Day 1...

Today they STARTED!!!!
I was awake at 6am so excited to see the first step underway. By mid morning the site had been stripped and the cutting started.

Nice big pile of top soil for our future garden beds.

Excavation happening in the background while our fence and gateway are being finished off.

By lunchtime there was a big hole. The site is being cut and filled which means they are digging down at the top and using that dirt to build up at the front. This means the depth of the cutting is kept to a minimum. They are also going to batter back the front and the back to avoid having a big drop off at either end.

By the end of the day the fence feature was finished and the hole in the ground was even bigger!

It's gone from green to brown in a very short period of time.

The machine didn't leave until it was well and truly dark and there was no other option. 

The 7 meter span across the corner of the block. The plan is to paint it to match the house in either white or light grey and one day maybe add to it.

So far progress has been good but it's hard to not get too carried away. I know there is still a long way to go. Even still the excitement is over whelming. 

The fence...

So there is finally something actually being built on our block! It may not be the house just yet but it is still something. They started building our fence yesterday, its exciting to be able to see progress when we visit the block now.

These 4 post are along the corner of our block that is cut off on an angle. It is about 7 meters long and I will one day turn this into a feature with our address and/or our name.

Okay so not the greatest of sketches but you get the idea.

7 Meters is a bit too long for what I am thinking but maybe we can add a few palm trees or tall yakkas to break up the length of the wall. 

Trying to be useful

Over the weekend we spent some time at the block hunting for the original survey pegs that were put in over a decade ago when the subdivision was first done. After a fair bit of measuring and a little digging we were successful and found all 5 (yes that's right 5, one corner of the block is cut off at an angle) pegs and marked them ready for the fencing crew who I hope are turning up next week.

X marks the spot, or boundary in this case.

I've been looking a gates/fences and dreaming of what could be but as we have a large block we therefore have a lot of fencing to do and at this stage it will all be visible by passes by. Two of our boundaries are road facing, the block next to us is still empty which means the fence on that side will be in full view until the block is bought and built on too and the bottom boundary joins with a reserve so it has already been fenced with a rural style fence of pine rounds and barb-wire. This means that we have close to 300 meters of fence and you can imagine how much that could cost if money was no object. Alas it is and we have to be sensible.

In the end I've decided that having a solid fence around the entire block would look a little funny and somewhat like a prison andway. So for now we are putting in the same rural fencing as the existing bottom fence and one day maybe we will upgrade to a white post and rail fence.

I am also thinking a nice wrought iron gate will fit with the fence we are building and still keep me aesthetically happy. I've found a could of beauties and am waiting for a quotes from Farmweld a South Australian company I found online. Fingers crossed they come in under budget.

 

This turned out to be great timing as I received a phone call from the builder just this morning telling me he will be doing a trip up to visit us, the block and the local tradies next week (insert excited face here). The first step will be to get the surveyor to peg out exactly where the house will sit so the excavation team can come in a do the site cut.

Finally it seems we might actually be ready to start, but I'm still not holding my breath as I've already learnt not to believe it until I see it.