17th - 23rd May 2010

Another glorious week of autumn and the builders continued with their work on the suffits, the ceiling of the breezeway and the preparation of the windows. This seemed to be a 2-man job and, as Dave had finished the first coat of paint on all the sheets of cladding, he had to look around for other things to do.

The pukekos had been becoming even more of a nuisance and had started to dig up the potato plants. Fortunately they weren't interested in the potatoes underneath so we could still enjoy them.

So we had had a family challenge to design the most effective bit of a scarepukeko which was very fine and scary but unfortunately did not have the intended effect.


Dave has spent many hours digging out gorse bushes from our 'front lawn' and reckoned he had finished the job there. Unfortunately, I think there are still a fair few there though!

He also tidied up the rubbish and sawdust in the backyard and inside the house so it all looked much smarter. It certainly impressed the men who delivered the windows who reckoned it didn't look like a building site at all.

Wednesday and the progress continued on the windows ...


... and the breezeway ceiling was complete and painted.

And yay, the windows arrived. The ranch sliders will be glazed in situ ...

... while the windows and doors were already glazed.

The pukekos attacked the potato patch with more gusto and almost completely flattened the second area ...


... and for some reason, after 6 months, decided to dig up all the cardboard and grass clippings used to mulch the flax plants, to make the area look more like the council rubbish tip.

Friday, and big excitement as the first window was installed. This was a very complex exercise involving flashings and rodent strips and angled supports ...




... but at the end of the day, it looked awesome. Yay!