The lengths people go to.....

There is an old saying - "Mad as a Meat Axe", that is how I describe Tonia and Chris AKA  - Building our Home Metricon Fairhaven 33 on my blog list.

The delightful Tonia decided that she needed to do some shopping and also wanted to check out some other Metricon displays.   Sounds like a nice day out you would think.   The issue is that she wanted to do this is Melbourne, and they live in Sydney, so what does one do?   Well you just hop a 6.00 AM flight down to Melbourne on a Sunday morning and by the power of the internet contact Facebook buddy (Me!) just on the off-chance that I may be down at the estate on Sunday morning catching up with Deb & Reinsey, she would just breeze on by and say hi.

Tonia, Deb, Reinsey & Chris

Well, I love it when a plan comes off, so I organised to meet Deb & Reinsey at Deb's house for a look see at her new carpet and guess who just pops by for a visit - Tonia & Chris.   Well, Deb & Reinsey couldn't believe their eyes when they realised that this stunning girl walking across the road was in fact Tonia, our blog buddy.   Poor Chris just shaking his head at her madness!!

Such a pity they couldn't come for a coffee, but she was a woman on a mission, and we were ever so grateful that she gave up some of her valuable shopping time to pop by and say hi, and we have promised to do the same after they have moved into their beautiful home sometime in the future.

The power of the internet - never ceases to amaze me!!

Signed, sealed, committed, its nearly ours

Well, the deal is done, we officially signed our lives away this evening on the contracts, specs, plans of The Jamieson.    Very scary, but quietly pleased that our new stage in life is to begin in about 7 months.

Apart from a couple of last minute variations (i.e. off white mortar at $1400, but they conceded on the bulkhead in the entry) all went smoothly.   James couldn't believe how organised we were with every bit of paper they requested handed over to him.   He said we were the most organised people he had dealt with this year, and in fact we will jump the queue as about 4 other clients are still yet to supply their paperwork intact.

He disappears into the background now - but assures us that if we have any queries, he is still there to help, which is good.

Now the builder will apply for a permit (currently 14 days approx.) then must be on site within 21 days of receiving the permit, so I am guessing David may get a birthday present (30th March) with a site scrape.   We are off to Coonawarra that weekend to celebrate, so I may have to get my trusty neighbours to take photos if anything happens from Friday - Sunday!!

After such a long wait, we can say we are starting to build next month!!! Yippee!!!

To contract we go

Met with the lovely James from Premier today to clarify Romeo's price differences.   Had to concede price rises on some minor items - windows, oven (changed brand), etc. but relatively happy that we are now on the same page. 

So to contract in a week or so, and he anticipates a site start mid - end March, I hope the pile of mulch has been removed by who ever dumped it there before then.  

Deb, breezed past your house today and saw you ever so briefly, you obviously didn't recognise David's car and we had to keep going.  

Reinsey, lots of activity on your stage but no sign of activity on your block - boo hiss!!

Near Map Update Again!

Here's another update photo as at 20th January 2011.

Approval & Paperwork

Well good news today, we received developers approval in the mail!!

We also received our final costings including site costs which were more than the "bugger all" costs we were imagining but what can you do????

Our final costings for the house though had so many errors in it that Mr Excel Spreadsheet AKA David is frustrated by how they get to these random figures that they begin with, that have absolutely no consistency with their last preliminary figure quoted. An email asking the question "please explain" will be on their doorstep tomorrow, but as David is working all weekend we can't get down to see them until Tuesday when he has another rostered house day off.

Until we all agree on things we cannot proceed to contract so hopefully it won't take Premier too long to get the figures together.

Alas the waiting game continues. I must be the most patient person in the world.

The Bells were ringing

Here's a snap of our family at the wonderful wedding of Michael & Shona, you must admit I think we all scrubbed up particularly well on the day!

Near Map Update - Carlisle Alert - the Scrape is on the Map!!

New Nearmap image appeared tonight online - Reinsey better forward this to Carlisle as your scrape and loo are clearly visible on the image!!