Au Revoir Portacom

Yay! Sunday night saw us move the bed, couch, bedside tables and other misc bits into the manspace!!! Yes we left the portacom!

Monday night saw us move the scotch chests and all the other bedroom furniture and on Tuesday night the kitchen was moved into the workshop side of the manspace. Wow! we are so spoilt for a bit of space now

Plus we can now pic up the boys [read the cats] and swing them around, if only they would move over to the manspace too. Alas Monty and Rama are grimly sleeping on the cold floor of the portacom refusing to come over to the comfort of the studio. It took an hour in the rain last night to get Monty in!

I moved their crunchie bowl into the ensuite, and even that wasn't enticing enough

Back the truck up - an ensuite i hear you say, yes! we have a flushing toilet, a running tap over a handbasin and most importantly today Crosie had hot water flowing through the shower! we are now in a hotel room!

Very clever Crosie is all i can say. poor guy is shattered. Installing the shower, moving tools out of the manspace workshop into the shipping container and moving the contents of the shipping container into the workshop.

So the workshop for the next wee while has been comandeered as my kitchen - though no running water, but there is an outdoor tap right outside the door.

Thank you Crosie - you can go for a fish now! Or even an overnight hunt

Though have to say Crosie is now just itching to get on with the house itself. In fact we will be working hard to get the roof trusses up ready to start roofing in a week and then get the downpipes in so we can start collecting more water. Odd isn't it how living in town you never thought about water and now we are waiting for a good shower to help the land to get the grass to grow for the sheeps!

lookign forward to going home tonight (oops that must mean i am writing this at work!) and sorting out my new "kitchen"

How quickly time flies

Not sure if it's fun we are having though!

So Easter has rolled around and gone and so has daylight savings.

Easter saw us finish cladding the manspace, electrician (thanks Daddy) came over and made it "live", so we now have power into the space. Just awaiting the plumber to arrive and test the plumbing that Crosie has done and then get another inspection and we can line the studio part of the manspace and move in!

Oh we are looking forward to that! it will mean a shower and a running toilet, warmth and a far more permanent dwelling! looking forward to ringing up the Portacom people to come and take it far, far away.

then it's all hands on deck to do the house. Crosie is itching to get stuck into doing the house, but alas he needs to finish the manspace first. Then i will even allow him time off to go for a hunt - apparently the stags will be roaring

One of our sheep went to Heaven over Easter as well. I had hoped not to be there for that event, yet somehow i was required to help pen them and chase around the paddock. Dear large ram-lamb was dispatched and taken away - very good condition it was in apparently. I did apologise to the remaining 7, thought it only fair

Pics will be coming in the next couple of days showing all the house frames standing, the clad manspace, complete with garage door. Clever Crosie didn't even need the instructions for putting the door in (not that it came with any)

Now it's just waiting time for the plumber ... dear mr plumber please arrive this afternoon ....

what is that pile for?

It's the house!

Yes the house frames have now arrived and a long day by Crosie and i on Sunday, has meant that we have some of the house frames up - it's all very exciting!

We are a little scared at how big the wardrobe is in the third bedroom, but no worries as it will be filled with my sewing gear!

Unfortunately with the house frames up we are now blocking the view from the portacom ... lol! Perhaps we shouldn't build the house ... not likely! It's also cutting the view from the manspace out to see, but hey we'd much rather have a house!


The garage, third bedroom, laundary cupboards, part of the scullery, our ensuite and walk-in wardrobe frames are all standing and stood throughout the night - so that must mean they are there to stay.

I have to say i did a little dance when the frames arrived on Friday - it was very exciting that phase 2 was about to begin.

While we want phase 1 to finish asap, we are still progressing every day. We have some great neighbours who have 5 builders onsite, so will be well ahead of us - but as they pointed out one day on their site is 5 days on ours.

Crosie is doing an amazing job and we love him for it. He celebrated a "9" birthday on the 12th and he has started thinking about his "0" birthday next year. As one of his mates pointed out he only has 364 days to go until he reaches that milestone (see honey i have not put the number in!).

We have a toilet!

Yes we now have a toilet! OMG it is amazing what you take for granted, while it is only a bucket flush, it is far better than the spade and fresh air!

We have now run all the wiring and the plumbing in the manspace and Dad the sparky came over and moved the meter board onto the manspace, so it's all in place
Crosie has also got the mixer for the shower ready to be installed, but that won't happen for another week or so - once the manspace is clad and the building get's it pre-lining inspection.

We have the pump for the water tanks and great pressure. According to ex-firey Crosie, we have enough pressure in the garden hose to fight a fire!




Unfortunately the water that is in the tanks has a definite concrete taste, because there is more concrete volume than water, but once the fascia arrives and we get the spouting up, we will start collecting!

Windows are in!

Yes now we have some fabulous windows - thanks to First Windows and Doors.

Crosie and i managed to install them - after nearly losing the large doors due to the wind! The cat-door has proved to be a little bit of challenge for the moggies. Monty (aka the ginja ninja) took some time to work out where to push to make it work - as it is a clear catdoor in clear glass, however Rama managed to get it quite quickly!

We are just awaiting the garage door and then the whole manspace will be enclosed.

We are also waiting on the metal fascia from Dimond Industries. What an episode that has been - after 4 deliveries they still have not got the order right - in fact the brackets for the spouting arrived in a different colour! Apparently they do not like me calling them as i am too sarcastic - well perhaps they should honour their promises and i wouldn't have to play bad cop!

Crosie and i worked until 10.30 pm the other night to put up the HardieGroove under the verandah on the manspace - it looks really good, can't wait to see what it looks like once the cladding is on ... but that needs to wait until the fascia arrives so then the soffit can go on and then we can clad ....!

Roofed and Wrapped

Well things are zinging along at the moment.

Took the day off work and helped Crosie(only one argument, and if he had only listened in the first place ...) and we roofed the manspace - quite exciting that we now have an undercover area!




This week has seen Crosie wrap and put the battons on the walls and the ceiling battons inside - all go! Just awaiting the windows which should arrive Friday 5th March and the cladding - well on our way to having a place to live ....

Last weekend saw us go and buy all the bathroom bits - 3 showers, 3 toilets, 2 large vanity units, 2 small vanity units and one bath! It was a lot of fun and the team at Mico Plumbing in Paraparaumu were so much help!


We've also been busy little bees taking down all the pines in front of the section - which we are allowed to replant in natives, which will be great. Ex-firey Crosie is happier now that there is a 50m gap between the house and the first pine. Though all this was not without a casualty ... Crosie had a discussion with his big manly chainsaw! This lead us to the A&E area in Paraparaumu and 20-odd stitches later. he was incredibly lucky in that it was a nice clean slice above his knee, not a meaty chainsaw injury!


The difference in the view is incredible from when we first began to now. While we didn't see the tsunami wave, we saw its effects quite clearly with a very muddy line along the coast. Crosie was supposed to go out fishing that day, but was stopped at the boat ramp - all exciting and odd, as we had been talking about tsunami's the night before - around the time the e/q struck Chile.

Framed and Trussed

Yep we are now framed and trussed, well for the workshop at least.

Crosie has been working hard, and even calling me in to help lift the frames of the workshop. So we now look as if we have a buidling onsite - very cool!

Our little love shack is proving ok - while a little rustic in terms of no toilet or running water - we do have digital tv, braodband and a telephone!

the four-foots have handled the move wonderfully, with Monty securing his first kill of a hare, and Rama proving that he is a mighty mouser with 5 in one day! as we have limited indoor space they are bringing their prizes only to the door - one hopes that this respect for the indoors continues when they have more permanent lodgings!

Back to the building process. We have had the window men up to do a measure, the roofing has been ordered so it's full steam ahead!