Dear everyone

Well long time no posting. Lots of news here.. where were we…

Ok so last nightt I was reminded that trailer park living really isn’t all that its cracked up to be.

Night went like this:

1. Travel from hastings to napier to collect furry child with attachment disorder then load 5 bags of clotges and food into the car and drive 45 min south. Arrive after dark.

2. Remember upon arrival that the power had been playing up in the caravan last week.

3. Discover that the power is conspicuously absent from the caravan and the container…

4. Discover (in the dark) that the container power ia unplugged. .. lucky that only the fridge/freezer is feeding off that power !!!!! Aarggghhhhh

5. Reset main meter board . . . 6 times. This is best done by a 30 metre walk between the caravan and the main meter box to reset one then the other then back again , and again, and again etc etc etc until you do decide enough is enough and you admit defeat.

6. Throw food on bbq after cleaning off the mouse poo (anyone have a recipe for dead mice as I’m about to go postal on the ones who think that the bbq is a nice place to live)

7. Go to wash dishes, discover that the water is still not going. Go out in the dark again ( buying shares in torch and battery factory tomorrow), turn main hose line on and return to caravan to experience the wonder that is a tap line that hasn’t had water in it for over a week. The bloody thing spat and coughed up water further than I could throw which yes I know isn’t that far but it’s still a lot further than you want the water in your caravan to go. On the up side, the walls and ceiling have now had a wipe down.

8. Run water for 10 min to try and get something that doesn’t look like a disprin has just been dissolved in it just so you can take the kettle and plug it in in the container so as you can have a cup of tea.

9. Return with now filled kettle to the container to discover that the LED torch light did in fact need to be charged. . . BIG SIGH.

So the moral of the story is:

a). Take up your mothers offer to have tea before you return home.

b). Don’t bother to keep anything in the fridge or freezer as it’s unlikely to atay cold or frozen

c). Don’t eat all the chocolate during the day at work as you might really need it later.

Later people.

Decided that seeing as I’m a bit time poor at present I would just give you a picture bomb to summarise where things are at…

A face on the wall – Back wall of the kitchen

Batman photobomb – inside our ensuite bathroom

Ceiling gib up in the lounge with gas fire in-situ

First gib on the wall in the 4th bedroom

Hall way gibbed

Our first cavity slider sitting ready to install

garage gib almost completed

house building breakfast… was very very yummy might I add.

more garage gib – laundry and storage cupboards

shower rose set up options – love our plumbers who drew this and then emailed it to me for me to decide. How thoughtful it that! Go Advanced Plumbing

Sorry everyone for the lack of postings.  It’s all been it bit nuts here.  However great progress has been made since I last updated you all.

I’ll try and give you the quick bullet point run down:

Blockies came back and were all but finished last week but for the final blocks under the window sills.  The ones that were going to be used (200mm) didn’t look right as against the other 400mm ones so our builder made the decision to send them back and so we’ve had to wait for new 400 mm sill blocks to be made in Auckland and then sent down.   Not good for the global carbon footprint but what can you do.

I then had another early surprise whilst still in my pj’s last week when the stone mason/ Hard as Rockz guy turned up at just after 7am!!!  So he got the benefit of a long chat with a pj clad owner whilst we discussed about using the same material on the internal surround for the wood fire.   And seeing as there is less than 1 degree of separation in this town, it turns out that we had met before when he was working for another company.   Here’s a pic of his finished work and the finished block work…

block work complete at the front

The finished chimney for the gas fire

Then exciting stuff had also been happening inside – pink batts were being shoved in all places and then this enormous pile of 6 m lengths of gib board arrived!!!  Check this pile out…

notice the dog sneaking in the photo again!

Will post separately on the progress of the gib but lets just also say that we have also done our best impression of a moat over the last few weeks.  I have suggested to the builder that he gets some spouting on quick smart as that Murphy dude will ensure that the moment the spouting is connected to our water tanks then  we’ll enter NZ’s earliest summer drought!

Stay tuned for the next instalment of Gib – hahahahaha – get it – instalment  – ahahahahahahaha

I think the blockies might have read my blog and got scared – really scared.  I might be short but i’m really strong and quite scary – just as the man in my house.  (He says he’s terrified of me  – not) hahaha.

Right – so after a slow start to the week things have got a little crazy out in trailer park land.  When I left for work yesterday there were vehicles and people (blokes) everywhere.  So far  (apart from me) I haven’t seen any workers on site of the female species.   They must be a very rare, some might say endangered, breed.   But the good thing is that Hamish one of our builders keeps leaving his tool belt behind at night for me to put on and muck around with.  Actually – once he knows I’ve been wearing his tool belt and playing with the hammers and measuring tape I suspect it will go back under lock and key.  I’m planning to smuggle in some pink tools for him just in case the whole process of working with blokes day in day out is supressing his inner girlie side.   Poor guys – I actually think that they must drive up on to the site in the morning and go “Damn – she’s still here!!”   Because I usually also always have questions – “When is this happening?  , “What is this for?”,   “Where are the blockies”?

So here’s where we are up to with the blocks as at yesterday:    (they have a half way inspection tomorrow morning then the race will be on to get to the top)

Block work – yay

But then wait – there’s more!!

I got home on Friday last week to find this:

i love pink

so snuggly

You would think that living with a former policeman and having a father as a policeman and a large group of  friends with who are either in the job or retired from it would mean that I would have been able to sort this problem out – but no.

The elusive blockies were supposed to start about 2 1/2 weeks ago  however apart from a half day covert appearance one day this week they haven’t been seen since.    There are supposed to be 5 or 6 of them so you might assume that they’d be fairly easy to locate and frighten into getting their blockie butts down to our place pronto, but seeing as I haven’t actually met them yet, this has proved somewhat problematic.  I did contemplate stalking various building sites in the greater Hawkes Bay area to see if I could find some that might fit the extremely vague description and stuff them all into my car and drive them out there.  However, apparently this is an activity that can invoke too much attention from others and then lead me to have to “call a friend” from a little room with a locked door.

So again – here comes that patience virtue again.  Thankfully I have been at Mum & Dad’s all this week (not thankfully for them i’m sure) due to having no water because of the excessive rain. (That doesn’t seem to make sense really does it??)  No water because of too much rain  you say?  What is she on about?  (However those avid readers amongst you will recall that because we are still drawing from the river, every time we have a big rain that floods the river the pump silts up and has to be turned off until the water level drops again).

I’m told (but not getting excited just in case) that the blockies will be back next week – they bloody better be, and then we’ll be underway again.  Once they are half way up the wall there will be a mid-point inspection and then they’ll race to the top so that the insulation guys can get started.  It’s all rather exciting because once the insulation goes in we’ll get a huge change in the way the internal space feels again and how the light plays out because there’ll be no more walking through walls.  Think this might take a bit of adjustment for Kia who currently walks through all the walls as if they didn’t exist.

On another front, the electrical and plumbing internal work is basically complete.  There are so many wires going everywhere it looks as if we are going to be lit up like the flight deck of the Starship Enterprise.  However I don’t think we have gone overboard although there was quite a bit of excitement amongst all the boys on site (including mine) at the suggestion for some more LED strip lighting to give it some wow!   80’s disco anyone?? lol

Anyway – had better get some work done as we need to pay for all this new fancy lighting.   Here’s some pic’s of the evidence we have had blockies for at least part of a day…

blocks sitting waiting

the blocks have started

and some more blocks…

And then it rained – and rained and then was sunny for a little bit just to tease me, – and then it rained again!!!! ARRGGHGHHHH   (sigh).

Ok. So it started raining on Saturday night and then all of Sunday and then Monday, then Tuesday bit fine, then more rain Wednesday and fine again yesterday.  Crikey.

Here’s a picture after the first lot of rain on Sunday…

new pool started…

anyway – the mud and the new water features kept the builders away on Monday as they really couldn’t do a lot and can’t do much more inside until the exterior cladding it almost completed.  – more of that patience thing required by me.

Because our roof is a mono-pitch with the slope to the back, all the rain just rain off the roof and into the area at the back of the house (which of course is the bit that gets the least sun as it’s more sheltered and south facing)…  Haven’t got a picture of the pool out there but I think you will all be able to easily visualise that.        Just a shame that we haven’t got the spouting on as all of that precious precipitation could have been filling our water tanks!  Damn.  You all know that once the spouting goes on, we’ll have a lengthy dry spell that will continue through the remainder of winter and on to summer.

Anyway – another post shortly on the tale of the missing blockies.

On the upside, our lovely neighbours who own the farm in front and to the left of us have started their build now too which is very exciting. We have been swapping ideas, stories and comparing samples for months now so it’s great that they are finally underway.

So – we finally now have all our glazing in!  It took just on a week for it all to be installed because some was sent because the builder andf the glazing company (Toops -:) ) weren’t happy with the powder coating finish on some windows/ doors.  It’s really lovely when other people are as fussy about your house as you are.   Ken at Toops Aluminium in Omahu Road has been awesome.  He was ever so patient with my indecisiveness and million questions about how this would look and what if we did that…   The other tradies are now just starting the pleasure of the KM (too many options) indecisiveness.    So here’s a little snapshot of what has gone on over the last week:

Friday 4th July – Some windows in but no doors.  Very cold for roof shout but that didn’t deter us hardy souls who donned beanies and gloves and jackets.   My habit of acquiring yet another ski jacket came in very handy with some being handed out for people to wear so they didn’t freeze to death. lol.  We also had a 2 1/2 hour walk through with the electrician.  all sorts of tricky questions like which lights do you want dual switches on, where do you want the light switches, and a debate about where to situate the (now changed to a pendulum) light in the entranceway (I lost that one…).

Fri/ Sat – Very windy – Made the lad accompany me to our flash outdoor ablution facilities at 4:30am as I was worried the toilet might blow over with me in it.  As a result we both then ended up with a hammer and nail and a torch reattaching some of the building paper that the boys had tacked up (at my request) to cut down the draft on Friday night that was whistling through the opening in our ensuite bathroom.    Re-attached it again on Saturday at abou 8:30am and then returned from Waipukurau just after lunch to find the whole lot wrapped around the internal framing – Oh well – at least it did the trick on Friday night.

Sunday – another meeting with our every patient Builder (Terry from Peak Homes).  The guy really is awesome.  He does ever so well to mediate the stylist differences between the lad and I to the point I think he might be actually keeping score to as to ensure it’s even.

We were hoping that the blockies were to start on Monday just been but every night I returned home showed no movement there.  I am now told that they will be starting tomorrow (Monday) so keep your fingers and toes crossed for us.

Thurs – 10th – The final pieces of glazing installed.  I therefore spent quite some time on Thursday (after they had all gone home – didn’t want to completely embarrass myself) going “open close, open close, open close” – evidence attached…)

Really happy with how all the glazing has turned out.  Was really worried about how the big front windows would look in the end as we had had our hearts set on them both being big picture windows but due to our site being rated “Very High  Wind Zone” we would have had to go to commercial glass and that also involved a big spacer between the two panes of glass (hence could have had some distortion in the view).   So we opted to follow Ken’s advice and do a narrow casement window at each end and I’m really happy with the result.   However, my favourite window in the whole house would have to be the big single pane one in the western wall in our bedroom.  It is such a stunning view and being one whole sheet of glass just makes it like a big picture.

This week I was also tasked with choosing a colour for the soffits.   The builder gave me a suggestion, but no – I had to go and look at the colour charts didn’t I!  Why o why???    After much angst and much patience from the colour consultant at Resene’s in Hastings (including holding up A4 samples outside), we settled on Double Alabaster.    whew. (only took me about 45 minutes hahahaha).  Have decided to have a go at using a colour consultant inside the house as I think we risk me getting completely out of control there otherwise and I’d never get anything else done.

Finally, I did my first lot of housework inside on Thursday night.  BEcause we had a lot of rain last week the house had lots of dirt, mud, sawdust and wood chips (from all the holes for the wiring). So being the person I am, I got to on Thursday night with their broom.  The boys are very good about tidying up but it had been a shocker of a week.  Goodness knows what they thought when they arrived on Friday and saw all these neat little piles of sweepings.   They’ll get used to me eventually and if they don’t, well they’ll just work faster to get it all done to get away from me then.     Mum and Dad then helped finish off the ‘housework’ on Saturday afternoon when they came to do their inspection of the progress.

So, here in photo’s is a summary of it all.”

Ensuite bathroom slider above the bath

housework underway

open close open close open close open close (think you get the drift)

Lounge front windows all in – rain out

Our bedroom front windows complete

Our bedroom sliders in

western windows partially completed

windows in!!

Not much to update you all on as the work that gets done at present is small in pictures but big in effect.  We have almost all of the soffits up (boys were finishing that off this morning) and some battens on the building paper ready for the cladding.  EXCITING.  Apparently we MAY, (don’t want to jinx it) have some glazing later this week.  Would be awesome if we did as we are having the roof shout on Friday and given the weather/ temperature forecast I think we will all want to be indoors.  And being indoors in my current living set up is not an option – it will give a new meaning to the “party in a caravan” analogy! hahahaha.

I have included a few snaps taken yesterday afternoon when there was no wind and the sun was shining.  When I took them I was thinking – ‘Oh – seems such a shame to put the windows in’. But  This morning when I was doing the walk-thru with Mr Watkins from Advanced Plumbing, we were both very clear that we needed windows and doors ASAP.  The wind was freezing!!!!  And when the guys who usually work outside are telling you they are cold, you know it’s cold.

Can’t beat Sunday sunshine

View from the lounge towards our bedroom – Guess we’ll have to keep the bed made.

Seems a shame to put glass in

Arrived back at the block last night to find  – A ROOF !!  But the downside of this is that you can no longer see the stars from inside the kitchen. (some people are never happy are they)

Because it was dark when I got back last night  I got up super early to take some pics for you all so you can inspect the roofing progress.  I have to say that the monkey bars look far less stable than the ones I used to play on and given I have grown a bit I don’t think I will be attempting any aerial acrobatics up there any time soon.

Walking around inside now you really start to get a feel for how the spaces will be in terms of light and feel etc.  I don’t think we have enough windows… but I guess you can’t have every room facing north now can you – (well -not on our site anyway).   I’m sure that once the gib is up and the walls painted it will feel lighter again.   It really is quite neat seeing all the changes along the way.  I loved it when the framing went up because it was like having an instant house, but now the roof has gone on, that completely changes it yet again.  I imagine that when the doors/ windows go in will be another huge change in the feel of the place.   I can’t wait to get in there and unpack our stuff and all of the kitchen things.   I have a lovely Kitchen Aid mixer that B brought me for my birthday nearly 2 years ago  and I haven’t used it as I wanted to use it for the first time in the house (if I’d known how long i’d have to wait I would have shelved that idea ages ago. lol).  B also has a fancy new flash coffee machine which is also in it’s box as I said that the same rule had to apply. So the upshot of all this is that we will be able to produce you a (hopefully) lovely coffee and some cake/ treats when you come to inspect the finished product.

Anyway – enough talk of cakes – it’s making me hungry.  Here’s some pictures.

Getting a closed in feeling

money bars galore

or are they tv aerials??

The roof is on!

Sometimes in the life of a trailer park girl you just want to channel the language and let rip.  Last night was a shaping up to be one of those nights.

Got back out to the block at about 6:00pm ish with the car loaded up and the dog on hyper drive. The dog was no sooner out of the car and me starting to unlock the caravan when I heard scrambling noises to the point I thought someone was on the inside of the caravan!!    Dog eventually reappeared and we headed with torch in hand to inspect the building work for the day and check the toilet had water in it before I used it (previous lesson).

Then I wander back in my torch light to check the dog has water in her bowl and find this..

an over-stayer…(not the first I might add)

The latest amphibian invader was swimming in circles in Kia’s water bowl and swimming head first into the corner might I add.  whilst trying to coax to the dog to drink out of the bowl and then video the fright both frog and dog got  I instead hear a distinct “Hisssss” noise.     Following the lead of the dog, I discover the source of the warning hiss which had been issued to a nose poked under  the edge of her kennel. This is what I saw wedged between the bottom floor of the kennel and the top of the pallet upon which it is sitting:

new section inhabitant

So I shut Kia in the caravan whilst I started to cook tea and left the lights on and frypan starting to sizzle whilst I took some dog kibble out to the new inhabitant in an effort to try and coax it out.    I wasn’t game to stick my hand under as I’ve previously been the recipient of some very deep and painful puncture bite wounds from a wild kitten whilst at University so I wasn’t game to go a possible round two.

I then got back around the corner to find the caravan in complete darkness.    The weirdest thing was that the thought that actually went through my head first was: “hmm – how did Kia manage to switch the light off?”   Alas, nothing that simple or clever had occurred.  After checking the mains board, resetting everything and then doing some investigative work I found this…

a new water feature

sigh…

So, tea was removed and plonked on to the bbq, the idea of doing the dishes quickly abandoned and the concept of a shower completely dispelled.

Staying in town tonight I think.