We are in!!!

Hey All,

Sorry of the lack of updates recently... we will definitely get back into things once we are a bit more settled.

We're a fairway off being done, but things are certainly better now than a few weeks ago.

POWER - The main thing pre-christmas was the power being put on... hurray!!! So, Clint the sparky worked har the week before Xmas and got it all going. The guys from Solar Shop were great and they got the power system up and going in one day. The system is on a supa-mezzaine in the carport that Charlie put up they day before the solar guys arrived. After a few sunny days, the batteries have been pretty much >90% most of the time. All the power points work as well as the lights so now we can work into the night.... yeh...

The Solar Shop guys with the power going for the first time!!!

SEPTIC - this isn't quite finished, but Chris the Biolytix guy came out on Thursday just after Christmas and put in most of the sub-surface irrigation so that we could use the shower, bath and toilet etc..... but the major hicup came before that when the Totally Green Plumbers were slack as. Even though they could have put in the hot water tank and installed all the taps and stuff back in August (we bought the stuff in June but the walls weren't up until August) Mitchell the guy thats been doing our stuff kept saying that they wanted to do everything in one go when the septic and power were both available so that they could commission it straight away... anyway, he kept putting us off until the Friday before Christmas, came at 9:30 and left at 2:30 after only getting the hot water tank in and the taps on the bath tub, then said he'd be back on the 7th January!!! (which by the way has come and gone and he hasn't called us)... I was very pissed off because we still had no toilet and no water in the house except out of the bath taps. Anyway, Nat (husband of Nicole who works at Wyong Equine Clinic) came to the rescue and a couple of days later on the Sunday before Chrissy, came over and put in the toilet cistern and basin taps and fixed the water pump... he'd only accept a bottle of wine!! I also fixed the ensuite shower and the kitchen taps so we were now right to go and move into the house after the septic irrigation lines were in. So, the Friday the 28th December, we unofficially moved in... our mattress from the caravan into the guest bedroom and slept in our new house and used the toilet!

Having a late night Hungry Jack's for our moving-in celebration dinner with some champers!!

The biolytix tank in and ready to recieve..

FLOOR - We sanded back and varnished the 2nd and 3rd bedroom floors the weekend before Christmas and also moved all the bamboo flooring that was delivered into the house to acclimatise, then for the following 1.5 weeks after Christmas, Bernie has been back in action and we've been doing the floors together. The bamboo boards look really good and feel good as well, but the job was quite back-breaking work. Tomoko and Viktor were at least able to visit us a couple of times. Last weekend, they stayed over night after our first 'official' dinner. We also had Michael and Kristy over for our mini house warming. Thanks for the Frangipani! The next morning, even though Annette told Tomo and Vik to 'sleep in as long as you like', we were banging and sawing and being very noisy from 7:30am onwards so they didn't get much of a sleep in... then they helped us rub off the glue marks and finger prints off the new floor with metho!!! Thanks guys. The bamboo flooring has now been finished!

The timber slabs on teh counter...

THIS WEEK - Charlie came back yesterday and finished off hte mezzanine in the carport with a gate and ballustrade so its now all safe and we'll take photos for the solar shop guys to be able to claim the government rebate. Annette has been busily painting the skirting boards before they get put into position later in the week. We also picked up our new toilet for the ensuite.. the Caroma Profile Suite with the handbasin on top!! Itwas a couple hundred dollars more than I was expecting ($870), but since we've been waiting for it since September, I'm not complaining :-)

Now the dilemma.... do we let the plumbers that let us down back into the house and touch our special can (toilet)?

Will put on more photos later..

cya
Pete