I can’t think of anything gardening-ish to write. The vegie patch we had going here at the rented house is in complete shade until mid-afternoon now, no point putting anything in for winter because it won’t get enough sun. We won’t be here to harvest anything we plant in spring, because we should be in the new house by Christmas, all being exceptionally well. Our lease here ends on Dec 8, and the landlord has told us she will be putting it on the market, so if it sells quickly we will have to be out on time.

So I thought that, seeing as the forum isn’t zinging atm I’d at least put up a new topic!

We have signed the contract saying we’re going ahead with the kit home, and the kit will be delivered in early October. I didn’t realise it would take so long, I was hoping we could have the slab down and start bolting the frame together in August, giving us 3 months to fit out the inside. Now, though, we’ll have 8 weeks to get it habitable. Oh, and we can’t really afford to fit it out, we’ve only got the money for the slab and a kit that goes to the lockup stage, don’t know how we’re going to pay for plumbing, electrician, solar panels, water tanks, septic system, insulation, interior wall linings, skirting and architraves, doors, bathrooms, kitchen, laundry, tiles, painting … all the stuff we kinda really do need.

SO ….

This is the company we’re getting the kit home from:

http://www.paal.com.au/

and this is the house that we’re getting, although we’ve altered some of the room sizes and changed a few doors and windows around:

http://www.paal.com.au/kit-homes/lawson-3.asp

The next stage for us is to wait for the plans to arrive, then we have to lodge them with council. Once we have the plans we can also start getting quotes for the floor slab, plumber, electrician, and all the extra materials we’ll need. And talk about getting a loan to pay for all those extras!

I was looking through the local paper and found a house that would suit beautifully – and then got onto a loan repayment calculator on the internet. We’d only have to make repayments of $512 a week! Not a chance ….

gee, kit homes sure have come along somewhat!

Yeehah said:

I was looking through the local paper and found a house that would suit beautifully – and then got onto a loan repayment calculator on the internet. We’d only have to make repayments of $512 a week! Not a chance ….

Holy moly $512 a week!!!
The kit home looks cute, and a much better price!

very nice =)

hortfurball said:

The kit home looks cute, and a much better price!

And on 25 acres, plenty of space for gardens and chooks and animals, and Mr Y can get an all-over suntan at last!

when my family bought some acres in the adelaide hills (1974) we camped out in a shed on the property to start with. so you won’t be the first.

pepe said:

when my family bought some acres in the adelaide hills (1974) we camped out in a shed on the property to start with. so you won’t be the first.

Didn’t have satellite imaging then! Hard to get away with anything these days – Big Brother is here. And non-custodial parents of our children who would stir things up if we tried * sigh!*

These days need council permission to camp on your own land before building. Neighbours got the okay to live in tents while they built their rammed earth cottage.

This is sooo exciting for you, bet you cant wait!

shell bell said:

This is sooo exciting for you, bet you cant wait!

Wish I didn’t have to wait, lol! I’m not a terribly patient person. Once I have a good idea I want to put it into action immediately. So I’m grumpy as a bear with having to wait. On the good side, though, we’ve got p.l.e.n.t.y. of time to plan and get the materials ordered and lined up ready to go, so once it gets started we should get it done fairly quickly.

All being well.

Fingers crossed!

Can you organise a garage on there and sneak in while building? Doing it here while we battle on…. need to sell the house to get money and then nowhere to live….council OKed a garage so we are fitting it out to live in …so far so good

drylander1 said:

Can you organise a garage on there and sneak in while building? Doing it here while we battle on…. need to sell the house to get money and then nowhere to live….council OKed a garage so we are fitting it out to live in …so far so good

good idea Drylander, when my parents where building the house we live in now, we lived in the shed in a carvan =).. i was a little fella eg a baby

drylander1 said:

Can you organise a garage on there and sneak in while building? Doing it here while we battle on…. need to sell the house to get money and then nowhere to live….council OKed a garage so we are fitting it out to live in …so far so good

Only barely got enough money to get the house to lockup stage. If our kids were ours together and there were no non-custodial parents to get their knickers in a knot, we’d have a go at living in a caravan or something, but we’ve already spent thousands on legal bills and can’t afford another cent (that’s one of the reasons we’re low on funds – that $9,000 would have helped more on our house rather than in a solicitor’s pocket).

Yeehah said:

Only barely got enough money to get the house to lockup stage. If our kids were ours together and there were no non-custodial parents to get their knickers in a knot, we’d have a go at living in a caravan or something, but we’ve already spent thousands on legal bills and can’t afford another cent (that’s one of the reasons we’re low on funds – that $9,000 would have helped more on our house rather than in a solicitor’s pocket).

I understand where youre coming from Yeehah and as we are now on disability pension its getting hard here too. One way to reduce the cost of plumbing is to go the composting toilet (saves heaps on septic) and try for the reedbed greywater system if you can (less plumbing fees). The electrics are dear no matter whether you go solar or utility supply at start up though solar does come into its own after install. Possibly a small lights and tv system first and add to it as money comes available? Check out www.rainbowpower.com.au for examples of stand alone systems .

Evening!

We went for a drive out to the block today, and I’m getting excited. Hopefully by the end of this week Mr Y will have lodged the plans for our new house with the local council. If not approved by meeting at the end of this month, hopefully in July or at the latest August meeting – we need the slab to go down in September, as the kit is arriving early October.

I had a chat with Mr Y a week or so ago, bounced some ideas around for where we’re going to put gardens. So today we stomped around and adjusted some of those ideas to the reality of the landscape. We were a bit late to the Rural Fire Service BBQ so missed meeting the only bloke in the area with a tractor, but he left a msg for us that he’s busy with work for the next couple of weeks, so give him a yell after that and he’ll see about getting the green manure crop in for us.

However, Mr Y is tossing around the idea of buying a little secondhand tractor, because we’ll probably have a lot of use for one, so he’s got to go off on another fact-finding mission about whether he can find one to buy, and how much it would cost.