23rd - 29th August 2010

Monday was decision day for the concrete and the men came and sealed two of the rooms that had been etched and they looked rather nice...
... so we let them loose in the living areas, where they made yet more mess and a lot of noise.

Meanwhile in the bathrooms, the tilers were very busy and had the magic effect of doubling the size of the main bathroom. Quite amazing!

Tuesday and the tiles appeared on the wall...


... and the concrete men spread their mess into the entrance hall.

Oh yes and we discovered that the benchtops for the laundry and the garage had both had their sinks mounted the wrong way round, so they went back to the factory just like the two parts of the kitchen bench had before them.

Wednesday and the bathroom looked rather smart...

... and we turned our attention to the garden and the new fruit trees that were ready for us. Fortunately it was a stunning day ...

... and Dave had dug all the holes and made the supports previously so it was just a matter of popping them in and tying up the nets.

There were some very small ones (this one is a walnut which should grow to be the biggest of the lot) ...

... and some very large ones (this one is a nectarine, yum) ...

... and one was missing altogether.

But at the end of the day our orchard was just about full.

We (well, mainly Dave of course) had also continued on with the internal painting at an amazing pace. At the beginning of the week we had completed 47% of the total painting (sealer and two top coats to all the floors and ceilings) and by the end of the week this had risen to 67%.Yay!!!

And now we had some yellow walls ...

... and some peachy ones.

And I finally bit the bullet and handed in my notice to retire. It had always been my intention to do this once the house was finished and as it turned out this just about coincided with my office having to move buildings. So it seemed perfect timing. And I was reassured that we would be able to survive without my earnings as I collected this week's harvest - 4 and a half very tiny potatoes, 4 broad bean pods picked a bit early before anyone else got them, plus one more daffodil bud that had been picked and pre-chewed for me. Looks like we might be needing those food parcels from our kids.

16 - 22nd August 2010

Monday arrived and we were all ready for the concrete men to do the floor but not prepared for the dreadful weather that came with them.


Still it didn't put them off and they attacked the floor with great gusto, a lot of noise but not too much care and attention. We had had so much trouble finding something we liked and we were not completely confident that it would be OK so we asked them to do just the two bedrooms on the front of the house and the laundry at this stage. We couldn't risk letting them loose in the lounge without seeing what it would be like.

Anyway, they gave the floors a light grind (to expose the stones a bit) ...

and then sprayed on some mixed caramel and coffee coloured acid ...

... and it all looked shiny and bright but went all over the floor and the bottom part of the walls.

They returned the next day to wash it off, by which time it looked like this ...

... aaahh help, not sure I'm going to like it.

But once they had been rinsed and had dried out, they looked a lot better ...

... although we were a bit upset that they ripped the gibboard when they removed their tape. Still, we will wait and see what they look like when they have been sealed before letting them loose in the lounge.

Meanwhile Dave busied himself with more painting ...

... and yet more painting. We had been bracing ourselves for the second coat on the living room ceiling and managed to finish it on the Wednesday. We were very relieved and also very pleased with how it turned out. Thank goodness that is done as everywhere else is of manageable proportions.

Then we got ready for next week, when the tiler is due. So we collected the tiles ...

... the tiler's wife waterproofed the wet areas (yay a female worker at last!), and Neil returned briefly to add the architraves around the window and doors.

And just in case we liked the sealed concrete floors, we protected our beautiful lounge walls by folding up the plastic sheeting that had been covering the floor. Of course Dave managed to find ways of supporting the plastic even where there were no obvious points of attachment ...

... and soon everything was (hopefully) protected ...

... but it did look a bit stark.

Oh yes and the hares / rabbits / pukekos found our first three daffodils and careful picked each one for us! Grrrr!

9th - 15th August 2010

It was just as well we had spent our weekend painting as the kitchen arrived as promised at 7:30am on Monday morning. There seemed to be quite a lot of it (as there were bits for the laundry and garage too) and it seemed quite brown!!!


The men set to work installing it with the help of their nifty little leveller ...

... and then it was a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.

Then the bench top arrived which blended in with the walls and the units quite nicely but unfortunately one half of the bench had been damaged in transit and the other half was missing a bit of the edging. So now you see them ...

... and now you dont. Still the rest of the kitchen looked rather fine if a bit caramelly.

In fact, I was a bit worried about the colour so I sent some photos of it to our family colour consultants, Lorraine and Grandad, and, as it turned out, one of the last pieces of advice he gave me was that he thought the colour was a big mistake. Sadly he died the next morning which was a terrible shock for us all and gave us plenty to reflect on as we painted over the next few days.

Once the kitchen was in place, the gibstoppers moved back to the living room to sand it down ...

... and tidy it up ready for us to paint. Which was a mixed blessing as it meant things were progressing nicely but meant we had an awful lot to paint.

Meanwhile, Dave had been busying himself in the two bathrooms and they looked rather smart in their new 'half dutch white' coat.

Wednesday and the benchtops came back again but just as the second one was being positioned for the last time, it got knocked and had to go back again to be repaired. Still half a bench was progress.

We started to attack the living room at this point and started with the sealer coat for the walls, which was a fairly gently introduction to ...

... the assault on the ceiling. Combined with the kitchen, it was a total of about 83 sq m which is pretty neck-breaking stuff. By Sunday afternoon, we had completed the sealer and the first top coat on the walls and ceiling and really felt we had done enough for a mallowpuff (or an extra bit of date cake to be precise).

Not that we were counting, but at this point we calculated that we had completed over 670 sq m or about 30% of the total painting to be done.

2nd - 8th August 2010

The builders were with us only two days this week as they returned to finish the pergola on Monday and Tuesday and then went off to their next job. They had erected the posts last week and the ever meticulous Neil complained that they had moved in the wind over the weekend and spent ages persuading them to realign.

Eventually, they were satisfied and it looked awesome, though in need of a vine or two to grow up it. So thanks to Neil and Richard for a job well done, please don't forget to come back for all the finishing inside.

Meanwhile inside our three highly skilled gibstoppers had been doing their stuff and had been working through the house room by room and layer by layer.

Gradually they finished rooms so that Dave could move in for the painting stage.
The main priority was the kitchen as the units were due next Monday but for some reason the bathrooms were finished first and we could not start in the kitchen until Saturday morning so it was all very rushed and stressful.

Anyway after a lot of hard work and some advice from the gibstopper who was clearly worried about what we were going to do to his amazingly perfect walls, we first gained a white kitchen ...

... and then a caramel one. The photo really does not show off the room in its full caramelly glory but neither does it do justice to its wonderful smooth finish.