Settling In

The container that we packed in Melbourne on Jan 17 was delivered to our home on Jan 29. These containers are pretty high, and on top of a fairly high truck the combination was high enough to take out Benn and Michelle's telephone wire which overhangs our driveway... so they didn't have telephone for a day. However, I called the telephone company right away and they were there within a few hours. Only because the truck still had to leave again the technician didn't want to fix it that day.

The two removalists had a pretty tough job to do. They claimed it was the worst house they'd ever delivered to. Seems like a bit of an exaggeration to us - we've seen houses on steeper driveways, with further to walk. Anyway, they were both strong as an ox, and just carried complete Billy bookshelves from Ikea by themselves all the way up! They had it done in about four hours, and then our job started... unpacking it all! But not before they almost took out our neighbours trees backing out of our driveway onto Channel Highway. It really isn't the most convenient access to the house...

Of course we hadn't lived in the house yet since we did our renovations in late 2005, especially putting the new kitchen in, and really, the work we did then couldn't have been better. The kitchen is very practical, and everything is still in perfect condition - credit to Liz, the previous tenant, but also to Bruce who installed it all. He did a fantastic job. We also opened the kitchen up by removing most of the wall between the kitchen and lounge room, and that works great too. While we're in the kitchen, it's easy to keep an eye on the kids, and we can enjoy the great views from there and the dining table too.
We were a bit concerned about having enough storage in the house, but especially in the kitchen it's working out great. However there aren't any built-in robes (apart from a linen cabinet in the hallway), so we've ordered two custom-made wardrobes for the master bedroom and Christopher's room. So until they get delivered (in two weeks' time) our clothes are still in bags and suitcases on the floor.

The downstairs area has a large room that is a play area for the kids - Christopher's train table is setup there. Then there's a separate area that has become my office. It also has a complete bathroom, so guests can have pretty much a private area. Upstairs is pretty much standard: there are three bedrooms, a bathroom and the kitchen/lounge room, with a laundry off to the side. Not too big, but perfect for us now.

I mentioned the driveway that we're putting in. It will provide parking for two cars closer to the house, but you'd still need to go up two flights of stairs to get to the living area. We'll have to cut into the hill a fair bit to put the driveway in, so there'll be retaining walls etc. to be built.
It is being designed in such a way that at a later stage we can built a garage with a second storey on top, which would become an extension of the lower level. I envision that would house a master bedroom and bathroom with (tinted) floor-to-ceiling windows next to the bath. I can just see ourselves having a relaxing bath, with a drink, looking out over the river...
On top of this floor we would have a large deck, as an extension of our current front balcony, and possibly extend the lounge room a bit too.
Now all of this is very much pie-in-the-sky: it'll only happen if we want to stay here of course, but we are taking the possibility into account by putting additional strength into the foundation of the work we're doing now. The design for this is practically finished, and we'll hopefully start the actual work in the next few weeks.
A funny aside here - this is going to be a pretty major excavation and construction job - they're talking 20-25 truckloads of material to be carted off, close to two loads of concrete to be poured, and 3 meter high retaining walls. When I called the council to see how we should go about getting a permit, the person responsible for permits called me back and said we didn't need one, since everything was on our own land, and as long as we met Australian building standards... Anybody we've spoken to about this is surprised, but the guy was very adamant, and he didn't need to give me this in writing! So that saves us the delay and cost of having to go through council. Luckily we've got a reputable engineering company to design it all and do the structural and strength calculations, so we shouldn't have any problems. And they'll inspect the work, so any possible future building work will have the foundation documented properly.