the long and slow process of building

Am certainly on a roll now......
We plan to build ourselves another home (can't live in this dinky cave/cottage forever) but the consent processes in this part of the area are just shocking. it has taken almost 9 months of to-ing and fro-ing with council to get the permission to build a shed in which we'll live whilst we build the big house. Given that we live rural and we have hundreds of hectares of farmland you'd think a shed would be a given. the shed will consist of 2 open bays (for tractors, tools, mowers etc) and the third part will be our home. only 92 m2 which is tiny but it will be fine!!! anyway after much debate they decided the shed could not be in the same place where the house is planned as it would be visible for about 1 millisecond as one drives down the Crown Range. Rule with this is nothing should be visible when coming down the range. the previous house we built had to be built down into the earth to achieve the required height we needed so as not to be seen. anyway long story they found another site further away from planned house which we accepted - put in new power lines, water supply, separate sewerage tank etc etc - a lot of expense - just so we have a shed to live in (which will be used for friends and guests once we move out!!!!). approval came through on Friday saying all is good as long as we rip out the kitchen and laundry when we move out. WHY???????
who would invest all that money in a kitchen and laundry - to have it ripped out after 2 years. crazy!!!! so we'll just forget that was written for a while and press on - building starts on Wednesday....

in the meanwhile we have moved a lot of earth in preparing the site for the actual house. not approved yet and may be another lengthy process - however we were required to build burms (false hills to all those not in the know) so in doing so we have prepared the area to build. also Dave has begun the veggie patch which was put there so as to avoid having to build 2 veg patches. He has grand ideas for glass house and lots more beds but this will do for now - so here are some pics of what it is looking like at this stage - which dare i say it - looks rather large and well - ready.