I know… I’ve been slack… This post is long overdue, and it’s highly unlikely to satisfy those of you who have been requesting loads of pics. I might get a chance to get loads of pics this weekend at the housewarming, or better still you can visit and come and see for yourself? =)
So just as a bit of an overview of the goings on with the house…
The BEST. KITCHEN. EVAH! You can probably just see my funky soap dispenser if you look hard enough… I chose it because it kinda looks like a dalek!! Think I need to stick some m&ms or something to it to complete the look 

And again from a different angle)

Entry. We wanted a nice, big entry to showcase this fan, so it has pride of place. It was COMPLETE oversight that the entry is not centred (part of the original Longridge design that I didn’t bother modifying as I’d changed just about everything else), and thus the fan does not appear centred when looking through our magnificent glass door. So this pic shows inside the entry – where it still looks like it sits nicely in the middle of the wall
This will look a lot better when I get around to building a better bench seat/shoe storage rack thingy. Perhaps next week. For now we’re borrowing Alyssa’s toy chest

The fish!! This is on the wall between the pantry and hallway. This wall has been earmarked since the very first iteration of the plan for having a fishtank built in. The plan is to knock a hole in the wall, have the fish tank inside of the pantry with just a flush glass face on this wall. We’ll likely place a picture frame around it so that it looks like a picture on the wall, but with live fish cruising about. The idea of putting this fish here is so that I see it everytime I walk by, and thus never lose sight of “the plan”. This will drive me nuts until I’ve finished it
In the interim, it makes an excellent key rack =)

Butterfly!!! For no other reason than it was a gift from my sister-in-law (my brother’s wife, Heather). I believe that she bought that for me as a gift during their honeymoon, and it has travelled with me from house to house ever since. Alyssa is completely smitten with it now =)

WE HAVE A WORKING WASHING LINE!! w00t!! =) It was quite a lot of fun doing our midnight concreting. I’m sure the neighbours all think we’re mad – if we were sprung, that is…

And stormwater =))) We used a company called Spencer Stormwater. They were excellent. Extremely efficient, highly knowledgeable and wonderfully friendly. Highly recommended. Feel free to contact me if you want their details, although you should be able to locate them with the name. Probably not worth the phone call for any readers not in the Adelaide area, which I believe is most of you
It has been raining almost non-stop since they left. This is almost awesome because we can finally start filling our 44000L of water tanks. I say almost because we still need to add taps and plugs to the base of the tanks to prevent losing all the water. We have the required parts, so that should happen tomorrow =)

As for progress (other than the stormwater)…
Today we had people out to measure the pergola in preparation of installing our retractable shade sails. They have also installed the hardware required to hook the sails on to, so we’re good to go. Apparently we should have them in within 2-3 weeks.
Today also was the day that the construction manager from Longridge Homes came to visit. He personally wanted to view the remaining works that were required. He agreed that the service to date was NOT good enough, was quite apologetic and seemed to lack understanding of just why the SS left things in the state that they were left. Much like us, really. He seemed quite embarrassed and ashamed that we now have to hold our housewarming party this weekend with all the lovely blue tape and plastic surrounding windows and particularly the front door, and has stated that he will have the people who are doing the render out to the house ASAP to have the works completed. Who knows, we might get TOTALLY lucky and have them out tomorrow before the party, but highly unlikely. Chris asked him if we could remove the blue tape for the party, and he actually seemed pained to say “no, please leave it there and I’ll have them come back and finish painting as soon as I can”. He shook his head in disbelief when I told him that apparently our SS expected us to live without access to the front door, and that the removalists had to rip a hole through the plastic to get through with our furniture when we were moving in. I had the chance to tell him that I couldn’t be happier that the SS was no longer with the company, and my only wish was that it had happened 12 months earlier. Not much more was really said on the subject – I figured that can wait until I’ve written my novel on all the problems that we had with the SS and forward that to their head office. Overall, a satisfactory visit. I look forward to seeing what action results from the meeting today, and feel really quite confident that things WILL get done. This man exudes a level of competence that the former SS couldn’t even dream about. I hope my suspicions are correct.
And with that, I think it’s time to go get my beauty sleep… I’m not getting any younger, you know… What with it being my 0×23rd birthday in <24 hours and all (that’s 35 for anyone requiring a decimal conversion)…