Just magic...

I just thought I'd post some photos of our block I've taken recently. We've had some really great times down there already (running around through dirt and muck!!!) and walking river, meeting the neighbours, celebrating, getting excited, impatient, and really just appreciating what we've got.

It will also give an idea of exactly how our block is situated on the park, with the path in front. I'm sure I've said it already but I do really love how there is no road between our house and the park. It's just magic...

This is our block to the right, this photo was taken from the entrance to our house

Our slab

This will be our view from the living room


I really don't know what blogger is doing with the colouring of my photos - it's reducing the size but also changing the colours (some more than others) grrrr. When I get a chance I'll have to look into it. Until then, you get the idea!!

Our slab shindig - Sunday 25th October

We had a family get together on Sunday to celebrate our slab finally going down, and the official beginning of our home being built.

It was such a nice afternoon with people that are so special to us and although the weather was slightly warmer than we'd anticipated it was just divine.

We can't wait to live there!!!

I also thought I'd include some of River's badass graffiti - who would have thought that our sweet little golden boy would do such a thing, right on our slab!!

Deliveries begin - Tuesday 27th October

The first of our deliveries arrived today, even sooner than Michael the ever-optimistic predicted!

What a nice surprise!

Lots and lots of frames here...



Next up, bricks!!! Michael thinks they might be delivered tomorrow - I'm thinking closer to next week.... we'll see huh!!

SLAB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Wednesday 21st October)

Ohhhhhh yeah! We have taken off!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's here, our slab is down and we are over the moon to say the least!!!

The concrete at the front is our portico. There is another on either side of the house for the front verandah / alfresco / outdoor room / whatever you want to call it :)

Michael and River inspecting our slab...


And another pic

and from behind looking to the front...


For some reason there is a bizarre colour cast being put on these pics as I upload them. Oh bugger I've broken blogger!!!

I'll give it another go tonight if I get a chance as they don't look right at all. Anyyyway you get the idea :)

WE HAVE A SLAB!

Footings (Tuesday 20th October)

One word comes to mind. SHOCK. Driving up to the block and seeing our footings in sent me into a full blown state of shock. It was really, no I mean, reallllllly real!!!! Poor Michael nearly had a heart attack when I saw it!

So we all (the usual crew, Michael, River and I) spring out of the car and stare in amazement. WOW. You could see the entire outline of the house, our detailing in the front, everything. We could see exactly where our house was going to sit!

River doing his supervisor rounds...


Here is the front part of the house. The right hand side detail is our recess where the tv will go in our living room. It could possibly be my favourite part (so far). There are windows on either side of it, and the front aside from the front door is pretty much all glass so we can overlook our gorgeous park.


And here is how it looks from the back, that concrete line in the bottom half of the pic will be the right hand side of our garage.

WE HAVE A TAP!!!!! And more!!! (Monday 19th October )

The moment we (okay, I) have all been waiting for.............

***********DRUM ROLL************


It's hard to say why I've been so fixated on getting a tap... I guess it's a sign that things are happening... and now they are!

And even better - our plumbing had been done! Goodlife have moved so quick in this stage it has absolutely amazed me. From this pic you can see where our bathroom, laundry and ensuite are going to be - the kitchen is closer to the front and there is just a small pipe up there.

It's hard to see in the pic as it's so small but they had also 'strung out' [insert technical term later] our block so you could see where the footings and slab were going to be done. There was string everywhere so much to his disgust River was given the job of site supervisor aka sitting next to the fence and watching intently!


Being the waterbaby he is it only seemed fair that he get to test out the tap once the hard "check this out!!!!" work Michael and I were doing was finished. Such a cute moment.



And one more of our boy enjoying Riverland, he looks so happy here :)


The excitement didn't actually end there. I had called my parents to tell them the exciting news and they came straight away to check it out! And nanna came too!!! I was so happy that she came out to see it, words can't explain x

Earthworks continued and site compacted (Friday 16th October)

Our site was completely scraped on Friday... it looked so neat it really was exciting. The sand had been compacted and looked like it was ready to go - we had also had some 'stuff' delivered for the next steps (yay!!)

Earthworks begin!!! (Thursday 15th October)

Thursday afternoon after work... Michael, River and I cruise around to our block for our evening walk as usual **note - this is not block stalking. As we drove up it looked as though the our waist high weeds were missing.... could it be?

Oh yes it could!!!!

Our earthworks had begun (woohooo!!!) but the site hadn't been fully scraped.

Why you may ask? Well after talking to our neighbours it turns out that the [insert technical name of machine here - refer to photo] got a flat tyre and caused the guys all sorts of grief.

Check it out!! (back tyre)




Here is our block in all its weeded glory




River checking it all out





A very exciting evening and signs of things to come!!

What a week it's been!

After all the excitement of the pink ribbons we weren't expecting much to happen for at least a few days. How wrong we were!!!

We've been really busy and I clearly have been falling behind in my 'blog duties' so I will do a series of entries now to ensure things don't get out of sequence.... watch this space [insert hold music]

It's a sign!!!!!!

I spent some time over at mum, dad and nanna's this evening. On the way over Michael and I did a driveby of our block.

As we pull up I see the lack of tap and start to sigh, until Michael spots something..... I hear "Lis, loook!!!!"

He points out a pink ribbon and I literally squealed!! Ohhhhh yay!!! ITS A SIGN!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone was out at our block surveying today before our earthworks start either late this week or early next.

I literally cannot explain how this feels, its starting to feel 'reallllly real'.

YAY!!!!!!!!!

Our new dining table

This beauty is alllll ours!!!



We bought this gorgeous marri table by Jamel yesterday for an absolute steal. Retailing at nearly 8K we paid nowhere near that amount. Lucky us!! It just oooozes quality I love it. Amazingly had we not known about the sale (thanks again Phyl & Andrew!!) we would have ended up paying the same amount for something nowhere near as good.

The chairs in the pic above aren't what we have - these are the ones we got...



I wasn't sure about the points on the chairs at first but they grew on me and I'm sure they'll be fine.

We also bought two upright cabinets which will tie in the room once we get the coffee table. That will come down the track when we can get it for the right price. At least we know exactly what we are after now!

We FINALLY got our building approval - 30th September

We FINALLY got our building approval from the shire!!!! Yes that's right!!! Lucky 94!

94 days spent waiting for the Shire of Cockburn to do their thing.

I can't begin to explain the relief and excitement we are feeling about it

It wasn't without hiccups - the council 'lost' the documents, then found that they were in the records department for postage (even though it had been arranged for me to pick them up). Well and truly fed up with their incompetence I unleashed some wrath and some wonderful lady kindly withdrew them from records for me to pick up.

So we then delivered the docs to the builder, signed a variation for some minor changes and found out that we'll be starting within the next 2-3 weeks!! We find out the exact date next Friday or Monday... so excited