Too hot to build!

Well we're into our 3rd day straight of a massive heatwave in Melbourne .... and it looks like going into the weekend. Our plans to finish the retaining wall this weekend look doomed! But we are still going to go and pick up the additional blocks Saturday morning, with the hope that we could go out at the crack of dawn Sunday and work for a couple of hours in the morning. What is happening to me - the crack of dawn! Oh my god before you know it I'll be in bed by 9pm, what will the world come to.

More photos of retaining wall...

Pink and Blue helping build the wall!

Kimberlee in Retaining Wall 'Jail'

Retaining Wall Creation....

Retaining Wall Success!

Well we're about 2/3 of the way through the retaining wall. How exciting! Looks great, just waiting on photos to come through from Pete's mobile (sorry Prussian). Will update soon, I promise. Right now I have to go and continue drinking many glasses of white wine to celebrate the retaining wall....

On the way up!

Pouring piers, the Friendly Prussian on the level View of site from top of dirt mound

The hard workers, after pouring the trench. Ricky Doo Bah, Pop and The Friendly Prussian all chipping in to help Bikeman.

It's official: we're no longer digging down, we're going up. The piers were poured on Saturday, filling in the 42 massive holes in the ground and the trench for the retaining wall with a huge 10m of concrete (5 truckloads worth!!).

The piers now have neat little mounds of concrete sticking out of them, the kids thought that was great as they were like stepping stones. In fact the blue one thought that one of them was placed there specifically for him to be able to step up from the recessed level at the front to the main area. Cute!

The trench footings look great, Bikeman has outdone himself in this creation. Beautifully flat and ready for some blocks to be placed on top of them. The next project, for next weekend: building the retaining wall. From now on, things only go up!

Bikeman taught the kids today to slide down the dirt pile - actually he was trying to teach them to jump but the pink one decided it would be safer to slide - they thought that was fantastic! The kids were super helpers today, we took down the formwork and they busied themselves moving string and wire and wooden posts, they all in all had a wonderful time. Man they love getting dirty! The washing machine is working overtime :)

Wow, photos! I'm amazed at myself. This is the trench that bikeman created (with some help from Pop from the farm, and of course the excavator driver) ... it is all ready for some reo and concrete, then there will be a blockwork retaining wall built there. Isn't he clever??

Electrical Appointment

We met with the Electrician on Saturday, very nice guy! He seems quite practical and very down to earth, which is great. He gave us some really good suggestions regarding our fittings (most of which will save us money) and is going to redo our quote for us on the changes we are going to make. I'm sure we're going to work well together. He has agreed to do the fitout once the bricks are on, to save slippery fingers pinching our cables etc if fitout was to be done prior to lockup. I think he said probably 4 times 'it's just so big' .... I know it's big but geez it's starting to alarm me the number of people commenting on the size! I can see from the quotes what the 'bigness' is doing to the prices. Hmmm perhaps next time we'd only be looking at a small 3 bedder???? Hahaha yeah right! Although the pink and the blue one will be sharing a room for the next 6 months, so that we can use the pink ones room for a proper study. Should make life easier for organisation, theoretically. She's stoked to be sharing the room with her brother and even the blue one is quite excited. Winners all round! Site update: Bikeman has finished digging the trench and boxing it out (he's so clever) and the reinforcing mesh etc will be delivered this week. Once the reo is in we get to a very important (and expensive!) step - the building inspector will inspect the trench footings, and the remaining piers, and we can order a shite load of concrete to be poured into both. This is very exciting as it will mean we are two steps away from our/my first goal.... the slab! Once the piers and trench are poured, we can finish building the retaining wall, and then the roughing in will be done by the electrician and the plumber, and the concreter does his thing and the slab will be poured. Meeting with the concreter next week, which will be interesting ... have been told he is the best of the best so will be nice to meet him and it will start to feel like it is beginning to happen. On a personal note, the kids are visiting the Rizzos this week and it has been amazing how much I've been able to get done while they were away, even with working as well! Diz - I'll be sending them there every week for a couple of days, if that's ok. Hahahaha!

Decisions, decisions....

We're coming to crunch time now with decisions. Do we go with the floor boards, or go back to the cheaper, not as nice looking but waaaay more durable (and heaps cheaper), tiles? All the other prices seem to be on the increase so the search is on to save money. I think tiles will be the way... but there's no way we're moving on the double glazed windows, they are here to stay! We might be eating baked beans every night a year from now but we'll be comfortably warm while we are doing it!!!

Making Lists

Last week I indulged (and forced Bikeman to participate) in one of my favourite past times - making 'lists'! I thought the time had come that we needed to know who was doing what and when and how much. I don't do well with big picture stuff, I need to know the detail and know that everything is covered. So we have a list! I am happy. It doesn't take much, obviously, to make me happy!!!! And now I have LOTS of things to do. Temporary Fencing is due to be put up in a couple of days, which will make me much happier to know that a small child can't accidentally fall in one of those holes. Even better will be when the concrete is poured into them! We have to wait to get final approval on the retaining wall, so that we can get the concrete poured for both the piers as well as the base of the retaining wall. Should be in a week or so, not too long to wait. The slab..... waiting for the slab.......!!!!