rover all over: So it begins!

Huge day. HUGE day. We signed a contract this morning with Wayne Munro of Waylyn homes:

http://www.waylynhomes.com.au/index.html

Work on our new house at Diamond Beach will commence NEXT WEEK!!

Here is the scene this morning, with David and Wayne in the process of signing the papers. After researching the options carefully, we took a deep breath and elected a cost-plus process in preference to a fixed price contract. If all goes to plan, the build should come in a little cheaper for us that way. This means that the final cost will gradually become evident as the project progresses. With recent modifications to the plan, it should now be a relatively simple house to build, so we do not anticipate cost over-runs. Wayne inspires confidence and is a very well regarded local builder, so we are optimistic. Wish us luck!

And in a few days, Wayne is off to Hokkaido for a week, with his snow board and our building deposit under his arm, to ski the dry powder that blows in from Siberia. I'm sure you join with us in hoping he comes back without having sustained any fractures of any part of himself!

And in other news, it has rained so much around here that there was a little landslide down at our local ocean pool.

Fortunately the fence slowed it down enough so it didn't land in the pool. But further along, another little slide filled the changerooms with mud. The lagoon (below) is well and truly open to the sea and looking very clean and scenic

We are trying to be true to our New Year resolutions, and walk or run or swim every day. The rocks at the northern end of our local beach are the usual destination, its about 15 minutes there and 15 minutes back. Hard work at high tide when the sand is soft!

Marjory seems to be more settled since she got her modified driving licence. Now she can drive herself distances up to 15 km away in her car, so it allows her to go the local shops, to art or poetry class, to the local hairdresser or chemist and so on. But not as far as Forster or Taree (or Cairns for that matter).

But really, don't want to think or talk about anything else today except the house project finally taking a big step forward. Some celebratory photos from this afternoon:

Notice the beer coaster? The man is everywhere. Even at the golf club where we dropped in after our bike ride for a champagne to congratulate ourselves on getting this far.

While we were sipping, the surrounds presented some stirring and highly appropriate images. Was it just the champagne talking, or is the universe showing us some good omens? Here are the storm clouds parting....