Yet another trip to the southern lands...

One of the benefits of time travel is that you can make lightening-fast trips interstate, and be back before you even realise you've gone.
That's how Viktoria ended up spending a week in Tasmania recently.
But not with the Android; with her mother (yes, apparently someone does claim earthly responsibility for bringing Viktoria into this world).
Viktoria and Mother were able to do some wonderfully 'touristy' things - like climb the Tahune Airwalk in the Huon Valley (conveniently designed by JAWS Architects), visit MONA (the Museum of Old & New Art - which was amazing), stroll through the Salamanca Markets, catch up with friends and generally eat & drink a lot.
But of course, the main reason for the trip was to visit Neal-the-Architect. This was mainly to confirm the position of the rainwater & fire tanks, the septic tank & trenches, the redesign of the driveway and where we could site the shipping container. All these necessary (but not so exciting things) are required for submitting the Development Application to Council. But it was also nice to just catch up with him face-to-face.

TIP: The terms "Development Application" and "Planning Application" seem to be used interchangeably in architect parlance.

The JAWS office was very busy, so it was lovely that everyone took the time out for us, including Luke who took Viktoria & Mother on a 3D fly-through of the design which was really exciting.

And although Viktoria was mainly there to deal with the (relatively) boring aspects of water tank positions,  much to Neal's frustration, Viktoria still managed to distract everyone talking with Michael-the-Builder about the "look and feel" of the house. Like this picture of the 'pallette' that Viktoria and the Android have decided they want for the kitchen....

 ...or the feature light that we would like included somewhere (in addition to the LED lights which will be the main lighting)....

We also managed to make a few more "tweaks" to the plan - and yes, it is much easier to discuss a picture when you are in the same room as someone... but we think we've managed pretty well so far. So we have changed the bathroom a bit to have the basins on either side of the doorway, like this...

 ...and the bath will be a sunken concrete bath which will be built in situ when the slab is laid...

After catching up with Michael-the-Builder (who was unfazed by our stair-book-chrysalis), Neal drove Viktoria and Mother out to the site.
Viktoria had warned Neal that, after meeting Mother, he would understand why Viktoria is like she is. In mock disgust, Mother announced that she would not say a single word, so that Neal would know Viktoria was really a terribly disrespectful child.
That plan lasted right up until Mother asked Neal whether he had goblins in the trunk of his car...(those 'goblins' turned out to be a pair of gumboots and a bottle of wine).
Unsurprisingly, a cleared building site is a rather depressing, muddy, wasteland. And even though there were pegs in the ground, it was difficult to really visualise the size or layout of our future home as there wasn't much around by way of reference.
Now back in Queensland, Viktoria & the Android have had the chance to read through the "Bushfire Management Plan" and "Onsite Waste Water Management Plan"... two other documents required to submit the Development Application under Tasmanian law.
These reports have raised a number of questions (to which we are hoping Neal has the answers) which we will probably have to address before the Application can be submitted. We've left our concerns in Neal's capable hands, and will let you know where we go to from here, as soon as we know which direction we are pointed...
V&A