Clearing the Garage

There are a heap of small jobs to do in preparation before the builder starts work, so this weekend we got into tackling the mess in our garage. A collection of suitcases, gardening tools and boxes of forgotten trinkets lined the back of the room, largely untouched since they were dumped there all those months ago. They would have likely remained there too if we weren't forced to make way for the upcoming conversion of this room into a new store/utility area.


Sorting out the junk didn't take too long though I did have to suppress my hoarding reflex. Some items that made the cull have been lying around "just-in-case" for close to ten years, including my rollerblades from college, a chin up bar that Alison has been trying to throw out since we met and my good old playstation 2. Perhaps this is a fine excuse to get a playstation 3...


What we decided to keep stuffed into boxes and stored in the lockup area under the house. We no longer have easy access to the bicycles or the lawn mower though I'm sure that won't be a problem given the current state of the garden.


Speaking of our back yard, the holes and pipes have all been backfilled now. It still looks rather bleak and the ground is alarmingly soft in some areas but at least we don't have to worry about falling into a pit of poo. Only bummer is that they didn't setup our washing line again as they said they would, though I suppose it might be best delayed until the ground is levelled off. Not like we can hang clothes out in our dust bowl anyway.

With much a plumb

It's been a very exciting week. After what feels like an eternity of planning and careful negotiations, we finally break ground with our renovations with some necessary plumbing work.

The previous owners made some pretty dodgy additions to the pipes around the house, resulting in a bunch of outlets that just spilt out onto concrete or bare dirt. That's if the water didn't just overflow from clogged gutters. It's a great feeling to know that these problems will be fixed along with the addition of pipes for the new toilet and outdoor sink.


Monday morning started with a big digger just squeezing by our garage to dig up our backyard, absolutely destroying one of the lilly pillies on the way past. The workers had to do a little archeological exploration to find the sewage line as this was no where near the mark on the council plans. They ended up going through a few layers of building history, eventually digging up the old septic tank, grease trap and terracotta pipe work.


By the end of the first day we had a wrecked backyard and a good start on the pipes laid down. It was all good until we realised that the old pipes from the toilet were broken and left open for all the world to see.


After briefly considering checking into a motel, we decided to test our luck and impose on Kath and Andrew for emergency lodgings (and amenities of course). Our hosts were very hospitable and we got our share of licks during the visit, mostly from their adorable dog Frankie.

Everything was fixed up the day after thankfully and I'm developing an appreciation for what plumbers do. The work is certainly messy but I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg with our renovation.


The inspector came by this morning and gave the work a green light so we're good to go for the next stage. At least we would be if we had our engineering plans which are taking a little longer to get through than we expected. The builder thinks we should have our plans back by next week and then it's just another three days or so to get building approval before work can begin in earnest. In the mean time, we just have the return of the digger tomorrow to look forward to as those big holes need to be covered up before the weekend. Especially this one...


Things are going quick, we'll be pretty busy moving things out of the garage and picking paint colours over the next week. Better buckle up for the ride.

Searching for Snow White

I was so into the idea of geocaching back when we first started that I even added a tag on the blog for all the treasure hunting posts that would no doubt follow. It's now almost two years later and we haven't cracked out the GPS in search of caches since that initial foray.

Holding my breath to see if this is going to keep, but we went on another walk today to find caches. Well, I did anyway... Alison just came along for the stroll and to humour me. It all started when I downloaded the official geocaching application for the iPhone. Pretty snazzy app actually. Amazing that I can get away with one device while I had to lug out our Garmin GPS, a camera and a notepad when we first tried geocaching.

As part of my cunning plan to keep us going with this fascinating hobby, I picked two caches to hunt for that are actually part of a set of seven (or eight depending on how you look at it). The people that maintain these caches have themed it after the Seven Dwarfs (yes, I'm normally one to use the "Dwarves" plural form but I'm being faithful given the context) with each cache providing a clue to find the final cache, Snow White.

The first cache we found was Sneezy, hidden in the rock wall beside a shaded path around a duck pond in the Edenbrooke estate nearby. With all my appreciation for convergence of technology, my phone was useless when it came to writing in the supplied log book as we forgot to bring a pen along. Doh.



At least we got the clue though and the ducks were cute. Jumping on the opportunity to do another nearby cache, we headed north in search of Grumpy. This one took a little longer and a touch more courage as I was sticking my hand into fallen tree stumps, hoping to find a plastic container rather than a redback. The iPhone GPS isn't all that accurate either which certainly didn't help but I managed to get there in the end.



Two down, five more to go. Here's hoping I can stick to it this time.