It's a good thing I'd been accruing a lot of unused Annual Leave over the years. I finished work yesterday and I'm now on paid Annual Leave for 6 weeks and will return to work in early January 2015. The last few weeks at work had been very gruelling and mentally-exhausting. I'd been working up until midnight some nights trying to keep my caseload up to date before going on Leave for such a long period. I can now use that time off work to get into the hard yakka and get all the landscaping work done and the moving and settling-in etc.
Pete's going to start taking some of his Long Service Leave from his work commencing from the following week (Pete's been working for his employer for 25 years so he has plenty of unused Long Service Leave).
Australian employment law provides for the payment of [paid] Long Service Leave of up to 12 weeks (3 months duration) after every 10 or 11 years of employment/service with the same employer, (that's in addition to our regular annual leave and sick leave entitlements. In Australia, most permanent, full-time workers are entitled to 4 weeks paid Annual Leave each year plus about 2 weeks of paid Sick Leave/Personal Leave entitlements).
Front steps repaired
On Friday 21 November 2014, workers were back on site. They completely demolished the front steps and rebuilt new steps leading up to the front patio/entry area. This was in compliance with one of the sign-off conditions from the Private Certifying Agent.
We're going to be featured in the next McDonald Jones Homes' newsletter
Our cover's been blown. McDonald Jones Homes is now aware of the existence of our Blog. They are going to feature our story in one of their forthcoming online newsletters. The following Link will take you to the McDonald Jones Homes' internet website:
Our concreter
Roy, our concreter returned to meet us on site this afternoon to run through his proposed plans. I think we've struck the jackpot with this tradesman. He's really passionate about his work. He's provided excellent references and a fabulous quote. We gave him a 10% deposit payment today. All being well and good weather permitting, he will start to lay our new concrete driveway and paved areas on Monday week, 1 December 2014. He gave us the following timeframes:
- we can walk across the new concrete the very next day;
- cars can be driven onto the new concrete driveway after one week;
- heavy vehicles and trucks can be driven onto the new driveway after a week and a half (that's helpful to know for the timing for any delivery truck drivers);
- the concrete will need 3 weeks to cure; and
- 3 weeks afterwards, in January 2015, they will return to apply the final spray-on coloured Renocrete stencilled finish (which has a 7 year warranty).
I had wanted to lay a paint-through concrete driveway and paved area, thinking that would provide a more durable, long lasting/permanent, evenly-coloured conrete surface that wouldn't fade or deteriorate after just a few years. The concreter advised us against laying a paint-through concrete. He claimed it can be risky to lay paint-through concrete when concreting large areas, because sometimes the quantities of paint just don't evenly disperse through the loads of concrete. We've therefore opted to go with a coloured, painted, spray-on stencilled driveway and matching paved area which will be completed by Renocrete in early January 2015. It has a 7 year guarantee. It will also require a preventative/proactive resealant applied every 18 months just to preserve it from any premature deterioration. Here's a Link to the Renocrete website for further information:
http://www.renocrete.com.au/files/spray-on-process.htm
New Furniture from Equator Homewares, Homebush DFO
After months and months of shopping around, Pete and I finally found the new furniture that we wanted. More than 2 months ago, we paid a 50% deposit on the following items:
- 2 x 2 seater leather sofas in red leather (for the open plan Family/Lounge room area);
- 1 x 3 seater black leather reclining sofa (for the Home Theatre room);
- 1 x single seater matching black leather reclining arm chair (for the Home Theatre room); and
- a new modern-looking dining table and 6 matching dining chairs (for the open plan Dining area).
New Garden Tools
We got ourselves a decent new wheelbarrow, a new kink-free 30m garden hose and other garden stuff today at the local Bunnings store. I was hoping to start doing a few things in the back yard up at the house tomorrow (Sunday). However, the weather bureau is forecasting a hot sunny day of up to 43⁰C (109.4⁰F) out this way tomorrow so I guess I won't be starting any outside work tomorrow... bugger! And summer isn't due to start until 1 December. When is the Abbott Government ever going to get real about Climate Change??
The latest Stats'
Here's the latest statistics about the viewers who have been visiting
our Blog as recorded and supplied by Google Blogger.
1. Pageviews by Countries - Top 10 - Year to Date - as
at Saturday 22 November 2014
| Entry | Pageviews |
|---|---|
Australia
|
3378
|
United States
|
551
|
Hong Kong
|
185
|
Germany
|
53
|
Poland
|
44
|
Russia
|
43
|
Turkey
|
40
|
France
|
28
|
Ukraine
|
18
|
United Kingdom
|
17
|
2. Pageviews by Countries
- Top 10 - Past Month - as at Saturday 22 November
2014
| Entry | Pageviews |
|---|---|
Australia
|
598
|
United States
|
66
|
Hong Kong
|
11
|
Poland
|
11
|
France
|
10
|
Germany
|
6
|
Indonesia
|
4
|
Italy
|
3
|
Ukraine
|
3
|
Belarus
|
1
|
3. Pageviews by Countries
- Past Week - as at Saturday 22 November 2014
4. Pageviews by Countries - Today - as at Saturday 22 November 2014
| Entry | Pageviews |
|---|---|
Australia
|
186
|
United States
|
18
|
France
|
7
|
Germany
|
3
|
Hong Kong
|
3
|
Indonesia
|
3
|
Italy
|
2
|
Belarus
|
1
|
New Zealand
|
1
|
Ukraine
|
1
|
4. Pageviews by Countries - Today - as at Saturday 22 November 2014
| Entry | Pageviews |
|---|---|
Australia
|
14
|
United States
|
4
|
France
|
1
|
Italy
|
1
|
No comments:
Post a Comment