This week things have finally seemed to settle and come together, and at last some excitement! We broke ground (earthworks) on the site yesterday! Levelled the site and dug a 300 meter trench for power and telephone. Everyone we worked with was GREAT!!! "No worries mate! She'll be RIGHT cobber!" is what we heard over and over... The weather has been perfect - dry and very mild for late fall and warmer than usual. We moved into an apartment about a week ago, filled it with a few treasures found at local garage sales ($30 fridge and $10 heaters) and then our boxes from the US arrived this week. It was like Xmas, opening boxes of our stuff. Troy's desktop computer arrived fine and Graham's laptop finally had an external battery charger, but we're still waiting for a broadband modem for the apartment - should come next week! We hope! Would be nice to have internet and computer in the same place. The apartment complex we're in was sold when we signed the lease, so we may have to move AGAIN in the month - but we found people who live in an old restored church and rectory in Franklin going back to Queensland for the winter, who may let us stay in it for a minimal charge - it's very charming!

We had to make some major changes to the shed we're building before the house for council approval - so this has added to the time pressure before we can start building. Basically, the shed had to be upgraded to a granny flat/cottage. The council won't allow people to build sheds for temporary accommodation while they build a house - too many people never build the house. So our shed was redesigned into a Class 1a permanent dwelling - actually giving us more options in the future - plus practice building a small house before the big project. We hope to get the plans in this week. So the cottage is now larger and includes permanent living area that will become additional guest accommodation (for you when you visit!)... which has delayed start and increased cost.  But it's all to the good, as we can take longer to build the main house... makes sense as we're running out of building budget quicker than expected and need to get back to income earning soon. Ordered the additional materials for the cottage due in 4-6 weeks, power and telephone cables will be laid in 4 days, but the power pole connection won't be done for another 8 weeks. So you see how each day is like a juggling act - if one part of the building process changes it effects others waiting to do their part...