Barbie

A little over a week now and we will have guests. Coen, Elfie en Mayke will arrive next Thursday in Brisbane. Looking VERY much forward to that moment. Especially to hold my granddaughter!

Coen was a little worried that -because of the weather here now- that he would miss out on his barbies. Don't you worry son, we can wack a t-bone on anytime !

Is there a better way?

All our connections are in the office area. That means there is no cable visible from the lounge room. Behind the TV is a hole through the wall and I got all the cables to the TV running there. So in the office area it looks a little different, although most is hidden under the desk.
So in the office there are the power connections for : 2 TV's, 2 Laptops, Fax, Printer, Modem, DVD player, Media player, Antenna booster, Phone, and Speaker set. Plus all the connecting cables between TV's and media/dvd, network cables to the laptops, connection to printer, phone and fax to phoneline, antenna cable.

Has anyone an idea how to make this look a little tidy?

At last, back online !!

Yesterday afternoon finally our ADSL was connected. We are back online. I added a new photo book of December. Have a look at the pictures if you like. More to come soon.

Right now the weather is still very bad. Too much rain. Very unusual for this area. And it is not expected to end in the next few days. Anyway, Pam and I are doing fine and I promise to get the information coming from now on.

This one in dutch

Oeff, wat een drukte en wat een geregel. En bovenop alles: een aantal problemen.
We hebben nog steeds geen internet. De laatste berichten zijn dat dit wel eens tot 22 februari kan duren.
Shit Telstra die een kabel moeten trekken van de andere kant van de straat. Ze weigeren tot nu toe om mijn ADSL te activeren via mijn eigen kabel (maar ze bellen me wel via die lijn).
Met Pam en ik is alles uitstekend. Moe maar zeer content met ons nieuwe optrekje. De binnenkant is klaar.
Afgelopen week een aantal heftige regenbuien gehad. En omdat alle grond nog onbegroeid is en flink helt levert dat een aantal prachtige uitspoelingen op. Gisteren de klap op de vuurpijl: Een gigantische stortbui terwijl wij vrolijk in Bundaberg waren winkelen, 100 km hier vandaan. Toen we thuis kwamen was onze net mooi ingeplantte voortuin verdwenen in de straatgoot en de aarden wal aan de zijkant van het huis ligt er nu onder.
Dat wordt een heftige klus om weer te herstellen en in de toekomst te voorkomen.
Ik hoop snel toch weer normaal online te zijn en zal dan weer wat foto's leveren.

Settled?

The guest room after...

and a few days ago........

Yes we are ! Last Monday we moved the last stuff from the 37 Stones Avenue to 11 George Street. Pam is having great fun in unpacking and re-arranging. Of course, I cannot find anything anymore. Pam...where are the scissors? Have you seen my sun glasses? Where is the rice? But its all a matter of time. And in the meantime : it starts to look great. I am busy in the garden and I probably will be for the next year. Our only problem is the phone and internet connection. TELSTRA is messing everything up. The last message was that we will get our connection on 23 February 2011. They have to dig the cable to our house under the street. But......don't tell anybody: the cable is already there. I have a 500 m roll of cable here. I connected it to the house, pushed it through the drainpipe that runs under the road and connected the other end to the Telstra cable. The phone is working !! Now they only have to connect our internet. As soon as that is done in the next few days.....I will be updating this blog on a regular basis again.

Moved

Yes we moved! All details in the days to come. Only one item has to be solved: our phone and internet connection. I am typing this using a temporary mobile connection. Very slow and unreliable here.
Most of our stuff is here, except my tools and other "sh.t" that is still in the little shed at the other house. We will get that in the next few days.
Right now we have a house full of boxes, although many are already empty. We can cook, use the bathroom, and the bedroom is ready too. It is great.
The weather is not cooperating, it rains and rains. The water tank has already half a meter water in it during the last two days. Lets hope the weather changes soon !

Tomorrow we move

The water tank is on its spot, the septic tank is in the ground and connected. Tomorrow the finishing touch and we will move in.

More pictures

I added a few more pictures to the Photo book.

The house is ours

We did the "hand-over":  listing the things that still need to be done (most of it is painting the deck), payed the final bill, and got the keys. It is our house now !

Cleaning is almost done, the new bed is in, and the kitchen already looks great.

just a fly

getting close now

One wall to be done: the right side of the deck will get a fully closed wall. Then the railing and the outside job is somewhat finished. Painting will be done later. Noel will finish his job on Sunday and we can start moving. In the meantime the plumber can finish his work.

And we got power too

Ergon Energy showed up and connected us. We have power, everything is working ! And the veranda roof is on.

The veranda

Progress in regards to the veranda roof as well. The posts are timber, the roof frame is steel. Tomorrow there will be a start to put the steel roof sheets on.

Some more progress

Tomorrow will be a crowded day. The parts for the veranda roof will arrive, the plumber is going to start (he should have started today, but because of the rain, it was delayed one day) and maybe Ergon Energy shows up to connect the power.
Anyway, in the meantime Noel has been fixing all sorts of things inside. All looks beautiful.
A few more pictures are in the photo book.

not completely done yet

As you can see, there is quite a bit to be done before we can move in. As far as the house itself: The veranda railing, stairs, roof, insulation, sidewall, the gutters around the house, the back stairs and railing. And inside all the sliding doors (including the frosted glass doors for the pantry in the kitchen), the ceiling fans, the water heater. Next Monday Halley Homes will return and finish everything. They probably need a week to do so, and in the same period the plumber will do his job.
So---fingers crossed--- after next week we should be able to move in !!
But please, give us a few weeks to unpack all the boxes that we are going to move into the guest room first, before you all come over here for your holiday.

And the veranda floor

Allan finished his part of the job today. the house is on its feet, the veranda is welded on. Next week all the details will be done, including the roof over the veranda and the railings, the stairs. Also next week the plumber and electrician are booked to connect everything.

more house

quite a change

The first section in the background, the second pushed in. The white plastic cover on the two sides will come off before they put everything together.
More pictures HERE

Yesssss it is happening

The first section rolling into Mt. Perry

And a few more

More gardenwork

We did a little experiment this morning in using the rocks that we have got.

Water and the first plants

Our water meter is connected to the main water supply and the council put in a temporary tap (kraan) to be used untill the final house connections are made. So, we could start and plant our first plants and water them.

We got a phone call too from Halley Homes today confirming that the house will arrive next Monday. They are ready, so are we. Exiting !

A new guest

I wondered why the food tray for the birds often was empty so quick, or knocked on the ground. Well here is the answer: a bush turkey (wilde kalkoen) enjoys the seeds too. I have seen him around several times, but he is pretty shy. I did not expect him to fly onto the table so close to the house. Had to take the picture through the glass of the window in the kitchen. Christmas dinner?

Plastic bags

Always trouble with the knots in plastic bags ? Here is Pam's solution.

Cut the top of a plastic bottle that holds a screw-top. Pull the plastic bag through the bottle-top, fold it over and screw the lid on. Nice and tidy, and easy to re-open.

And a place to rest

My little petrol chainsaw (kettingzaag) en electric planer (schaaf) make those split posts into a simple bench under the trees. We can watch Russel from here with a bottle of water (no typing error!) and a smoke.

The house block is ready

After some more earthmoving last week, Russel was back today with two truck loads of "blue metal".
Blue metal is crushed granite (with a metal blue colour). It is used as gravel for roads, but also very nice for a patio or driveway (inrit). Because the concrete footings are in the ground and the house itself is not there yet, we had the time to cover everything with a layer (10 cm) of blue metal. This will keep the area under the house dry and dustfree, and the patio free of mud (modder). Once it has set, it will be very hard and stable, and the rain will wash the gray dirt off and make the colour of the material visible.

The kitchen

The kitchen is close to finish. Imagine three big sliding frosted glass doors (dutch: matglas schuifdeuren) in the pantry.  We have four white leather barstools on a chrome footing to put on this side of the bench. They arrived last week.

Last update : delivery of the house on 15 November.

Ready for the swiss cheese

Everything ready for the footings to be drilled. This is the view from the back of the land, looking down onto the area that was prepared yesterday. Pam is standing where the back of the house will be. As you can see, our driveway (oprit) is stable enough for a big truck. Allan drilled the holes this afternoon, tomorrow morning the concrete will be poured in.
Allen is the contractor who does this part of the house building, he is a one-man business, working for Halley Homes and a few other companies. I had a chat with him in the pub, after the work for today was done. He actually lives in his truck most of the year. Bed, microwave, shower, toilet, fridge, satellite TV. He travels from job to job through the country doing the same as he does for us: putting houses on posts. And he does this already 29 years.  The saving in motel/hotel costs pays for the write-off (afschrijving) of his truck !

Again a step closer..

Yesterday I got a phone call from Halley Homes to let me know that this week the footings for the house are going to be poured. The footings are the concrete foundations -in the ground- for the steel posts. The 26 holes that have to be drilled and filled with concrete. Originally they were planned to be done on 9 November.
We still had some earth moving (grondverzet) planned next week, but this can only be done without these footings in the way. So there was only one option: it had to be done today.

Well it IS done. Russel Augustine was available with his backhoe (een graafmachine) so the back area of the house is level, the slope (helling) is nicely done, all the dirt is even and smooth, and a trench (greppel) for a big drain is ready too. This drain will catch the rain water, coming down along the land during heavy rain, and keep it away from the house.

Frangipani

In a few weeks from now, the front of the garden where we are living now, will show an abundance of these flowers: Plumeria's, more common name here is Frangipani. They are related to Oleanders.
There are 5 or 6 of these trees here, and they really start to show spring time now.

Ironbark

Ironbark is a native Australian hardwood. It is used for instance to make beautiful floors. But it is also used to make traditional split fence posts. A 210 cm log (dutch: stam) is length-wise split in 5 pieces with a chainsaw. These split post are used to make very rustic traditional fences.
We are living now in rural country, plenty of ironbark around. So I got a bargain (dutch: koopje) to get 55 split posts. They will be used!!!
But sh.t, they are heavy. I barely can lift the smaller ones, the others I can only roll. Thankfully I had some help from Mick, he threw them on a pile for me : his arms are the size of my upper legs.

Translation (=vertaling):

Ironbark is een inheemse Australische hardhout soort. Het wordt bijvoorbeeld gebruikt voor prachtige houten vloeren. Maar het wordt ook gebruikt voor traditionele “gespleten” afrasteringspalen. Een 210 cm lang stuk boomstam wordt met een motorzaag in de lengte in 5 stukken gezaagd (je krijgt dan 5 gespleten palen van 210 cm lang !) en deze palen worden gebruikt om rustieke traditionele afrasteringen te maken.

We wonen nu op het platteland, en er is hier een overvloed aan ironbark. Dus.. Ik heb een koopje kunnen bemachtigen van 55 palen. Die zullen een prima bestemming krijgen !!

Maar “nondedju” wat zijn die krengen zwaar. Ik kan de dunnere NET optillen, maar de andere alleen maar opzij ROLLEN. Gelukkig heeft Mick me geholpen. Hij heeft de palen op een hoop voor me gegooid: hij heeft dan ook een paar armen, zo dik als mijn bovenbenen !

Debutante ball in Mount Perry

Quite a different look for the country girls and -boys in Mount Perry. For the first time in many years, the school organised a so called "debutante ball". Similar to the proms in the US. It is held near the end of the last school year, presenting the girls and boys to the society. Their official introduction to the big world.
All the debutantes were officially introduced to the mayor and had their formal dance. All of this in front  of a big audience: the township was well present. I bet 150 people, including Pam and I.
After the official ceremony it was a nice party evening with live music.
Funny part -in my eyes- was that the Council Hall where the event took place, has no liquor licence. So it was  BYO (Bring Your Own) alcohol. Big cooler boxes in the size of a bedside table (nachtkasje)  with ice, wine, bottles of rum, Jim Beam and BEEEEEEEEEER.

Translation

Not everybody reads and understands my English without trouble. There are a few Internet translate solutions available. Like "Google Translate" and Yahoo Babelfish"
Below is the translation into Dutch from yesterdays post (called Explaining) as produced by Yahoo. I am not sure if this helps any dutch reader though:

Ik zal proberen en verklaren hoe de Huizen Halley het huis op het blok van land zullen krijgen. Hoe zij volkomen die twee grote eenheden naast elkaar worden, manoeuvrerend rond de posten dat het huis gaat rusten op. Deze posten zijn tussen 60 cm (bij de rug) en 1.2 m in hoogte bij de voorzijde, 26 posten in totaal. En HH gebruikt geen kraan om alles op te heffen. Eigenlijk is het vrij " simple". Er zal geen posten zijn wanneer het huis binnen wordt gebracht. Een paar dagen zullen zij vooraf 26 grote gaten in de grond (ongeveer 1 m diep en 40 cmdiameter) en slechte concrete positie voor de posten met een staalplaat op bovenkant, niveau met de grond boren. Maar geen posten (nog)! Wanneer het huis aankomt, zullen zij de twee secties precies zetten waar zij met een tractor zijn, deze secties aan de definitieve hoogte met een paar hydraulische hefbomen, gezette houten blokken moeten opheffen onder het gehele ding en de wielen weg nemen. Dan zullen zij precies de 26 posten aan de gewenste lengte snijden en zullen hen aan de staalplaten lassen die ik vóór en aan het staalkader van het huis vermeldde. Gedaan werk. Door de manier: er zijn een paar nieuwe beelden van het (nu geschilderde) huis in photobook

Explaining

This one is for Nan, so that she does not have to worry about "cutting" the house. This picture should explain  how the house is split in two sections (the veranda is build on the spot, once the house is on its final place and bolted together again).

I will try and explain how Halley Homes will get the house onto the block of land. How do they get those two big units perfectly next to each other, maneuvering around the posts that the house is going to rest on. These posts are between 60 cm (at the back) and 1.2 m in height at the front, 26 posts in total. And HH is not using a crane to lift everything.
Actually it is quite "simple". There will be no posts when the house is brought in. A few days in advance they will drill 26 big holes in the ground (about 1 m deep and 40 cm diameter) and pour concrete footings for the posts with a steel plate on top, level with the ground. But no posts (yet)!  When the house arrives , they will put the two sections exactly where they have to be with a tractor, lift these sections to the final height with a few hydraulic jacks, put wooden blocks under the whole thing and take the wheels off.
Then they will exactly cut the 26 posts to the desired length and weld them to the steel plates that I mentioned before and to the steel frame of the house. Job done.
By the way: there are a few new pictures of the (now painted) house in the photobook.

a little more progress

We cleared the area under the trees at the border of our block. Cut some branches (dutch:takken), evened out the soil. This will be a nice shaded area with the perfect trees to put a hammock (hangmat) in between.

The last news is: on 5 November Halley Homes will split the house in two. On 9-10-11 November it will be put onto our block !!

Bread basket

Since we have our bread maker, Pam has a lot of fun in trying out all sorts of bread. Today she took the dough out of the machine, shaped it in a bread basket, and baked that in the normal oven. Together with a few small buns. Looked great!

Royal Dutch on a larger scale

One week difference

progress !

Yes....spring is starting

Summary	Tue Oct 5	Wed Oct 6	Thu Oct 7	Fri Oct 8	Sat Oct 9	Sun Oct 10
	Possible shower	Late shower	Late thunder	Possible thunderstorm	Mostly sunny	Mostly sunny
Maximum	31°C	30°C	31°C	26°C	26°C	26°C
Minimum	17°C	17°C	17°C	18°C	15°C	14°C
Chance of Rain	60%	40%	70%	70%	5%	30%
Rain Amount	< 1mm	< 1mm	5-10mm	5-10mm	< 1mm	< 1mm
UV Index	Very High	Very High	Very High	Very High	Very High	Very High

A nice shower in the late afternoon or evening.  "Beautiful one day, perfect the next"