A Happy Newbie Year.

Tags

babiesbabiesbabies, building, christmas, cinema, family, renovation

It’s been a while (even by my slack standards!) since our last update.

As you can see, I’ve been a little busy with our other project – Newbie arrived on Christmas Eve.

He gave us a scare by getting a nasty infection a week later that saw him in hospital for a week on IV antibiotics – and me bedding down next to him (being a food supply is a 24/7 job!).

But he’s got the all clear now, and has been spending time on site trying to sleep through the noise.

Yes, enjoy it while you can, Newbie. As soon as you can walk, we’re putting you to work like your sister.

And it’s pretty noisy – the boys have been busy!  We’ve got steel beams going in…

bathrooms being tiled….

Doors being hung….

And this is mine! Yay the walk-in wardrobe! My dream is complete….

Have to point out that this is Midge’s wardrobe….

We’re recycling the old doors where we can – I love that where they’ve been sanded back, you can see all the colours they’ve been painted over the last 104 years.

The Big Ass fan has arrived…

Have to wonder what the courier was thinking when they dropped this off…

So we’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Although we’d hoped to be in by Christmas, clearly that wasn’t to be.  We’re still getting a sense of what it’ll be like living here.  We’ve had lots of extremely casual, fush and chups dinners here over the holidays.

And I’m sure our friends and family will be happy to know that eventually they will be able to eat off a table, instead of their knees – we’ve just bought a 4 metre long table off Trade Me.  Looks a bit rough at the moment, but we love the history behind it: it used to be the boardroom table for the Lyttleton port stevedores union.

We’ve also been spending a lot of time getting to know our new front yard.  Pugs absolutely loves the water, and we’ve learned that we need to pack her bathing suit and a few towels every time we head out to the house, because she is sure to demand “Beach!  Swim!”.

Luckily for Midge, her version of “swim” involves paddling in to her knees, and so he usually manages to avoid hypothermia.  Can’t wait to get the little grommet onto a board in a few years time though!

Make that, both little grommets.  This is looking like a great place for them to grow up.

Errrr…….

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Home for the holidays?

Tags

bottles of booze, building, cinema, renovation

So how are we going, time wise?  Originally our deadline was to be finished before Newbie arrived.   All going to plan (and I gather there are far fewer delays due to bad weather or supply issues in obstetrics than in renovations), we should welcome the sproglet in around 3-4 weeks.  Right before Christmas.  So….what do you think our chances are of moving in by that original deadline?

Magic 8-ball says “Outlook Not So Good”.

Think we might need a skip bin or two…

I think this is one of those situations where its quicker to list what has been done, rather than what needs to be done.  For example – we’ve dug a big hole ( where eventually concrete will be poured to support a roof strut that the steelworkers will make soon, which will one day hold up the ceiling so that the big sliding door can go in there once its been manufactured and delivered.)

Hole for dropping structural engineers into.

Old bottles of booze found under the floorboards – presumably left by the original builders. I wonder what our current team are going to leave?

But no, I won’t let this post become a whinge-fest like the last one.  I’m going to look on the bright side!

Our tiler starts next week!  And we even have some tiles for him to work with!

Our tiles are tucked away in a warehouse somewhere, so I couldn’t get photos of them – but rest assured they are going to be as awesome as this.  Almost.  Maybe.

Gib is going up!  We can start to see the shape and size of the rooms!

Pugsley’s new room

Newbie’s room

Just a bit more Gib to go up….

We’ve gotten rid of the hideous 80s style glass balustrade, and replaced it with something a lot simpler and more streamlined (and bonus!  Less cleaning required!)

Well, less cleaning until the toddlers get their hands on some crayons….

Last time I had a baby I was scrubbing the washing machine with a toothbrush, hand-making mobiles out of ribbons and fairywings, and painting a hallway.

This time, the new mortgage has been approved, the joiner has started making the kitchen, the plumber has installed the  heat pipes,  the carpet has been ordered, and I’ve been going paint sample crazy again.  Sorry,  Newbie.  This is as close to nesting as you get.

Is it wierd that I am seriously considering this colour for Newbie’s room?

Dem dry bones.

Tags

borer, building, renovation, wholelottawood

Looky looky folks!!

See that?  That would be a dry floor.  Thanks, Drains Bond.  Or alternate universe Midge and Leroy.  Or whoever is the patron saint of people who are really stressed out by waterlogged floors in their new home.   I promise I’ll sacrifice a chicken or something in your honour.  (Well…..I’ll eat some KFC.  That totally counts, right?)

In other “Yay” news this week –  we have verbal approval from the council on everything.  I’m still EVER SO SLIGHTLY not believing that it’s all go until I see it in writing, but architect James seems happy.  I wonder if sacrificing chickens to the council works?  May upgrade my order to a three pack and  Zinger burger, just to be safe.

And this week I popped in to find this –

I hope this flatpack comes with instructions….

That would be 900 linear metres of wood, which should form all our new walls.  (Or, if the leak comes back, we can always build an ark.)  All carried in by hand by some poor hapless apprentice labourer.   The same one who also removed 42 bags of sand from the ceiling cavity.

Sandbags, all ready for the global warming.

I believe we may owe someone some beer.

Just when we’re getting ready to start putting up new walls, we had to tear holes in all our old ones.  Dom found signs of borer in all the upstairs timber.  The damage didn’t appear to be too extensive, but it seemed like a good time to treat it.  I didn’t stick around to watch the treatment, because a)It took about 14 hours to do and b) it involved chemicals with fun names like arsenic and cyanide.  I figure if Newbie shouldn’t be exposed to caffeine or alcohol in utero, I should probably steer clear of anything with a skull and crossbones on the bottle too.

So that should stop the little critters from munching away at our lovely solid timber, and also gives us lots of holes to jam with insulation.  And according to everything I read about efficient home heating, insulation is next to Godliness.  More chicken?