We have water!

Tuesday 27th Jan saw the arrival of our septic system and our water tanks - oh my goodness the amount of fill that came out of the holes for them to be buried was more than we both thought. However we are just enjoying the fact that the tank guys, Wright Tanks, had a 7-tonne digger with them which meant Crosie and I did not have to hand dig the holes!!! (I hate to think how long and how grumpy we would have been at this!).

So the tanks are in, and do have water in them, it's just missing the pump and the power!

    

Meanwhile i got off the plane from warm Honolulu on sunday 24th Jan and we basically worked all day and the next moving bits out of the house and into the lock-up, up to the building site or around to Trish's (who is an amazing friend and is in happy possession of the big tv and the second Sky decoder!!). She is also letting us use her shower when required!! Thanks Trish!!! My poor workmates will have to deal with me being grumpy and smelly until I've had my shower when i arrive to work!

We are renting out our house, and have tenants moving in on Friday 29th Jan. Which was a little event in itself. We listed on Trade Me and within two hours had people looking at it, within 24 hours we had narrowed our list to 2 couples out of the 15 that looked at it and then offered it to one within 48 hours - very painless!

So instead of a 3 bedroomed home, we are now occupying a space that is 6m x 3m! It does house our bed, two tall boys, a fridge, table, a makeshift pantry and the all important TV with Sky TV - all the important things are catered for! Alas bathing and toileting are not to be done onsite - unless one has a bucket (for either!!). All a little adventure really!!

So one male, one dog, two cats and a lady will be residing there.

Pics of the ponderosa shortly ...

After all this hectic activity what did we do? we went to Hawea to help Crosie's parents celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary. Had a lovely weekend of talking and eating - it was fantastic!

Back Row - L to R: Callie, Paul, Glen and Crosie
Front Row - L to R: Gaye and Tom

We arrived home on Tuesday morning in the very wee hours only to be greeted by complete dessimation of our veggie gardens! Someone who shall remain nameless did not put the gate up and the little white four legged thingees thoroughly enjoyed my lettuces, strawberries, herbs, capsicum etc - oddly they do not eat mint (!), potatoes, tomatoes or artichokes!

What a difference a week makes

Dear wee Crosie had a big week begining the 18th Jan, alas i was not there to help ...

So last week it poured .. lots and lots of cement, in fact 52.8 cubic metres of the stuff! so we now have floors, just need the walls, windows, roof, cladding .....

But this was a huge milestone in the building process, well i think it is anyway. Unfortunately, while this was all happening i was attending a conference in Honolulu, so couldn't help Crosie with any of it (hehe).

I did however, offer moral support by calling him every few hours to see how it was all going. Big ups to the Crosie however, as the concrete placer - Brent - said that his (Crosie's) boxing levels were spot on, in fact he hadn't seen them that good in some time.

Here is a pics of the concrete being poured

Now some of the finished product

Studio / Workshop House Pad

Now the differing views Crosie and I had during that week!

However that wasn't the last of the excitement - we became owners of a temporary building - thankfully temporarily!

It's raining, but we'd rather be pouring

Unfortunately the floor slab pouring date has been pushed out until Monday 18th Jan - which is a shame as it means Fee will be away (in Hawaii, for work purposes!) and will miss it.

After a fabulous sunny warm day yesterday (Thurs 14th), today is another one of the great sunny summer days that mid-NZ is getting this year - we are convinced that summer has somehow by-passed the greater Wellington region.

The building inspector showed up yesterday and we got another tick in the box - so all the hard work that we are putting in is paying off. A big thanks to Reece who gave up a great fishing day on Wednesday to help Crosie lay mesh and bits onsite. Reece did manage to get out fishing yesterday though and caught 15 kingfish - a bit of a legend!

The Crosie is now wondering that while i am away, he could drop me at the airport on Saturday at the unearthly time of 6 am and then pop off for a quick hunt ... I do have to say he has actually earnt the rest!

Though Jake the dog, beat him to it on Wednesday afternoon. He went awol only to be found digging one of the bunny holes in one of the banks, needless to say that I called for Crosie to come and deal with what Jake had got out of the bank ... poor wee bunnies. Jake the bunny-killer (as opposed to me, the bunny-boiler), was well pleased with himself! However am sure the Ginger Ninja (aka Monty) and the Muppet (aka Rama) will delight when they arrive onsite to the wonderful array of wildlife that they can bring in to us. Rama (our sweet kitten) currently brings in birds and then gets bored and requires a sleep after all his hunting, only to let the bird continue to fly around inside the house!!

Right now time for some pics ....



Piles of Fill Worker in Progress





House Foundations - dug, and nearly all covered in polythene and mesh!







Workshop covered in polythene and mesh





Tired Crosie - with a bottle! Two of our escape artists!

Boxing Day

Yes, yes i know the thing about blogs is that you are supposed to keep them up-to-date - and i promise i will be more vigilant!

So finally i am back at work - go that office work, because i need a break! Crosie and i spent the last two weeks digging the footings (the trenchy bit around the bottom of the house that concrete gets poured into, to make the slab for the floor stable). I tell you, i was lulled into a false sense of security when one was assured that it was only 200mm deep... that was until one read the building consent and noted that no, the footings needed to be 300mm deep. Do not question why KCDC required something above and beyond the NZ Building Standard, we are just the mere mortals that have to implement this stuff!

So we slaved and got it all done - photo to come shortly. It was a quite a mission - especially as in some places we had to go nearly 500mm deep, due to there being fill and not "proper" earth there. But we got there!

The plumber, Ralphie, thinks Crosie is a bit of a legend digging them himself - oi! i did help! Apparently no-one digs foundations with a spade anymore - i wonder why???

The next step was the plumbing and the boys showed up on the 8th Jan to do their bits - all covered in blue polythene the pipes look like little buildings in the landscape. It took all day, and then we had our first inspection from the KCDC building people, and wahoo! it was all signed off - yay!

Next inspection is just before the concrete pour ....