Renovate me

But wait, we've made progress 

Last year we were finally able to call an architect. When she came back with 2 ideas we were thrilled. I thought we'd have to add a story cos our block is small but the architect also suggested an alternative plan where we added rooms but stayed on one level. Perfect - full of excitement we thought it all might be done by Christmas and then as time passed, we thought Easter and now with Easter just 2 weeks away....I dare not even hope that work can start by the end of this year.

You see there's a sewer main that runs under our property. It will need to be encased with concrete and foundations for the extension will need to account for it. This is not the problem though cos it would involve at most 3 metres of pipe. No, the straw that's broken my spirit are the two side pipes. We know not where they go. Clearly some higgldy piggly route towards our neighbours but we have been digging, we've paid labourers to dig too... But have not been able to locate their placement at the edge of where the proposed building is to happen. 

If we don't find them Sydney water (whose plans are not accurate) won't sign off on our complying development. We can't finalise structural details till we find them and have them signed off. So we can't put our Reno proposal out to tender either....and so hiding in my room, trying to forget the mess that is our back yard at the moment, I just feel like crying. 

Finding a high school for Kit is proving challenging and I'm feeling like I let him down. Failure weighs heavy.... Renovation nightmare might just be a cliche but I think we've found some sort of hell even before the renovation has started!