Good people...

You hear so many people talking about society today and how it's such a bad place to be... Today, within the space of an hour I had two expereinces that confirmed that there are 'good people' around.

The first were the guys who turned up to fix our windows which we reported on our 3-month maintenance report. We had one broken lock, one sticky lock and a loose window that we wanted fixed. When they arrived they told me what it was that their job-sheet showed and then asked me to check every window and let them know if there were any other problems at all because they wanted to make sure that everything was working properly - which I was impressed with to start with (most people come to do a job and that's it). Then as one of the guys was fixing the lock he mentioned something about changing it to a side lock instead of the centre lock and I asked if that was easy to do - side locks/catches would be much easier with the roman blinds than the centre locks (don't need to open the blind to open the window) - I asked if he could change the bedroom lock over and they ended up changing every lock in the house to the side opening ones!! They were great guys - really friendly - and even cleaned up after themselves... but the best thing... one of them commented on my roman blinds and how good they looked (he used to make them commercially so that made me feel pretty good!!)

Within half an hour of the window guys leaving, I had another knock at the door... it was the maintenance guy who had been watering the gardens at the displays up at the top of the estate. He said he had some water left in the tank and wanted to know if he could water our garden - ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!!! We got more than half of it watered before he ran out. Apparently he'd asked someone else and they'd said 'no' because they thought his water was contaminated - it might be dirty and not drinking quality but it's more than good enough for my very thirsty plants!

So you see - there are some good people around!

In other news in our estate... work has started on stage 2 (and maybe 3 as well) and we now have houses on both sides of us and yesterday there appeared a port-a-loo on the block across the road. We met the neighbour from across the road (behind the block with the loo) last week and they moved in over the weekend. Our little block is starting to feel a bit like a neighbourhood. We haven't met everybody, but there are now quite a few houses with people living in them.

Not long now....

I had a phone call yesterday telling me that the pergola is due to arrive from Adelaide on Wednesday of next week!! They're going to get back to me with the actual construction dates but it looks like it will be done in the next 2 weeks!

I Love it!!

The concretors arrived at 5.30 this morning as promised and have been working hard all morning making our patio look GREAT!!! I reckon it's worth the wait and I've already forgotten the hassles (as Uncle Don suggested - Thanks Don!). And even better is that it's all done in time for by the time Dad arrives next week.

Some pics...

First truck arrived just before 6.00am and the barrows were lined up in the garage at the ready (I didn't get a photo...)








Spraying back...






Finished product - still wet. I don't know what the mix is called - it's just #5 from Werribee Mini-Mix...




Back step at the laundry door...


...and look what has appeared over our fence...


Yesterday it was just walls, today the roof trusses have been put up and the roof tiles have just been delivered. The same has happened on the next block over as well (both the same builder).

Concrete update...

I woke this morning to a text message from the concretor! It simply read "will b there 2morro at 5.30am"

I am rapt!!

...and he's just called again to confirm what type of aggregrate so sounds like it's definitely on for tomorrow.

My alarm is set (not going to be caught out again like the first time they came), the garage is clear - just need to move the car out, and the yard is cleared in readiness.

No concrete today...

...and probably no concrete this week!!!!!!!!!!!

I HATE being told by tradies "we'll be there on xxx" and then they don't turn up.

I was told over a week ago, that we'd get boxed on Friday and poured on Monday. I've just called this afternoon to find out what's happening only to be told (as though I was stupid!) that "it's too hot to pour now!".... Well I figured that!!!!!!!!! but what was wrong with this morning!!!!!!

So now I'm told "maybe Friday" with a "we'll call a few days before" - which I've been told before and haven't received a call yet! I highly doubt that they will be here Friday and I'm on the verge of telling them to shove their concrete, to take their boxing and I'll get someone else to do the job. As it is I've told them that I'm not impressed hanging around for 9 weeks waiting when we were told 3-4 weeks - to which I get told "but we've had rain" but only about a week of rain all up - not 4 WEEKS RAIN!!!!!

**FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!**

The front yard is planted!!

We planted the last of the plants in the front yard and have finished moving rocks (at last!!).



The before and after shot...


It's so great to have most of the plants that we have in the ground now. There are only couple left over which we will transplant into larger pots before their home in the backyard is found - means that we did a pretty good job planning how many plants we needed.



It's hard to photograph at the moment, as there's not a lot of contrast, but when the gravel is put in it should come up really nice.



We've also planted with growth in mind - we have been mindful of how high and how wide each plant gets and positioned accordingly. There is only one plant that I'm not sure of (as in not sure how high/wide) as it's one we've had in a decorative pot for 2-3 years - but we've put it in a place that it can be removed if it does get too big without affecting the rest of the garden too much.

We now have the paving (stepping stone style) and a couple more plants to put in along the south side fence (to the right) and maybe a couple of extra rivercascades along the two front windows.

This is where the paving will go...


We may get to these next weekend but there's no promises....

Next priority will be the back section outside the lounge-room window... This gap in the concrete under the piles of bricks and pavers

Boxed!

The concretors came on Friday and boxed up the areas for concreting. They're due to come back today to pour it and so we've been up early clearning out the garage so that they can get through - maybe we might be able to get two cars in soon....

Back step - from the laundry...


Looking from the rear of the garage...


From inside the garage down along the north side fence...


From the back fence...