For Sale

Here is my car! We bought her about 8 years ago now. We needed a car to hold 4 kids and at the time we hoped she would last us through until B finished school. She is still a great car, B has left school and some so I am looking to see if I can pass her to a deserving new home!

September 12

Well today has seen a few things happen.
Today I got the quote for the extras that I talked with Mark about during the walk through. As I guessed, they amounted a sizable sum of money. I am now looking at them and deciding which things to remove after all.
One thing I am reasonably sure I will do is seek a quote elsewhere for the cement for the pergola area. Mark's business is building, not cementing so getting some one to do that work is just an extra job for him. And rightfully, extra work deserves extra pay. So I might as well do the work on that myself.
 
As well as the quote, today I wrote a letter to the Govt about the plans for the next door house. I think it is ridiculous that i have to complain about it... because it isn't even legal. Well whatever.. I have written the letter and sent it off.

But there has been better news! look at the photos and what do you see?

Tiles!

2 things to note:

1. They are not as dark as they look in this photo and

2. They are darker than I realised. 

They look really nice though but I am a tad frightened about how hot they will be.

And now the slow progress of bricking

I am ready to move, really I am! When I started this notion I was given a finish date of "August-ish". I understood that August couldn't happen when the Govt didn't release the land, but now the house that is down the road is having its gutters and fascias added and i don't even have full walls yet. Well I have one...

And they are working on the others.

I am filling my evenings now watching renovation programs. Thinking about gardens now that all my shopping for house bits is just about done. And they say that lock-up is short of halfway. Which means it will be a while yet before I am moving anywhere.

The Walk Through

Way back when I started all this, Mark Porecca told me to think and plan where I would put things like phones, TVs, lights and so on. Well I gave it a shot and had a pretty good idea on most things. Today though, during the walk through it seems that there was plenty I hadn't got sorted in my head.

How many data points did I want?
Well I want computer access in my bedroom, but I know from the current house that wireless isn't so great when you want it to reach from one end of the house to another. The wireless hub needs to be central. I had to figure where in the family room I should put it. And the phone. It was hard! I didn't know how big the furniture will look in the space and I didn't know where it would all sit. In the end Mark talked me into putting the phone point next to an imaginary side table between the kitchen and the family room. I don't own such a beastie but maybe I will have to get one?

Then lights: Well the track lights that Mum had given me are not an option. He says that with the missing piece he won't install it. As far as I can tell it is a purely cosmetic piece, but he says he can't risk an electrician claiming that he got his finger in the hole and blah blah. I can see where he is coming from but it means I had to rethink things.
I think by the end of it I had about 4 more lights than the allowance gave me. And a few power points. And Tv points. And data points.

Then there is the heater control. I had the choice of on/off or the programmable option. I do like the idea that it can turn itself on just before you wake up in the morning as a Canberra house is a chilly thing if the heaters have been off. Naturally I will pay more for the programmable.

And the hot water:
It's instantaneous. It can come out at 50C all the time or I can have a button that allows it to heat to a particular temperature for particular uses. So you would set it to 40C for a shower and not pay to heat it to 50C and then cool it with cold water.

Well I think today's walk through has cost me over $1000. eeeek

Then we talked cement. The original quote was for 6m of cement path to the clothes line. I knew the clothes line was going to be more than 6m away so I had insisted that the quote be for the whole distance. This morning Mark was stepping out the 6m so see what the rest would cost me. I was very glad to be able to remind him that my contract said "concrete path to the clothes line" not "6m path to clothes line". So I won't be paying for the extra 5.5m it takes to get to the clothes line.

My next brain tease will be the area under the pergola. Mark can cement it but it will be quite expensive. There is an initial cost, plus GST plus 20% variation on the contract. I might have to give it a miss after the expense of today.

Why a Blog?

The reason I am writing this blog is because I need somewhere for my memories to live and my head isn't reliable :)
This is my own adventure so the memories are really for my own benefit and blogs make a good place to store them.
As the direction of my life has changed I have written different blogs. I have a quilting one, a Second Life one and now I have this one which will be about building a new home and a new life.

I began by writing the story in my SL Blog as my two lives began to merge. Now though, my SL has become something more like a curtain than a life. It is in the background, it colours my life but it isn't my life anymore.

So now this blog is about 9 months behind where things are up to. I may lift whole pieces from Audslife and bring it over, or I might just do some quick summaries. I will think on it :)

Meanwhile, yesterday they built half the frame of my house!

Yesterday was much like today. Gorgeous sunny day and clear skies. Not much wind. A fine day to be a builder I guess. But so cold! Minus 6.5 this morning. (that's 20F) we have been having very heavy frosts and I am happy to be working inside at 9am