Tredegar

We travelled up to the property to check out the progress so far. On the way up we wondered what builders might be able to get done in 3 days. Given that when they got there on the Tuesday - they had to spend half a day moving the stuff that had been dropped off - as the gear had been placed inside the building boundary.

We thought perhaps the stumps might be in, or at least half of them…..

There might be the base put in with a bit of flooring in place…..

Perhaps they may have just simply sorted out the gear into logical locations…..

Who knows - we have never built a house before.

Imagine our surprise, as we rounded the bend, and looked up and saw this……. !

Look closely - it’s just about the little tree towards the centre of the picture. See the next image for a closer look!

OMG! The ground floor frame is up! We were nearly beside ourselves! Drove the last half a K at record speed so we could get to the place and check it out!

We took the dogs up for this trip, and Autumn pretty much disappeared into the scenery, and Honey stayed by our sides the whole time. She even found herself a spot in the house, and lay down for a short nap! Quite at home.

It’s quite a weird feeling walking around the framework of the house. Trying to imagine what it would look like finished. In the end, we cracked a bottle of local sparkling and sat in our living room and enjoyed the view. Honey enjoyed the living room view as well! If you look closely between Steve and Donna - you can see Autumn in the background - who’s nose was out of joint because she couldn’t jump up onto the floor.

Here’s Steve in his new kitchen. He’s more than a little excited about the prospect of a brand new kitchen that has a nice big pantry and a huge window overlooking our enormous back yard. The dining area is HUGE, which is great, because we are taking possession this week of a rather large dining table and 10 chairs!

In this shot - where he is leaning will be where the sink will be. In front of him will be a breakfast bench with cupboards underneath. Behind is where the stove will be.

And - here are a few shots of the outside - hoping to take them from the same place each week so we can observe the progress.

If the house was finished here, you would see a wide (2.4mtr) verandah, and 3 sets of double french doors.

The big question for us is where we will put the water tanks?

From this next angle you would be looking at the other side of the verandah and another 3 sets of french doors.

The verandah is on the two sides where we have the living room - and along the main bedroom.

Got a call on Monday last week from a guy delivering a portaloo to the property.  This is a wonderful addition to our block, as it is a way more civilised way to deal with the normal bodily functions.

No photo - not sure if anyone really wants to look at a portaloo???????

Steve was reading through the blog and commented that we hadn’t told anyone where the name Tredegar came from.

From the moment we purchased the block we wanted to have a name for the property, rather than just an address.  We ummed and ahhed about a couple of names.

We then thought about where Steve’s family came from.  They were Welsh (and great singers) and we remembered that on our honeymoon we had visited there.  The town was called Tredegar.

You can read about the town itself and the history by clicking here.

Steve’s family on his maternal grandmother’s side (The Williams) were all from there.  Steve had a very special relationship with his Grandmother, who passed away before I met him, and also with his Great Uncle Jim.

The Williams clan emigrated to New Zealand in the 1920’s and lived mostly in the North Island.  Uncle Jim lived in NZ for his whole life and visited every year and he was quite fond of our Emma.

So when Steve suggested the name Tredegar….Donna loved the sound of it (sounded a little like Drogheda - from the Thorn Birds).  Took her a while to get her mouth around the correct pronunciation of Tredegar…..which is, EXACTLY as it is spelt…..Tre dee gah.

Below is the house plan of the home we are building. 23sq in size. The upstairs bathroom has changed little, with us having 2 bedrooms, and the bathroom has an over bath shower. Apart from that we haven’t changed much else.

Also, we have a verandah around two sides, most the living area, with 3 sets of french doors down each side.

The builder is Alternate Dwellings. Below is a picture of what a finished home looks like in the brochure. We have chosen a much different external colour, however to give it a more contemporary look.

Interesting, there have been recent laws passed in Victoria that new homes built in a bush fire prone area, must now be brick. Not sure what this means for Alternate Dwellings, but for us, we think we made it in, in the nick of time. When the guy was dropping off the house last week, he commented that where we are putting the house on the block was a good spot, as it wasn’t surrounded by trees. He said, and we quote, “often I’m delivering these houses to hippies up in the bush…..*sigh*.

It just occured to us that we haven’t really mentioned where exactly this fabulous place is! The first map shows Heathcote in relation to Melbourne.

The second shows where Mia Mia is in relation to Heathcote and Kyneton.

Hope this helps!

Today was rather momentus. Although everything to do with this project feels rather momentus.

We were up at 5.00am this morning so that we could get up to the property by 7.30, as we were expecting the truck to arrive with the first load of our house materials at 8.00am. This was a bit of a logistical nightmare, in terms of getting Emma to school at 7.45 for her Strings Rehearsal (she is in a concert on the weekend). However, we booked her a taxi. This is probably rather momentus too, as it was her first ever “all by myself” taxi ride.

Anyhoo, we arrived at the property around the same time Emma was arriving at school - so it all worked out ok. Sunrise at Tredegar is a sight to behold. We saw rabbits, foxes and kangaroos. Wonder if the novelty of seeing that wildlife will ever wear off? The kangaroos were really quite big! Bigger than those seen at Toronga Zoo (which were probably wallabies anyway).

The guys that do the gates said that it wasn’t unusual to hear a thunderous noise outside, and run out to find a mob of kangaroos leaping through the property. He said the mobs get well into the hundreds.

We made a cuppa and then began the wait. While we were waiting, we thought we would have a go at starting up the generator. After a few false starts we managed to get it going….which is good. A frantic phone call from the builders on Monday would not be optimal.

At around 10am, we called Alternate Dwellings (our builder) as the truck still hadn’t arrived! It actually got there around 10.30. On any other day, we might have been irritated by the inconvenience, but, hey, he was delivering our new home! What could we do but simply be caught up in our own moment.

After watching him park the truck and put the braces in place (this took about 20 mins) we decided to leave him to his work, and take a quick trip into town to check out Heathcote. It’s been a while since we had gone in and reminded our selves of what a cute town it is.

We got back around 11.45 and half the truck had been unloaded. We watched him unload the rest which took just over an hour. A rather boring exercise, but we wanted to wait until he had finished and gone, so we could “inspect” the materials. Not that they said much, but it was kinda cool to see our name on the tags.

By the time we go up next, we should see some action!

We needed a secure storage solution for our generator so we did a “do it yourself” storage box which was great fun. So, we use the word “shed” rather loosely.

We also had to provide water for the builders and have set up 100 litres that we managed to fill by taking up in the back of the car, 6 Neverfail bottles filled from the tap. Should do the job

We had to put up a few signs on the gates and fences so that truck can find the property. This was an exercise in sign writing for me and really great fun. Again, there was that feeling that…this is really happening!

We then had lunch at the fabulous Redesdale Pub, which is a Melbourne class restaurant. The food is fantastic, although the service is a little slow. Or is it just us getting used to the country!?

Steve had to travel up to the property on his own to meet with the tradies and have a new gate put in.  We needed something big enough for a semi so that the house frame, and other bits could be delivered on the 19th of March.

These guys were fantastic!  Not only did they do the job they were paid for, but they also created a driveway for us, and filled in a large hole that we would have otherwise had to fill ourselves, or cut down two trees to accommodate the truck.

A great day for Steve and probably the first day that we really felt like something was happening on our block!

A very exciting day for us as we
met with the builder and pegged
out the location of the house. By
some lucky co-incidence (if you believe in those things), we are not only building on the highest point of the block, but it’s the flattest! Makes it easy for building.

The builder was there to measure it all out, but of course we all had a go at hammering in the pegs.

Emma was VERY enthusiastic about being there as any other 17 year old would be! Once we got her out of the car she was happy to have a go at hammering in a peg….Can’t you just see her enthusiasm jumping off the page!!!

On this happy occasion we were also joined by Noelene & Clive (Donna’s parents) who were headed to Melbourne for a brief stay. They helped celebrate the moment with a drink of French Champagne!

The McGeorges of Highett are soon to be The McGeorges of Mia Mia.

In November 2007, we purchased 20 acres of land in Adairs Lane Mia Mia. The land has 3 paddocks a (dry) dam, and a (dry) creek. Like just about everyone in Victoria, we are praying for rain to bring the green to our new home.

This begins a new phase in our lives where Steve and Donna become “empty nesters” with Emma finishing year 12 this year, and making decisions about uni/gap years, etc.

We are excited to be setting ourselves up in the country and looking forward to the wonderful and perhaps challenging times that this will bring.

We have timed the building of our home to coincide with Emma finishing school, and plan to be living there by November 2009, and hosting the Smith Family Christmas