Not much to add at this point. A couple of pics of paving.

Have only recently returned from a 4 week holiday & S is madly trying to catch up with work at work! Hence, very little time to work on the paving on the weekends - hard at it on the laptop.

Ho hum, this will just have to be a long drawn out affair, along with the fencing!

The utility side of the house :



The street-side of the house, looking toward the front of the block :


Looking back the other way to the back of the house :


Looking from the front entry acros the front wall of the house :


Have run out of pavers & retaining wall blocks. Won't be able to complete the paths for another 2 weeks!

Also waiting for the rain to clear up, to be able to once again 'ROUND UP' the grass & weeds. Hopefully, this weekend. Then the soil & turf can be laid! No more dirt in the house - can't wait!

Not much to say. Just new pics of the latest additions to the house. A very slow process but getting there !

Monday is going to be a BUSY day - the installation of some major stuff!! Can't wait!!
The lap'n'cap side fence - privacy at last!
The rest of our flyscreens - several had to be re-made due to wrong sizes
A few adjustments to our roller blinds
AND the fit out of our 4 wardrobes !!

As I was silly enough to forget to delete the shelf & rail in all our robes, I now have to rip them out!! Unfortunately, the wall is being ripped off in the process, since the installers used silicone? to glue the support rails to the walls! !@#$%^^
Pics of the damage & this is on EVERY wall :






S is sooo happy with me over this affair - not! He didn't want to spend the money to fit out the robes in the 1st place, let alone make good the walls before the installation. Regardless of what he thinks, it's happening on Monday - can't wait.
We really need to have those spaces utilised efficiently, as we have little storage in the house apart from them.
The massive 5 metre built-in storage unit in our family room won't be happening. The quote was way, way over budget- $6,000 !! Opted for a large pantry cupboard instead, as a minimum, which is an absolute must in our small kitchen. So getting the robes fitted out properly was imperative.

Will have pics of the finished fence & robes after the weekend!

I wish I could add some new pics, but we are still waiting for our lap'n'cap fence. Hopefully, it will be installed next week.
We're also waiting for our flyscreens. Hopefully, next week also. The supplier of these was recommended by danma, a Homeone Forum member. Yay danma! The roller blind supplier was also her recommendation.

In two weeks our wardrobes & WIR will be fitted out. The only difficulty will be removing the shelves & hanging rails which I should have had deleted from our build! * rolls eyes*. I just didn't think of them at all.

Have realised, that the wrong ducted vacuum motor has been installed. The only way I know this is that our contract stated that the motor would have an outlet on it for vacuuming our cars. Well this motor certainly has no outlet. Will have to get on to EB to either swap them or give us some kind of refund.

Another issue was that our front balcony did not get the stainless steel rails, as the brickie went up too high. This was pointed out to us & we agreed not to have them. However, we forgot to record this & consequently S only rememberd 2 weeks ago. To EB's credit, they instantly organised a refund of $2,500!!!! Now that's a lot of money to forget!!!

Will post some pics when the fence finally goes up. Yay, privacy at last.

Fence - Part 1

As promised, a couple of outside pics.

This side fence has been more trouble than the entire house put together. Finally, the bricking is complete. We will shortly be ordering rod top aluminium infill panels for between the brick piers.
Also, we have finally found a fencer to install the lap'n'cap fence & double gates joining the brick fence & completing the side wall. That should be going in, in about 2 weeks.
It's just so annoying to have every process take weeks & weeks. Just getting a tradie to turn up is a frustrating feat. Some don't even bother to ring to say they're not coming.





S & his father have painstakingly built a retaining wall around the bakc of the house. It is starting to look tidier. At this very moment, both are cleaning up the rear yard of bricks, concrete, rubbish. So next is to tidy up, level off & bring in the good dirt in preparation for turfing. Yippee!!!!!! Can't wait !!!

Sorry but nothing really new to add except that our retaining wall is almost done & our brick fence is now complete. The hard part is finding timber fence tradesmen who actually turn up to quote, when they say they will. Grrrrr!
Apart from that, our blinds FINALLY go in on Thursday. A seriously looong wait after the fiasco of the discontinued chosen fabric. Now that was a major disappointment.

Our US trip is getting closer. Have booked all accommodation (Disneyland, NY, San Francisco) & now organising a side trip to Toronto to see relos. A lot still to finalise in addition to the house 'stuff'.

We still haven't gotten around to buying our light fittings. No where to store them while we do all the other things.

Will post some boring outside pics this weekend of the fence & retaining wall & maybe of our blinds.

Did I mention how much we love living down here??
It's taken us years to get this location. The market is soooo difficult to get into down here. It's so tight that in the last 6 months, I'd say only about a dozen properties - if that - have been listed. Thank goodness this one came up when it did. Both S & I are sure we were destined to have this place.

The sounds of the birds are great, particularly the kookaburras. Reminds me of the bush, not that that enthralls me, but it's a wonderful feeling to be in the city of Sydney & yet feel as though you're not. We have all the facilities of a major city but it feels as though we're in a country town.

Did I mention how much we love living down here?? Ooop I did, didn't I? The best decision we have ever made. Such a shame we couldn't buy into the area 27 years ago when we first looked. Back then, it was even harder to get in.

The quiet is amazing - no sirens, no traffic. And the people in the neighbourhood are just so warm & friendly. Everyone says hello as they walk past. And there's a lot who walk past. Quite a few have even welcomed us to the area.

Did I mention how much we love living down here??