Sewer Pegout, Engineers Drawings & Zone of Influence.

Our sewer pegout was done to check if we were in the "zone of influence" and it has shown that we are. It was not where we were expecting but down the right hand side where we will require extra piering, we are just waiting for the costing to come back to us for that one.
Our "last" variation came in last night for the few things that we added that were not in the final contract, from now on anything that we add we have to pay for within 7 days, this is because it is out of the contract terms.
It looks as though we could have a start next week, boy this has been a long time coming and we are all looking forward to seeing our build start. Will let you know as soon as I get a date for the start.

We have Pegs!!!

Woo Hoo, we have pegs, just went to the block and they were there. The sewer pegout can now be ordered. Watch this space......

Tile Selection Completed.

We went out on Saturday to browse through the tiles at DiLorenzo's, we thought that we would just think about what we wanted in the house and then make an appointment later to put it all down on paper. But our day unfolded in a completely different way, we arrived at the shop to be greeted by Jack DiLorenzo who took us upstairs and got one of his staff to help us, from there we proceeded to choose all the tiles and the carpet for the house. It took around 3hours from start to finish but in the end we had done it all. We took a couple of sample carpets out to the display home as we had picked a darker carpet for the Media Room and a lighter one for the Office and upstairs, after trying it in all the rooms we were happy with what we had chosen. Unfortunatly for us there was nothing that we picked that was included in the builders range so everything was over our allowance, we are waiting for the quote to come in , should be around 2 weeks. One of the tiles we picked came in at over $400 per m2 so our quote will be huge as our allowance is $25 m2. These tiles have been used in the Minto display so yesterday we went out to see them and we both are not sure if we like it, they have used them with a white tile and white grout but we are using a 300 x 600 tile the same as what is on the floor at The Ponds Impression so the look will not be the same.
We are out to Wisdom after work today to sign off on all the plans, so that they can send them to estimating and start to get supplies ordered. We have two minor changes but as of right now we are happy with what we have done,so everything will stay the same.

4.22pm.... 15th January, 2009...... DA Approved

I got a phone call yesterday afternoon from the Council to give us the great news that the DA has been approved. So first thing this morning I picked it up and it has now been taken out to Wisdom so that the Construction Certificate can be started. Well our youngest son was dancing around the house and there was kisses all round, what a relief we are so happy and excited that the next part of this journey can begin.
The demolisher's have taken their fence back, well we only had it for 5 months so we had to expect that it would be taken away soon.
We had a great holiday and because of internet speeds that were slower than a snail, I didn't get to post all of the photo's (sorry....).
Well we are off to the tile supplier and the display home over the weekend to check out a few things, so it looks like it is back to our normal weekend pace (flat out like that lizard drinking).

Hello from Woomera

This is in the main street at Woomera, the town is like a ghost town, people still live there but most of the homes are empty. There are blocks of units that seem to have no one in them, we stayed in a Motel that was an old block of units that the scientists used. It was like walking into time warp, everything was still there as it had been. It was like being in an old Hospital with rooms either side of a large walkway. The pool was heaps of fun with a diving board that the kids had great fun on. We went to watch the weather balloon take off but we were told it went at 9.49am and when we got there it goes at 9.45am so it was a pretty small speck when we saw it. The weather guy gave us a tour of his office and explained what happens to the weather info he collects, he was very interesting and as with most people we have met he had an amazing story to tell. He had worked in Antartica for 11 years and was going back for a 3 year term.

The Underground Motel - Coober Pedy

This is our Motel Room, when you turned off the lights you couldn't see anything. We were worried that we would sleep in till lunchtime but someone put the alarm on in our room and we were all awake at 7.00am.

A road to "nowhere"

This is the scenery on the Sturt Highway, you can see how flat it is and there is not much to see. We saw Emus on the side of the road, just wandering around and we also saw a Wedge Tail Eagle eating a Kangaroo that had been hit by a car, as we got closer to him he was just massive, I tried to get to the camera but he was just to quick.

Road Train

What can I say, these are huge, would hate to do the reverse park with one of them, or come to a roundabout. There is a sign about 8 kms outside Port Augusta where they stop and drop the trailers and become trucks again. The road that they travel on is straight and flat so they just fly along. It does take a while to overtake them though, but most of them give you a wave.

RFD Airstrip

This is one of the airstrips for the Royal Flying Doctor, it just happens to be the road. If there is a problem they can land on the road and get a Dr and Nurse to the people quickly.

A vein of Opal.

This was missed by the miners, they were around 30cms away from it. When the mine was made a bit wider for the tourists this was found, they have left it in so that you can see how the miners find it.

Inside the Mine

It's a bit like a rabbit warren, tunnels go off in all different directions chasing that precious opal.

Old Timers Mine - Coober Pedy

This mine is now a tourist attraction and you can go down it and experience what it is like to mine opals, the only difference is that this mine has lights so that you can see everything in front of you and behind you. All the pipes sticking out of the ground are for ventilation. In Coober Pedy these pipes are everywhere and sometimes that is the only way of knowing that someone is living there.

Inside the Church.

This is the inside of the Church looking down from the back. You can see where the tunnelling machines have done their magic in the ceiling.

The Serbian Church - Coober Pedy

This is the front of the Church, you open the front door and the temperature is about 10 degrees cooler, then as you walk down the ramp it becomes another 10 degrees cooler. Inside it is beautiful, I would live to see wedding photos from this church as the colours are fantastic.

Coober Pedy

These are the homes of the many people that live in this amazing town, it has a character of nothing else that I have ever been to. The people are so friendly, everyone stops and chats to you. We have done some Noodling and the kids have found a Matrix Opal each and are wanting to scratch around in the dirt all day. It's probably the only time that they can get dirt all over them and not get into trouble.

The Painted Desert

About 20kms to the North you come across this amazing landscape, the colours are vibrant and these photos don't show the amazing colours. From the air it would have been spectacular.

The Dog Fence

We drove out to The Dog Fence this morning, and this is the sign that tells you about it, in the best Australian way it is a recycled car bonnet.

Welcome to Coober Pedy.....

Ever wondered what living on the Moon would be like? Well wonder no more because this place is as close to it as you can get. These are the opal fields about 15klms north of Coober Pedy, all that you can see is these great mounds of dirt above the surface and that is where they have been or are mining underground.

Lake Hart - North of Woomera

This is a massive salt lake on the side of the road, to get to it you have to walk over the railway tracks that the Indian-Pacific travels on. Our youngest went under the tracks via the stormwater drain. The salt is really quite hard and you can take it off the top in chunks, and without stating the obvious, it is really salty.

Sturt's Desert Pea - Hawker SA

Rock Art - Wilpena

We had a huge walk to get to this cave to see these paintings. It took us over 2 hours there and back and it was up a huge mountain. When we finally found it, it was worth the work to get there and the best thing was on the way back it was all downhill, we then went back to the resort and straight to the pool to cool down.

Wilpena Pound

Wilpena Pound - We had a great time here, this is looking from the pound out into the distance.
We walked to the pound from the Resort that we were staying at and 2 hours later and in the dark we arrived back,
with sore feet but with a feeling that we had made it. It was about a 7 klm round walk, but some of it was quite hilly and the lookout was straight up the hill. It was lucky that we went later in the afternoon as it was not at all hot and it was a pleasant walk. There were Kangaroo's along the way and lots and lots of birds.