Terrible tale of two cisterns and a missing key..

My little one K on the way to his cousin's 1st birthday fiesta (and yes, I did forget to hem the sleeves on the traditional Indian "Kurta" he's wearing but I'm clueless when it comes to sewing)

Not so bad at kids' fiesta food I must say! That's a mars bar slice topped with strawberries and marshmallows on the left. On the right are vanilla cupcakes with simple butter icing. I actually PIPED icing on =P Disposable piping bags are amazing!

After frantically packing almost everything left last weekend, the rental house suddenly is much easier to keep clean. We have so much STUFF. Hardly any of which we need. Watch out ebayers, because a moving sale is going to pop up in a couple days.

Waking up to a pristine house everyday this week was a little disconcerting after years of cleaning a room, then minutes later, seeing toys miraculously invade our living area (which hubby and I like to keep clean and neat).

This morning, not much after 6am, my boys managed to climb up the bunk bed, grab the container with their train set (packed up but not yet boxed), dump the contents in big son's bedroom.. and slowly see it toot toot throughout the house. Train tracks underfoot. That's much more familiar than our minimalist home.

So what's the deal with the terrible tale? Well, being a bit dramatic here. I believe I'm more than entitled to since we were expecting to get the keys tomorrow morning.

Nope, not going to happen. Family helping with the move, flooring installation, real estate agents, independent inspector.. they all had to be called and rescheduled.

The plumbing company delivered and installed the wrong wall cisterns. Wrong toilet = No final payment cheque delivered to Eden Brae. Of all things.. its the toilets that are holding us back.

It's been a frustrating week as I expected the house full of tradies for the final push to site completion. Instead, it was dismal, raining and empty for most of the week. I wondered around the house on Tuesday after dropping the boys of at preschool. I was there alone for almost an hour. Usually I love being in the house. But it was completely irritating seeing so much had to be done and there was no one there doing any of it.

We're aiming now for Final Inspections to happen on Monday and have re-booked the Key Handover meeting with Eden Brae at 11am Wednesday. Expecting more delays.

Not sure what I'll be feeling when I'm finally holding those keys. It's such a surreal experience this whole "dream home construction" business. 18 months of our lives and wild emotional spikes have gone into this..

I'm not sure I'll remember I have keys for the first few weeks.. I may continue to sneak around hoping for unlocked doors or open windows to get inside. My poor neighbours.

Now, my last word is going to be about driveways. If you're building, please, PLEASE don't forget to add one to your contract with the builder. A lot of our neighbours didn't, and not only is it nasty moving in and living without a driveway in terms of mud and dirt. But also it's a huge expense to think about when there's so many other (all large!) expenses at this stage. Ha, every new home owner knows the two words that bring on nausea and sweaty palms.. RETAINING WALLS *shudder* More to come on that pleasant topic in the coming weeks.

Thank goodness Hubby (AKA Mr. Coco) insisted a driveway which connected to the Porch was included in with the house build. He's the practical one!

Driveway ready to be poured but it rained, and drizzled, threatened to rain, then poured, weeks of waiting then gloop! this morning driveway magick'd at 7am