Third Hurdle - Preliminary Cost Nightmares - but, life goes on

Clearing was meant to have started on our Tassie block today (4th March).
It hasn't.
Several days ago, we received the preliminary costs estimate from the builder. After suffering a joint heart-attack, we decided that the build was going to be completely financially unviable, and that we should just call it a day and notch the whole thing up to experience. An after-hours crisis meeting with Neal-the-Architect and Michael-the-Builder has temporarily averted the crisis...with some frenzied activity on materials, construction, site location & floor plan going on behind the scenes.
In case we didn't have enough to do, a tenant at our rental property who (despite not paying rent since Christmas day) has decided it's completely reasonable to stay, not clean, fix any breakages, and refuse to vacate, all at our expense. Legally all we can do is wait for the court date (19th March) before we can even gain entry to see how bad the damage is. And while our insurance will cover some of it, we will still be minus the various excesses we have to pay, and the exclusion period on the loss of rent...
Life has a funny habit of continuing to move around you, even when you may want it to stop.
Just for a little bit.
And we are still fixing up damage to our own home from ex-tropical cyclone Oswald.
While our corner of the world didn't flood (we mentioned we live on a mountain, yeah?), and we therefore don't get the news coverage some other areas do, our little community still has its fair share of issues, like...

....a fallen tree where someone's front veranda used to be....

...a large empty space where someone's back yard used to be....

... or broken machinery in lieu of an underground water tank...

But we remain forever thankful that no humans up here lost their lives.
And we remain grateful that we live in a country which allows us the life and lifestyle choices that we have access to.
But sometimes, just sometimes, we would like a bit of a break.
The contractors have been re-scheduled for 25th March, when hopefully our lives and finances will be back on track.
V&A