Grand Progress

Family took at 10 day "holiday" down at the house over the last 2 weekends, while I came back to work during the week in between. Mum installed these "steps" so we don't have to walk on the grass to get to the carport,(or step over the herb garden, though herb garden might be an optimistic name for it, it's currently full of daffodils and weeds).

I turned up Friday after work, in a car loaded down with a shower I bought on Trademe.co.nz, a new shower liner, shower mixer, and waste outlet. When I opened the door to the bathroom, this is what I found:

Bath gone, walling removed, chip board floor pulled up to reveal floorboards underneath. All in a days work! They started pulling the bathroom to bits Friday morning, and when I got there late afternoon it had reached this stage. The day before they had taken the trailer to pick up 2 sheets of aqualine gib for behind the shower, and 1 sheet of marine grade strandboard for the replacement floor underneath.

Although these wooden floorboards are under the ratty old chip board, they are not sealed and seem a bit "gappy", if you know what I mean. Not being part of the original house, I don't feel too precious about them, but I'm glad they are there. I'll just leave them safely tucked away under the other flooring, in case I win lotto, or in case a future owner of the house wins lotto. :-) I can't get under the back part of the house to insulate. In fact, I can only get under a small part of it to do any plumbing. Lucky then, that that's daylight you can see through the bottom of that wall, because it's where the floor level drops in the house. The shower plumbing is easily accessible! Same for the hot water cylinder next to it. What's not good, is that there was no shut off tap for the hot water cylinder. Even with the water off at the tank and pump switched off, gravity meant that once the hot water pipe to shower was unscrewed, the whole cylinder drained out through it. Lucky my uncle has brains. We went without hot water overnight, but ended up having to fill the HWC so we could have any water at all. Next day we had to drain it again to finish the plumbing. A great variety of sizes of pipes and fittings meant we didn't have the right sizes on hand, and had to wait for the local Placemakers to open the next day. In the meantime, uncle found a valve-type thing in the shed that was the right size, and fitted it so that we could stop the hot water in future. Most unfortunately, it has a very slow leak, so it will have to be replaced, and the cylinder drained again! Getting on to that as soon as possible. Anyway...

The old bath.

Gib up, tray getting all level and stuff.

Waiting for silicone to dry, about to maneuver shower liner into place.

Liner propped up while glue drys.

How the bathroom looks now.

Still to do: Doors to assemble and be put in, silicone sealing, waste pipe to attach.
The new shower waste I bought didn't fit under the floorboards, as it had a ...bottle trap? instead of a ....U bend? Something like that. We installed the old one, but then the U bend was too close and hit the floorboards underneath. grrrr. So, need a longer pipe to it. Anyway, by the end of next weekend, I'm hoping I'll have a working shower! Fingers crossed.

In non-bathroom related news.... this was discovered.

It's not grass between the tank and the shed! It's brick paving!

"Huntly Firebrick" :-)

A Pane in the ....

My first attempt at puttying windows (a door actually) was going well. Until the chisel slipped. Of course it would happen on the large coloured centre panel. *Sigh*. On the plus side, I now get to replace it with a prettier colour (if I can afford it). I started with the door because I don't want the windows to fall out when I start stripping the paint!

Also planted a Black Doris Plum tree this weekend. It seems I will have to plant another, different type of plum tree as a "pollinator". Who knew? I found out when I read the label in store, but i couldn't fit two trees in my hatchback!

Finally got around to finishing first coat/undercoat of lounge.

Before

During (Shortie on the roller!)

After

The lounge feels twice as big now! And I'm finally getting some indoor plants moved in too.

Moonrise.

UPDATE:

Replaced center panel with PURPLE glass! It's called "Salvation Jane".

On the level.

Up early this morning. This is what 7.30am looks like. The frost was beautiful. I was preparing for the arrival of the house lifters at 8.30am. The sun came over the hill just on 9am, so now I know for sure that the hill across the valley doesn't stop very much of my sun. Right now I'm looking out the window at a little rabbit munching it's way through the roadside grass. A fantail is flitting back and forth between the camellias in the side yard. Jonquils have popped up everywhere. I went for a walk to pick some last week, and got an almighty fright, when I scared a pheasant into flight about 2 feet from my head.

By 12.30 the house was level, (or as level as it will get). Good work boys! It's up on blocks, and this weekend we start doing the piles. It's bloody amazing that something that could have taken us weeks, could get done in 4 hours. The house rattles a bit when you walk at the moment, since in some places the house isn't meeting the piles anymore.

I slept in front of the fire last night. Luxury! And made butter chicken soup for tea. But the microwave went bang when I tried to heat it up for lunch. Oh well, can't win them all.

Discoveries.

I've been putting off posting again, waiting for things to happen, for better weather, to remember to take my good camera down to the house...

Yes, progress is being made. Although I initially decided that the roof would be the first thing to get done, what actually started happening first was the piles. The piles that I wasn't going to touch.

The family said "oh, it won't cost much, we have some jacks, we can just jack it up and pack the saggy bits." Let me tell you now, this is not how it works! Investigations with a laser level showed us that one corner had dropped by 70mm the other by 90mm. One or two bearers were visibly bowed. So we thought we would just correct the drop as much as we could and leave it at that. Except it doesn't work that way either. One thing led to another, yada yada yada, I'm getting the professionals in.

It was meant to be. I ran into an old friend in the house lifting business, who offered his advice, and the result is this. I will pay him to lift and level the house. It will be done safely and properly, and then I will sort out any piles that need to be replaced etc, as time (and money) allow.

It makes sense to do the piles first. I'm now told that if I had done the roof, it would have been buggered if I had to do the piles at some point afterwards. But the other discovery is that there IS a leak in the roof. It is, thankfully, a small and slow one.

The mystery of the damp ground, and the torrents of water running down the garden path when it rains has been solved. I'm not using enough water!
The water tank is full, and has been for some time now, as I'm frugal with water, have no washing machine, and am only home on weekends. (And it's been the wettest May in god knows how long). The roof is close to 100 square metres and almost all of it runs to the guttering at the back of the house, and into the tank. In theory.
In fact, with the tank full, the water just rushes over the edge of the guttering and pours on the ground. The overflow for the tank is fairly small, and has no hose attached, so all the water that does make it out of the tank goes down the garden path. I think this is why the path had disappeared from view! I need to make the overflow wider.
I'm now making fantastical plans for a "dry riverbed" (you like my fancy landscaping term?) to channel the water when it rains. Possibly a pond too! (Must get some rocks). We've had inorganics here last month and I've picked up some drainage pipe, just enough to do along the back of the house. Isn't that convenient? I've also picked up a terracotta chimney pot, which combined with a large bowl, has made a nice birdbath. Which no birds are interested in. I guess country birds don't know what such luxuries are for.

The "lovely assistant" and I, (I love this term, which a friend uses often) spent last Tuesday digging out dahlia bulbs, to save them from being trampled by the houselifters next week. Mum had dug out the small clump on the other side previously, (that's the small clump in the photo!) but it was nothing compared to the masses of them which we got out of the ground on the west side of the house.

This is after I cut down the remaining stalks, before we lifted all those bulbs!
I want to replant them all along the front fence, but I need to repair the front fence and build a sort of garden bed first. This hopefully won't be too costly, as uncle has sawn up a macrocarpa tree into planks for me. (!) I know, right? How awesome is that? Every time I open the garage I'm greeted by the waft of sawn macrocarpa! My biggest enemy at the moment is the weather. I got caught in the rain while fixing the back step, (well not fixing exactly, just making more safe) and that's how I found out about the spouting/tank issue.

(It's a fungus army!)The old tree stumps are sprouting allsorts in this weather.

Finally, to indoors. No point in continuing with paint and plaster until piles are done, as more cracks will just appear. For the same reason I haven't replaced the painted out glass in bedroom 2, in case it cracks. Bedroom 1 (mine) is looking much more like a bedroom, although it's hard to tell from this photo.

It's become the "red room" while the other is "the purple room". There is so much to do, and yet I spend little time in the bedrooms. It seems strange to me, someone who has always "lived out of bedrooms", flatting, and with mum and dad, I'm used to lying in bed to watch tv and read. Now I have a fire to lounge beside, a window to gaze out of, a backyard to glory in while I drink my coffee. I appreciate it so much that I am hardly ever in my bedroom. I even go to bed late and rise reasonably early. (by which I mean before 10am, heheh!).

I had daydreamed about retreating to the house to write a book. Nuts, right? It seems very indulgent to me, and yet lately I've been staying up late into the night, tapping away, working on ideas. Now I'm struck with an idea for a book, or trilogy, and I wonder if I have the tenacity to actually do it. Will I be able to stick at it for several years? And work on the house? And hold down a job and a relationship? I suppose the great thing about writing for a hobby, is that it doesn't cost anything!

Well, I guess we'll see, won't we?

Recommendings:

Cafe:
Sadie's Cafe, Cambridge. On the way in, heading south, on the left, if you hit the "Welcome to Cambridge" sign you've gone slightly too far. Freaking delicious cabinet food, excellent Supreme coffee, lovely Nana decor. Almost no signage out front, so easy to miss (might be off being repaired or re-done as we speak). Parking in front of the verandah, (general store style) or around the back. Has a courtyard. Feels as though the decor might change around as the mood hits, which is nice. Bacon and egg bap with hollandaise = yum. Ginger oat slice almost had me on my knees.

Blog:
Decor Extremus - "Douglas Lloyd Jenkins and Peter Wells decorate an Edwardian house." Obviously helps if you are into collecting, decorating, nz history and architecture, that sort of thing. Being architecturally curious, I am.

Electricity:
Powershop. Yes. I am enjoying this level of involvement in my electricity purchasing. I also have hardly paid anything at all so far due to account credits from signing up and dividends from lines company. Funny little specials on the occasions of the return of Marmite, and the death of Margaret Thatcher are a nice touch. I wonder what the next one will be? Adding in my own meter readings is good for keeping guess-work out of the equation too.

Classic Book:
Persuasion - Jane Austen. My favourite Jane Austen book, although I haven't read all of them. I admit that I struggled with Jane Austen at first, trudging through Pride and Prejudice somewhat confused as to who was who and what was going on, and trying to recall the movie.... terrible I know. Persuasion must have been about the 3rd one I read, and that's the one that finally clicked for me.

Markets:
Pokeno Country Market. Sundays 9am - 4pm. Pokeno is small enough that you can't miss the market. Bit's and bobs, food, free range eggs, bacon, plants, milk truck, fish truck, and a nice little old lady who sells her home baking. Excellent scones with jam and cream for 50c a half scone! You can't beat that.

Progress report.

Well, I have completed my first month of home ownership!

Making the trip down to the house each weekend has been a mostly enjoyable process, despite a couple of traffic snarl-ups around rush hour. (Turns out that even leaving before 6am, I will still hit bad traffic heading into the city). The mornings are beautiful in the countryside though, with mists curling through the valleys, and the sunrise lighting up the tops of the toitoi. And the variety of birds is a delight! Pukekos, kingfishers, tui, fantails, magpies, blackbirds, hawks, finches, waxeyes, moreporks at night, and families of turkeys roaming the hillside opposite the house. I've seen 3 cats so far, but haven't been able to make friends with them. One little black one likes to sit on the road under the street light at night. What a tease!

I've had some weekends of intense work with family, and a couple of lovely times with friends too.

Easter was particularly fun. Of course there had to be an easter egg hunt!

and dinner with the girls.

As luck would have it, the weekend of the first big working bee, was also the first cold night. We picked the right time to install the new flue on the woodburner.

BEFORE:

AND AFTER:

It wasn't until after I'd painted the wall, that I realized those tiles are not white, but pale grey! They do look less-than-lovely. Fortunately, the wall is not staying that colour, it's just an undercoat. I'm not sure what colour it will end up. Or what colour to put on the trim around the tiles? I want the room to feel both warm, and light and airey. So.... yellow? Or cream? Warm white? Terracotta? Mushroom? I don't know.
It's hard not to get ahead of myself. To prioritize the needs over the wants. The needs are:
1. A proper shower that works. Not just a handhose connected to the bath taps with a dodgy arrangement of shower curtains and no sealant.
2. An oven. The one that came with the house, well, I was too scared to use it. Half the grill was sitting on top of the cupboard. It was older than I am. And none too clean. We pulled it out. The hob too. Which was actually not a hob at all, but the top cut off a standing stove and bodged onto the bench, with burn marks underneath. At least I actually have a stove to replace it with. Mum and Dad's old one. But first I have to line the wall behind it. Still thinking about that one.
3. The roof. It scares me too! Although there were no apparent leaks when it rained, there have definitely been leaks in the past, and the purlins in the gable are rotten and spaced too far apart. The house has had 3 lean-to additions on top of each other, and you can tell. Replacing the gable part is the first priority, as it's where the leaks have occurred. It's also the most expensive thing I will have to do initially.

There are a million little things that need to be purchased. So of course, no saving is going on right now. Except in the "that's a bargain! I better buy it." sense of the word. Like the showerhead/hand shower and connector set that I got at the op-shop for $15 when I'd just been looking at $90 ones at the plumbing warehouse. I only hope it's the right sort! I'd love to put in one of these:

But I think what I'm going to be able to afford, is one of these:

Not a new one either! Oh well, my birthday is coming up. You never know. ;-)

Also on the progress front, a tree was cut down, some old felled trees cut into logs to store for firewood, and garage doors!

Dad and Uncle with their handywork.

After a hard days work....

...cooking dinner in the rediculouslly large kitchen.

Reconnaissance and cleaning mission 1.

I have the keys!

I have just returned from the first reconnaissance and cleaning mission. And oh boy, does it need a lot of cleaning!

Got the back spouting cleaned out, in between showers of rain. Found that it leaks, as the joints were never glued together. The water pump is QUIET. yay! ALL the windows desperately need putty, (except maybe the aluminium ones in the bathroom) the windows in bedroom 1 have been growing moss because, we think, the water is getting in where the putty is supposed to be at the bottom of the glass. Not sure what's actually holding the glass in to be honest! The rooms look even more massive without furniture. The septic tank has been emptied, the new electricity meter was installed in January, and the roof does NOT seem to be leaking. (!!!) Had some heavy, though not sustained, showers of rain overnight. Couldn't hear any dripping, or iron lifting. South western side of house is in better condition than I remembered. All windows on that side should be ok with some work, and only maybe two rotten weatherboards on that side. Found that the concrete path goes all the way down the side of the house, and just needs to be uncovered (kikuyu grass has grown over it). Lemon tree, though small, has about a dozen lemons on it. :-)

Coffee break!

My wide angle lens makes the back yard look even more massive.

We got all the floors vacuumed and washed except the kitchen. Everything about the kitchen is filthy, except the fridge and the benchtop. We cleaned some drawers and the pantry, in order to put stuff away, but I'm going to have to get some sugar soap and start with the ceiling and work my way down the walls. It's that crazy '80's scrubbable vinyl, but all peeling. yuck! The floor vinyl is also super wrinkly and wrecked. Don't know exactly what I'm going to do about that in the meantime!

First dinner.

We all had a good night's sleep, despite the wind and rain, probably the peace of having no traffic noise and sirens!

Dad got the boards off of the ceiling hole in bedroom 1, to check the state of the "leak that had been fixed"

I guess it has been fixed on the outside, because it certainly wasn't leaking. However, what he found on the inside was this:

That is an almost full rubbish bag, of bird's nesting material. That must have been one serious nest! Had to make the hole quite a bit bigger to get it out.

Bedroom 2 is quite dark because of the spraypaint over the windows on one side (grrr!) Will take a glass scraper down next time!

Well, that's all the photos I got, because my fancy camera is quite old, and the batteries don't stay charged for very long anymore. I'll have to take the point-and-shoot as well next time. Quite excited about taking the furniture down there this weekend. OoOooO zen furniture arrangement!