school/build update

I'm hard at it back at art school with things to think about, things to make and things to write.  It's all great - should have come back here several years ago :)

Apart from that things are distinctly not good round here.  The council is in the process of condemning all of our new build.  None of it conforms to code so it will all have to go.  That's about 35,000 dollars gone down the drain and I don't see much chance of getting it back although we intend to try. The best we can hope for is to get the builder removed from the registry (we did check that he was registered and talked to his last job too).  How do people like this live with themselves!

I have to say that the council have been very good so far.  So has the new architect and the new builder but we are limited in what we can do because there is no more money.  Matt reckons it will take at least 2 years to fix things - I think it looks more like 10. 

The worst of it is having no kitchen.  The fridge and oven and freezer are in the back hall.  The two cupboards and sideboard are in the living room with the table - that is to say, I don't have a living room and my work table is squashed into the corner.  You have to go outside to the laundry for water (luckily there is a proper sink in there) and the bathroom is also outside although it is usable and there is a veranda roof over the deck (not enough to keep you dry when the rain blows from that direction unfortunately).

We still have a nice finished bedroom but that won't last as the foundations all along that side have to be removed and replaced properly.  I'm hoping to hold off until after winter at least for that job.

The plan is to put in the big glass door and the carport/deck first as this will improve the temperature inside and it is all on the old consent (and we have the door and have the builder paid for this) so just has to be drawn up properly. We will hopefully be able to do a lot of the work ourselves which should make it possible. The rest will have to have a new consent probably as the architect thinks it better to demolish the present laundry bathroom as its fabric is pretty unsound even apart from the badly installed floor.  So we might as well get designs for a whole new lean-to whilst we are about it.

Who knows when that will happen! (a thing with lots of legs just alighted on my curtain.....indoor/outdoor living has the odd drawback!).

In some ways it's better because we now know the worst of it but touch me and I'll bleed.....

(what on earth does a creature that size do with all that leg! Apart from wave them at me that is :)

viv