SHED COMPLETE...well, nearly!! AND.. a cubby house!

As usual everything has been very slow but things are happening. We have a shed, almost completed & ready to become a workshop. we bought this shed quite some time ago off ebay & Kim has made it slightly bigger, so we've had to find extra colourbond to fill in the gaps. We'll eventually reclad it with corrugated iron & add a pitched roof & verandah to match the house, but for now it will do the job.
The kids have a very cute little cubby which they love! Happy kids mean more work done, so it was a small sacrifice of time to move it from the house Kim has been working on in Leura & it was a bargain at $80. Of course Kim being Kim had to do his modifications, make it stronger & add a ramp in place of the silly little stairs that ivy would have fallen on several times a day! The verandah also got a new railing. Next project for them will be a big sandpit next to the cubby when we find some sleepers.
This week Kim & Finn are off to Victoria to collect our flooring that we bought on ebay (of course). It is 150m2 of victorian Ash, 25 mm thick that we got for $10 a square metre. Worth a trip to Victoria & Kim will spend the weekend in Melobourne catching up with friends. as he hasn't been back in 4.5 years. Chelsea may also go with them as she is desparate to go visit NICA (National Institute for Circus Arts). I'm waiting on a call from her class teacher to hear if she's been keeping up with everything before deciding if she can have 4-5 days off school. She's been a bit slack this year& has been told to pull her finger out. This is her last term of year 10.
I'll be staying home to try & creat some order in our tiny, chaotic house. And of course, keep ebaying!
The weather has improved & days are actually quite nice. Hope it lasts as I am over this winter, the coldest since we've been in the mountains. The kids just love playing outside & it's been so cold they can't spend much more than 30 minutes without something turning purple!

FOOTINGS & PIERS

I've been so busy I haven't posted for weeks, but things are slowly getting done! We have had a weekend to Buladelah for my good friend Penny's 40th birthday party, lots of fun apart from me coming down with a tummy bug on the friday night so not feeling too good until the Sunday.

We also had Chelsea's 16th birthday which coincided with Mother's day this year so we had a lovely lunch on the block.


Chelsea getting some help with her candles!




Me & my big girl!!



Sweet 16, isn't she lovely???!!! (ohh, she'll kill me for that!!). ((I think that's champagne in that cup!!))


The kids wanted to know what I wanted for Mother's day so after a few days thought & not coming up with anything material that I really wanted I asked for help pouring concrete! We had the holes for the footings emptied out & squared off ready to fill. We all stayed on the block on saturday the 12th, the kids Dad Mario came up in his Combi & they all slept in that & Kim & I , Finn & Ivy slept in the caravan. Kim & I stayed up pouring concrete until after midnight, I filled the mixer while Kim filled the holes.

After lunch the next day we all got stuck in & got about 2/3 of the 120 hole filled.



We had a big party for Chelsea on the block the following Saturday (hence the rush to get those holes filled). We had about 20 of the kids sleep overnight & party until about 3am. We created a Chai Tent for Chelsea, her favourite hangout at the Woodford music festival where we go almost every year for the Xmas /new year holidays. We had a big fire & the kids danced, fire twirled & I think generally had a good time. Chelsea's old teacher Julie from Kinma came up on the train, she taught Chels for years 4, 5 & 6 & we hadn't seen her since Chelsea finished year 6.










DANCING!!! WHOO WHOOOOO!!!!



LARA FIRE TWIRLING WITH THE POI. GO LARA!!!!



CHELSEA FIRE TWIRLING, GETTING VERY GOOD THESE DAYS!



FIRE, FIRE, EVERYWHERE!!!




MUM HAVING FUN, FINN GETTING TIRED



IVY RUGGED UP TRYING TO GET SOME NEW MUSIC OUT OF THE CD CASE



The gang the next morning on the 'shed" floor: Chelsea, Tom, Jack, Brody, Nat, Merade, Warren & Stef.




The morning after , Brody & Finn chilling out in the Chai tent





kim got the piers for the shed built & the joists/bearers/floor structure up in time for the party . We rigged up a big tarp over it & it became a stage/kitchen & the kids slept there too.



THE FIRST BRICK GOING DOWN, AN EXCITING MOMENT. FINALLY BUILDING UP!!!



AND THE FIRST COMPLETED PIER FOR THE SHED. ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL!!!



Finn & Ivy in one of their more gorgeous moments ( :


and another one!



KIM & FINN HAVING A BREAK

HOLES!

There are 120 of them. Eddie used his auger to dig 30cm deep , 30cm diameter round holes & we turned them in to 40cm square ones. Luckily we had plenty of rain before hand to soften the soil but almost none once digging began. We had our 1st building inspection when they were all finished last Friday & all is good.
Kim has finished the outhouse, nice to have a loo!
The gas has been connected & the trench has now been filled.
George & Barb (Kim's folks) arrived from Victoria week before last with 2 lemon trees to add to our ever expanding future garden. We have the beginnings of a good garden bed between the parking area & the house with a defined pathway through it that will lead to steps onto the deck.
We had a truck load of road base delivered last week which will be a cheap alternative to gravel & sand for out concrete pier supports, it was $150 for 8 tonnes as opposed to about $50 a tonne for the latter. We will also be making a concrete retaining wall along the back of the building site to keep everything contained. That will all happen this week. Then the plan is to get the shed up as we need it up by the 19th May for Chelsea's big 16th birthday bash.
We've just got back from my friend Penny's 40th birthday celebration on their lovely property near Buladelah between Newcastle & Taree. They have built their most amazing house & it is always inspiring to visit them. We have had our corrugated iron cladding stored on their 30acre property for the last 18 months or so (we've been buying building materials for about 3 years!0 so we loaded that onto the truck yesterday & are off to the block shortly to unload it, 60 sheets @ 6m long. The truck is paying for itself.
Still not getting much work done but my photo girl Emma is back at it this week (she takes my eBay photos for me) so I should get back into the swing of things soon I hope.

slow but steady

Progress is slow lately due to a number of things. We went away for 5 days over Easter to the national Folk Festival in Canberra. Camping with a baby & a toddler is a questionable activity but the teens were keen to do something & camping is the only things that fits our budget at the moment. I got the festival tickets for half price on eBay, saved $300. Thank goodness for eBay! The trip was OK, nice to get away but so much preparation & effort to get there & then we didn't sleep well, it was cold at night. We slept in the truck, Kim rigged up a canopy to fully enclose the back. Ivy slept in a hammock hanging over the bed & that worked well.
I had 35 eBay parcels go missing in the post just before Easter, only to be returned to me after 4 weeks with apparently not enough postage on them, which was bollocks & caused huge amounts of stress & lack of sleep & gave me 6 negative feedback from very unkind people who refused to believe I had even posted their items, or held me responsible for the loss in the post. I had a major downer for a few weeks there, it all just got toooo hard. Anyway , that's all sorted now, although a couple of people are still saying they haven't got there parcels so hopefully the sage won't continue.
We have a sewer out on the block now, & Kim is in the middle of connecting a toilet. He has built a very cute little out house & I picked up an old door for $5 at a garage sale this morning to go on it. Kim's mum & stepdad George & Barb are visiting this week for a few days from Vic. so we have been giving the caravan a good clean & making it as homely as we can so they can stay in it. Just need some curtains so I'll be off to Vinnie's tomorrow.
Our budget's taken a bit of a blow with the head on our van that we sold to friends cracking, the mechanic says it's been cracked for a while so we sold it like that, consequently have offered to pay half of the $2500 repair. The truck needed new tires, another $700, & I haven't been earning much with all the eBay drama, too stressed to work & the time taken up emailing 35 upset buyers. Plus a week off over Easter & the cost of the trip, it's all taken a toll on the bank balance. I need to work!! I also need to night wean Ivy who is waking more & more through the night to feed. I started last night & she cried in my arms from about midnight to 1.30am before falling asleep. I gave in to her a 3.30am, too tired to resist. The again at 6.30am & we were up at 7. So if this entry is not making much sense you now know why!
We've had Eddie back with the excavator as we had a bit of water accumulate in one corner of the building site during a storm before Easter so it obviously wasn't flat. We have him coming back again on Friday to dig the holes for our pier supports. Kim decided that 108 holes would be easier with an auger. Eddie reckons about 30 seconds a hole! So next weekend we might be building piers!!

POWER

We have power! Electricity that is! Successfully connected today & well under budget so we are very pleased. it all went smoothly with no hiccups. The trench will remain open while we organise the sewer & water next week, gap & phone lines after that.
The lights in the caravan even work!
The meter box is positioned exactly where it will sit once the house is built so there'll be no moving it at that time (planned to reduce electricains cost). We are pleased to have found an electrician taking Bartercard so that reduces the cash expenditure nicely. He & the plumber are both happy to let Kim do a lot of the preparation work too & have both offered to give advice along the way. So we have had nothing but good experiences with tradesmen so far.
better try & sleep, it's 3.30 am & I've been lying awake worrying about a few parcels I've sent going missing in the post lately. Someone left me negative feedback so I guess I'd better prepare myself for more, ebay buyers seem to not understand that I can't prevent loss in the post, somehow I am to blame. I get so upset by it, not to mention the rude emails. If only people could be nice, it's so hard to take when I am so tired. It is strange that several parcels have vanished so I will have to call the PO on Monday & try & track them down. Until then I'll try to not stress about my feedback & people thinking that I'm a crook?!!

progress!!

I'm just not finding the time to update this as often as I'd like! Work takes up all of my spare time, & then I'm not getting enough work done either. Daylight savings (the end of it) has thrown our sleep routine (what sleep, what routine?) & I am TIRED!! Ivy is waking between 6 & 7 every morning, not that early for a baby I suppose but when I never get to bed before midnight it's too early. Kim's been getting up with her a bit but he's not getting to be early enough either so he's tired too.
Anyway, at least things are finally moving forward at an exciting rate! We have had delays due to lots of rain but the weather has cleared & so has our building site!


We have a large empty expanse of dirt!
It looks strange but somehow it's now easier to imagine a house sitting there


Eddie did a great job with his bobcat & was so fast!

.



It's been an exciting time for Finn with diggers to watch as the shed & house sites were cleared.



We have some good shade trees left across the front of the house.



WE'VE FOUND 4 OF THESE funny looking frogs buried in the ground!! He's about 3 inches long.

RETURNING FROM THE POND ACROSS THE ROAD AFTER RELEASING OUR FROG IN A SAFER PLACE.




The kids have been great spending long periods playing on their own by the caravan in the parking area which has become a nice little playground/eating spot. A bit of cake helps them stay put for a while!

Ivy's enjoying eating the dirt. At least it's clean dirt!


Finn has been as helpful as ever especially with his chainsaw, helping Daddy cut up the last of the big trees to come down!



Job's nearly done, time for a beer.


Ivy in her Ergo hangin out with mum in the truck, heading to the back of the block to unload firewood. Mum is losing weight rapidly, hooray!!!



Bosun enjoying every minute of it too!!


Ivy helping with the saved plants??!!

DIGGER!!!

We've had Eddie the Excavator on the block yesterday so we have no more tree stumps in the building areas & a flattenned parking area that we added gravel to last night. We have moved the caravan to the parking area & set up a good play space for the kids. Eddie will be levelling the building sites (house & shed) today. Will add photos soon. It looks VERY different!
Off to the PO now with a mountain of parcels, trying to keep up with work, very hard! Was on the block until 6.30 last night, then off to Brody's class meeting until 9pm, home to a late dinner & worked til 12.30. Ivy woke at 6am. Tired!!!