Week Beginning 16th July

This week has been a very quiet week. Lauren is back at school after her winter holiday. I now have our PC setup so I create an e-mail account on our Aussie ISP for everyone. Lauren and Kayla e-mail their old school and nursery.

Lauren gets a reply from her class and is really excited. The problem is that they break up for the summer holidays on Thursday so she won't get much communication going. Kayla has yet to receive a reply.

Kerry sorts out a few more boxes and at last we can actually relax. The weather is very wet all week and is quite cold. Apparantly this is a very cold winter for Melbourne this year. Temperatures have actually gone into the single figures!!!

We get through the post a load of brouchers from the company building our house. We need to sort out our colour schemes etc. We had no idea we could have so much variety. We have to choose which type of bricks, roof tiles and colour, the cement colour and finish (yes, can you believe it), the tiles (floor and wall), the paint colours an so on. We go round the ones we can on Saturday and on Sunday we take the girls bowling. Sunday is a really nice day and everyone now says the cold weather is ending and it will be warming up now. The weather forcast backs this up as next week is sunny all week and temperatures are now 14-16 degrees.

Sat 14th and Sun 15th July

The weekend is mainly taken up with unpacking the boxes and making sure everything we need is in the right place etc.

Lauren and Kayla have been really well behaved and we decide on Saturday afternoon to get them out. We go to a place called playdays. A little like the fun factory in Wymondham. It is a soft play area. The girls have a great time and Kerry and I can actually sit down and relax.

On Sunday I manage to get our pc up and running and setup our new e-mail accounts on the pc. Hopefully now I'll be able to put up some piccies of Melbourne.....

Sunday night our bed has finally warmed up and we are able to sleep in it. Pure bliss :-)

Fri 13th July - Furnture arrives!!!

We are woken this morning by the sound of the rain. Typical. Any way i go off to work and leave Kerry and the girls to sort it out.

At work I receive an e-mail form the government. We have been approved by thr FIRB to purchase the land. Great, the quoted 30 day turnaround time for approval and I have it in 4!!!

At home the furniture arrives and chaos ensues. Lauren traps one of the guys in her room under instruction of finding all of her seven dwarfs. Kerry is getting a bit stressed, understandably, by the end of the day. I get home and start to assemble Kayla's bed then start ours. I eventually finish assembling ours around 9pm and then start to fill it with water while Kerry is out of the house. She needs a break from it all and goes and gets the shopping. As Kerry is not around I turn on the tap and sudenly hear a noise which isn't good. The hose has jumped out of the matress and has sprayed water all over the room....oops.

I sort the problem and clear up as best you can, then I get Kerry's side of the bed filled with water and the heater mains plug changed over. I then complete my side. Kerry comes home and unpacks the shopping. The house is looking a right mess but at least it is all here.

Thu 12th July - 1 Day to go

Our furniture is nearly here....Kerry gets a call from Pickfords to confirm that the removal lorry and container will arrive tomorrow between 8 and 9 am. The girls are really excited and Lauren is already planning where her 7 dwarfs are going (yes she has the set, they are about 2 ft tall).

We also get a call from the house builders to confirm an appointment for us to pick the fittings and colour etc. I won't be able to go due to work but Kerry arranges the 31st July to go there.

Tonight once the girls are in bed I go round Robs house to deliver back all the stuff he has lent us. Without the help of everyone and the things we have borrowed this would have been so much harder. When I get home we move the washing machine out into the garage and place it underneath the tumble dryer to make room for ours when it arrives. Hopefully it will have survived the trip ok. We talk about where everything is going to go as our house in the UK was much bigger than the house we are renting at the moment.

We go to bed, we will only have a couple more nights on the floor. (our bed will take a couple of days to put back together and fill with water. Then we have to wait about 36 hours before it has heated up, but at least it will be here!). Hopefully Sunday night we will be in our own bed :-)

Wed 11th July

Today, the sun is shining and it is a really nice day. A bit chilly but temperatures around the 14 degrees. One thing I have really noticed here is that there seems to be a lot less cloud around than in the UK.

At work a few urgent requests coming in but nothing to really worry me. Work just seems to tick by which is nice.

Kerry is sorting out the details regarding the extras on the house and is now waiting on the appointment to go and choose the colour schemes, worktops, bricks, roof tiles, etc etc.

I get a call from one of the pool companies and he is sending details of what they can do for us.

I get home and the girls are very tired and are being very grouchy towards each other. I think the excitement is also playing a part. It has been very difficult for them without anything really of their own. Still 2 days it will all arrive yippee!!!

Tue 10th July

Today is a quiet day again, hopefully things are starting to calm down a bit. Once the house details and everything is arranged we should be able to sit back and just wait for it all to fall into place. Just the Swimming pool and the landscaping to sort out. There are quite a few regulations you have to stick to when building the house, like it must cost over 50% of the value the land, the house must be over 20 Squares, (a square is 10ftx10ft), the build must commence within 12 months of the land purchase, the house must be setback a minimum of 5.5 mtrs from the path, the landscaping (garden) must be complete within 6 months of completion, it must have at a minimum a double garage and the asthetics of the lanscaping must be in fitting with the area and must be approved prior to building. To be honest I can't argue against any of them and think they are all reasonable requests.

I send off an enquiry to 2 different pool builders and am awaiting to hear back from them. At night I go round the neighbours to inform them of the delivery of our furniture on Friday. We can't wait.

Mon 9th July

This morning I fax the forms to the FIRB and the solicitors. I then e-mail the bank with the details also. Things seem to be going quite smoothly at the moment. I am waiting for something to go wrong. Kerry goes to the showhome to drop off the contracts and get the ball rolling with the house. The land titles become available in October and the house is due to commence build in November. Although they will see if they can start in October. They will only start so many houses a month as they are legally bound to give you a completion date and they have to stick to it.

I am still full of cold but hopefully the worst is over. I have managed to get PMs to buy bacon and egg rolls by telling them just how good I am getting their projects moving. I receive one this morning and for a couple of dollars it is huge and very nice, 2 eggs and loads of bacon with no fat. Sorry guys you are really missing out here :-). The downside is that my stomach is growing. I think I have put on quite a bit of weight as the food is fantastic. I will find out when our stuff arrives Friday.