A few photos of our holiday!!

Champagne and nibbles!!

The big jump! All these kids belong to our group of friends.

Nick and Matt

Abbey, Tim, Daz, Ben and Amber peeking through a tube.

Amber in the river
Matt coming out of the rapids

The beautiful Kiewa River. This was our second year at Tawonga and we hope to make it a tradition. Lots of our friends go as well and the kids have an absolute ball! You can walk up river about 500 metres and float down some rapids on tubes. It is so much fun.

Coming along......

Lots has been happening in January though we have squeezed in 8 days of holiday at Tawonga.
The septic system has been installed (a worm farm!), the plastering is almost finished, we have painted the entire top storey, ceiling fans are in, a lot of the plumbing has been done. The top bedrooms look almost done! They just need skirting and doors and carpet of course.
We have chosen all the light fittings, ordered our 5 toilets and got a nice bath. Next will be tiles. I am still considering the nice ones I showed here a while ago!

This area has been cleared for the 400 metres of effluent lines running from the septic system into the ground. They just run up and down, up and down, etc.

Here is our Worm Farm Waste System!! It is now buried and the hole in the top has a compost bin on top to put all your scraps in. It also likes paper as the carbon helps balance the eco-system. Would you believe they put only a handful of worms in along with some mulch! This is going to treat the waste water of a family of 8 and turn it into water for the garden.

Here is the top level plastered. This has now been painted and looks great!! I am experimenting with colours at the moment. I think we'll do some of these walls at least in a colour called Aviva. I've put a pic below (it's scanned from a sample sheet and is therefore not exactly right).
The rest of the walls will be in Ecru - the bottom one - which in real life is more like an off white with just a tinge of green. The ceilings are in Lime White.

Oh and our beautiful front steps.

Forgot to put a picture of our front steps. These lead up to our verandah which will be lined with hardwood floorboards. We've also got our front door in now and the whole front is weatherboarded. It looks great!

Plastering begins in earnest.

Here is a better picture of our external colours. We love how it has come up!

This is our stairwell from the back of the house looking forward. The plasterers are moving very quickly. We found a guy who was willing to work over the Christmas period. He brings a gang with him most days and they just go for it!! It is great for us. The whole upstairs is now done except for cornice and downstairs is well under way.

Darren is now finishing off the last weatherboards. The plasterers will be finished in a few days. The septic system is being installed on Monday. We are having a Worm Farm! By all accounts they are great and very environmentally friendly.

Next on the agenda will be painting inside. We are going to use a spray gun to seal the whole house and do the ceilings. Then we will roll the walls. Some of "my colours" are below. They don't look exactly right off the scanner but you can get an idea. I want a bit of warmth in the house. I would love to paint our formal lounge and maybe our bedroom in one of the reds! Upstairs (all kids rooms) we will just have Lime White ceilings and a warm, beigy colour on the walls. Downstairs I would like a bit of green somewhere.

The plumbing is going well. We aim to have one bathroom completed with running hot and cold water and toilets by mid Jan. The electrician is coming back on the 15th Jan to fit off all the light switches, powerpoints, etc. Darren will then be doing the skirting, architraves and doors. I hope to get the floorboards in and polished in later January and then lay carpet. We will be home from holidays on the 28th and hopefully we can move in. The main thing that won't be done is the kitchen but we will make do until it is.
It has been a very long and HUGE job but it is nearing the end. It is fun to see the rooms take shape.

Wiring, plumbing and insulation!

Here is where our fuse box will be. There are probably three times as many wires now. It looks quite ridiculous. We have have electricity wires, data wires (for hardwired internet and phone points), tv antenna wires, foxtel kind of wires, and even some speaker wires all behind the plaster. There's also a big "3 phase" wire running to the garage. I don't really understand it but I think it allows you to use machinery that draws more power than normal applicances. Darren has thought of everything that we might want to use in the future which is very sensible.

Here is the entrance with it's paint on upstairs. It's a bit hard to see but we are really happy with the colours.

Just a pic of some of the lighting wires in the kitchen. They put a big pink spot on the floor where the wire is and then cut a hole in the plaster later for the light. They use a laser plumb line thing that shines a perfectly vertical beam from the floor to the ceiling. This is so the plasterers can just lay the sheets quickly without having to cut holes out for everything.

This is our stairwell inside looking up at the top level roof insulation.

Here is Tony, our plumber who loves to be photographed!!. He's laying pipes for the upstairs bathroom.