That was the year that was...

Frog on the blog

When our water tanks were cleaned out last week, the technician found a live frog swimming around inside. So all our lovely country water was pumped out and the tanks scrubbed. Horrid old mains water was used to top them up again.

And earlier this week, J found a frog hopping around the perimeter of our house - looking for a way back in? Hopefully not...

Shots of Suburbia 3

Shots of Suburbia 2

Shots of Suburbia 1

Now that we've moved back to our rural idyll, I thought I'd post a few shots of our adopted neighbourhood from the last six months.

One of the things that I love about NZ is that all the houses are different. Liberal planning rules, the relatively slow pace of development and the fact that house-building is something of a cottage industry mean that a wide range of styles have flourished.

Here's a simple art deco house on the edge of Centennial Park.

Moving House

If all goes according to plan, we will be moving house today. And so will the rabbits.



Since we have a new house now (nearly), I could hardly make them live in their old leaky house.

Bathing Beauty

Here's the family bathroom nearly finished... Apparently the toilets will be installed tomorrow once the vinyl has gone down. We'll have to cross our legs as we move in!

Island Time

After many months of waiting, the stainless steel worktop is finally in its rightful place, atop our plywood kitchen island. And we're really rather pleased about it, not to mention relieved.

The house couldn't be sealed until the worktop had been brought in through one of the window holes upstairs but it was damaged in transit and had to be returned to the factory for repairs. So it was rather an eventful part of the project. And don't even get me started on the tap...

We picked the materials for the kitchen on the basis that they wouldn't date and would age well. There are no handles to deteriorate either - just cut-aways on the doors and drawers. I'm sure it won't be much fun to sand down the stainless steel or the plywood but at least we won't have to replace the kitchen as it gets battered over the years.

Unveiled

The scaffolding and the shrink wrap came down last week and we could finally see the house in all its weatherboarded glory. The moment that all the neighbours have been waiting for!

Luckily we like the paint colour even though it's so much lighter than we originally intended.

Think Tank

Our water tanks are going to be cleaned out today. They've been disconnected during the renovations - both in and out - so last winter's water is ready and waiting for us. But we thought it would be a good idea to have the sludge vacuumed out first so that our drinking water is as fresh as the cloud juice offered on this Auckland restaurant menu.

Fleeced!

Are these the same rams back in our field, having been sheared, or different ones? Who knows?!

Growing Wild 3

Growing Wild 2

Apparently you can make clover wine but it takes ages to collect all the flowers that you need...

Growing Wild 1

Any ideas what this pretty little weed might be?



It looks like gorse or broom but it's much smaller and seems to be a creeper.

Here it is with a kind of daisy for scale.

Kitchen Confidential

We took a few chances with the kitchen - a stainless steel worktop, plywood cupboards and drawers and cut-away handles - not anything like what we'd seen in the showroom.

Luckily we think that those risks have paid off, having seen the carcase in place...





The only question now is what we'll cook first!

The Wild Rumpus Begins...

The rumpus room is almost unrecognisable compared to how it was just a week or so ago.

It looks so much lighter now that the gib is in place and the undercoat has been done. The perfect space for reading, working and crafting.

Finishing Touches

The house is now close to completion. Apparently.

And the moment that all the neighbours have been waiting for is fast approaching - the great unveiling. Hopefully they'll like what they see when the scaffolding and shrink wrap comes down.

We were certainly pleased with the Half Hillary paint on the weatherboards when we sneaked a peek - a great relief!

Beginner Baking 8

My latest cake creation was a Somerset Cider Cake, courtesy of River Cottage.

I skipped the hazlenut topping and replaced it with a cream cheese and cider frosting. HFW's recipe for cream cheese icing was better than the ones that I'd used previously - more icing sugar, less cream cheese, more juice (or, in this case, cider).

The best feature of the cake had to be its aroma - really rather alcoholic, thanks to soaking the fruit in cider for a few hours first. And I was delighted to find out that the cake was similar to one that my paternal grandmother used to make.

There might be a slight cake shortage for the next few weeks though as the chickens seem to have taken to laying their eggs in the bush so our supply is dwindling. I'll have to switch to baking biscuits instead.

Pottering About

When I took the truck in for repairs recently, I found the Salvation Army opshop next door to the garage. On browsing through their stock, I was delighted to find a vinegar jug - just what we need for the nights when we have fish and chips.



I didn't really need the other jugs but think they'll come in handy.

And I've definitely felt the lack of a platter.



I need to decide on a theme for our house though before I get tempted with too many other things. As you can see, I'm quite partial to earthy colours and designs. But I've picked up a few bright pieces as well. Decision time...

Wacky Wallpaper

Readers will be relieved to know that I've limited the patterns to the curtains - no crazy wallpaper like this orange design that I found in the cupboard at the bach where we stayed recently.

Soft Furnishings and Hard Decisions

So we thought that we had the colour scheme sorted for the outside of the house. It turned out that we didn't.

The original fibrolite and concrete block was painted a lovely green-brown which blended with the surrounding land. We wanted to recreate that with the weatherboards but found out rather late that the warranty on the weatherboards would be invalidated if we chose a paint with a light reflective value (LRV) below 45.

We went back to the drawing board and eventually selected Resene Half Hillary, with an LRV just over 45. Apparently it's "a genteel well mannered ochre, a green and beige blend".

It seems apt given that Sir Edmund Hillary's house looked rather like ours anyway and I think we'll get used to it being so light.


The next hard decision was the curtains. We started looking at curtains only for the bedrooms where we'll need to block out the light when we move back in. We quickly realised that we needed to look at the other rooms too in order to develop a consistent theme. So we added in the living rooms in the main house and the granny flat.

The first fabrics that I picked out were all far too expensive and all of them needed to be imported from Europe with a delay of several months. I have a taste for the finer things in life obviously.

I started again and this is what we came up with - Free Range for Lark's bedroom and the other children's room (looking ahead), Urbis in Lime and Natural for the granny flat (one granny vetoed some more eccentric fabrics!) and Gloria and Fragrance respectively for the master bedroom and living room upstairs.



The bold patterns should give a hint of 1960s design without being overbearing. I still have the windows in the rumpus room and on the stairs to play with and might look for even more of a statement there.

And we need to decide whether to put blinds or curtains or nothing at all in the bathrooms. It all depends on how well our new neighbours can see the house...

Everything and the kitchen sink

The kitchen worktop is now on site but only after a great deal of grief.

We've chosen an island kitchen because the windows are so low to the ground in the living area. But it's a very large island, more like the North Island than Stewart Island. And because it's so large, a concrete benchtop wasn't practical - too big and heavy to transport and no-one seemed keen to make it on site. A formica worktop would have had to come in two pieces with a messy join and a stone worktop was well beyond our budget.

A stainless steel surface turned out to be the best option. Until it was damaged in transit and then the company manufacturing it had a few difficulties re-fitting the kitchen sinks after repairing the dent.

But now it features two big sinks, just like the old kitchen downstairs. And the builder has been able to fit the final sliding door now that the worktop is inside.



Here's the worktop propped up on some saw horses, roughly in the right position (though not quite at the right height), viewed from the dining area.



There'll be a pantry cupboard in the back right corner, the only wall unit, and large standalone fridge and freezer units alongside it.

And here it is viewed from the living room corner. The dining table will sit to the left.



The kitchen units - made from plywood with cut-away handles, should be being fitted as this post goes to press. I think that seeing it all in place will be one of the most exciting points in the project to date.

Out of the closet

Here's our walk-in wardrobe with the en suite bathroom behind. Both are a touch small but I'm looking forward to working out how to fit out the wardrobe to maximise the available space - it's the kind of organisational challenge that I love!



And the family bathroom is designed to use all four corners to full capacity as well. Although we got a bit of a surprise when the builder realised that the shower door wouldn't open without banging into the bath in one direction or the toilet in the other. So we've swapped it for one with sliding doors now!

Waiting...

Here are all the remaining windows and doors waiting in the rumpus room...

Wild Rumpus Room

Here's the concrete floor drying in the rumpus room. We'd considered having a polished concrete floor in here but decided that it would be too cold, particularly as the far wall is a retaining wall with an earth bank behind it. We're going to have the floor laid with a cosy wool carpet like the rest of the house instead.



The home cinema system will project onto the far wall on the left hand side whilst my desk and sewing table will be placed on the right. It's going to be a great space for projects and family time - so much more useful than the garage ever was.

We've finally decided on a colour for the beam too. My first choice would have been to leave it in its natural state but rustiness dictated against that. My second choice was to have it black like a lock gate but I was overruled. My third choice was fire engine red but we couldn't find the right colour in the swatches.

So eventually we've settled on pea green - the second shade from the bottom on this colour testing plank.

Wet Rooms

And here's some of the gib board in place - green Aqualine gib for the wet areas in the laundry (left) and granny flat bathroom (right).

Mystery Object

Any guesses what this piece of equipment might do?


We're fairly certain that it is used to lift pieces of gib board up to the ceiling so that they can be fastened in place. Much easier than balancing at the top of the ladder with the board waving backwards and forwards!

Steps in the right direction

After weeks of almost imperceptible progress, the renovations are now coming on in leaps and bounds. I'd been worried about whether or not we'd make it home by Christmas but the builder always assured us that it would happen. Now, on the first day of December, I almost believe him.

Our new, straight staircase

The windows are nearly all in place now, the internal walls have been gibbed and stopped, the internal doors are all on site and the bath is in place. The whole house is beginning to take shape.

Our neighbours are impatiently awaiting the grand unveiling when the shrinkwrapped scaffolding comes down to reveal the work so far. But they'll have to wait until the painter is finished first.

(If you'd been wondering why I haven't been posting over the last few weeks, it's because we've had visitors. Hop over to Tales of Jo to see what we've been doing.)