The week that was ...

Major Highlight: Meeting with the house builders, and making the first payment to start the process. Here is the plan! 4 bedrooms (well, 3 bedrooms and a junk room), 2 bathrooms, a big open living area and an office/workroom for the embroidery machine.

2 verandahs, a smaller one on the East side and a wider one on the West side, this one doesnt go all the way along, to make room for the rainwater tank.

The outside walls will be with these double size clay bricks, which give the impression of limestone blocks.

And the roof will be corrugated colourbond in "Wilderness green", which blends in with the trees and the grass.

It will take about a year altogether: 8 weeks for the survey, plans etc, 12 weeks for a building permit, and so on. But of course I am already thinking wall colours, curtains, flooring, etc!

Other Highlights of the Week:

Finding, buried in the sand, the manual valve that a horse had trod on, stopping the flow of water to sprinklers in 2 paddocks. Savings: at least $1,000 as the retic man was talking putting in new pipes to bypass the "obstruction".

While looking for a new wheel for the wheelbarrow, finding in a suburban hardware store, a secondhand rim for $20. Savings: $50 at least!

Negatives of the week:

Leaving in the dark and driving 50 metres before noticing I had a flat tyre. Tyre wrecked, $133 to replace. Oh well, I am ahead on the week!

Still no settlement on the block: brickbats to the "Shire" for taking so long to make sure the commercial chicken operation next door is gone, so they can remove the restrictive covenant on the title.

But the Biggest Highlights: a wonderful birthday, with calls from France, Greece and North Carolina. Plus, from Richard, a luscious dinner of ribeye beef with a wine sauce and all the trimmings, complimented with a 1998 Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Sauvignon (major yum!) and my very own Tilley hat to take travelling forever!

And my very Darling Daughter is taking me to Yusuf (aka Cat Stevens) in Concert next month! Spoilt hey?