Day 112. A big gigantic humungous surprise! When we stopped by on the weekend there was an auspicious omen. Not a four leaf clover, not a rainbow, but our current BFF (Paris Hilton match this!) the battered cement mixer stood just outside the garage (or “magrage” as the 4 year old calls it). Hope in a Cement Mixer was back again!
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| Bricks all done!! |
Right enough on Monday, we saw the walls on the side go up and by Thursday most of the brickwork was complete. It feels a bit strange to see a house that’s almost complete where once there was lush grassland and wealthy folk playing golf, but its all good. The scaffolding is still up for the good men who work on eaves to finish up and then the brick cleaners come in to do their part before the scaff goes down. That’s when we’ll really see what the bricks look like. I have a good feeling though – this might just turn out right!
Santa’s elves were hard at work on last weekend as well. The cornice (I think that’s what they are called) were installed as well as the plasterboards which make a huge difference. One can tell which room is which now and the size of each room. The rugrats love it. An empty house under construction is full of potential. Sticky cement to throw on each other, rooms to hide in, dirty water to muck about in and stickers to put on the wall. Like the one below. Ah well, its almost Christmas!
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| A "sticky" on the wall, courtesy two little interior designers |
The plan is I’m told, to get the kitchen and staircase in next week, and then the painting over Christmas. I’d like to see it happen, given the construction of this house been running on a schedule comparable to the Metro train timetable, a bit hit and miss. The bills are sent to us spot on time though, in a way that is impressively efficient. My long suffering bi-fold doors aren’t in yet, but the invoice is sitting on my table along with a cup of luke warm chai as I mutter and grumble and calculate interest rates.
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| The main entrance, kind of grand |
I may be a tad biased but the Range looks good. I like the main entrance, pictured above, and the wetlands. The ducks are rather sweet, waddling around with their broods in tow. Town houses at the front have been completed and seems like they will be occupied quite soon. Although it’s a medium density area there, it looks nice because the design of each house differs from the one next to it.
Incidentally the Wiggles concert was fun! Anthony is still IMHO the finest Wiggle you ever did see. The boys were more interested in the hot chips though and my littlest one steadfastly munched his way through the two hour or so show. Rod Laver Arena was packed to the rafters with wiggly little ones rocking the morning away!
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| A Wiggly start to the week.... |
Oprah’s in Melbourne today as well. Some folk are pretty excited about that – me, I’m just happy that the brickies have kind of finished up and that there’s progress all around. We have met more of our neighbours too and a big plus is there are so many kiddies. The boys have worked out who their “best friends” are and are ever so keen to make the pilgrimage to see what’s new. All in all, its getting more real. Reminds me that we better get cracking on our packing….!
