Landscaping kicks into gear

We're wrapping up the building works now, only minor jobs to be done: bit of guttering, painting, fascia work. Tim is on the roof now working out the rain chain. The detail of chain connection inside the gutter is a difficult thing to get right. Much discussion. I think we've sussed it.

Today was probably our last site meeting and it was nice to sit with our head builder, Martin, and our architect, Fiona, and talk through what else has to be done - defects, council, compliance, warranties, etc. They and Mish have held it all together and the product is wonderful. We're happy. Standing by for visitors!

The artworks are going back up in different places. Everything is unpacked and stacked and waiting for inspiration. 

The blue tape strikes again.

And outside, a design for the whole area is evolving. Out front, Mish has begun to plant a bunch of stuff that has been well kept for a year or so with shade and water under the big plum tree. 

Further back, the probable table position, edged by more corten planters with a crushed limestone path on the left and herb garden on the right. We've enlisted the neighbour, who has a landscaping business, to come over and give us hand with irrigation and materials. That'll speed things along.

I can hear water running - he's testing it!

Library's in!

The old guest bedroom - much improved.

Mish designed the metal frames and had them made in the city. The shelves are cheese boards from Gouda. We saw them about two years ago in New Plymouth and thought, bookshelves!  And here they are.

It took our builders a few hours to navigate the frames in and get them solidly anchored to each other and onto set points on both walls, and then to thread those long wide boards boards carefully in from acute angles.

They were immediately decorated with books that were lying around the house, and toasted. It's exactly as the designer planned it.

Then we began to trek the book boxes in from the garage. First draft:

Some rods to hold sections in place and fine tuning of categories to follow, but we're chuffed.

Second batch of Seville marmalade made yesterday. 

We discovered they'd dried out a bit from being on the tree too long and probably erratic watering too (must do better). But we made a batch anyway and it turned out way better than expected. Tart and delicious.

Today Mish has been silicone painting. The tiler had to use a white silicone product for our brass coin splashback so Mish has chocolate painted it to match the grout. Note her legendary blue tape in action yet again.

Kitchen is done.

Last weekend, a birthday trip to Havelock North, about four hours north of here. Our cottage view:

Relaxing weekend and a green drive through paddocks. Drove around on the annual arts trail and talked to some interesting people: a florist who works with resin, a stone carver, a paperworks gallery owner, and a German sculptor who used to live in Berrima and knows the artist whose wife bought our Robertson house. Small world.

Kitchen works - of an eating kind!

There's ploughman's lunches:

And bread making:

And very soon we'll have a marmoleum floor and a hob and a rangehood and a sink that works and a dishwasher and the kitchen will be done. Soon.

Magnolia

Drainage works are complete and Mish zoomed out today to plant her magnolia. This is bashing in stakes to keep it stable while it settles in, as seen from the bath.

It's about seven years old so a nice size. Planted just in time for a cold windy and wet front sweeping up the country. 

Tradies at work

The kitchen's stainless steel bench looked fab, until Mish peeled back the protective film for a squiz and realised the sink was not the size specified. Bum - the bench is all one piece! Seems to have been a software error, but, all is good as the manufacturer said they can cut the sink out without removing the whole bench.

Here's a craftsman welder taking that sink out and putting the new one in - seamless. Took him hours but it's a beautiful smooth job and the sink is now right.

Also today, the floor sanders doing the third pass. It looks great! Three coats of water based polyurethane to come and no walking on it over the weekend. 

 

Moving on to landscaping

The next two days will be hectic with trades in and outside the house, but that will pretty much wrap up the electrical, building, and plumbing work. Yay! The floor works will be a bit longer as the marmoleum layer in the kitchen and the timber sander are held up.

Mish delighted with her kitchen cabinetry and here comes the 5mt stainless steel benchtop:

Meanwhile, the garden is looking really good for a year of being almost ignored and having truckloads of timber dumped on it. We have flowers and blossoms and fruit coming on, and loads of birds having a lovely time in spring.

Mish harvesting grapefruit from the roof of the Borer Hotel (aka the garage). It's a productive tree.

The crab apple is going off with a beaut blossom show. It's getting a rare water here.

And now we shift gears to think about the plan for what's left of the front yard. 

Mish has been having fun this weekend  laying out a design for planting and pathways, with a planter box combo around a seating area in the foreground. On her right is the advanced magnolia that will get planted in that spot after the last bit of trenching to move an electrical cable. That's Monday ooh la la.

The plan looks good. Mish is chuffed. There will be plenty of Australian natives and vegetables, two espaliered figs and more citrus and a herb garden and crushed limestone paths and some paving and an irrigation system and then a cup of tea and bit of a lie down.

We have to move all the landscaping mockup on Sunday as there will be at least two tradie vans parked here come Monday morning.

Two tradies! Our sparkies levelling the circular lights over the kitchen bench.

Mish has been experimenting with low alcohol wine. So much for the Wolf Blass rosé. That's a mad curve she's got on the pour. This is our washhouse which is still the kitchen - for one more day!

Taking in the morning sun and spring odourama on the deck outside main bedroom and studio. So glad we put that back in the works.

Home stretch - things are getting finished

Bit by bit, things are wrapping up and the pieces of the house are going into place.

A few weeks ago we had an empty kitchen.

Then one happy day for Mish, the kitchen cabinetry arrived. This is Mish cooking breakfast on our
portable induction plate down the bedroom end, while the truck backs up the driveway.

Two days later, most of the kitchen cabinetry is in.

And today, beginning to unpack boxes and put things in drawers. Mish heaven.

Our kitchen floorboards couldn't be saved thanks to a gummy substance discovered under the tiles. Bum. But at least it wasn't asbestos. So the floor boards came up and the builders discovered a bit of extra work needed to be done with the bearers (of course!)  and we now have a plywood floor waiting for a beautiful black marmoleum to go over top. 

Still to come in the kitchen: flooring, blinds, lighting, stainless steel bench top (coming in the door in one veeeery long L-shaped piece in about two weeks), induction hob (seen above in cardboard box that was quietly chewed by Plum under the bed one day), and fridge (it's down the hall). 

Other bits getting ticked off include building the deck outside Mish's studio. Decking arriving:

The piles of topsoil and sand have come out of the soakpit we had to dig for drainage in the middle of the photo. We can plant over that, it's like a Lego system of plastic crates and matting underground. Just don't drive on it haha.

And the rain chain project. The chain will fall at the back door into the copper water heater we took out in Newlands and have been saving for 12 years for something interesting.  That time has arrived. Mish cutting the top off.

And the green glass bricks over the library entrance - they're in! 

The first of our tradies have left the site. Momentous! 

The painters finished yesterday and we lifted up the thin plywood sheets laid down over the floors to protect the surface from painters, plasterers, etc. Then we swept up, picked up, vacuumed, and hired a carpet washer and gave the guest bedroom a good clean. It's beginning to look and feel like a house again instead of a worksite.

Which is rather nice cause both of us are down with a rotten cold that's making us cough our guts out. I've had it nearly two weeks and I shared with Mish a week ago.  We've never been sick at the same time. No energy. Most inconvenient.

Running away yet again

This time to sister Arlene's small farm to look after their new pooch Bo, another huntaway, while she and kids spent a sporty week in Queenstown.

At this stage of our build we are so loving peaceful places to just hang out. So nice to have electricity at night - and an actual kitchen!

An  Australian with gum trees in the back paddock.

Bo spent the entire time relaxing too. He's a failed farm dog. Only three years old but far too laid back for the farming life. So he was no trouble. 

By the time we got home this time the worst of the disruptive works have passed. Phew.

Running away again

 New Plymouth, yay! 

A four hour road trip up north - we ran away for three days. It was getting fairly stressful, living in the works with tradies everywhere coming and going and trying to stay out of their way and dust and power cords all over the floor and so on.

Pukekura Park was far more peaceful.

We stayed at Fitzroy Motor Camp (I had my first birthday there) on the beach at New Plymouth. Mish and I camped in a tent there in 2000 when we did our two month drive around NZ. 

Had a lazy few days, walking around favourite places in the city and beyond.

Monica's Cafe, always good.

Full moon under the Wind Wand on a wet waterfront walk.

Stopped halfway home at the cleanest cafe in the world, the funky fifties Viv's Kitchen with cheap and chokka toasted sandwiches.

And back into it for a few days, before running away again!

Into spring and mere weeks to go in the works

The last bit of gib going in - the guest bathroom's skylight. 

There's still a bit to do though - builders have still got to build the back door ramp and steps outside Mish's studio. Kitchen arriving end of the month, plasterers and painters lining up to work inside. We're moving things from room to room and out again as work gets done by every trade.

We went into town to admire the cool metal shelves Mish has had made for the library cheese boards. She's had fun. 

Cheeseboards from Gouda have arrived and are stacked up in the mistresses bedroom, and the vanity from Italy has finally arrived after much delay and one of our few glitches. 'Fly it in now at your expense,' said Mish. And they did.

We're enjoying living in the new wing, crowded with household goods though it is.  The old house has no power and our cool spring nights involve extension cords flowing over the floor so we can access heating, light and internet in the living room. Works ok - but we'll we glad to not do that (it'll be a month when everything works like it should). 

Not living in the living room

 Cause we can't get in there.

We've run away again

With superb timing, my old mate Diana who lives around the corner from us and her partner Robynne have gone south for two weeks. And we are camped at their place. Wahoo!

The builders and all the other trades are now in every room of the old house except the living room and we can't yet get into the new wing. Living room is stacked with boxes and furniture and the electricity is off. But we have a haven. 

Ripping off the gib in the writing room. 

And looking in the other direction back into the house through what was our two adjacent bathrooms.

Every room has something going on and the centre of the house is gutted. Mish is 'yeah!' and I'm OMG.

Tim's standing in what was the little loo - knocked out so we can now walk through to the new wing.

The kitchen has been gutted too. Mish calculating bench dimensions. Old tiles are coming up ok with 1950s floorboards underneath in good condition.

Just walked around to the house to get a couple of things and for Mish to ask and answer a few questions (a daily occurrence). We're days away from being able to move into the new part. Overnight we've had the most rain we've had this year - we haven't lost a day of the build to rain. 

That's nice, because yesterday we planted a persimmon tree. Mum grew this from a seed over ten years ago and it's been in a pot since then. She passed it to Mish  about five years ago and we'll grow it for leaf colour just outside her new studio. Root system is good, leaves are about to break and it's going yay rain right now. 

Jolly hockey sticks!

 The winning team in a hockey quiz night fundraiser!

That's Fiona who I used to work with on the right, her husband Matt, nephew David and his partner, Shani, and us. An ideal combo of ages and knowledge, and a fab sign.

In the living room with the Olympics and changing windows and doors

Starting position, on your blocks. Tim's about to rip out the first frame in the living room.

First one gone.

Then, for a  few days we had a big plywood box for a living room. Quirky and a bit cool - mid winter.

And today. All in and framed up and double glazed cosy. Sliding door on the left and picture window at the end of the room. The Olympics are over and builders have moved on, so we can stack up the living room again with boxes and stuff from other parts of the house. Everything is everywhere.

Guest bedroom

 We'll spruce it up before anyone arrives.

The busiest day

Our busiest day yet on site.  Sixteen people with tools and radio. Two extra builders today and they are working on windows and doors. The biggest windows are frames only due to the weight of them and the glazier will fix that later this week. In the meantime we'll be kept in the dark with plywood over the big holes in the walls. 

This image encapsulates the action today: rain, front door out, living room doors out, bedroom window about to come out.