Our first visitors (other than the centipede...)

It was very exciting on Sunday to show our first visitors around our 'frame' - Taryn, Mark, Nigel & Anne-Marie. Even nicer that we'd all had a lovely Sunday arvo lunch at Red Poles in McLaren Vale.

We look forward to many more visitors in the future! We'll get that spare room ready! (we'll even arrange for some bricks)

Roof and windows!

Enough said.

They're making good progress on the frame...

More frame!

Popped down last night to check on progress! As expected we had more frame and it was great to finally be able to see the rooms laid out!

We marvel every time we visit at how sometimes it feels small and other times it feels huge! There were some lovely surprises seeing our room sizes - I particularly like the living area and formal lounge as it all feels very spacious. It was also nice to see the size of the walk in wardrobe and plan our super-organised clothes! (?)

Here's some photos from our mobile phones:

Snakes & Ladders

Today has been a lovely hot day, with our car thermometer reaching 33c. I love days like today because it makes everywhere have that 'foreign' feel which reminds me how I'm living on the other side of the world to where I'm from! Ooo, you can't beat that migrant feeling!

So this morning we set off on our usual round trip to see how our build is progressing. We have found a new route that we have called the 'airport route' which basically means that it'll be the route we take through McLaren Vale when visitors arrive to take them to our house because there are some stunning vineyard views that really show off the area we've chosen to live in! We've also named it the 'guaranteed kangaroo sighting' route as well because we've discovered at twilight heaps of kangaroos come out to play in some of the fields! (and occasionally venture on to the road, eek)

Today however, we have upgraded the name of the 'guaranteed kangaroo sighting' route to be the 'guaranteed Australian wildlife sighting' route because we saw our first SA snake! It was just sitting (do snakes sit?!) in the road but scarpered (if snakes scarper?!) as we approached. I felt like I was at one of those drive through safari parks!

I didn't take this pic, but it was like this -
















We presume it was a brown snake (because it was brown) and these snakes are "considered to be one of the most dangerous snakes in the country; even young snakes are capable of delivering a fatal envenomation to a human." (thanks Wikipedia) Eeek.

Anyway, back to the purpose of the blog update. We were ecstatic to discover that the carpenters had been on site and begun putting our frame up! Yet again we realised just how big our house is (hehe) and did a few little dances of joy. The site is such a mess at the moment and I'm feeling bad because they've delivered our entire roof but put it bang in front of next door. Oooo, I'd be annoyed if someone did that to our house as it'd mess up the photos!

I started my photography course last week and one of the things we talked briefly about was photographers capturing the moment where something happens that just makes it a fantastic photo. There wasn't a lot of action happening on site (other than those little dances of joy) but I was practising ISO and shutter speeds and if I were to pick a photo that summed up this visit it would be this one - blue sky, sunshine and frame!













But as I'm not a pro (just yet) here are a few more pics to help explain!

A Septic Tank!

We had a drive down to the house this evening after work to see if anything had happened over the last week.

Last weeks site update was "...the frame carpenters are likely to start on site in about a week or so as they needs to finish of the current site they is working on first." so we didn't expect to see any dramatic changes.

We were really excited however to see that the 'underground services' have been put in, including our septic tank. The concrete top of the tank is in the front garden and bang in line with our front door... Another slight moment of panic but nothing too worrying. The mound of earth at the front of the house has now been cleared so it looks great.

There are only a few empty blocks of land left now. It's really exciting there at the moment with everyone at very similar stages of their build.

Will pop down again at the weekend to get some latest photos! I started a photography course this week so watch the photos improve over the next 9 weeks!

By the way, we were gutted this week to learn that the $7000 first home owners grant that we received has been increased to $21000 for the next year as part of a plan by the Government to boost the economy as part of their 'Economic Security Strategy'! Just missed out on that one!

Greetings home watchers

Apologies for the delay in the update, just been sooooo busy watching the changes to the land that we have not had time to update the blog.

As you can see from the photos things have moved on quite dramatically. We now have 293 sqm of concrete, with some metal and plastic sheeting. It seems a bit like Blue Peter, but on a larger scale, still expecting them to bring out the double sided tape to hold everything up.

It has taken over two weeks, but we have now finally reached the end of the first stage and have the invoice to prove it.

There have been a few moments of ‘Arghh’, such as when we saw the space that is down each side of the house which you can just about fit an anorexic model down. However, we have soon got over that as we have found an anorexic rainwater tank and digger if we need to get them into the back garden.

Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours. Luckily we seem to have two very good neighbours at the moment. Dragon on the right and Travis on the left, and both have been nice and interesting fellows.

The Mansion in the Flat is finally taking place and we are very excited, especially as our house takes 2 seconds longer to run the length of than anyone elses.

So, keep posted, Beck’s is updating the blog next so it should be a little quicker in coming!

Peace out, we are off to the races this weekend to see if we can win enough money for a front door.

It's all go!

"Your site update for this week is that the site works started yesterday, good news so now you can crack open the champagne" were the words we received in our email update this week...

Our last visit to 'the land' a week and a half ago was a little disappointing as nothing had really changed since our previous visit so we were prepared this week for further disappointment, despite the encouraging email from the builder.

However, we couldn't have been more wrong! We turned into our street and saw in front of us a buzz of activity! There was a real life person actually working on our land! He'd been there since Thursday (I presume he'd gone home in between, though the portaloo now makes camping possible!) and the work he'd done was amazing - he'd dug all of the trenches for our house with his little digger.

We were in shock at suddenly seeing some proper action and we were soooo excited! Seeing the house shape was awesome and I reckon was even better than the 4 peg moment (though we think that was significant in its own right!). We were also really pleased with the size of our back garden now that we can see it properly.

We even got to meet our next door neighbours who had come to mow their weeds. They are still waiting for planning approval from the Council and were very nice about the mounds of earth our builders had put on their land!

9 houses have now started being built and another site was being worked on whilst we were there too.

So the next step will be the pouring of the slab... that's when our first payment is due to the builder so whilst it'll be a very exciting moment it'll also be crunch time!

Some photos of 'the best trip to the land EVER'...

It's all go!












Finally able to see the size of our garden













Imaginary dining in the alfresco area

Weekly update...

"Your site update for this week is that the site works should now soon start on site; sorry I have not actually received the start date yet but should not be to far away now."

Patience, patience, patience...

Four pegs and a mound of dirt

So... every Wednesday from now on we are supposed to receive an update on the home build from our builder. In typical Dan & Becks fashion we of course could not wait for this update, so made our apologies to our gym instructor and headed down to The Flat.

Dudundun.... a big mound of dirt has now appeared. They have started the ground work in-between the four pegs and it is looking great.

We have also met a neighbor who was really nice, so all in all without an update from the builder it is going swimmingly.