Tredegar

A big job for Steve this weekend. In fact…too big for the $60 urban back yard whipper snipper (well, really an edger). Steve said that if the whipper snipper was human, he’d be giving it a big pat on the back for going above and beyond the call of duty!

The grass caught up with us, almost overnight. In some places it was 2 foot high!

So a big effort from Steve to get an area around the house cleared…and then we headed home and started shopping around for ride ons!

The painters have started and it is looking fantastic! Today the sanders arrived to do the floors. Really starting to happen now!

Thought I should update the blog with at least a few photos so show how far along thing are.  We now have a kitchen, bathrooms, hot water service, driveway and a pad for the shed.

We are, for all intents and purposes, finished.  Just a few things like getting power, water and septic….

At this stage we are set for a move in during the first week of December…pretty exciting.

As we stood on our verandah, looking out at the land and the kangaroos, we noticed that two of them were having a fight! These photo’s don’t do the boxing match any justice … they were really getting stuck into each other including some significant kicks to the body.

Spent another night at the house and it was very very cold. Funny how a couple of bottles of Heathcote Shiraz can steel you against the cold! That, and a small kerosene heater. The house looks more and more finished every day. No big changes this week except more rubbish seems to have been taken away.

This morning we woke to our kangaroo family feeding, resting and generally sunning themselves on our land, down by the dam. Which, by the way had water in it. The most water we have seen since we have own the land.

AND…..all the creeks and streams were full of water this week as well as, again for the first time, the Campaspe River. It would be a stretch to say it was flowing, however there is water there and it’s a big breakthrough.

We can’t help but comment when we drive up how green everything is looking now. It was so dry for about 18 months, and now it’s really green and looks wonderful.

So, thanks to the builder (and Mum), we have widened the stairs at the front of the house.  We can’t believe what a difference it has made to the whole look and feel of the house the verandah.  It’s a little bizarre that we didn’t do this in the first place, however, it’s done now!  Go back and look at past entries to see the narrow stairs.  I think you will agree that this is a really good decision!

The floor boards are now also fully in.  The living room, kitchen and hallway are now complete.  Obviously we need to do the finishing, however this won’t happen for some time as we have internal painting, etc to be done.  We are now thinking about getting the heater installed.  We have looked at the (be warned - annoying guy speaking on website) Pivot Stove and Heater range and are hoping to get this in in the next few weeks.

We took the dogs up for the day to play.  It rained the whole time  which had us lamenting that we don’t have the tank in.  This has been exacerbated by local news suggesting drought breaking rain expected for Victoria in the coming weeks.  *sigh*.

The dogs, however, loved it.  They ran around in the rain for most of the visit, and both rolled in many versions of droppings (wombat, rabbit, kangaroo) and then coming up and grinning  at us ways that only happy, wet, muddy, poo covered, dogs can grin

On the power front.  It seems that we finally have a solution.  It will cost us heaps more than we budgeted and borrowed for, but we are stuck between a rock and a hard place needing power in by Christmas to accommodate the family that are coming to stay!

We have a new BBQ for the property and Steve cooked our first real meal at the property.  It’s great having a space to leave stuff.  We are looking forward to the kitchen and laundry being finished so that we can start leaving stuff like crockery, cutlery and bedding.  We are very close to having a fantastic weekender for  several months before we live there permanently.

We were very surprised with the light in the upstairs bedrooms.  They remained bright and well lit through most of the day.  Very cool, and power/money saving.  Emma is starting to talk about how she wants to decorate her bedroom.

It’s been a long entry this time, and the final thing to report is the planting of two trees.  We have an overall strategy of only planting things on the property that can be eaten.  So, in keeping with this, we planted an olive tree, and a bay leaf tree.  Apparently bay leaf trees grow as high as 15 metres and are great for wind breaks and hedges.  We didn’t know this.  So, in the pouring rain, Steve dug holes, planted trees and put kangaroo proof barriers around them.  A pivotal moment in the development of our new property!

Sorry for the delay.  So much has happened and a lot of work has been done to the property, yet the changes are not as obvious to the naked eye anymore.

The really big major changes have really all happened now, and most of the new stuff is happening on the inside.

The floors have begun, with the main living room being finished, and still the kitchen area to be completed.

The plaster work is also completely finished with all the architraves and the finish around the doors, etc being finished.

At this stage the skirting isn’t finished, but we are nearly there.

We had a call from the builder suggesting that the outside stairs are too narrow.  The funny thing is that Mum mentioned this on her visit, and secretly (without telling each other) both Steve and I have had separate thoughts to the same end.

We asked the builder for a quote to widen the stairs and we were, frankly, gobsmacked when they came back with approx $400 for both sets of stairs.  It was a no-brainer, and really got us thinking about why we didn’t do this in the first place!

We had our first sleep over this weekend and it was VERY VERY cold. We made sure we were well equipped and had a small kerosene heater and several layers of doona and blankets.

On Saturday, there was a Home Show on in Bendigo so we went over for the afternoon and
met some local providers for things like air conditioning, heating, sheds and tanks. A good use of our time.

It was very very dark when we got back, and driving down Adairs Lane after dinner, we stopped and turned the lights off to see how dark it was and it was…..BLACK! We couldn’t see anything! Welcome to the country!

When we got back we saw a mob of kangaroos (about 12) and it seems like they are regulars. We have seen them before and Shaun and Vicki say they are regular visitors. We tried to get photos but by the time we got the camera organised they were gone! Next time we will be more prepared.

Steve also took up a small gas cooker so we could boil water and have some bacon and eggs for breakfast.

We have to say, it was rather civilised camping. Having a port-a-loo also made it a little more 5 star than your average camp site.

We are hoping to get up there again for another stay soon and in fact we need to go up again so we can do the final inspection of the plastering, which is almost complete.

It’s good to see things green again. It is as green as it was when we first purchased the land. Shaun and Vicki say that there will be no shortage of drinking water as it has rained more there than it has in Melbourne. We have water in our dam, and there are water puddles in the creek and erosion. This picture doesn’t really do it justice.

We met the lovely Spicers (Shaun and Vicki) recently and they gave us a little tour of their place including where the tornado hit. I finally found a reference and article online -
click here to have a read and to see the quotes from Shaun.

They told us a harrowing story of glass flying across the room and embedding in the steel walls, and of their puppy (Kelly) running away and they thought they had lost her. It ripped the wall out of the shed and pretty much left them at the mercy of the weather.

Shaun then looked up the hill to our place and half expected it to be a pile of sticks and rubble. However, the tornado didn’t go near our place, and it was (obviously) unscathed.

Here are some shots of the damage to their shed. The good news is that they are all insured and we expect to go up and see a new shed very soon.

It was nice to  meet our neighbors, particularly when they are also being very friendly about getting the power to come through their block up to our place.

So, today we headed up to the property to do a couple of measurements.  We were not expecting much today so planned a 15 minute visit to measure up where we want the cupboards in the laundry…and then head back for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

AND….like many other visits, we found ourselves surprised and delighted to find that the plasterers had been very busy.

The downstairs was stacked full of plasterboard, and our bedroom was piled to the roof with insulation.  It’s really starting to feel secure and warm there.

We can’t help but feel like we are blessed with the progress we are getting on the construction of this house.

We are getting very close to having a finished product!

The upstairs has had the plasterboard added to all the walls giving shape to the upstairs bedrooms.  We are now starting to really get a feel for how big the rooms are, and how we might lay out the furnishings.

We have finally had some positive news on the plumber front.  We now have two quotes…one of which is twice the price of the other….unsure of what to do about that.  The more expensive quote had more itemised in it, and there doesn’t look like any surprises…where the cheaper quote hardly said anything, which leads me to believe there may be “add ons”.