It’s been a long week

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We started the week off in Whanganui, having driven down last Sunday. On our usual quick visit to the build on our way to the holiday park, our now regular accomodation, we got overly excited. When we had last seen our house the gib was still going on. Now, it had been plastered, painted inside, and the stained glass windows fitted! 





We were so thrilled with the windows and the colours, we stayed as long as our bladders would allow. After checking in at the holiday park and eating a pre-prepared chicken and pasta salad, we walked back to the house to try and take it all in again.


Back at the house on Monday morning, Nicky spotted that the tiler was using the wall tiles on the floor of the bathroom so we hastily informed him of our colour choices (black on the floor, grey on the walls). We asked Joel to make the south patio a little bigger, ready for the concrete to be poured, and we had visits from two companies for window coverings. One for the Roman blinds in the bedroom, wardrobe, shower room and toilet, and the other for the roller blinds in the living area and sewing room. This resulted in a trip into town in the afternoon to choose fabrics for the Roman blinds, and we called into Mitre 10 for reconnaissance on mirror, clothes line/dryer, and letterbox. Following afternoon tea in the sun on the deck at our chalet, and another walk down to the house, the evening was occupied with The Crown Season 4.


We watched the fog rising from the river while having our breakfast on Tuesday. By the time we got to the house (and we were not tardy), the kitchen was starting to be fitted. Another trip into town saw us procuring savoury pies and “sticky buns” for the workforce (now around 11 or 12 men), and kitchen detail decisions with Bryan and Mike of Pace Modular. I had to do a little MacOnSite work before we spent some time in the garden. During our evening visit to the house we had a good chat with Paul and Naomi (the vendors of the section), and then finished watching the rest of The Crown Season 4.


After saying our farewells to the men at the house on Wednesday morning, we drove back to Auckland, hastily unpacked the car, cleaned ourselves up and went round to Jan’s for our Life Group Farewell dinner. This was a happy occasion, and they presented Nicky with a brilliant card that Jan had made.


After all the extra driving we have been doing, Luna was due for another service and a couple of new tyres, so she had a pamper day up at the garage on Thursday. I spent lots of money on paying deposits for blinds and the removal company, and we got back to sorting and packing in the garage. Nicky had a long conversation with Dawn our landlady about new tenants, which gave us lots of food for thought. In the evening we popped over to Stella’s and it was good to see her.


Friday was collection day. In the morning the men from JunkToGo came to take away inorganic stuff, and in the afternoon a lovely lady from the Salvation Army Family Store came to take furniture, household items, and some of the books that we feel we no longer will have space for. In between, we had the Maranatha farewell gathering up at The Bay Café - more cards, gifts and hugs. We had a lovely phone conversations with Lew at Pace Modular- kitchen worktops now fitted - and Bert the Project Manager. Much has been achieved this week, and we are almost there. This is stunning when we still thought there was so much to do when we left on Wednesday. As a result, we had long conversations about what we do when, and made some decisions.


Since we got back to Auckland the weather has been hot and sunny, getting to 27°C today. The weekend has been consumed with packing. Nicky had a quick trip over to Stella’s yesterday, and I went to church with her today for another farewell - this one quite tearful. As I write this Nicky is up at the supermarket as we have just run out of parcel tape. The light evenings mean we don’t stop packing until just before bedtime. This leaves us tired, anxious, and stressed, but we are really looking forward to our future.


Take care, Rick

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