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Our settlement date was last Wednesday (24th September)!! I'm so excited that we can finally say that we own three acres of land on Miro Road. Our dream really has become a reality. The Monday before our settlement date we had an appointment with Sarah at Smart Move Conveyancing. She was really easy to deal with and went through everything with us. I understood most of it, but am slowly learning to ask questions when I do need something clarified. Our appointment was at 4.30 pm and we were out of there just after 5.00 pm.
On our settlement date I had a missed call on my phone when I checked it at lunch time. I had already seen that someone had tried to call, but was unable to answer my phone because I was teaching. The message on my answer phone was from the receptionist at Smart Move Conveyancing congratulating us and letting us know that everything had gone through okay. We also received an email from Kelly Sackfield at Ray White, wishing us all the very best with building our home on our new property. Kelly has been so amazing to deal with and I would definitely recommend her to others.
I had another bank appointment with Karla this week too. This time it was to open an account for the building part of our loan. I'm not sure why we didn't open this earlier as we soon discovered that our invoices were unable to be paid until we had. I feel really bad because Chris Needham was meant to be paid a couple of weeks ago. All I've been able to do is email him and explain the situation. Paul had to sign the documents for the new account so I took them home and was going to drop them in the following day. However; when I was reading through the paper work I noticed Karla had put in an establishment fee of $170. There had been no mention of this during any of our bank appointments. I rang Dad to ask him about it. He said that normally the bank wipes those, so he rang Karla and in the end it was wiped for us. I've now got to cross that bit out and initial it before dropping it into the bank tomorrow. We also have an invoice from Smart Move Conveyancing that needs to be paid. I asked Karla what happens if our quotes don't match exactly to our original ones. She said that as long as they're close that it's okay. The bank checks that you're still on track at the midway point, then if you're not they re-evaluate your loan. Hopefully we won't have that problem. As far as paying our mortgage goes we have just had to put the money into our joint account and then it will come directly out of there. Our first payment will go out this Tuesday (7th October).
We ended up finding another geotech guy, after the last one increased his quote by quite a substantial amount in comparison to the first one he gave us. We're now going to use Richardson and Stevens who have given us an estimate of $1500 to do both the building site and effluent system. The only downside is that he isn't able to do it for three to four weeks. The ground up at Miro Road is still too damp to get started with the Earthworks though so it's not going to hold us up by much. We still need to work out which sewerage system we're going to go with as well. We've also heard that plans are taking an extra few weeks than normal in at council, so I'm really not sure when we will be able to start building. We will just have to see how everything pans out.
We're still waiting to receive our bond money from Dave. This weekend coming up it has been a month since we moved out, so hopefully we won't have to wait much longer. Dad paid our cabin bond so I want to be able to pay him back, as well as clear some of our bills. Then we will be able to start putting some money away into our savings account. We've also decided that we're going to use some of that money to buy a couple of weaner calves.
Dad suggested that it's best to try to wait until the end of November. By then most farmers will have got what stock they want and people will be getting low on grass. As a result the price of calves generally drops. I've also saved weaner calves to my Trade Me favourites and am getting regular emails as new calves are listed. We're hoping to be able to get a couple for around $300 each. I can't wait to be able to have our own little calves. I've already started thinking of names and think I might name them Olive and Rose (or Rosie), after my great grandmothers. I love both those names. Hopefully by getting them when they're young we'll be able to make them tamer too. I want to be able to feed them apples, like Jos can with his cows.
There are so many calves across the road from our property. There were also a couple in the yard next door - drinking milk and playing together. One looked like a Jersey calf and the other one was black and white. They were so cute!! Frank offered us the two yearling steers that are grazing on our property for $400 each. He even offered to keep them on his books until we sell them. It was a really kind offer, but we've decided on younger calves and I don't intend on ever selling them. The only reason we're getting calves is to keep down the grass. I wish I could stop all the animals from been killed for meat, but at least I can save a couple from that happening. It reminds me of this quote - 'We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.'
Gran, Pop and Gail came out to look at our land today for the first time. After looking at our property we went for a drive down to where Gran and Pop used to milk. Dad lived there when he was about four years old. It's a cute house - painted cream with a green trim. In the paddock next door there are lots of highlander cattle. They look like they belong in the Swiss Alps with bells on their necks. I still can't get over how big their horns are. Earlier in the week I also took Katrina out to have a look at our property. She really liked it, except for the magpie that kept swooping down on us. He's pretty territorial haha. I'm so pleased we decided to spend an extra $5000 to get the three acres, instead of the one acre block of land. I love how it's scattered with native trees, the rolling land and the tranquil stream that runs the length of our back boundary. It's everything I've ever wanted and I can't wait to build our first home there. Today we also worked out that the deciduous trees on the road frontage are Liquid Amber trees. I love those trees, especially when they're covered in their autumn leaves. The trees down by our creek have started to get their new leaves, now that it's Spring. Dad is now sure that they're willow trees, not poplars.
I've written a lot tonight, so will finish with a quick update on living in the cabin. Dad managed to work out that the pressure of the water coming down from the house was too high. He's turned the pressure right down and now the water temperature in the shower is a lot hotter. Dad has also hooked our washing machine up in the shed. He's done a bit of a DIY job and has connected a tap to some piping outside our cabin. All I need to do now is to turn that tap on and then turn my washing machine on at the wall in the shed. I've put some photos of the set up into a photo album. All the animals have settled in really well. Buttons isn't overly excited about going outside and will hide underneath the cabin when I put her outside. She will also opt to go to the toilet in her litter tray inside, instead of in the grass. She's such a lazy lump. The chickens love exploring around our cabin and the farm sheds, but also go for big walks around the paddocks. They're loving being able to have dust baths in the red gravel. Basil is no longer a white chicken! Paul has taken the boxes out from underneath the bed for me so the bed is now at its normal height again - soooo happy! I've pushed it against one of the walls so we have more room down Paul's side. It also makes it easier to get the vacuum cleaner down there. I took some photos of our cabin today so will upload those to one of the photo albums. I've decided to put the yellow, grey and white duvet away until we move into our new house. Buttons is always coming in with dirty paws and leaving her paw prints on our bed so will leave the old duvet cover on for now.
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