It's now Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting in the study at Jenny & Macca's -they've gone to Sydney for the long weekend and have kindly offered some respite space. It's very quiet and the view of green shrubs and trees through the window is a welcome contrast to the near monochrome landscape of home.
Earlier this week I had some helpful discussions with various local and State govt. agencies, the outcome of which is that we are unable to rebuild on the site of the old barn because it was partially on a road reserve which goes nowhere and can go nowhere except through our property. It feels a little bit like dog in the manger stuff. Neither DSE nor Nillumbik Council have done anything about the road for more than 50 and possibly 100 years but they won't let us do anything other than use the land for agricultural purposes in accordance with the lease we have with DSE. It has been suggested that we may wish to purchase the land from Council and I guess that's a possibility except that it requires funds that we don't really have and in any case apart from having to find a new barn site would probably change nothing.
It's all been a bit frustrating because in addition to the above, we've also been informed that the Government sponsored clean up program by Grocom is an all or nothing deal. If you sign up, they do the clean-up but any clean up work done by us after last Monday, will have to be paid for by us. As I've been waiting to hear from the insurance company about whether or not they'll accept the recommendation of the assessor, on the positive side we have not incurred any cost. The downside is that we don't know when the clean-up will occur.
Speaking of insurance it's been about 3 weeks since the assessor came out and it would be good to have some feedback from the company. The assessor reckoned we were probably OK on contents but probably a bit under on the house so it would be useful to get an understanding of how much under.
On Friday I realised I hadn't seen my wallet since Tuesday so after a complete search of the house, cars and my brain, it was time to begin ringing around to all of the places I'd been on Tuesday. No success and I'm starting to get a bit agitated by the prospect of having to go through the whole new wallet, licence, bank card, etc., process again. Went to Diamond Creek Police Station to report it lost and had the details taken by Sgt Wayne Spence, OIC for the DC area.
We've seen each other around the place over the last few weeks and I made a point of saying that I thought he and all of the Vic & NSW police people had done and were doing a great job. Everyone thanks the CFA but I think the police are pretty much taken for granted or as a nuisance. Noticed that he was wearing a yellow "We will Rebuild" bracelet and on enquiring discovered that they were available at the DC newsagent. Hurried down there and bought two.
About 5:30pm on Friday I got a missed call and after calling back, discovered that it was the Telstra shop in Greensborough and they had the missing wallet.
Saturday morning I collected the wallet and purchased a USB modem for the laptop so that I will be able to work from home while waiting for Telstra to reconnect all the phone lines and then went down to Officer to have a look at a constructed "Farmer" post and bean wooden barn made from a kit by Alternative Dwellings. It's roughly 12m x12m and the sales manager reckons it'll cost about $50K to construct including 2 carpenters and a post construction concrete floor. I'll speak to Dig but I reckon I should be able to do a fair bit of it myself with assistance from the hordes of volunteer helpers waiting in the wings and it will probably have a floor made of brick , got plenty of those, or rammed earth and linseed oil or perhaps some other additive, which should also reduce the cost.
Upon my return, discovered that Lesley and Steven had arrived to visit. Haven't seen them for ages so a good bit of catching up was done. Steven and I drove up home to spread some "Danger Do Not Enter" tape about and comply with council requirements.
Speaking of Council and other Agency requirements, Steven from Nillumbik Health Dept. called on Friday to say that his recommendations for locating caravans on site during rebuilding had been approved and would be published on the council website as soon as the IT wallahs had suitable formatted his document.
Will need to check of course, the newly announced bushfire building regulations - I hope they do not preclude wooden buildings as I don't really want to just build a tin shed. Hmm! well I just did that and it it isn't at all clear whether barns are included. The barn guy said there wouldn't be any problems but he's not the final arbiter so a call to the building dept at Nillumbik coming up on Tuesday.
Very early this morning my brain kicked in with a suggestion that was so obvious it's a wonder it hasn't popped up before. Instead of putting the new barn more or less in the same location, why not put it on the flat below the tank. Obviously will need council building permission and a bit of preparation work carried out like; cutting down the dead poplars and removing the star picket and barbed wire fence, removing the old concrete foundations from the flat and not least providing some access roads to and from the flat. Ros suggested that seeing as the govt road easement goes at least halfway to the flat, we could ask council to gravel it for us.
All of the above depended on confirming that there was room on the flat for a 12m x 12m barn, so after breakfast and entertainment by Angas & Phoebe, I drove up this morning with tape measure, hammer and tent peg, to do a spot of measuring. And ... the news is good. Think we can also get the caravan up there.
Need to check with Sean but I think a skid steer is all we'll need. Also need to call Main roads (Bill Murphy) and ask when they plan to remove the logs they've stacked in the middle of the access to the flat.
I can also see a need to include a new poly tank in the plan, to capture water from the barn.
Ros mentioned yesterday that perhaps we could rebuild on the same site - there are a bunch of negatives and positives for this so a bit more talking will be had on the subject.
I need to try and complete the Lost Contents spreadsheet for the insurance so it's time to change screens.
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