Meeting Some Neighbours

This evening we went for a walk around the block. Along the way we met a few interesting locals:

Jack was fascinated by all these strange creatures, but Dot was not impressed at all.

Lights, Action, Oops!

If you believe the archive listing on the right hand side of my blog, today is my 6th blogiversary! My (apparent) first post was a picture of some aphids on my roses.

I say apparent, because from that post until late May 2010, I was actually posting my photos on Facebook, not here. When I decided to delete myself from that application, I started this blog and moved all the photos to it. So in a few days I created 8 months of blog posts.

Six years ago I don't think I could have dreamed I would be where I am today. I did own this land, but couldn't see how I would ever be able to afford to build on it. But here I am!

Today's task was to assemble the light fittings I first tried to do a couple of weeks back. Remember this?

 I had two of these, and both were missing the plastic pins needed to assemble them. When I contacted the distributors, initially they said they would send me the pins, then 10 days later they said they wouldn't as they thought the lights could be assembled without the pins. I had a go, but it really seemed to need something to hold the first bits together. I found some small rivets that fitted the holes, so today was the day to get these light shades happening!

Before:

Not very exciting so far. However, the instructions show how to assemble the shade on a flat surface before the electrician installs the light fitting, but I had to assemble it above my head and from the reverse view, so it got exciting fast.

First step. The first 5 segments in place. Getting to this stage took me about half an hour, with the rivets to hold pieces in place. Without them I would probably have given up! It was very tricky manipulating them, and also interpreting the instructions which were far from clear.

Second step. The next 5 pieces in place. Once I had the first part together, the rest was very quick. But round about now I realised this was going to be a very big light shade:

Because that's only half of it.

Third step:

And the final step:

 It is huge! Fortunately we have higher than average ceilings, so I can walk under it. But it is much larger than I imagined. The box did say how big it was (530mm diameter), but somehow I never quite registered just how big that is. I imagined it would be about as big as the box.

It does look quite amazing when you turn on the light though:

So now I have one of these in the spare bedroom, and one in my sewing room. They make me laugh because they are so over-sized, so I might just leave them because it will be fun to watch people's reactions.

Passive Solar

I haven't featured the dogs for a while, so here they are:

Jack soaking up some warmth. Dot is nearly as big as him now, although she looks smaller in this shot.

Moth Visitors

Night-time brings some wildlife never seen in the day.

Unidentified green moth:

Unidentified moth that looks like an old gum leaf:

Possibly a bright twisted moth.

Lunch at Lal Lal

This morning I had to tackle these boxes containing kitchen items. But they were packed by the removalists and I had no way of knowing what was in each one:

The search for necessities became a little frantic:

Fortunately I found both crockery and cutlery in time for lunch for fourteen people

who gathered for an 80th birthday celebration.

So now we know the house can hold a lot of people without feeling over-crowded.

And I was given this lovely floral house-warming gift.

Moving Day

Bright and early, this arrived:

Compare and contrast - the front of House A:

the front of House B:

Slight difference! Not much garden to be seen at house B just yet. The dark area is the new soil covering the completed dispersion field. And that's Dan the builder ensuring it is clearly marked so no-one will drive on it.

Then Dan moved on:

which was a bit sad, as he has been a big part of our lives for the last 6 months.

Then the movers moved in:

And when they also moved off, we ate our first "meal" in the new house:

Picnic pull-apart and chocolate. Maybe not the healthiest meal ever, but it didn't need plates or cutlery!

Missing Building

Met up with some quilting friends in Melbourne today. As I waited for the tram to go home, I was standing in sunshine that I couldn't have stood in a year ago:

Here's an article showing what it once looked like:
City office tower faces demolition

Anyway, it is sad that it is gone. It was a very modern building when I first encountered it. And apparently once had Melbourne's first rooftop restaurant.

Bun Time

The workers enjoy their last owner-supplied Boston bun for morning tea:

Then we headed back to town to do some packing.

Waterworks

This morning the sun came out for a while, which meant that our solar hot-water system could be installed:

Matt the plumber on the roof with the rep from the manufacturer.

And Robbie the excavator could do the preparation work for the dispersal field for the waste-water treatment plant:

He had to dig down 30cms or so, break up all the earth, spread 300kg of gypsum around, then add soil and level it all out so that the pipes can be laid tomorrow.

Here's Matt on the roof, installing one of the evacuated tubes into the rack:

But the sunshine didn't last. Before he was finished, he was being pelted with hail:

It was a very cold day, with little sun in the afternoon, but even so the temperature of the water in the tank climbed 5 degrees. There is a data-logger attached to the system, so we can monitor the temperature on the rack and in the tank, and various other functions. Graphs will be produced!

Nearly There

Over the weekend Dan the builder gave the floor two coats of sealer. Here's how it looks now:

Today Tony continued with the kitchen tiling:

And here are the people responsible for our beautiful house:

On the right, our architect, Helen Bernard of Unicorn Architecture in Daylesford. On the left, Stephen, designer at Unicorn. And in the centre, the man who brought the plans to life, builder Dan Whitmore of Whitmore Constructions in Ballarat.

There are still a couple of large things to be finalised (and the rain hasn't been helping), but by the end of the week the house might just be ours.

Lion for September

Here he is, finally together:

Mr Lion, the ninth (and last) block in the Zoo Animals BOM by Kristy at Quiet Play.  However, I'm planning to add a few more of Kristy's animals from a previous pattern so won't be assembling the quilt top for a while yet.

Check out the other lions at the link-up here,

Boots Off!

No boots in the house today!

Chris the painter and Ash the apprentice painter finishing off the kitchen in their socks:

Ash is the only female tradie who has worked on our house.

I check out the colour of the floor in my sewing room (in my socks):

Not bad!

In other parts of the house, the mopping is still in progress:

A bouquet of spring, a gift from the garden in Ocean Grove:

Bluebells, sweet peas and freesias. Beautiful perfume! Jenni, if you are reading this, the sweet peas are the next generation of the seeds from your garden.

Dan the builder's office and storage area was loaded up and taken away today:

Which opened up a new view of the house:

Tony tiled above the vanity and in the laundry:

And at the end of the day, Ben and Dan started work on the kitchen tiles:

It's been a big week!

Odds and Ends

Here's the laundry I forgot to take any pictures of on the day the cupboards were installed:

That's not quite all of it, there are a couple of drawers and one more top cupboard to the left.

Yesterday the shower door was installed:

Later in the day I locked the keys in the car which wasn't fun.

Today I was getting ready to go to the site when I was asked to bring the kitchen mixer tap with me. I had been looking at the wrong document, and thought that was something the builder was supplying. So I had to rush out and find one straight away. In contrast to when I selected the bathroom taps, this had to be a fast decision. There were about 20 kitchen taps displayed at the supplier that was recommended by the builder, but when I said I needed it today, that eliminated most of them. Of the five actually in stock, one I didn't like, two were lower than I wanted, and of the remaining two, one had a more comfortable lever handle, so that was it! Decision made in less than one minute.

Today Andrew the plasterer (a lot of Andrews have worked on our house) came back to finish off cornices around the cupboards:

The plumber and an electrician were also on site, finishing off a few tasks.

The mop brigade: Dan the builder and his daughter Ellie

getting the floors ready to be sealed on the weekend.

 The chooks seem happy enough in their new home. Each one of them laid an egg today:

And a couple they laid yesterday became part of the tradie's barbecue lunch today: