Let's take a break!

We told the builder that we had a wedding to go to in the middle of November 2011 and that we would REALLY like to be settled in to the new house before then.  He promised we would be in well before then (in fact, the house was initially going to be finished before Christmas 2010 - ha, ha, ha).  Alas, it didn't work out as he had planned.  In retrospect, though, we think it worked out perfectly.  We were exhausted from all of the building and financing research and decision-making and really needed a break.  And that's exactly what we got!  We picked up the keys for the new house on 11 November and then promptly flew up to Byron Bay for a week of R&R leading up to the truly wonderful wedding of friends of ours.  We then flew home where we had a day to pack up the essentials before the next step ...

Annabel basking in the Bryon Bay sunshine

Victor hanging out by Australia's most easterly point on the mainland

The keys!

After months & months & months of delays, we had an appointment to pick up the keys for the new house at 11am on the 11.11.2011.  The building supervisor was 11 minutes late, as he stopped for a minute of silence along the way.  When he did arrive, we finally had the keys for the new house!  There were a few things (actually quite a few things!) that still needed finishing off, but the deadline for our first home owners grant was getting uncomfortably close, so we just decided to make the final payment and deal with the details later.  The house feels so soft and welcoming.  But, we couldn't move in quite yet ...

Beautiful 'Bella Vastu'

alias 'The Tardis'

Sacred heart

One of the last jobs before inaugurating and moving into the house was to mark out the Brahmasthan.  This is in the exact centre of the house and is a place which we keep free of activity.  We've placed a small table there so that people don't walk through the Brahmasthan.  I think of it like the sacred heart of the house, a bit like the silent centre we each possess in our own physiology. 

Peter & Paul helping to measure out the Brahmasthan, but where's Mary?

Curious ducks

Sunrise Brahmasthan roses

Boundaries

The vastu fence - WHAT A SAGA!  In fact, what an on-going saga ... to this day! The vastu fence provides a boundary for the house and has very specific measurements.  We first contacted a fencing guy in October 2011 and now we are moving towards the end of April 2012!  The original fencing guy, Chris, subcontracted the job out to another guy, Ray.  With relentless pestering encouragment, Ray got the corner posts and most of the others in before the house inauguration but didn't seem to be able to get much further than that.  Despite millions of promises to get the job done, Ray eventually dropped the job and Chris took over, having to put the woven wire on twice to get it right.  Yipes!  And only today, after ordering the gates weeks and weeks ago, we have just found out that the gate-manufacturer's computer, with all of her orders and client contact details, was attacked by aliens who ate all of her business information.  Therefore, I have once again reordered the gates, only more than six months after starting to build the vastu fence!

On another note, if you look carefully at the first and last photos on this blog entry, you will see the long-awaited roof of the verandah.  It had been my dream to have a little verandah bullnose on three sides.  At the last minute, the builder told us this was not possible, and would we please accept one with a bullnose on one side only.  And so, we disappointing let go of the three-sided bullnose, not realising that the builder wasn't even going to put sides on the it.  But more about that later too...

posts ...

rails ...

woven wire ...

but where are those elusive gates!

Crowning Glory

Now that the house is finished, the final touch was to finally unveil the window box on top of the house and attach the kalash.  We did hear somewhere that the kalash is said to represent the universe unfolding - not sure how accurate that is!  In any case, it's certainly nice to look at and catches one's eye, particularly with Vic's paint job using a very specially sourced gold paint.  I must admit, though, when I first saw the window box feature, my heart sank and my immediate thought was - yuk!  It didn't look anything like how it was meant to be designed with a gently sloping sloping roof and eaves.  In fact, it just didn't look right!  But more about that later ...

Plinth Colour?!?

While waiting for the verandah roof to appear, we (actually Vic) got busy with painting the plinth ... but choosing a colour was not an easy task!  We must have tried at least a dozen sample pots before deciding on 1/4 strength of one of the colours, getting a big tin of it mixed up and hoping for the best.  Luckily, it turned out to be just what we were looking for ...

sample number one ...

sample number ... 10?

plinth finally painted!!!

Fabulous flooring

Everything happened very quickly at the end of last year, so I have fallen behind terribly with the blog.  I do hope you will please accept my apologies!  Nevertheless, I am now back on track and will update you over the next little while with all that has been unfolding.
Below you will see the underlay for the flooring going in and then the gorgeous finished product.  Vic had really wanted to have a solid bamboo floor but we simply could not afford it.  Funnily enough, however, when the floor started going in, we noticed that it seemed to be a bit light in colour to be the merbau floating floor that we had chosen.  We thought it was OK, so we just went with the flow. Then, we noticed that the tarp on top of the window box was looking loose and notified the builder, as we didn't want our precious new floor to be damaged.  Unfortunately, our warning was not heeded and most of the floor was severely damaged by the rain that leaked in and had to be replaced.  
It was confirmed weeks later that the floor that was put down (twice!) was in fact the bamboo that Vic wanted!  Luckily, we only had to pay for the floor that we ordered - perhaps a bit of a bonus for all of the hassles and delays?  Very lucky in any case!