The Majestic - Walk through 26-7-10

Our journey has officially begun. I will try to update this thread as much as possible, although I admit, my focus will be on my blog. So if I fall behind, that is where updated info and photos will be found.

My husband and I are building our first house, although we have lived together for over 13 years now. It is an exciting time and we are looking forward to the journey - the ups and downs as everyone here seems to be going through.

First thing first:

The Purple Palace


This house was tenanted until the 5th of July. We were happy to demolish it and start the process of creating something like this:

On my next post, I will provide photos of the demolition and a little surprise that was found inside one of the wall cavities.

WOW TamDaz, that's beautiful (the Purple Palace is pretty cute too!). Good luck with your journey and Congratulations on the start...

Can't wait to hear what was in the wall....

Congrats on your first build

WOW That will be an amazing transformation, looking forward to following your journey,
and finding out the surprise in the wall...

As the demolition team were stripping our house ready for demolition, they came across a letter from an 11 year old girl.



It was so well written. Knowing I'm a teacher, the demolition guys knew I would find it a lovely sentiment.
We also know why the place was painted purple too.



I would love to be able to write back to her, but I think I will have trouble tracking her down with no last name mentioned. I guess I can only try.

Also found, was this photo of 'Christopher 2 and 1/2'. It wasn't linked to the letter. I date this one to be late 70's, early 80's.



A suggestion made on my blog by a fellow homeone member was to write our own letter and put it in the walls during the build - creating our own little time capsule for the future. Sounds like a great idea to me. The feeling behind getting it just sends shivers down your spine.

Wow, thats really cool!
I wonder how long its been in there? And how did she get it inside the wall?

How freaky finding that in the walls, I hope you can find her!

Good luck with your build

We have dated the letter late 2001 as it mentions how the world didn't end in the year 2000 and the 'tragic event' of September 11, 2001. I guess that makes Kate about 19 years old now. Would have been freakier if we found it further in the future, but freaky just the same. I'm assuming they put it in the wall when they were putting in a heater or air conditioner or something as it was found in the lounge room wall.



Thanks Hels, its getting exciting now.

The demolition of the Purple Palace occured on Thursday, 9th of July. It went very well.















I highly recommend GP and Sons Demolition if you are needing any demo work in the Adelaide area.

Have been really busy over the past week, but can happily report that the significant tree on our block has now been removed and our block is clear, ready to build on. Henley organised a site re-survey for Wednesday 15th, and now we are just waiting for that report back to hear of a site start date. Soon we will be joining everyone else in the building process. I can't wait!!! Well...I can wait, but I'm getting very excited.

We've been pegged!



I know it doesn't look like much, but very exciting for us as it means the slab is just around the corner (if that water dries up that is- has been there since a big downpour over 2 weeks ago).

WOW TamDaz, just caught up with your progress, looking fantastic. It is very exciting. We have had our slab for about a week. It's a great feeling when that concrete goes down, you feel like something is finally (especially for you, with all that rain) happening. So Good Luck for a slab real soon!!! Looking good so far.

Hi Tamdaz,
Just a suggestion with regards to the letter found in the wall, you might try contacting your local newspaper. They may run a story on it. We just recently had a story in our local paper about a man finding a message in a bottle washed up on the beach (good song there) ... it was run in the local paper to find the author of the messages written. Turned out it was a local family who wrote messages for their recently deceased mother's birthday and sent it from her favourite beach, it was a lovely story. (sorry about my grammar, nearly bedtime)

themax - yes we are looking forward to having a slab like you. My guess is from now forward, we will always be a few steps behind you, so I will have to follow your thread with anticipation to see what happens next for us.

Jaelee, that is a good idea. I haven't had a chance yet to follow it up. But given there seems to be a fair bit of demolition going on in the area I should get onto it soon or all the locals that may have an answer for us would have moved out.

That local paper idea IS a great idea, youshould do that!

Work has finally commenced! Our site has been scraped, we have had the steel for the slab reinforcement delivered and most importantly...we have a toilet!!!

I took some friends past the block today and they seemed somewhat surprised by my excitement of this milestone. Little do they know why it is exciting. But I know you guys understand.

In an email, we were told we would have a slab by the end of the week, but given the trenches haven't even been dug yet, we know that won't be possible. Doesn't bother me though, gives us a bit more opportunity to get a couple $$ together to put on the block where our future entrance will be (to welcome wealth and prosperity into the house - apparently) and prepare our dogs for paw printing into the slab hehe...

Photos to come...(even if they aren't all that exciting)

Hi TamDaz,

Oh, I agree with you 100% about leaping with joy at the mere sight of a port-a-loo! I'd read other accounts of the port-a-loo joy and only realised it myself this Tuesday when we got one for our site! I'm also happy about any little thing that happens on the site (even the front security fence going up was a joy!). Yes, it seems you, Charlie and I will probably have our slab-day around the same time or so. We only figured out that we would get a slab sooner rather than later when our site supervisor mentioned that the carpenter would start at the end of next week. Whether we will get a slab next week remains to be seen since like you, I haven't seen any trenches or conduits on our site....and our site supervisor doesn't work on the weekends (although the tradies may well do?). For now, I'm pleased with the progress made since Tuesday. I reckon, you'll get heaps of action the next day or two....hot weather, so no excuses really...

ta,
tc2000

Hey TamDaz! Congrats on the site start and the oh-so-exciting portaloo! As charming as the purple palace was, your new home will be just gorgeous! Can't wait to watch it go up. Look forward to hearing if you're able to track down 'Kate' as well - she'd get such a thrill knowing the letter had been found. The time capsule idea is fun - I'd like to do something similar. Good luck with everything!

Hey tamdaz,

I realised that you have as many digger action photos as I do!!!!!
My hubby was just content to stand and watch the digger in action whereas I was happily snapping away with my camera.
Must be a female thing?

It's sunny and crazily windy out there...so it's time again...but the winds sure are bringing on the pollen.

Thanks Charlie and Tc2000. I've been reading through your threads and it sounds like many exciting times are just around the corner for you both. Although I haven't commented yet, as I'm just trying to find time to keep my blog updated. Will comment further on your threads as soon as I can.