This week we should have movement on the house! There are still a few loose ends to tie up with the builders, but this Wednesday, they are due to go to site and re-peg. Then Friday they are due to carry out site works (running the plumbing lines etc, I suppose) then next Wednesday (16th – also Darcie’s class assembly day), they are due to pour the slab!!!!
The Delaney Family on the site of their 'house' It'll be interesting to see how much the kids have grown by the time the house is finished and we can move in!
A final view from the back of our garden looking towards the golf course.
They don’t have foundations like the UK. The whole house is built on a concrete slab. All will become clear once we post the pictures (clear as mud!). This last week we have ordered and paid a deposit for the floor tiles in the house – this is because we want them to match what is going in the en-suite and if we don’t order them at the same time that the builder will, we’ll be unable to match them in 18 month’s time – also theoretically, they should be cheaper too! We have also done the same with the carpet. Ridiculous really when you consider that we haven’t even got any foundations, but we’ve paid a deposit on carpet! Everything is going through such price hikes at the moment, if we can pay a 10% deposit to secure the price, it’s worth doing.
Can you see something?
That's better - looks like a digger to me!!
We went back to see the guy at the show home today that we dealt with when choosing the house and he said the price rises are amazing. Last month alone, one model increased by $40,000!! They up the specification of the house by $20,000 and then increase the price by $40k, so you feel like you’re getting something ‘extra’. Hummmmm! Glad we ordered ours when we did. He also said (on a VERY positive note), that the current build time seems to have dropped to 15 months – rather than the predicted 18! Fifteen months would be excellent and mean we would be in for November 2007, which is well under the two year ‘signing contract to moving in’ time frame we were originally quoted. Fingers crossed, eh? We’re just going to pickle the tradesmen to get them to want to work on our site; the slab goes down – we do a beer run for the lads. The brickies come in – we do a beer run for the lads…. get the picture? If it costs us a few hundred dollars but gets the tradies doing little extras for us, or working weekends, it’ll all be worth it.
I’m going to have to start a separate section of the blog for ‘house updates’ I think. I appreciate for anyone else, twenty photos of our drainage system from every angle may begin to grow tiresome, so I might see if I can restrict it to its own section! I think we’ve got so caught up with the house that we don’t realise how big it’s going to be. It’s not until things like the man in the carpet shop tells us that he could get his whole house in our bedroom and kitchen that it hits home that this is going to be one big house! Paul reckons our old house would fit into it about 3 times!!! Wow! Bring it on!
We’ve got a busy couple of weeks coming up. We’ve got a lunch meeting in Perth on Wednesday with the guy from ADT (sorry Addy – off to day care!). Then the end of the week should be a hive of activity on the plot. Paul’s got a medical appointment on Thursday, so me and Mr Cheese will go into Perth with him for that. Next week is Darcie’s long awaited class assembly. They have been practicising for weeks and have made Monkey masks and maracas shaped like coconuts (they are amazing! They’ve papier mached balls with bits of pasta in, so they make a lovely noise when you shake them, then they have painted them brown and rolled them in brown sawdust, so they REALLY look like coconuts!). They are also going to be sporting monkey tails. I can’t wait to see them. It’s very daunting for them though to be standing in front of four year groups, introducing the Principal and singing and dancing. We’ll see how they all get on.
Last Friday Darcie’s class had a party and invited all the parents to attend. This was because we’d reached the letter ‘P’ in the alphabet, and P was for PARTY! It was cute and we all took along some food and shared it with the kids. They all wore party clothes and spent the whole afternoon playing in the playground as a treat!
We’ve still got lots on our plates with getting another bank account organised with another bank so that we are able to take credit cards. Once again, the Australians seemed to take a very simple task and escalate it into a mammoth job, which takes days to resolve and more people end up getting involved than the entire cast of Ben Hur! Never mind, eh? To be as laid back as the Aussies……. will we ever get there I wonder? They just accept bad service as the norm and appear grateful!
Sam had his annual ‘Lapathon’ at school today. This is to raise funds for the school, by sponsoring the kids to do laps of the Oval (or school field). He was limited to ten laps (thankfully!), otherwise, I think he’d still be there going round and round in a bid to raise more funds for the school and to simultaneously bankrupt Paul and I! Not too difficult as task as Sam seems already to be well on the way to mastering that one!!!
Darcie has another birthday party to attend on Friday, so she’s been with me today to the shop to choose pressie, card and wrapping paper. It’s Ashley’s party, so she wanted to get him something ‘special’ ???
Sam’s starting his birthday countdown soon. He doesn’t really believe in the Birthday Fairy and is convinced that it’s me doing all the donkey work; however, just to hedge his bets, he’s still prepared to have his opinions changed! On his list for this year is a battery for his PSP (he fried the last one!), a new PSP game, a mobile phone, an electric guitar (although I have it on good authority that the birthday fairies wings may not be strong enough to carry this one and she may leave it for Santa to deliver with the use of his sleigh!), a few books and some colouring pencils. On the whole, not a BAD list, considering Sam has usually spent £500 with one page of the Argos catalogue! The trampoline has been a huge hit again and every day the kids enjoy playing on it. I looked out the window one day whilst Sam and Darcie were at school and Adam had pulled his ride-on bike up to the edge of the bounce-aline (as he calls it) and hoisted himself up and was bouncing happily away wearing a t-shirt, a pair of wellies and an exposed bottom – potty training, don’t you know! He was as happy as larry with the wind blowing round his nether regions. I however, got slightly concerned with a circling gang of cockatoos and ushered him back inside quickly. Could have looked like a juicy lunch from a distance and I would like grandchildren one day!
I think that’s all our news for the moment, apart from to say that
Not that I’m excited or anything!! We haven’t told the kids yet, although I’ve got a feeling I won’t be able to keep it a secret until November, but I’ll give it a damn good go, just to see the looks on their faces. Darcie was speaking to Mum on the phone the other night and asked her when she was coming over? Mum said she would once it started to get a little bit warmer. Darcie went on to tell her in great detail about flying via Hong Kong with Cathay Macific (as she calls them) and warned Mum to take someone with her if she needed the toilet as the loos on a plane are very noisy and scary. ‘You won’t actually get sucked out of the plane’ Darcie told Mum, ‘but it’s very scary, so get one of the Air Hostages to hold your hand!’ Can you imagine???? Probably best not to! As I said before, it’s a very scary place in between Darcie’s ears!
Goodbye xx
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