Archive for the 'The House' Category

Everybody needs good neighbours.

Published at December 1, 2008 in Cranbourne and The House. 2 Comments

Our neighbours fixed their front yard!!!!

 It was one of the niggling annoyances at the house of Raph and Rachel, that our neighbours who have been living in their house since about six months before we moved in, had never done anything at all with their yard. Im talking five foot high weeds, an unusable garage due to lack of driveway up to lip of the garage, and no leveling out of the soil.

 Their front yard really was an eyesore, to the point where complaints may have been lodged with the council.

Well last week, they finally got the weeds all removed, a driveway installed, and the ground levelled. They even seemed to have a house warming party on Saturday night. Course I didnt really appreciate the very bad music coming at massive volume at 1am, and even less, the car parked RIGHT ACROSS MY DRIVEWAY, but at least their yard is looking ok.

I suspect the old residents moved, and there are new residents. i could be wrong, but theres no longer 10 sets of shoes outside the front door. Maybe we should introduce ourselves, but i dont know yet. The neighbour on the other side is a delightful fellow, but this houses owner has been recalcitrant in every aspect of neighbourliness. I wont forget how weaselly he was in attempting to not contribute fencing costs.

More on the house soon.

Update - quick state of the raph

Published at May 25, 2008 in The House and State of the raph. 0 Comments

Well, I am not going to harp on here much, because is suspect either straight after this post, or if not directly after in the next few hours or at most days, there will be more posts.

But, Rachel and I have moved into the new house in cranbourne. It is big, warm, and quite lovely. Working on keeping it clean is an exercise in discipline for me, but so far I am working well at it. Having a dishwasher is nice, and a 90cm oven kicks butt.

Beej is settling in well, and the regular commute to work is not too bad, about 50 minutes in, and 1 hour 10 minutes out. Its made easier by the 2 coffees I drink on the way in.

Still need to get landscaping done out the front and out the back, have a few quotes, working on the funds to do it all.  Theater room is set up, with selectv and setanta as well, so we have movie and documentary channels and i will be able to watch euro 08.

Rachy also seems to be loving the place, so things are indeed going well.

Emptying the old place was an exercise. 4 cubic meters taken out of the garage alone to be thrown away. I knew I should have gotten a bigger skip, but hey we managed (thanks dad). Currently haggling with the agent as to how much of my bond I should get back.  Hopefully it will be most of it. All things considered the place is not in too much worse shape than when I moved in, and I am leaving behind an airconditioner.

I have gotten totally into making coffee at home, will talk more about that later, and am settling into the suburb of Cranbourne nicely too - Also more on that soon.

Update - Its been a while

Published at March 18, 2008 in Weight, The House, Education, Wii, State of the raph and Life. 1 Comment

Ok, so I will be the first to admit it, I have really slacked off here for a while. A lot has happened since my last update in December, and I have been either too busy, too tired or too slack to post any updates. So without much further ado, heres a bit of a quick summary.

Still in love with Rachel.

The house is going swimmingly, and with a little luck, I shall commence moving in within the next 4-6 weeks. At the moment, it is in the final stages, things like light fittings, appliances, carpets and flooring are left to do. Then its simply the driveway and the back decking and done.

Had this trimester off study, resume the masters in May, and will hopefully complete it all then. So by the end of August I should have a MCSE and also a Masters of Management. Hooray for me. The conditional there is that I am completely moved into the new house by May, otherwise I will only do 1 subject and not finish until December.

 The lap-band is also working pretty well, weight loss has slowed to a healthy 4-5 kilo a month and I am now down to 134 kilograms. Thats nearly a 40 Kilogram loss. I am able to eat nearly anything I want, I just eat very slowly and and make sure I chew my food thoroughly. I have only ever experienced one very painful episode where i chewed a roll and mustnt have done so thoroughly enough. I have still remained faithful to my giving up of soft drinks, though I do sometimes have some icecream.

Eating out is not an issue, though I do need to remember that I cannot eat as much as I used to. I often over order. However leaving food on my plate is not something that riles me like it used to.

On February 29th, my friend Bed got married to the beautiful Kristin. It was both an honour and a privilege for me to be part of the bridal party as a groomsman. The wedding was beautiful, the bride absolutely stunning, and Bed, dressed in a suit is a sight to behold.  Was an awesome night, and I know that it is a fantastic move onto the next chapter, for the two of them, in the wonderful story of their lives.

I did end up buying an Xbox 360 - JB Hifi had them on sale for $450 for the premium console with Forza and Viva Pinata. Have been playing it a fair bit. Certainly a lot more than the Wii, which I consider more of a party console than one to play solo. I do find that being a member of the Atari 2600 generation, the current model controllers with their many many buttons are a lot more complex to use, making certain combos rather difficult, but hey live and learn. Certainly a lot of fun. The new Tony Hawk game - Proving Grounds has been both entertaining me and frustrating me a fair bit lately. Am also going to be getting into Assassins Creed more soon. I may do a post or two on video game reviews in the near future.

So theres the current state of the raph. Comments might make me post more :D

December - state of the raph

Published at December 26, 2007 in The House, Work, State of the raph and Life. 0 Comments

So, I havent been posting here much lately. i have been busy. Working for a retailer with over 90 stores, being one of only two IT people means that I have no time sometimes. In addition, I havent had a lot to say.

The house is going swimmingly, and is now at lock-up stage. Drove past the other day, only to find that I am totally locked out of my own house. On the bright side, it now has the big evaporative cooler unit on top, all the bricks are done, and soon they will start making the insides look beautiful.

Celebrated Christmas with Rachels family. Was fun. Unfortunately Rachel was a little ill and some time needed to be spent at hospital waiting for the doctors to give her the all clear. Took about 4 or 5 hours out of our day, but when we got back to the party, it was still going strong enough that there was dessert for us.

Today being boxing day, means once again this year, I am the only person in the office. Much fun and excitement. Read that as BORING. Mind you, a boring day is a good day for boxing day. Any excitement generally means stores cant trade. That then means the MD gets pissed off, and someone comes and yells at us. In all though, I would much prefer to spend the day lazing with Rachel at home. We also finally got employed an extra IT person to take calls and generally free up myself and Clinton to do our main projects. He starts mid-january. Should make it an entirely more fun place to work. Will also reduce my weekend load to once every 3 weeks as opposed to once every 2.

I am considering ducking out of the office to see how much an xbox 360 can be bought for. I probably shouldnt buy one, but I like my toys, and I think I have enough cash to spare for it. If I was being really good though, theres many better places to put that money towards at the moment. By the same token though, I have heard that the prices are supposed to be very good today. Will see.

Weight wise, I have been doing pretty well. Am down from 171Kg to 144Kg thats 27Kg down. Had a bit of a naughty day yesterday, but I was taking the christmas spirit in hand. Truth be told, though the lap band has been helping, I am hungry nearly all the time. I am just being good because I have spent a fortune on the damned thing. I am having my second tightening next week, and hopefully that will reduce my problems with being hungry. Once I get into the green zone, it should be much much easier.

Dad is away in Israel again. I miss him. We havent spoken much this time since he has been gone. He did sms me the other day, so I know all is well. I cant help but worry though.

 Passed uni for the trimester, not overly happy with my mark, have emailed the lecturer regarding it, but have decided against officially protesting my mark. I will need to nail my last two subjects (both in trimester 2 next year) in order to get the overall mark I want. It is good to be well over 3/4 finished the masters though.

Ah well, that is all for now. More updates as I feel.

State of the raph - an ongoing saga

Published at November 18, 2007 in The House, Weight, Education, State of the raph and Life. 0 Comments

So where to start? I am not really sure, so lets just jump in and see what happens.

The house is going swimmingly. Frame is totally up, Rachy and I wandered down on the weekend as is our habit and its really starting to look like a house. Woah do the cupboards look big! It will be most excellent to have a house with enough storage to put all my stuff away. Of course, i do have WAY TOO MUCH stuff ™ but I do plan on getting rid of a lot of it. Will sell some, and freecycle the rest. The debate is on between myself and Rachy as too how much furniture to keep and how much to throw out. The part of me that takes after my father is absolutely loath to get rid of stuff, especially stuff that can still be used, however to a point, Rachy is right in that it would be lovely to start off with a lot of new stuff. I suspect we need to make a big furniture list and see what we can afford to start with. Ah well, still have a short while to work on that.

A lot of people keep asking me how I am going with the lap band. The short answer is “quite well thank you.” but that isnt the whole story. Truth be told, I am quite often very very hungry at the moment. The scenario with a lap band is that when they put it in, it is unfilled, giving minimum restriction to food. This means that now that the swelling in my stomach has gone down and I am back onto solid food, as long as I chew carefully, food just slides down the hole. So, because there is still a band around my stomach I do feel a lot less hungry in general, I am yet to get that “ooh I am full and satisfied” feeling. The big problem there is that I am and always have been a nervous eater, and not having hunger does not necessarily equate to not eating. On the more fortunate side, because my insurance did not cover the surgery, I had to pay for it off my own dime, and that means I have a lot of guilt if I do not stick to it, so I have been forcing myself to eat minimally. I am looking forward to my first fill in 2 weeks so that hopefully I will get that satisfied, full feeling soon. In the meantime, just having the band does reduce the need to eat, as in general I dont feel too hungry most of the time. At times the hunger does flare up, mostly after having eaten carbs, but I try to ride it out, especially late at night where I am pretty sure it is just psychological hunger.

I am still losing weight, and though I know through the online forums that a lot of lap band people gain a little weight during the first few weeks, I remain determined just to keep losing and losing.

Its exam time for uni, and I have one take home exam for my Strategic Practice subject and a Microsoft MCSE exam to sit ad Excom. Had a look at the take home exam and it doesnt look like I will have too much of a problem. I have had a fair amount of issues with this subject, mainly related to the fact that during assignment time, I have been either starving myself for pre-op reasons or being generally messed up post op. The lecturer has been very good in letting me be late with my assignments though, and I hope to do well enough in my second assignment and exam to pass with at least a credit. Time will tell.

As for the Microsoft exam, its active directory stuff and I am reasonably well versed in it, both from constantly being immersed in it at work, as well as having done a little actual study over the course of the trimester. Should be fine there.

 Next trimester is going to be a lay-off trimester as none of the subjects I need are being offered. I may do some other industry stuff just to keep the study knack. Second trimester next year I will do two core subjects and hopefully finish the masters. Dad is really hopeful that I will consider a phd after that, but I am not so sure, though part of me wants to do a MBA at some point. So much to think about.

Anyway, thats about all thats going on at the moment. Work is busy, life is busy. Its full steam ahead and much fun.

More later.

SLAB!!

Published at October 21, 2007 in The House. 0 Comments

Wooohooo!!!!!

A drive down to the new estate on saturday reveals many busy workmen on-site building the new Chateau Raph. A foundation slab is clearly visible, and there was a man on top of it with what appeared to be some sort of buffing machine, smoothing it down before the rest gets laid. This is a very exciting development. From slab to lockup seems to take these guys a matter of weeks, not a matter of months, so at the rate they are going, the house may even be up by Christmas. Though to be honest, I would rather it gets done sometime late January or early February as around Christmas time, work gets a little too busy.

 Its actually very impressive to see how fast they work on a house. 3 weekends ago, we went for a drive down there and the land had just been cleared. 2 weekends ago, there was a electric box and a gas pipe. last weekend there was an excavator, a portaloo and a man who could be seen from the neck up in a trench. This past week, slab! Next week, I imagine the frame may already be up. We shall see.

1st statement and already wrong

Published at September 21, 2007 in The House. 2 Comments

Well first stage of getting the house built is done. That is, I settled the land last week, so now the builders can order materials in order to get the building started. All went well with settling the land. My conveyancer did excellent work, dotted i’s crossed t’s and it went off without a hitch. She provided me with very specific figures as to what was being payed where, and combined with the fees the bank is charging me, as per their forms, I was very very sure that I knew exactly how much was going to be on my statement.

Imaging my surprise when I received my statement in the mail yesterday when it was $3500 over what I was expecting. So out came the paperwork, went through all the numbers again. All the fees matched on the statement. The only item on it that was out, and by the $3500, was the drawdown for the property settlement. So I decided to ring the bank, and query it, as the statement had a helpline number on it, it was only 7pm and apparently the lines hours were till 9pm.

Ring the helpline only to be told that because its a progress payment loan, they cant help me and I have to call another number, provided, today. So 9am today, I call, get a recorded message to leave my details and someone will call me back. Three hours later, no call back, so I ring them again, talk to a human, who advises me that he cannot help me, but will transfer me to a different dept who hopefully can. Gives me another phone number, in case I get disconnected, and transfers me. 5 minutes on hold, another human, tells me again that she cannot help me, but will transfer me to a different dept (new phone number again just in case…) who probably can. 5 more minutes on hold. Then I get put through, this person can help me, but sounds highly dubious that the bank may have made a mistake, I must have made a mistake with my figures, and its only an issue of fees. I assure her that I have checked, and the fees match up and only the settlement amount differs. Yes, I am sure of the amount, i checked with my solicitor, no settlement didnt run late, and even if it did, its not a refinance, so it wouldnt matter. Ok I will hold… 20 minutes pass. Oh you found out that I was right and you have charged me an extra $3500 but you cant work out why, and the person you need to speak to about it isnt around so you cant sort it out yet. Ah you will call me back, thank you. No call back today, but i have all the names and numbers, and an indignant sense of righteousness.

Lesson here kids, always check the numbers, dont be afraid to call, and if you are right, stick your ground. Part of me wonders whether this is just a test to set the tone for the mortgage. If i didnt say anything, all throughout, small extra charges, and the bank profits well. Arc up now, and hopefully they will treat my business with a little respect.

Of developments and doors.

Published at July 28, 2007 in The House and State of the raph. 0 Comments

So, I am building a house. Well, when I say I am building a house, I mean that I am paying someone else to build a house for me. This is something I have been meaning to do for a long long time, but have always put off because I worry about the money side, and people have forever been telling me that the property market is going to collapse. They have been telling me this for over a decade when I was first thinking of buying or building. Had I done so then, the value of my investment would have gone up somewhere between 100 and 400 percent. So with that thought, I decided that the water is not going to get any better, so its time to dive in.

So after a lot of consideration, I chose a suburb (Cranbourne) and I also chose a builder (Metricon) and as such, I now am about to own a little bit of dirt, and soon after that, some bricks, mortar and stuff will be on top of that dirt. The house design, is one from the Metricon First range, a range that is designed to suit first home builders, called a Santorini, it is the 26 model not the 29 as I dont really think I need 4 bedrooms at this point. I have made a few small modifications to the general plan, and on the whole am looking forward to living in it as soon as possible.

One of the things about deciding to build a house is that you need to decide on what colours you are going to use, what you want the roof to look like, the interiors, the electricals, and thousands of other things. When I first started to think about building, I wrote a comprehensive list of everything I could think of that wouldnt be included in the standard house design, and extras I might consider. Well my eyes were opened a fair bit. I cant comment about how other places do it, but for Metricon, you go to a big selections place known as Studio 501. In there, you are confronted with a myriad of choices of colour, type, look, appliances and god knows what else. You can also choose curtains, electricals, carpets etc etc. Now it turns out that I had done more homework than most, so I was well prepared for most of the decisions, I knew what I wanted for flooring, had already decided on deadlocks (most people dont realise that when building a house, locks are not standard, neither are flyscreens). Also had decided on some of the electrical stuff. Still, it was four hours that while fun at first, was rather draining and a bit of a strain by the end. Hell, I even had to chose whether i wanted rolled or raked mortar in my bricks. I had never ever been faced with such a decision, hell, I had never even considered that there were different ways of doing such things.

Anyway, all choices made, all things set into contract, all finance documents lodged and everything has been moving ahead quite nicely. Assuming no unforeseen disaster in the next few weeks, all will be well and building will commence. Which is quite exciting and I am sure that there will be more popping up in here about the whole process as time goes on. If anyone out there is interested in knowing more, let me know and I will get back to you.

So today, I went out to the site, as I do sometimes just to see the houses around it go up and to measure the time that it takes (there are several other Metricon homes being built there) from start to fiish. I noticed today though that the house being built next door to mine has a door on its side wall that will open up literally 30 to 50 centimeters from where the fenceline (there is no fence yet) to my property is. I am not sure I like this. Unless they are planning to edge the fence a little bit over the line to my land, I can see no practical purpose for having a door so close to the edge. I know the council has approved the design and placement, else they couldnt have gotten the building permit, but its placed in a totally impractical location. I have not decided if I am going to pursue this heavily or not, but it does bug me. I am not even sure what my options are or even if I should be bugged. Maybe a family of twigs are building there and 40cm is adequate walking space, but I am sure its a laundry door, and there will certainly be no room to hang clothes up out there.

I could be making a mountain out of a molehill, but hey, I like mountains, the air is so clear on top.