The Great Flood

Last week, I can't remember which day, but I was driving home from work and I thought "ow what a great sky, I am sure it is going to look awesome from the portico". So I called my Mum and asked her to grab the camera, as my one in the mobile is broken (see below).

I hit the Oran Park/Gregory Hills intersection on Cowpasture Road and it is raining. I call home and ask about the rain. My Mum says it's pouring and she wants to show me something when I get out of the car.

I get home and OMG:

The sky was lovely.


But because the block out the back sits higher, the rain rushed down to my backyard and down the sides of the house. It also came from the side neighbours backyard as her landscaping isn't complete yet but because of the way Allworth excavated my block, it just...


Pooled around the house. The water tank is on the back wall.


And at worst it was above my ankles. I'm wearing my gumboots, which come up to my knees.


My Mum reported this to a Mirvac SS the next day, and he said he is going to look into it.

Booked in for piers

Writing after midnight so have to remember that I called yesterday afternoon to start with. When I did call I spoke with SS1. After a bit of persuasion that I need to know when things happen and not be advised last minute, an appointment was made for pier hole measuring on Monday 5 July at 11am. I understand this to be the time at which holes will have been drilled about as round as a bin lid and I walk around with the SS or some other person with a tape measure and confirm that the various piers have been drilled to the depths recorded. I guess this must be due to someone being sued at some stage.

Fingers crossed for no difficult rock extraction though as that will be an extra fee. Feeling confident so far as the cut and fill showed no evidence, and when driving around I have seen what appears to be sandstone after cut and fill, particularly in those blocks down near the creek. Speaking of, if the fence goes up next week, I might go help myself to some abandoned rock if I can find it because the backyard is going to have a rainforest/tropical type landscape adjacent to the entertainment area. This includes a cascading water-feature, pond type installation, so some manageable sizes will be handy.

In re-reading my Allworth info however, I found out that SS1 and SS2 are only contactable Monday to Thursday after 3pm!!! For anyone who has been reading the adventure to date you will appreciate that I like to keep my finger on the pulse (if for no other reason than stuff just doesn't progress without nagging), so a maximum of 8 hours during the week in which to contact these guys is fairly restrictive. Also, when considering that I rang SS1 and went to voicemail, then SS2 and that rang out, so then rang SS1 again to leave a message and lucky he picked up, this instills in me little confidence that communication will be easily achieved during those 8 hours.

But looking at the bright side, Monday is booked in for piers, pending no rain on the day. If it is raining that morning he said don't bother coming, which I guess is a fair call if it were torrential, but in the event of a light sprinkle I will be there with my umbrella and gumboots in tow because what little I know of concrete is that a little dampness is good for allowing it to cure. You just wouldn't want the ground so wet that the pier holes cave in before being filled.

Looking at another blogger who is building the same design with Allworth I anticipate the initial plumbing and slab to be done by 20 July, with lock-up achieved by the end of August!

Whatever you believe in people (so long as it is not malevolent) ask it to go easy on the rain over the next couple of months, even if you cross our fingers, and then once we have lock-up it can rain all it wants :o)