6th - 12th September 2010

Well normally we just hate really bad weather on a Monday morning but it was all good this week as it meant that the builders could not pour the concrete on their new house and the plumbers could not do their outside job and so they all came to us. And Gordy the sparky was booked in too so we had a full house and made amazing progress. And it was my first day of retirement but I was far from a lady of leisure.
Even the pukekos enjoyed the day with some new wetland areas to explore.

Soon we had taps ...

... and more taps...

... and more taps, and a toilet that frustratingly wasn't connect but looked good ...

... and yet more taps ...

... and we nearly had a fire, except that it had been damaged in transit and had to be replaced.

And outside we gained a pump and control for the septic tank ...

... while the dalek in the airing cupboard had gained some limbs.

We planted some plants to grow up the pergola - a couple of grape vines still to show signs of life ...

... and some cocktail kiwifruit that looked full of the joys of spring.

Gordy laid on the power to the pump on the water tank ...


... and installed lights - so many lights it looks like a light shop.

And we painted ...

... and painted ...

... and painted. The only near-disaster occurred in the spare bedroom/ my sewing room which was meant to be a sort of misty blue, the same as our bedroom in our old house. It was my favourite colour there and sometimes seemed blue and sometimes white. That was a very large light room and in this new room it turned out bright mauve. Quite a shock but fortunately by repainting the alcove and the wall around the window in the same colour at one eighth of the strength it appeared pale blue again. Phew!!
By the end of the week we had completed 93% of the total with just some cupboards to go. On top of that, we had returned in the evenings to press on with the architraves for Neil to use.

We felt it was time to get rid of the last bit of the mess left by the concrete men, so re-assembled the kitchen ...

... which looked so much better.

30th August - 5th September 2010

Our friends the concrete men returned on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to seal the concrete floors and this effectively put the house off limits for most of the week. This didn't mean Dave got a holiday but rather that he could change his focus from painting the walls to sorting out the large piles of architrave that had arrived. There was about 600m of the wood to be dealt to, with two coats of polyurethane to be applied before it was installed. It was quite a tricky logistical exercise as they were in quite long pieces and they needed space to dry. By the end of the week, he had completed two batches of just over 200m in total.

Once the floor was dry, we could continue with the internal painting in preparation for the plumbers and electrician who were booked in for next week. So we painted the laundry, the airing cupboard and part of the living room behind the fire. By the end of the week, we had completed 74% of the painting (up from 67% last week).

There were various things we needed Neil the builder to do as well,and so he came on Saturday morning to start on them. He installed the sink in the garage and put up some architrave which made our newly painted garage toilet look rather smart.

And we also sealed the grout in the two bathrooms. I really enjoyed doing this and set to it with great enthusiasm after I arrived home early from my last day of paid work. Unfortunately I forgot yet again that my back does not like me going down on my hands and knees and it seized up in protest. I was put on 'light duties' as a result, which meant that the next day poor Dave had to carry on painting while I went for a walk with a friend, but fortunately it eased off by Sunday.