Almost There

15^th August 2012

It’s happening we take possession on Friday and tomorrow 16^th August Nancy and I will have been sleeping each night in our caravan for twelve months, it has been a long haul. I guess when you consider council delays and wet weather it has probably added 4-5 months to the project. Last week I spent a few days preparing ground for turf, that included a day on a pick breaking up hard ground and a day spreading a truck load of soil, on the weekend Lisa and David helped me lay turf however by this time both Nancy and I had gone down with a wog. Nancy was bedridden for about 4 days but unfortunately having ordered turf I had no choice but to work. I can assure you what should have been a labour of love became a real ordeal and naturally ensured it took a lot longer to shake of the fuzz, in fact today is probably the first day I have really felt anywhere near normal since the middle of last week.

Tomorrow morning a crane truck is arriving early to put Lisa’s large fridge and a few bulky items over the front balcony, they are either too big or it is too risky to carry them up the stairwell without doing a lot of damage. With the help of Damien our nephew we relocated the bulky items from upstairs of the cottage to underneath in readiness, so for the next couple of days we watch TV sitting on the floor in addition Lisa has lost her bed also.

16^th August 2012

  Hector the Erector arrived early this morning with his crane truck and crew and successfully lifted all the bulky items plus the big fridge onto the deck, unfortunately I was so busy helping the building manager Ryan, to remove the glass panelling’s that I forgot to take photos, what a bummer. Carpets went down in the bedrooms today apparently relieving a bit of panic. We selected the carpets weeks ago but somehow something went astray during ordering, I don’t know if they forgot to order or if someone forgot to put it on the truck in Melbourne, but it turns out the guys all turned up last Monday to lay the carpet and then got a call from the supplier to say it was still in Melbourne. Today they turned up again did all the prep work, put down the underlay and then had to wait a couple of hours as the truck hadn’t turned up from Melbourne again so I think people were starting to get a little nervous, anyway all’s well and it looks and feels great.

In the meantime the painters are back today and tomorrow doing their final touch ups, intercom with the front gate was fitted this morning. Tomorrow fences go up, glass balustrades are put back on and one of the splash-backs will be replaced, the other will be done next week. House cleaners come back for a wipe over and - handover takes place at 2:00pm. 

And won’t the leg muscles get tested then carrying boxes from next door and then up the stairs, I can almost feel the pain now and I’m just getting over laying the turf last weekend – must be getting old.

I should be able to get some photos now of the finished article so I will post them shortly.