I just realised my last update ended with the words "hopefully future updates will be more often than every three weeks" - how embarrassing!

A picture tells a thousand words ... these photos show the progress until the end of September.  The most disastrous thing was being delayed an extra week due to some of the dirt wall collapsing.  

(Note the curved wall - it isn't curved, it's just a side effect of the panorama software!)

Also here is a close-up of the rear of the house - this has confused a few people!

It's easiest to think of it in three sections:

- The left of the picture, with the extra height retaining wall, shows where the house will end

- The middle of the picture shows where the back deck will be - it will cover the two enclosed areas below.  Of these areas, the back section houses the water tank (and will also house the hot water cylinder and the external part of the heat pump) and is accessible from the rumpus/storage room on the ground floor as seen in the previous pics.  The section nearest the camera iis void/inaccessible.  The roofline of the house will cover the deck.

- The right of the picture shows the two terraced grass play areas which will be accessible from the deck via a couple of steps.  No, these aren't rooms - just big concrete boxes full of dirt!

A lot of bluestone boulders but nothing that couldn't be dealt with, fortunately!

Panoramic view from the eastern side:

Again the last picture here was July 21.  Notice the house seems to take up the whole block?  Well, not really - the flat section in the last picture (just right of middle, below the house with the red roof) is where the water tank will be - under the rear deck - so the house will end just to the left of this.  The excavation work to the right is all related to the deck and levelling of the backyard.

All the timber which you see is only temporary - to support the construction of the giant wall.  The wall will run alongside the edge of the driveway, along the edge of the ground floor of the house.  At the back it will surround the water tank (enclosing it, almost - there will be a small entryway) and then run partially into the backyard - enabling us to terrace it into multiple flat sections.

That's it for now - hopefully future updates will be more frequent that every 3 weeks!