Day four

Friday, 28 January 2011

Off to Stanwell Park this morning for our friend Andy's 40th, and to stay the night. Being completely in L-plate territory as far as client responsibilities go, we decided to call Warwick at the last minute to check if he needed us for anything before we disappear for a couple of days - although utterly polite as always, his guffaw was just audible. We took that to mean that number-one client responsibility is this: 1. Stay out of tradies' way unless your input is specifically requested! We're trying, Warwick...


Returned late Saturday feeling remarkably okay after a very late night and an astounding number of cocktails - maybe a day on the beach at Austinmer cures all. Floating around in the sea pool with good friends and gazing out at the ocean, there's always a moment or two where 'Why on earth did we leave this?' thoughts dance through the synapses, but driving back up the hill and watching the car temperature gauge steadily dropping, I'm still amazed at how quickly the Mountains have become home. Besides, I burn too easily, and I hate sand in my cossies.

Rosie jumps the laundry

That can't be right...

Had boots on as soon as the car was unloaded to inspect: we have concrete! Well, concrete footings, in any case. I'm still working on their exact purpose, but I think these narrow trenches (there's that WWI image again) which are now filled with concrete mark out where the walls will later be built (brick for internal walls, fibro/weatherboard outside). When we first snuck a look at the trenches late on Thursday evening, we were convinced they must mark out something else - our house couldn't possibly be this small! But apparently it is - we even took the measuring tape and plans up this time to doublecheck that the concreter hadn't made some hideous, highly litigious mistake. Seems not. But Warwick did warn us that once the slab is down we'll be convinced we have the smallest house in Blackheath. I'm trying to keep the faith and wait to see how this supposed optical illusion spins itself out...

Day two

Tuesday, 25 January 2011


The mulchmen arrived around 9am and wasted no time - within fifteen minutes they'd nabbed an enormous downed pine in the claws of their bobcat and shoved it pretty much straight into their mulching truck, trunk first. Impressive. We wandered up hoping to clarify a couple of things but the boss was very busy bobcatting and seemed fairly disinterested in stopping to chat with those who don't know about trees, ie the clients. I just hope the maple survives the mulching frenzy.


Living a few doors down from the site certainly has its benefits, but also means you spend a lot of time sticking your head up the street and wondering what that noise is. I'm sure all the tradies will be thrilled by our proximity (and it's just as well Mat will be in Penrith most days, else there may be a restraining order from the fellas). The head mulcher has a mouth like a wharfie - I hope the Kingsford-Smiths across the back fence (yes, I'm sure they must be related) have ABC Classical turned up loud this morning.


Warwick reckons neighbour Peter was happy as Larry about the concreter carving out half his driveway yesterday and that it'll all be fixed up in no time (apparently Peter and his dad even snaffled a few downed bits of maple for firewood, which was more than we managed to do). This is a surprise - can you imagine building in Sydney and accidentally ripping out a massive amount of soil from the length of a neighbour's driveway? We'd be strung up from the nearest Foxtel cable (oh hang on, are they underground?). But maybe this is how things are in the country... In any case, Peter's now not planning to move in properly to his neighbouring deceased estate (of which The Block was once the adjoining, overgrown garden) until we 'finish the noisy stuff' - and maybe he reckons the re-made driveway will be an improvement on the last. I guess he was also pretty happy that someone else was ripping out those ugly rhododendrons that were serving as a surrogate fence between our blocks.


Just waiting for head mulchman to return with his super-destumping machine now to take out the last seven or so stumps around the yard, so it will one day be bump-free and ready for our very flash (council-required) landscaping plans to be initiated...sometime in the next half century...

Da-nah!

End of day two sees us with a large pile of pushed around soil with a lot less fallen greenery on top of it, and a pile of mulch. Perhaps a little like France in WWI (minus the mulch). Mat reckons The Block looks bigger now, if a bit sadder. Tomorrow we rest: Australia Day. Bonzer, mates!

Day one

Monday, 24 January 2011

Still very much in holiday mode, the family are all in PJs at 9am when Warwick, our trusty builder, arrives at the door (probably already onsite for hours). We're still struggling to remember how to work the stovetop Atomic and receive our morning caffeine injection - the espresso machine is at the repair place, dahling - while Warwick whizzes through a few questions concerning the concreter and his large diggers who are currently tearing up The Block (as she is affectionately known) and what they can and can't rip out as they seek to carve out a spot for our house-to-be.

Knock 'em down, fellas

When we finally struggle the four doors up the street to take a look in person, it's a bit of a shock to see the destruction that must come before the construction - the photos might give you an idea. Although there really weren't many plants or trees of any worth on there to begin with, it's still a little gut-wrenching to see them all tipped over in a matter of minutes, after so many years of being left in neglected peace. We have saved the big liquidamber and two black wattles at the back of the block, and one solitary Japanese maple at the front - I thought a second maple was given a reprieve for a few hours there but, while I was chatting to a neighbour for a few minutes, Warwick turned up with his chainsaw and was apparently given the all-clear to lop it by Mat! Well, that's Warwick's story anyway - Mat's is somewhat similar but in his the all-clear was given by Warwick... Is this the first of many such he-said-she-said scenarios?!

Jem with boogie board - just in case - in the kitchen, I think...

So at the end of day one, we have a very large pile of soil pushed in various directions, several trees and stumps lying on their sides, and half of the neighbour's driveway dug out in the process of removing trees along the (non-existent) fenceline (I'm a teensy bit worried about this). It's been a day of high action but I feel a little gutted. Tomorrow, we mulch.