Rome Wasn't Built in a Day... and neither was the Gallop Inn.

Patience is a virtue... apparently I am learning that :)   We're so very close to submitting plans to council I can smell the ink being written on all those forms!  Should have our plans early this week back from the draftsman. (Thanks Brett and Sarah!) and then off to Engineers Plus for more technical info. Because we aren't connected to the council sewerage, we are putting in a pretty nifty septic trench system. Col from Enviro Water Design has put together our hydraulics plans incorporating the Advanced Enviro-Septic System.   This system is perfect for us, being a simpler system, leaves a greener carbon footprint and a more economical system. Here's a link to their videos if you're interested.

 http://www.enviro-septic.com.au/advance-enviro-septic-australia/galleries/video-gallery/


Now those plans are all done, so my next few days will be spent filling out those forms to submit to the plumbing department. Generally building applications that have an onsite sewerage system in place, take a little longer than the average sewered lot application. So by lodging the plumbing application while the engineers work on the structural side, I'm hoping to speed up the whole process a tad.

So what have we been up to while the drafting and engineering experts have been busy... well look at this. We've cleared, we reconstructed the dam... and it rained!!!!! It was really important to us to have the trees cleared and the dam done before the first rains. This meant the compacted topsoil would be broken up and the dam made deeper to be more effective in holding water for irrigation of veggie gardens and paddock grasses and fruit trees. Well we got all that done just in the knickers of time!

 Okay so it looks a little bare, but you cant build houses on top of trees. That one little peg on the right is the edge of the house verandah.

Looking from where the front verandah will be, (you can just see the peg just off centre to the left)  this will be the view over the dam. I took this just before it rained.

And here are the before and after shots. Nifty timing hey!!! The top photo is a bit of an optical illusion because I've been told it looks like an open cut mine. In reality, the dam now averages a depth of around 10 feet. The bottom photo is after just a few days of rain. I'm so excited because now I can see what we have to work with garden wise. There will be a beautiful terrace spot that we'll backdrop with lillypillies and small native bushes. Then in one spot where we'll be bringing a spoon drain to carry water to the dam from the back, I can imagine how amazing it will look with a creek bed created with river rocks, down to hopefully some bush rocks into the dam to create a rock pool look. Of course this won't happen overnight, but a girl can imagine :)

To finally show off how beautiful this place is coming along, Rick built me a little bonfire, a over Easter we shared a late afternoon, quietly imagining the trees and shrubs and memories we will create on our little piece of paradise.