cold times and are now putting up with wet, windy, 12 degree days.  yuk

It was fascinating to see the 3:00pm sun hit the kitchen wall through the celestory windows, exactly as it should.

The house was deliberately positioned so we benefited from the winter sun but avoid the direct sun in the summer months.

Painting continues but now it's doors.  To speed things along, MOTH has transferred some of our storage boxes from the shed to act as stands so right now, every available room is being used for the purpose.

The vanity purchased on eBay for the powder room has received shiny new taps and happily placed into it's proper position. The wall mirror also bought on eBay will go on the wall and that room will be complete.

A wee bit of progress...

Dear EP,

Here wee are at the dirty end of business. The poo pipe is operatational and K2 had the pleasure of christening the loo.  Unfortunately he wouldn't let me take a pic of the momentus occasion, not that the particular experience is momentus, but the actual event of using the toilie IN DA HOUSE for the first time was quite special.  Anyways, we dressed it up for the occasion... a wee bit smashing hey?



Before

On a more spectacular note, the internal balustrade was installed today.  We have been really impressed with Tarosa Stairs and are super happy with the final product.  During the week, the temporary treads were removed, the framework cleaned up and the runners painted with a flat black enamel paint, which happens to match perfectly with the finish of the powder coated steel bars of the baludstrade. The only job left to do is stain and varnish the handrails to match the new treads.  

After



We've made a list & checked it thrice.  Thankfully it's only a one page list that is now almost half complete.  This list you ask ??? is everything we can think of that needs to be done to get an Occupancy Permit for the house.  Yes, there's the odd task that's gonna take some hard yakka (we're trying to put those ones off til later) and some that are out of our hands, but we're slowly working through it.

Most light fittings are installed.
K1's butterflys go nice with
her Cork flooring

Tasks completed are:

Slab for the Hot Water Services

(plural) has been laid





The delicate procedure of fitting

the kitchen extractor to the

strawbale wall

... now which color splashback ???



So much angst over the front door...
but it's now stained and
the varnishing is nearly finished





Trenching & pipework to
the Poo Pipe (Worm Farm)



Feeding the worms manually
until the wastewater system
is commissioned





K2's Blue Room



"Soldiers" - inspection points

along the pipework



AC's Penthouse is lookin' good.
All the cabinetry is finished

 





This pic reminds me of the Colorbond ad on TV, except in this case you can't actually see the roof.  When I look up, I see the walls I built and rendered, which I later physically climbed to the very top of the scary-high scaffold to paint the eaves, and I even cleaned those damn windows.  What a beautiful sight!

Thanks to AC for playing Photographer during my convalescence.

For those who have nothing better to do...

Yes... we're constantly working on the house and sometimes overworked and overtired by our everyday lives to update the blog, so here's the latest news.

MOTH has been methodically filling the gaps around the window sills and making the wall joins nice and even, particularly where plaster meets a strawbale wall.  Some of the internal strawbale walls that we're keeping in their natural state have also had their two coats of Earth Binder.  This is an acrylic based non-toxic sealer used to dust-seal and strengthen, without changing the surface appearance and vapour permeability.  My experience with the supplier, Tech-Dry deserves 5 stars and I cannot recommend them more highly. 

Just for those interested, Tech-Dry have another product called Earth Shield for external use which is a combined water repellent and surface binder.  Both these products, once applied, will not affect surface breathability.  Nama & Fuzzy will be applying this to a section of their outside wall next to where the hot tub will sit.

The painting Queens have also finished the master bedroom and it looks much sunnier now with light colour on the walls. 

 

Meanwhile, AC has been helping Fuzzy dig and fill trenches to hold the water pipes and electrical cables... very physically demanding work involving shovels and spades!

Fuzzy has also been occupied building his "cave" (as K2 has named it).  I was very impressed by the water filtration system he has created, giving us options to use tank or mains water, both of which are filtered prior to entering the house.  Nice work Fuzzy!