Bush cottage preparations

Preparations for our “bush cottage” – which is going to stand in a glorious spot on our son and daughter-in-law’s one hundred acre property in Brisbane, Australia, – are going well despite the almost daily showers of heavy rain. 

The modular house is being built off-site by Hoek Homes and will eventually be divided down the middle and brought to the property on two low loaders.  There are however, plenty of preparations to be made by us before its arrival (hopefully in July).

Normally at this time of year it is beginning to become very dry in Brisbane while in Europe April showers abound. This year is very different!  

While we struggle with sodden muddy ground with puddles that never seem to dry up, we hear that there has been no substantial rain for weeks in The Netherlands where our daughter lives with her husband and baby girl. 

The constant rain here has meant we have had to delay transporting our water tanks on-site and to rethink our driveway drainage system. 

We’ve decided to deepen the V-drains and lay ag pipe (flexible, corrugated pipe, wrapped in a sock to prevent soil from clogging) along the length of the driveway and across it at a few key spots to divert water away. 

Before the ag pipe was positioned in the V-drain we had to have ten tonnes of drainage gravel laid at the bottom of the drain. We used so much that we had to order an additional 15 tonnes to finish off the bed and ensure we had a good coverage on top of the pipe. 

Because the driveway was so waterlogged we have delayed the installation of our water tanks but that worked out well because the original pad turned out to be too high for the tanks and our earth moving contractor (and land sculptor extraordinaire) Chris, has had time to totally remodel the pad. 

Unfortunately the truck delivering the crusher dust that the tanks will eventually sit on managed to get bogged on its way up the driveway (the drains still being a work in progress).

Fortunately Chris was there and was able to pull the truck out without incident. It was very precarious for a moment as the fully loaded truck was teetering on the edge of the very full dam. 

Over the last few weeks we have appointed someone to build and install our septic system. There is no mains sewerage to Lake Manchester so we have to have our own micro water treatment plant built. 

Another milestone achieved recently was when Sam and Sean from Hoek Homes came on site to measure the house dimensions and figure out it’s orientation and – with a can of bright pink spray paint – indicated exactly where it would sit.  At last it really felt as though something was happening!

In the meantime, even though we had gone through a long, tedious and expensive planning application, we were obliged to go through another costly bureaucratic process to obtain a “carry out work on protected vegetation” permit. 

This entailed hiring a registered fauna spotter before we cut down the two trees (one dead).  We were told that we would also need to employ a fauna spotter to be present when the two trees were taken down. 

This seemed total overkill since there must be literally thousands of trees on Ben and Sarah’s property and the loss of one very dead tree and one other would not make a massive impact on the local fauna. 

The young man came and earnestly looked through his binoculars and took some photos and more than two weeks later we received a 30-plus page report that basically repeated all the information contained in  our very comprehensive planning application (most of which could have been found in the Internet!)

The report had to then go to Council and eventually we finally received our “Carry out work on protected vegetation” permit. 

We felt quite strongly that to hire a fauna spotter a second time made no sense at all and apart from the obvious reasons it was going to cost us more than the tree loppers were charging to take down the trees!

Fortunately the Council relented after Jonathan spoke to our contact there and agreed that it wasn’t necessary to have a spotter there when the trees were being taken down! Phew!

In between all the house site tasks, we have attended a very elegant baby shower, celebrated Easter with Ben and Sarah, been to visit friends and had friends to our little townhouse.   I keep forgetting to take photos so apologies to those not featured here!

I also had a very pleasant Sunday in Roma Street Gardens with our friend Lenchen who has also recently returned to Brisbane after many years away. 

The gardens have matured a lot since I last visited and we had a lovely stroll round and listened to some great live music before enjoying coffee and cake in  the park cafe.