"Curiouser and curiouser", said Alice...

You put the mezzanine in
You put the mezzanine out
You put the mezzanine in
And you shake it all about...

And if you call it a 'storage platform' and don't have a spiral staircase, but use a mobile ladder to get up there...it's ok!
In the curious world of building rules and regulations, it is somehow safer to have a ladder, not attached to anything, than a fixed spiral staircase to provide access to the platform in the living room. Ours is not to reason 'why', apparently.
So the mezzanine storage platform is back in, but without the staircase.
Still in the world of strangeness, Council advised that the proposed zinc cladding (which would be on the exterior of the bay windows outside the bathroom, bedroom and Viktoria's studio) would be too reflective in the silver zinc colour. Given that where the house is located, the only thing it would be reflecting into would be the eyes of a passing pademelon, we were touched at Council's concern.
So we have had to change the material from zinc to Colorbond. We are using one of their new Metallics range, called Citi.
Here is a picture of some of the Colorbond Metallics. Citi is the one that takes up most of the photo. Good thing it's not silver.

In other news, the various specialists (engineers, hydronics, wastewater, fire management etc) have all provided their reports and/or drawings. These are now with Michael Lane from Cordwell Lane (our builder) for final costing. We have a couple of cheaper options up our proverbial sleeves if the costings come back at heart attack inducing levels - this may happen because since we last had an estimate from Michael, we have had to move the house further down the hill so that our driveway can accommodate the turning circle of an 8m long fire truck. Thank you new bush fire regs.
This will impact the cost increase in two ways:

1. the driveway is going to cost a lot more because there is more of it, and it requires more fill, more engineering and a gabion rock wall to hold it all in place, and
2. moving the house has meant that it is now on a steeper part of the land, which means that our 'slab on ground' is now partially suspended, which means more expensive footings and more brickwork

We are hoping to have the costings next week.
Until then, yours in anticipation
V&A