I think Banjo is turning into an escape artist. We have had him on the deck since his recent runnings-away, this morning I got up to find him on the ROOF of his kennel, which I had pushed against a piece of ply (about 1.5m high) to block the opening to the stairs (which are a full 1 storey high - jed is petrified of jumping over anything to get to the stairs, obviously Banjo does not share this fear). The dog is crazy!

Sigh.

I guess this means we are going to have to put a rush on building a fence around the property. The 1.5m chicken wire was fine for Jed, but he is a 'boundary' dog, where clearly Banjo is not.

I think we have enough to build it now, but I would like to have a buffer. I don't like to clean out our house renovations fund in one go, it makes me feel a bit uneasy. Plus I have no idea how much it will actually cost, seeing as we'll only be buying the materials - DF will build it. But probably the biggest cost will be a surveyer - we already know that one of our neighbours takes issue with our boundary line. Or rather... takes issue with the previous owners boundary line.

Funny. It seems that none of our neighbours liked the previous owner, even though he did not live there, he only rented the house out. They talk badly of him chopping down the trees on our land - even though the only trees he cut down were Camphor Laurel trees, which are a BIG pest and dangerous for our environment. They spread their roots under the ground and send suckers out, take over everywhere, and strangle the life out of anything else, and also create a 'blanket' over the ground, blocking out the sunlight so that nothing can grow, and their leaves fall and poison the ground. However, apparently according to the neighbours, as long as it's big and green, it deserves to be there. (DF and I don't share this sentiment).

Anyway, to get back to my story: our neighbours (who are actually our next door neighbours' neighbours - our neighbours land ends in a triangle at the bottom, and the neighbours' neighbours joins with ours for about a metre at the bottom - I KNOW! STUPID!) believe that when the previous owner of our house cut a pathway down the side of our property to the park, he cut into some of their land. According to the plans we have, which our solicitors aquired from our council office, he DID NOT. But they think he did. DF has already had a discussion with these people, and he left because they were not listening to him. He didn't make a big deal out of it, he just said 'I have to go now.' Then came back and bitched about it to me lol

Anyway. I believe that the previous owner of our house is right, and correctly cut the land on our property. Why? Because he has been a builder his entire adult life. He is one of the most well known builders in our area, and he does the entire project from start to finish, has been doing this for nearly 40 years - so, somewhere along the line, I think he *may* have figured out how to read plans and borderlines. Call me crazy!

Anyway. So because of our neighbours' neighbours pig-headedness, we have to hire a surveyor to peg out our property, so that they can *SEE* this for themselves. I have no idea how much a surveyor costs, but I think it's around the $1000 mark. *sigh* AND I have to make sure I'm actually there when they are, to take photos of the pegs, incase the neighbours MOVE them (people are known for doing stupid things like this). HA!

Anyway. So I'm estimating that the materials for the fence will be around $2000, and the surveyor will be around $1000. But I really have no idea at all. AND it's a public holiday so I can't even call people to find out today. It's really annoying me.


GAH.