STILL NOT

Well as you have by now guessed, we have once again moved the "move-in"date. Originally we were due in by 30 September (2006) and were assured that this was possibly right until the eleventh hour. We then set a new date as 13 October which has come and gone. The next date was to be the 19 October which will also come and go. We have set another date which we will now keep private in the hopes it doesn't get jinxed. So once we are in and life returns to some for of normality I will update you again.

As you can see, we have a garden and swimming pool. I must admit we were very excited on Friday when the grass was done as it transformed the place from a building site to a home. We have the sprinkler system up and running and hope to see the grass taking soon. As far as the interior goes, the kitchen still has 1 or 2 outstanding issues, the carpenter is just about done with the skirting and architrave. We need to seal the screed floors and the painters have a rather large snag list to work through.

In the meantime we have 7.5 weeks till our wedding. In these 7 weeks we need to

1. pack-up, move-in and unpack.

2. airdash to London for Brian & Lisa's wedding

3. airdash to Natal for Rory & Kelly's wedding

4. roaddash to Ficksburg for our wedding stuff

5. work/live/stay away from TARA/sort the wedding

so, if you can, please spare us a thought and send some positive energy to 42 Sixth Ave, Parktown North

Move IN ???

Here is the latest view from the north-west side of the house. We are so excited that in a matter of days now we will be able to move. As you can see, the majority of the paint work is complete and we expect final coat to be done by Friday. Most of the earth moving has been done already and we intend having all the levels sorted by the end of the week. Over the weekend we will get the irrigation system installed in anticipation of the grass being laid next week. The pool people have assured me they will also be done by the end of the week. Other activities lined up for the week are : garage automation, security and carpeting on Wednesday. Paving and balustrade on Friday,Saturday and Sunday. Final floor sanding and skirting by Friday. Snagging/patching/fixing next week and then move-in on Friday the 13th!!!!

For all the skeptics out there, our last move was also on Friday 13th and look at the luck it has brought us! (a beautiful house/engagement/new business venture/wedding & the promise of plenty happy days ahead)

3 Phase

There are many ways to "skin a cat" and yet another one of our debatable areas was what to do regarding electricity. Some advise we got was merely to stick to the current single phase and others was to upgrade to 3 phase. This didn't help us much as you can imagine and one may question consumption vs size of house etc. In light of the recent shenanigans in the Cape & the electricity "shortage" we have opted to use natural gas on most of our appliances (geysers/heaters/cooker). AND just in-case we in the process of installing a small generator. Despite all this we also decided to upgrade to 3 phase electricity. This become quite a task. They have had to dig up the pavement on both sides of 3rd Ave and push the cabling under the road. Thankfully, Vickus our "sparkie" did the majority of the leg work dealing with and chasing City Power and instructing us when to make the necessary payments.

Last week, Chris and I were at the house late in the evening, well after 5pm, most certainly not a time any contractors are usually on site when we saw movement near the electricity mainsbox. We went around the corner to find the chaps for City Power still working. They had committed to Vickus that we would be ready to go live by Friday and they kept their word. On Friday when I got there at lunch time the electricians were as pleased as punch as we now have POWER!

So, who do we thank? Not Boland bank....... Vickus and City Power!