No.1 water tank

One of the common problems with buildings as old as the Chateau is dampness in the stone work. They are usually built directly onto the ground with stone foundations (if any) and no damp course like modern buildings. In our case this problem has been heightened by two factors; 1 - the lower level is partially beneath ground level, so the earth is actually up against a large portion of the western wall and all of the northern wall. 2 -at the north-western corner was an old water tank that caught the rain from the gutter around the front bullnose verandah.

This tank has obviously been slowly leaking for years, as is evidenced by the little stalactites and stalagmites beneath it!

Even in dry weather this slow leak has never allowed the soil at that corner of the house to dry out completely and the damp can be seen through the render on the internal wall.

So that tank had to go! Lee and his mum took on the job and started by punching a hole in the bottom of the tank. Easier said than done. Not knowing the actual construction of a corrugated iron water tank, Lee began by trying to knock a hole in the bottom of it with one of his dad's old screwdrivers. The plastic handle of the screwdriver was smashed to pieces before any sign of breaking through the tank - it turns out these tanks are lined with concrete and it's rather thick on the bottom. Well, we are city folk really, and we're learning! Eventually the remains of the screwdriver broke through and we got a disgusting stream of black sludge which soon transformed into surprisingly clear water. We had set up some old water pipes to take the water away from the house to where some fruit trees are growing. Lee & mum then went off home satisfied that the tank would empty itself overnight ready for removal the following morning.

The following morning the tank was not empty. Not even a little bit. The sludge had blocked up the hole very nicely and the tank was probably losing less water than it had in years! Time to hit Bunnings. A bit of a battering on the old credit card and Lee's team discount card got the right tools for the job; a small sledge hammer and a large pin punch. With these new aids Lee quickly improved upon yesterdays efforts and soon the mucky water was flowing well. Of course the point came where there really was only the sludge left and the hole would continually block up again. That would just have to do.

Now all the (nearly) empty tank needed was a shove off it's base and it would plonk onto it's side and roll down the hill a bit into the perfect position to be broken up and taken away. NOT!

After much pushing & shoving and more than a little kicking and cursing it became obvious that the water was only part of this thing's weight and it was going nowhere. Well. if you can't push the tank off the stand, pull the stand out from under the tank. Even if the stand is made of reinforced concrete. Lee found a handy steel rod and with it and the small sledge hammer began attacking the stand.

During the banging and clanging Lee & mum somehow noticed nearby bird noises firing up repeatedly. When they looked in a nearby scraggy bush they noticed a small nest containing 3 small baby birds and after a few minutes along came mummy bird with some regurgitation goodness for them. As soon as she got near they turned into 3 tiny trumpets, blasting out their little chorus of chirps which undoubtedly translates to "Me, me, me!".

Even though the clatter of steel on concrete started up again within a couple of metres of the nest, mummy bird carried on as if she didn't even noticed, returning every couple of minutes to shove goodies down the hungry throats.

Eventually Lee had removed enough material from the concrete stand to be able to kid himself that it might actually make a difference. With a concerted effort of more pushing, shoving, kicking etc. the damn thing did actually start to nudge slowly from it's original position. Eventually... SUCCESS!! Sort of. The tank didn't plonk onto it's side and roll nicely away, it thudded heavily onto it's corner, bogged it self in the ground a bit and refused to move anymore at all. It may not have been quite what was planned but after spending most of the day on this 'little job' it was enough for some celebration.

At a later date we will try again to actually remove the water tank completely and you can expect to see another post (hopefully only one) about that. And it will probably involve a much bigger sledge hammer!

A bientot!

K'n'L

Garden of Weedin'

 From this...

to this...

in 4 hours!!!

"Give a weed an inch and it’ll take a yard" (or in our case a rain water tank)
Today Mum, Dad & Kerry took on the vine growing around one of the rain water tanks at Dawesley. (Lee had to work so he missed out on the latest cleansing task).

All it took were 2 ladders, a cordless sabre saw, a garden saw, secateurs of varying sizes, tin snips and a lot of grunt; plus lunch and coffee at Millies Bakery in Nairne to keep the batteries running.

When Dad went on a trip home to get the tin snips Kerry had a turn wielding the sabre saw (girls like power tools too!).

There was a lot to find in the vine:

• things that make you do the creepy crawly dance – spiders (of various sizes and hairiness), beetles, earwigs, cockroaches, a UMC (unidentified moving creature - the size of a rat - that made Kerry jump off the ladder);
• a gecko (we cooed over him);
• old birds’ nests including a dead baby parrot (poor birdie);
• household items entwined by the vine runners - a dust pan, the side of an old singer sewing table, a garden fork;
• other miscellaneous items - a big metal staple thingy and a metal cone (that looks like it belongs to the tin man).

Now all we need to do is deal with the aftermath. And find someone interested in coming to collect the water from the tank so we can remove it.

All were feeling satisfied after a job well done.

Big thanks to Mum & Dad for their help today.


A bientot!


K'n'L

Now the fun begins...

And today was fun, even though we were met at the door by an unexpected guest. After charging the batteries for the cordless tools and packing the car with a few bits of equipment borrowed from dad's garage, we headed to the Chateau. Lee unlocked the door and as soon as it opened the surprise guest appeared. Kerry kindly provided the following creative version of the encounter:

(To the tune of Incy Wincy Spider)

Giant fuzzy spider climbed up the door frame.
Along came the human and down the spider came!
"Aaargh" screamed the human and did a little dance,
so giant fuzzy spider ran up the stone manse!

Yep, when Lee opened the door, the worlds largest ever (he reckons) huntsman spider dropped from the top of the door frame and landed on his leg! He bravely squeeled like a girl and broke into the 'get it off me' dance. The spider, probably laughing so hard he couldn't hold on, eventually dropped to the ground and ran off up the wall.

CREEEEPY!

Today's task was to rip out the ceiling in the old post office/shop front. The previous owner of the building had decided to put in a nice new ceiling of PINE FLOOR BOARDS!!! Perhaps they had wild parties in mind complete with Lionel Ritchie dancing on the ceiling???

 

Anyway, we hated it straight away and knew getting rid of it was our first opportunity to make our mark on the property. Here it goes...

 

 

 

Tadaaaa!

Ok, so it looks pretty daggy at the moment but we know it will end up looking spectacular. If you have seen the ceiling in our apartment at Port Adelaide you will know what we mean :).

After the clean up we noticed a cable and plug in the rafters near the chimney and upon inspection located an old portable light fitting at the other end of the cable. Just for a laugh we plugged it in and it actually works. It's about as bright as a 3 year old's birthday cake but it was still a cute find. And we're keeping it!

 

A bientot!

K'n'L

PS: If anybody would like some nice pine ceiling/floorboards for fire wood, let us know!

That's settled...

Hoorah - we finally got there. We have had several delays and are already behind schedule (not that we actually have a schedule) but at least we have finally achieved settlement. Lee got an email from the conveyancer on Tuesday to say that settlement was to occur today however the saga continued (told you it'd be a saga) when the conveyancer called Lee at work today to organise for him to sign another document. It seems one of the forms we signed that was then sent to the bank disappeared over the weekend. An emergency visit to Lee at work fixed that though - lucky he works locally!

So after work Lee popped in to the real estate agent to pick up the keys and a lovely little gift pack - wine, glasses, chockies & local 'Hills' magazines all in a nice wine cooler bag - thank you Mr Hooker! As for the keys - they don't make them like that anymore! Check out the big sod below. We don't what door it fits or if that door will end up being chucked out but we'll certainly keep the key. That's going straight to the pool room... when and if we have a pool room.

A bientot!

K'n'L

A bunch o' stuff...

Well it's been a while - sorry for the lack of posts lately.

So here's a general update:

Remember the post about the meetings with the architects? Remember there was one that we really wanted to go with? Remember we were waiting for their proposals? Well, we got the proposals... and we can't afford the one we liked. Where to from here? Don't know.

Remember we had a roof contractor measure the Chateau for a new roof? Remember we were waiting for an email with the quote? Well, we got the email... and we can't (or more accurately, don't want to) afford it. He can place his $23,000.00 quote somewhere very unpleasant.

For our last renovation - the warehouse apartment in Port Adelaide - we wanted the ultimate modern kitchen with Miele appliances. We couldn't afford the Miele appliances so ended up with a nice kitchen with appliances which were of rather lower quality than we thought they were. Well, this time we want those Miele appliances. We can't afford 'em... but we're getting 'em anyway! A local retailer, Rawsons Elite Appliances, recently had their yearly sale and we were in like Flynn! We got a Miele microwave, steam oven and dishwasher and two Franke range hoods. Why two? You'll see eventually. And all up we saved around $4000.00. Noice! The rest of the appliances will come further down the track.

And finally... settlement on the Chateau was scheduled to occur this Friday the 13th - hmmm, hadn't realised that would be the date until I typed that! Well, perhaps it's a good thing that something has gone awry with the bank and settlement won't actually occur now until next week. Phew!

Other than all that we are just mucking around with fit out designs in somewhat of an attempt to minimise the work for the architect... whoever that might be. Stay tuned.

A bientot!

K'n'L

SOLD!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bientot!

K'n'L

Another Chateau Shambolique factoid:

We believe that stage one of the Chateau (the bit on the left) was built in 1884. We reckon the rest was added around 1900. Maybe.

Tada!

Solicitors rock!

...errrr... suck. Solicitors suck - yep, that's it.

Today we finally received our copy of the signed contract. As well as another document to sign. This new one is an addendum to the contract to change the settlement date. The original settlement date was set down for 30 days from the date of the contract ie: 30 days from when the second party signed the contract. That happened on the 17th of September which would have made settlement due on Monday (4 days from now). Why has it taken 4 weeks for the contract to get to us? The bank's solicitor didn't send it. It seems he/she didn't think we needed it. Apparently we should be busy organising our finance for the purchase. Something we have already organised and has just been waiting for... you guessed it - the contract!

The Crazy thing is that the bank that is waiting to get a copy of the contract is the same bank that we are buying the property from, so they have been waiting for their own solicitor to send them a copy of their own contract!


Solicitors rock.


SUCK! It's supposed to say suck. Dammit.


A bientot!

K'n'L

Another Chateau Shambolique factoid:

The Chateau is located in Dawesley on the old Princes Highway.

Tada!

Movin' right along...

Check this out gang - two blog posts in one week! Does that mean things are actually starting to happen? Yeah, umm... sort of.

Still no word on the finalisation of the contract. The agent said he had been promised the paperwork would arrive on Thursday but it's now Sunday and there's been no word yet.

But are we going to let a minor detail like 'we don't even own the place' slow us down? No way dudes, we're into it! A couple of weeks ago Kerry emailed a bunch of contractors she had researched on the net who could potentially service some of our needs at the Chateau. And so on Wednesday we had a roofing contractor visit to measure up to quote for a new galv roof (including the verandahs) complete with new gutters & downpipes. Still waiting for those scarey numbers to appear in the inbox.

Then on Friday afternoon we had a meeting with an architect followed by...another meeting with another architect! The interesting thing is that architect number one (hereafter referred to as A1) already knew we were meeting with A2 later that day. It turns out they are friends who studied together and who catch up for lunch on a regular basis. Gotta love little old Adelaide!

So the meeting with A1 went well. We took the laptop PC & showed photos of the Chateau, showed the real estate agent's plans, discussed what we do & don't know about the property and shared some of our ideas & desires for the place. A1 looked & listened and shared with us some interesting information about some of the potential issues with the building, like the damp in the walls, the downstairs internal rendering (yuck!) and downstairs new concrete floor. A1 showed us some plans and photos of a few relevent projects they had completed and offered to draw up a proposal letter detailing their fees & 3 stage process. This process involves developing some design options with sketch plans and then consulting with us to change/refine them until we are happy with a design. Then planning & construction drawings are completed and are lodged with council for approval. Once approval is given, they will move into the project management stage and the fun times begin.

After about an hour with A1 we left feeling satisfied that we had found a good candidate for the job and looking forward to getting the proposal letter.

We killed a little spare time with a coffee & a chat and headed off to our appointment with A2. We weren't expecting to have a particularly different experience than we did with A1 but it was quite surprising. A2 had done some research on our property and showed a level of interest and enthusiasm that we had not expected. He demonstrated considerable knowlege and experience in working with heritage listed buildings and revealed that he is in fact a heritage advisor to a local council. Upon looking at our photos he immediately pointed out that the old shop front was originally a stand alone building and that the residence was added on some time later. He also started to throw new ideas at us and challenge some of our own. For example, he pointed out that the existing roof is probably the original and could perhaps be repaired rather than replaced. This could save us a considerable amount of money and we could always change the look by painting it if we wished. Interestingly, some of the information he gave us around the damp and the concrete floor actually contradicted what A1 had told us, but it made a lot of sense.

The meeting went for about 2 hours and finished at about 6.30pm. We left there more excited than ever about the Chateau and it's potential as our future home. We really clicked with A2 and felt we would all work very well together to make this project exactly what we want it to be (whatever that actually is). Once again we are looking forward to getting the letter of proposal.

Rest assured there'll be plenty more discussion here around our choice of architects. Also be aware that we will be revealing the names of the various contractors and service providers as we select them - with their permission of course.

A bientot!

K'n'L

Progress. Pffft!

Ah, the joys of being on the buying end of a mortgagee sale. Almost a month ago we signed the contract for the purchase of the old post office building in Dawesley (hereafter referred to as "the chateau") and bugger all has happened since.

For those less aware of the finer points of property finance nomenclature, the term "mortgagee sale" refers to the occurrence of someone defaulting on their mortgage and bank selling off the property to get their bucks back.

So how does this differ from a regular sale? Well, apart from the bank trying to get way too much for the property because they lent far too much against it in the first place it should be pretty similar. One point of difference is that the bank (in our case Westpac) does all of the dealings through solicitors and this serves to make everything move rather sloooowwwwly. So on the 5th of September we signed that contract. Today Lee called our real estate agent, Russell, who said he should have the paperwork back this week. Well that's what he said last week too. We're not blaming Russell for this - he's as eager to see this deal finalised as we are. In (more or less) his own words, he'll be very glad to finally see the back of this one!

As far as we can tell the contract has been sent to Melbourne (or Sydney - can't remember which) for the Westpac reps to sign and it then goes to the legal eagles in Adelaide. It may then go back to the interstate bank people before finally heading back to Russell and then to us. Where it is now, we have no idea. Precisely what we are waiting for is the 'Form 1' - the piece of paper that notifies us that the contract is now officially formalised and our 2 day cooling off period begins upon receipt of said notice. At the end of this time we need to pay our deposit then settlement may occur after the necessary conveyancing, money transfers, etc.

So we will post once again when something bloody happens!

Until then here are some new photos of the chateau.

A bientot!