Land settled and titled

The long wait is finally over, after many months of delays the land that was supposed to be titled in February of this year finally settled today. 

We are keeping our fingers crossed that the building process will begin very soon, the kids are mighty excited and cannot wait!

Soil testing

After very little movement with the house and  visiting an empty block for months we were all very excited when DJ came home from work tonight to tell us that the soil testing had been completed.  We all jumped in the car and went around to look at a few holes in the ground. It is ridiculous how excited we are getting about the absolute smallest of things just waiting for the house to start.  The permit should be out any day now.

Footpaths and street signs

The progress is slow but we seem to be getting there. On our visit down to the block today we were all very excited to see that the street signs, footpaths and crossover driveways have all been completed.  The land has also been cleared and levelled.  The original estimation was that the land would settled in Feb, however, due to the rain etc it has obviously been delayed, we are hoping that it will settle soon, but we have been told by many that the land titles office has quite a backlog and it may be a little time yet before the land is titled, which will then allow us to start building.  Here are some pictures of the current progress.

Footpaths are in, and crossover driveways have all been completed, you can see our car parked up on our driveway way off in the distance.

The land has also been pegged out, so that we can see the exact boundaries of all the blocks in the court, lot 833 is us :-)

Not only has the block changed over the months, but Miss Erin has also grown, she had a ball today running around exploring the land now that it has been levelled and there are not so many mounds of dirt to climb.  It was freezing out there today, we found one of Laura's old jackets in the car for Erin to wear, a little over sized but it did the job keeping her warm :)

A picture of all the kids in front of the street sign by the footpath, you can see our back fence off in the distance.

Laura and Miss Erin still exploring together like they were the night we first found the land.

Asphalt is down

More work has finally been completed up at the block, there was quite a wait due to the heavy rain that we had, but when we went down there today the roads were finally open for us to drive into the court. It was exciting to see that not only were the roads open but also the gutters, curbs and street lights were also in. It is all starting to shape up - the kids are smiling and we keep telling them it will be "any day now" that the house starts :-)

And the rain just continues to fall!

Photos from our town here in Vic this afternoon - we use this bridge at least twice a week to get the girls to netball - Not today! The rain has been constant, not as devastating as what is going on in QLD right now -our prayers are with all Queenslander's tonight.

In amongst all this rain we decided to drive around and check out the block, to see if the water was flooding or if it was running off. It was difficult to get through as the roads are still unmade, but from the main road leading into the estate we could see that our block is up quite high and no water was collecting on it.  Here are some pics of the estate and the creek bed near our block that has been dry for many years with the drought, it was flowing today!

This road will lead into our court, the asphalt hasn't been laid yet, the heavy rains have totally flooded it.

Our block is way off in the distance, there is no rain settling on it, which is great to see it running down the hill into the creek.

 The other end of the estate was also closed off due to the rain.

The creek bed near us is usually bone dry, I mean not a drop of water, today it is totally flowing, what an amazing site after years of no rain.  This will surely delay work on the estate and slow down the land getting titled, oh well the upside is we really do need this rain, it is long overdue.

Deposit paid

Along with it being Miss Jen's 15th Birthday today, it was also an exciting night as we paid the depsoit on the land that we will call home.  We are all relieved tonight, that the search is over, it has been a long process of deciding to sell our home and build a new one and we are finally on our way.  Though we know that the wait is still going to be quite a long one our answers to the many questions from all the children  have been "Any Day Now", which we have chosen as the title of our blog.

When will we find some land dad? - "Any day now"

When will the land be ready dad? - "Any day now"

When will decide on the house plans mum and dad ? - "Any day now"

LOL there have been so many questions from the children,

DJ and I have built before and we know the looooong process that we are in for, it sure is going to be a lesson in patience for the rest of the family though.

At least tonight we are one step closer - we have found and paid a depsoit on our new block of land *huge smiles all around*

Finally found some land!

After a lot of searching, we think we found the perfect block of land for the new house, it will be in a court that has not yet been completed, the land is a long way off from being titled which means we cannot start building for quite some time, but it looks like the hunt is over.  The kids had a great time tonight running around on the block and exploring where their new bedrooms might be, it was a fun and exciting time.

Here are quite a few photos to remember this very exciting night for our family.

The view at the back of the block, we have a farmer for a back neighbour at the moment so there is land as far as the eye can see.

This is our car parked in front of what will be the driveway of the new house.

A photo from the very back left corner of the block showing the street view and our car.

The drains getting laid with the kids behind the huge pile of dirt, Erin thought it was terrific!

 Here is Miss Erin on the run, exploring on her own.

Laura finally caught up with Erin and held her hand as they climbed over the mounds of dirt.

 Laura climbing up the back fence, which I am sure she will do plenty more times over the years.

Miss Erin on the loose running with DJ and Luke in the background

A view of the court under construction  from our block.

Finally a street view of the drains and the kids having a ball exploring.

We are pretty sure that this will be the site of our new home, we have a hold on the land and will pay the deposit later this week once we have finally decided, fingers crossed the house plan we have chosen will fit nicely on the block and the search will be over :-)