Underwear…

That got your attention didn’t it ;)

I need thermal underwear – lots of it.   It was – 4.5 degrees here this morning.  Thankfully I am a resourceful little trailer park inhabitant.  I grabbed one of the dog towels and spread it across my car windscreen and then put some of the remaining polystyrene on top!  :)  So the broken leftovers of poly are in fact useful.   The builders must have known that if they left a couple of small bits behind that I’d find a use for them.  Tonight is forecast to be another cold one (3 days in a row!!) so I’ve got the tea pot sitting on my knee and i’m almost attached to the oil column heater .    And I’ve found my winter PJ’s so no more weird combinations of tights and bedsocks for me.

However on the downside, tonight i have been reminded again about why things that will do in town won’t do out here.  The frost has split the hose connection splitter so when it’s turned on (so i can shower, wash dishes etc etc)  there is water squirting out everywhere by the partially built retaining wall.   So what this means is that we have to buy the brass fittings for everything outside, as plastic simply won’t cut it out here in the wilderness.

 

Ok. off to find another layer and work out whether I go back into town tonight for running water (aka a shower)  and an inside toilet or tomorrow morning.

 

Expletives

So as I have referred to in my earlier posts, I am endeavouring to get back out to trailer park land before the darkness sets in because a). It’s getting bloody cold out here now, b). I’m not very good at cooking in the dark, and c). you would be left running around completely in the dark muttering even more expletives when you discover that the huge (and i mean huge) pile of polystyrene blocks /pods have escapped from their black plastic wrap home and deposited themselves all over the section.  And let me be very clear – when I say section what i actually mean is  – all down the side of our driveway, all through the front paddock down the hill, over the road up against the neighbours fence etc etc etc.  The black plastic had even made a run for it and was trying to do it’s own little blackout (all 5 million metres of it) on the neighbours farm fence across the road.    Now i know that you are all now wanting to see a pic of the said trail of destruction but I can tell you that i was in no mood to be whipping out the camera and recording that for posterity. It was bad enough that several locals were treated to the amusing sight of me running down the road in my heels and work clothes and climbing through the grass to retrieve the offending material from the neighbours fence.   So after about 8 car loads it was all gathered back up (with help in the front paddock by our neighbour Pete who may have heard my expletives from his house) but now the inside of the car looks as if i’ve driven through a snow storm with the windows down.

The damage was not however confined to the poly pods, with the bar leaner pallet fence by the bbq also falling victim along with all the plants in pots that were not sqaure.  Thankfully the little battler of a strawberry plant that is still fruiting and giving me a little red gem every few days survived intact.

The lovely builder has now taken all the offending white material away as it was left here by the flooring guys who thought that we could just shove it down the back of the retaining wall instead.  Apparently the gales out here on Sunday were like nothing experienced before so all i can do is be grateful that the caravan is still in the same place and that we weren’t here trying to sleep through it.  Saturday night was a precursor and that was bad enough.

 

Anyway – back to more important news – building.   The boys started putting the roof truses into place today which is exciting as you then get a better idea of the size of how the finished house will look.  By everyone’s account who has aleady seen it – apparently it is “BIG”. :)

I spent over 1 1/2 hours with Ken from Toops Aluminium today trying to check off all the windows and doors.  It’s all so confusing and there are so many decisions.  Unfortunately because we are categorised as being in a “VERY HIGH WIND ZONE” (yep – think we can confirm that), our hopes to have a big picture window in the master bedroom and in the lounge areset to be dashed.   What we have been trying to achieve throughout the house is as much natural light / sun warmth as we can and as few obstructions to the view as possible.   (Probably should have just opted to live on in a tent.)    So watch this space for more fascinating installments on windows… ooooooohhhhhh.

We’re also making some good progress on the kitchen design which has undergone a significant change in terms of the  bench colour and layout of the center island bench.   Just when you think you know exactly what you want – someone says – what about this? and you say – hmmmmmm for a long time and then realise that they are actually handing you a very good idea.

Anayway, here’s some pictures of the roof trusses in place. :)

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Gale force winds, good friends, wine and family

I personally blame it on the other member of the household who I believe had a delayed delivery of  wind from the south with him on Thursday.   (Not that kind of wind from the south either you lot).

Saturday we did our Tough Guy Tough Gal challenge out at Cape Kidnappers.  Was a huge amount of fun although I don’t know that even after two rounds through the washing machine the smell of wet stagnant water has been expelled from my clothing.   We ended up doing it as a Team so I can’t officially claim to have beaten the boy – next time. :)    However, there was a fair amount of in-team antics which started by me getting rugby tackled full into a stagnant pond by Mr Watkins after accepting what I thought was a gentlemanly hand-up!!   (For those of you have been following this blog, you might recall that this “gentleman” is in fact our plumber!   Friends -who needs them!  :)  However, he got the boy a beauty in an even smellier area of water very late in the piece on my behalf so I’m fairly happy that things worked out in the end. ;)

However, after a dinner with friends on Saturday night involving far too much onion bahji, curry, some red wine and healthy amazing desserts (yes desserts  plural), we got our weary bods into bed only to be woken at 2am by the most horrendous wind (outside the container – not inside).   I had to call in a chaperone to accompany me to the outdoor facility  as I was convinced it was going to blow over with me in it!   The gales finally stopped at about 3:3am as suddenly as they started and the morning dawned fine and reasonably clear.

We then organised our selves for the arrival of a group of friends and family to have a small celebration and looksee for those who haven’t yet seen the progress.   However, when you invite family to an event you can always expect there to be a problem.  However, it is not the younger generation that created trouble this time – no – a sensible (not) mother figure  – MY MOTHER.  Who whispered amongst the guests about her little graffiti plan.     She left the party with me suddenly hearing that she had been encouraging people to graffiti the toilet block!!     It’s not even our toilet I wailed to the boy – I think we own it now he said.   But what we found was the most lovely thoughtful idea and notes from our friends.   Love you Mum for being just a little bit curve ball. xx

Toilet graffiti...- reads top right:  "Nail down toilet"

Toilet graffiti…- reads top right: “Nail down toilet”

toilet grafetti 3

Reads:  "I could sit and look at the view all day - Carol".

Reads: “I could sit and look at the view all day – Carol”.

It just keeps getting better :)

Right!  Now the photos you have all been waiting for (none of you more so that the would-be house occupants).    The process of the frame jigsaw commenced on Monday and continued over the next three days.   The woodworm and Dad would have loved to get involved in this puzzle although I believe that the builder types are quite smart fellows (no felleses yet) (yes, I know that’s not an actual word) and they had the framing company number them all so that we didn’t end up with the scullery wall in the toilet and vice versa.

It is truly amazing to go to work and then come home and find your house is there waiting for you to wander through and feel astounded that this point has finally arrived.   Then B & I did it all again in the dark (with the help of some bright LED torches) on Thursday night at 10:00pm as it was his first look.  I now have a much better track to my ‘outdoor ablution facility’.  I can choose to go along the drive through the big garage door and then out the back garage door, or if it’s a bit wet and muddy, then I do a drunken origami yoga move and duck under the framing in the 3rd bedroom which is closest to my current ‘bedroom’, then up the hall through the kitchen family room and into the garage and out the back garage door.   The dog on the other hand simply walks though all the walls and gives me a look as if to say “Don’t know why you are going such a long way around!” lol.

So without further adieu – here are the frames :

 

Instant House

Instant House

more framing up

Distractions…

Sorry for the delay everyone.   Have been busy trying to get back into work mode – very difficult when you have a view like ours and builders turning up at just after 8am each day and you have to spend 1/2 hour trying to convince the dog that eating them will not make her popular with them or with me as it will only delay the arrival of my ‘inside toilet’. :)

So – lots of developments on site will share them all with you over the next few post in a bit of a speed through the last week.

You will all recall that I have mentioned the difficulty in getting back out to the section whilst it’s still light to take photos so you can track our progress.   Well, I got home last Monday to find that the boys had been very busy little worker ants and we had an instant house (just add water ;) ).  So excited was I that I leapt from the car, grabbed my trusty phone (aka camera device) and scrambled up the bank at the back so I could get ‘the shot’.  Instead, I got some inky blackness and some vague shapes which closely resembled framing.  So instead, I though I would share with you a picture of my climbing attire…  But the upside of this is that  I will obviously now need to go and buy some more shoes… (plural obviously).

Everyone needs this outfit for climbing up a steep long grassy bank.

Everyone needs this outfit for climbing up a steep long grassy bank.

brrrr. Winter is on it’s way

Well not much has happened since our frames arrived last week but Thursday was pretty wet and miserable so I guess that it wasn’t the best day to be putting the frames up.

So I thought I would share with you all my morning view at 6:30am and the  – .5 degree frost I was greeted with.  :)   It’s a beautiful day though and it was lovely and stunning vista to wake up to.

Good morning Hawkes Bay

Good morning Hawkes Bay

Artfully arranged cows on a hill :)

Took a while to get this all off before I came into town at 8:00am today

the missing photos from the floor pad inspection team ;)

As per my post from yesterday, here are the missing photo’s from the floor inspection “team”.   As you will see, ‘team’ when used in this blog is actually singular.  I was doing my own helping by ensuring that the view from the main living space was ok.    (You will all be pleased to know that it was ;) )

The photos record another stunning day in paradise and had it not been for a very special post wedding lunch we were due at, I would have happily sat there all day.  Bliss.  Almost seems a shame to put a roof on it… until this morning when the wind had spun to the south and the rain was coming in and I was slip sliding my way back from a trip to my outdoor bathroom facility.   Get those frames up boys!   Need me a roof  now :)

Hopefully there will still be some light left when I get home tonight and that the frames might have gone all vertical on me and thus helped me on my way to fixing my spatial awareness problem.

Tell you what though, having learnt the art of patience, the rate things are moving now that lesson is fast disappearing into our long grass and my impatient nature is winning over nurture once again.

floor level double checking. The zipper is the yellow box and cord on the left.

Checking out the view from the main living area… bliss :)

Keeping an eye on the work ‘man’

Kitset house…

Hi everyone. Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few days.  The blog site had had some issues and not only was it saying that my blog no longer existed I couldn’t find anywhere on the site to contact anyone!!  very frustrating.  However the universe has now starting re-spinning in the right direction and we’re back on track. :) So, the update since my last post: The lad came home for the weekend armed with a “Gas Level” or Zip Level as they are otherwise known. (Oh the extent of my building terminology is now getting out of control – lol).  So Sunday morning we raced out here and the zipper (as it’s known by some others who use it more than me) was deployed. An intial survey of the finished pad on Friday night under the glaring gaze of car head lights had us believing the worst! That my baking had infact had the reverse effect on the concrete crew and they’d left us with something resembling a roller-coaster track.   However, all fears (and hasty judgments of the concrete boys) were quickly dispelled by the zipper who gave results that say we have .10millimetre of variation across the whole pad. Apparently the council people  or builders will allow up to .25 before they require remedial leveling so we have a super duper job on our site.  :))  Maybe the baking was ok after all  – even if they didn’t eat all my healthy museli bar slice.  (B says i have to just quit with trying to convert them and just go straight to the pies next time – sigh). Will post some photos of the zipper and it’s operator in action tomorrow.   Anyway – on to the most important news of the day – Winston Peters is secretely married to Judith Collins – kidding. No – far more important than petty politics – our frames have arrived!!!!  Wooo HOOOO.  However, upon inspection tonight, i’ve had another spacial failure moment and determined that they all look far too low/ small and that perhaps they have the internal height of our house all wrong.    I did contemplate lying onthe concrete to measure my height against the frame height but there were puddles and i don’t do lying in puddles (that’s next weekend at the Tough Guy Tough Girl Challenge when my team will beat the one B is in ;) ) There has also been some progress on the start of the timber for the retaining wall which is good as i was getting worried about exactly when i was going to fall into the very deep holes dotted along the base of the hill – because it was only a matter of time before my nightly dash to the toilet went horribly wrong.  Just as well too because those holes are so damn big and deep being my height i’d never have got out and no doubt Kia would have taken it upon herself to eat my dinner off the bbq. Ok – enough waffling on – here are some more pics to show that we really do have a kitset house ready and waiting for the guys to put number 45 next to 46 and so on… :)

Photo bomb by Kia - again!

Photo bomb by Kia – again!

Guess they do belong to us... :)

Guess they do belong to us… :)

skating pad now complete (almost)

So excited.  Got home last night to find my new skating pad all laid and ready for graffiti.  (Of course I put mine and B’s initials in it!! – Isn’t that what you do for a new house?!) :)

My inside source (Brett phoned the builder himself) tells me that the patio area (big area in the front cut out) and the outdoor shower (man area) will be poured separately.  The front patio will be aobut the same height though so that will make it seem a lot bigger.  I’m still in the ‘can’t visualise the size’ space but everyone says that it is a big house.  We have 276 sqm  but the size is really dependant on how well the space is arranged in my view and we’ll all soon find out how well I’ve done on that front with my insistence on the enormous scullery lol.

Anyway – here’s some pic’s of the floor.   (B says that the dog and I have to promise to now stay off it until it’s completely set … fun sucker).

Notice that the dog has photo bombed my picture - again!

Notice that the dog has photo bombed my picture – again!

more floor pictures

PS.   Forgot to say that we have been told to expect the frames on site by the middle of next week… poor driveway. :)

And then there was concrete :)

Morning everyone,

Today is the first time I have actually been truly and over-the-top excited since our build started as it now is starting to feel very real.  I guess that’s because concrete is so permanent!

Thankfully I got up super early this morning and had the sense to change from my pj’s to some training gear (unlike last week when the plumbers had the pleasure of my pj’s and slipper clad self complete with sleepy face!), because the concrete pump truck arrived at just before 6:45am!!!   I don’t want to even think about what time he got up this morning in order to be at our place by that time!   The first concrete truck was then backing up the driveway at just after 7:10am.   I understand that our poor beaten shredded driveway is having the pleasure of about 9 concrete trucks today.  I might need a set of crampons and some climbing gear to get back up onto the section tonight.   :\

I made the guys a batch of healthy museli bar slice and left them with the rest of it when I finally left for work at just on 8:30am.   They ate the first offering so I guess I’ll find out how popular or how hungry they all were when I get back and see if there is any left (or whether the birds are just looking really full and pleased with their new neighbours).

It’s our niece Isabelle’s 11th birthday today (Happy Birthday Goose xx) and so I’m currently trying to work out how to get over to her to give her her birthday presents and then back out to the section all before 5:30pm when it gets dark so that I can a). see to climb back up the shredded driveway   b). take some more pictures of the new slab.   Who knew concrete could be so exciting??   :)

Anyway – better get back to doing some work before my office manager finds out that I am still in “section mode”. ;)

Here’s some pic’s to keep you all going. x

Here's comes the first batch of the hard stuff

Here’s comes the first batch of the hard stuff

busy busy getting it smooth

busy busy getting it smooth