Thursday, October 29, 2009

Progress!!

Our plumbing problem is now FIXED and we didn't have to do it ourselves!!

After countless calls to the SS he finally gave us the number of the plumber - I think because he was genuinely surprised that they hadn't called us after 3 days and decided that he'd rather I pestered them instead of him. Several more calls to the plumber (well his secretary) eventually resulted in a plumber turning up at 6.45am as promised (very punctual) where he fixed the broken pipe and also added a T intersection (and a riser for ease of access - pipe sticking out of the ground that shows the location) for the plumbing of the pergola/verandah at no extra cost. He was done and gone in less than 20 minutes!

And we also seem to be getting somewhere with the building permit for the pergola (I know - technically a verandah). The guy from the council has just called to ask a few questions regarding out permit (we had to resubmit) and gave me the impression that every was OK so fingers crossed we get the official go ahead soon.

As for the concrete... we are still waiting on that... I think that they were waiting to hear that we'd sorted the plumbing out - which they've now been advised of - and so now we're expecting them to come around and box it up ready for the pour. We've been told this will happen "sometime soon" but I don't know how to convert this from 'tradie-speak' into 'layperson-speak' and so am expecting it could be anything between now and the middle of next week.

In the meantime we have a long weekend coming up - in 'artstitches-speak' this means that Bryan has an RDO and so we actually get 2 days off together in a row - and so we're planning to get that front yard moving along. The plants are crying out to get into the ground SOON!

And just so I don't have another post devoid of pictures... this gives you an idea of the pergola we are getting put on. It won't look exactly like this - ours will have the pitched section to the right and the flat section to the left and will have a mixture of tinted sky-lights and solid panels in the roof.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Waiting...

We are waiting on the builder to sent over a plumber to look at the broken pipes. We're hoping that it's non-compliant and therefore the builders responsibility to fix, if not... then we will do it ourselves (it certainly isn't 4" below the existing ground level and not 4" from the top of where the concrete will be). We have made things easier for them by digging out all around the pipe so fingers crossed they'll do it.

By doing this however, we are back in the hands of the SS and this means waiting... I spent much of Friday calling the SS to find out - each time he resonded with "haven't they called you yet?..." so I'm not sure if it's because he hasn't arranged it or if he's getting stuffed around by the plumber (and the other tradies who are also supposed to be turning up).

In the meantime we did some more digging to get the termguard pipes underground so that the concrete won't be poured directly on top.

The front yard is still a work in progress... The right side (as you look at it) is almost ready for the rocks to put in place and so we're planning to get working on it this weekend... Might have to look at getting some dirt delivered.

We might even have concrete by the end of the week and I could get enough dirt (sorry... soil) to do the garden outside of the lounge room as well. ...oh but that would mean moving the bricks and pavers again.... it's like a puzzle.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ooops!!!...

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This was not part of the plan....

This morning, bright and early as promised, our concreting team arrived
Eeeek! we were still in bed as I hadn't set the alarm and had just yelled at the dog to shut up when I realised that there seemed to be quite a few voices coming from out the front (in addition to the usual yelling of the brickies in an unknown language) and realised that perhaps the dog was actually trying to tell me something *embarrased*

Armed with trucks, digger, tools and gravel they set to work.CIMG6689

At one stage we popped our heads out the door to discover that the downpipe near the kitchen didn't go straight down and the digger had broken the pipe... "no problem... we'll fix it" we were told and we went back inside to our breakfast as one of the guys set about measuring, cutting and gluing poly-pipe.

All fixed (note the number of bends...)CIMG6698

We then had a thought that the plans showed that the stormwater from the garage links diagnally across to this one, under the area where they were to dig next and so we dug up the plans to show them so we could avoid further damage... "no problem... it'll be deeper than we're digging" and so we went back to our breakfast a second time.

Then there was a tap at the door and we were beckoned outside to 'have a look' and were shown this.... "This is a problem... I can't fix this..." we were told...
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Apparently our builder doesn't put pipes in a logical place, nor did they bother to bury the pipes below ground level (have I mentioned that I will NOT EVER EVER recommend them to anyone - not even my worst enemy!!). And so with breakfast officially off, a barrage of phone calls commenced...

...to the plumbing commission to determine whether this pipe should have been lower (hard to say - it should be 4" below ground level but what is ground level?... there are so many different levels you could call ground level...)

...to our SS to see what he had to say - not much it seems but apparently he's sending a plumber over to have a look

...to a couple of plumbers to see what this could cost us - I really am in the wrong business... $85 just to come out, $22.50 per 15minutes and that's the same cost whether it's a quote or actually doing the work *ARGHHHH*

After all of this and whilst watching one of the workers fixing the first 'oops' we decided "no problem... WE will fix it!" and so guess what we will be doing this weekend... (I should be out there digging now!)

Anyway.... the road-base has been layed and so now we can get a feel for the finished area - I think it looks big and will be a great size! and it'll look even better when the verandah/roof is put up.

Looking from the rear of the garage...
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Here's hoping that we CAN fix this and that things go smoother when they come back to do the concrete.... *fingers crossed!*

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

2 Months!!

Today marks 2 months since we took possession of our house... 2 months already!!... which means we've been here for just over 7 weeks.

Today is also the first day that the postie has been able to easily deliver our mail in our newly installed mail box. I put the post in over a week ago but only just got around to putting the box into it yesterday - our postie has been very good and used rubber-bands to secure our mail to the post on the days that we forgot to but the letterbox out (we were bringing it in because of the strong winds we've been getting). So finally our letterbox has it's permanent home...

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This morning we had Jim's Antennas come and give us a qoute for the aerial installation. He tested the reception, showed us the options, gave us a price and then we gave the nod to go ahead and he installed it straight away. We now have perfect reception on both digital and analogue TV's.

I really am surprised at just how long we've lasted without it. Two weeks ago I did give in a bit and bought a cheap aerial ($9 rabbit ears) and so we have had some telly, but for the most part we've been listening to the radio and watching DVDs.

And finally work has started on the block next door (to our left)... It's a bit disappointing to see that they are building righ on our north-side fence and will probably block some of our much-loved light and views of the planes coimng in to land(we don't get the noise but we get a great view of the planes coming straight at our kitchen/dining room window and then they turn towards Melbourne). Ahh-well.... had to happen sometime...

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Seven weeks....

That's the estimated time before our verandah will be done!

The concreting should be started soon... I rang the guy this week and apparently if it weren't for the rain we had last week, would were in line for the diggers to come this Saturday. Unfortunately that won't be happening now and we're waiting on a call back to tell us just the new date...

We have finally made a decision on the verandah though which is good news! We were getting a friend to do it, however the costs were escalating and the council was asking for and engineers certificate of compliance which would have pushed the costs even higher and so Bryan had the very difficult conversation with our friend to tell him that we were going elsewhere (he took it better than expected so all is still good).

We'd got a couple of quotes from another company who we came across recently and their prices looked good and their product is what we were looking for and so they came by today and measured up. They're going to take over the council permit application and all going well, we'll be started in 7 weeks....

....wish it were sooner....

...guess it just gives us time to save some more!....


In the mean time this little angel (looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth)....
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has bit-by-bit been destroying our laundry (we put her in there on the one day a week when we are both at work and when it is wet outside). She has eaten the architrave around the door, put scratches through the plaster mostly near the doors but no wall is untouched, eaten the plastic cover off the light switch and chewed the plastic bit that the rubber door stop sits on.... The only thing that she hasn't done is go to the toilet in there, even when we left her there while we were at work yesterday...

She also decided to take off last night when we were out walking her after we finally got home at 10pm. To cut a long story short, she smelled rabbit and was off, with her lead (one of those plastic reel-in types) crashing on the ground behind her. After about 20 minutes of panic and yelling excitedly like idiots (wanted her to come back - not run off again) she and I were re-united in the middle of a paddock in the dark. I have now discovered that Weimaraners are impossible to see in the dark (only found her by the crashing of the lead) and have vowed to buy a reflective collar and engraved tag as soon as we can....

Bring on the concrete yard and undercover area - she'll never have to leave the yard again!!:)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A work in progress...

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I finished another of the blinds last week so now the two front windows (main bedroom and office) have 'proper' window coverings. It was great to be able to sleep in on the weekend as the blinds block out all light except for the two slivers on the sides between the blind and the frame. We (meaning I!) still have a long way to go but seeing a couple done is definitely spurring me on.

The front landscaping is slow going... we have now moved the pile of roadbase (leftover from the sideway) to the back and started turning over the soil and have started marking it out. The pile of rocks is growing and hopefully we'll be able to start positioning them soon.

And the letterbox nearly has it's forever home!! I have installed a post (that's almost deeper in ground that above - too lazy to cut it but in the end I had to!) and now need to get some screws to secure it.