End of the year

And almost the end of this part of the journey.

The council now has cashed all the final cheques, including the monstrous amount for infrastructure (an almost $80,000 "donation"). So now I just sit and twiddle my thumbs waiting for the sealed plans to come back. Then it's off to the solicitor to have them lodged with Titles Office or whatever it's called these days, and we will have 5 instead of 1.
Zoe can then build her house after the long long looooooong time waiting.

It's been a stressful year. The house build wasn't too bad - colour choices are stressful! In retrospect, a lot of things that got forgotten at last minute, or could have been changed; but nothing major. Certainly no complaints against the builder, who must have had his patience stretched to the limit with the stuff ups caused by the sub division part. My walls are straight, nothing leaks and nothing has broken.

The sub division on the other hand - arrrghghh!! horrible horrible horrible. I don't think there has been one step where there wasn't a hold up or problem, and most of the problems were caused by Project Services. damn them to hell.

The next stage can begin soon .. Zoe and Troy's house. And the building of 3 houses on the front blocks ... sigh ... I am a sucker for punishment I think lol. But rather that, than pay around $100k in CGT.

A happy new year for us all :)

Demolition - Day 9

Gone! Almost. Today the orange machine ate the rest of the 'walls' and removed the stumps. The last thing standing was the old downstairs dunny - a small weatherboard room on it's own. Looked funny but I didn't get pics cos the demolition dudes were in the way all the time.
They have also removed the old septic - gingerly - even though I told them it hadn't actually been used for about 20 years.








As I stood chatting to them, one reached down and said " look at this!" . He had pulled out of the dirt, a fully tied noose! Zoe and I were a bit dubious about the contents of the septic after that.



So tomorrow they complete the clean up and take up the last of the stuff they are keeping.

Demolition - Day 8

Well they had left an orange machine yesterday and today it gone on with its munching of the house. Now it looks really forlorn. A shock as you drive up and there's no house!

Some of the posts have been removed. A remaining walls just tumbled. A lot of mess to be cleaned up.

So one more day, maybe two, and its gone.


South side of house

Demolition - day 7

Not much difference to see today. A few walls missing and all the 6 inch pine floorboards were removed. You could only see that if you stood underneath.

Finally they took the old front door. It had been standing there, without windows, walls or roof around it, complete with its lace curtain. Long as no one got in !

Demolition - Day 6

The skeleton is slowly disappearing. The pile of timber to be taken away, in one form or another, grows steadily.




South side of house where bedrooms used to be.



The back verandah once had railings too.

Demolition - Day 5

Well as Megan and Dave's house gets a roof, the old house lost hers. The zincalume has been removed. It looks very forlorn now.

It was too dark by the time I got home to take pics, but I will do so in the morning.

Bit of panic stations when BCC trucks turned up at 7am and started drilling on the newly laid road surface (of course). I went and spoke to the Stop/Go Man to make sure it wasn't the water pipes being dug. It wasn't. Phew! That probably involves actually having the plumber lined up ready to connect new house to new meter and is supposed to happen on 30th October.

Demolition - Day 4

Changes weren't very noticeable from outside on Friday. More removal of VJ inside and all the ceilings and cornices were down and stacked ready to move. One of the demolition men said that he thought it would be another week before it's finished!

Today they removed the weatherboards and most of the windows. There are still some VJ walls inside and I can only assume they have left them for strength.




Southside of the house where the bedrooms used to be.