Bunny time again

I am yet again reminded of the necessity to make notes through the week of our “doings”, because yet again I sit down and think “has anything happened this week?” Then I read through my notes and find that it has! I know it won’t last, and at some point in the future our lives will settle into routines similar to those we had in Auckland, but for the moment each week brings something new.

We have had two exciting/fun happenings this week. On Tuesday some posh looking cars pulled up just a few yards from us on the other side of the road, and people eventually emerged from them and started making their way to Paul and Naomi’s (our vendors) home. It turned out to be an estate agent, videographer, and photographer with a drone camera. Once our home is finished (I’m sure it will happen one day) I plan to put a photo book together of the build, concluding with some aerial photography. I also am a little bit disappointed that we can’t see our lovely roof, and would therefore like some pictures of it. So, as soon as I discovered a man with a drone in our midst, I cheekily asked if he would mind taking a few photos for us. He didn’t mind at all and did the deed after concluding his work next door. When his email of the photos arrived the following day I was really excited to see them (and our roof). Here is one for your perusal:

The fun event has been receiving an email to inform us that we have been selected as one of the six finalists in the Whanganui Most Beautiful Home (Exterior) competition. We entered this last week just for fun. I am of course convinced we have reached the final because there were only five other entries, but Nicky seems to think we stand a chance, when not chortling!

In terms of progress on the house, I collected Nicky’s William Morris honeysuckle curtains on Tuesday from Whanganui Furnishers, fitted with the new tape which gives them New York pleats. We hung them and put the tie-back hooks up and they look very good and Nicky is very pleased with them. They add to the character of the room, improves the acoustics and enhance it’s personality. We are really enjoying the differences between the rooms in the house, even though we only have a few of them.

While we were out on Wednesday having a very productive meeting with Graeme of Simply Wrought Iron, who is designing gates for us (and is also going to quote for doing the fencing), Bert arrived and started installing the balustrade. This is a legal requirement because of the height of the retaining wall. I thought it would be just a bit of railing, so I have been quite surprised to discover how well it defines the space round the southern part of the house, and I expect will do so even more when it is finished, next week apparently. However, we aren’t holding our collective breath because our tiler was supposed to fit us in last week and never turned up.

The routines of daily life have continued with Nicky organising the laundry, me doing shopping, and both of us doing cooking and meal production. We have both had ups and downs with feeling tired and under the weather, but it didn’t last. I have had paid work every day, and Nicky’s perseverance with the berm and front garden is now really starting to show results. We have installed some plastic “honeycomb” and more of the black stones that we like, to extend the turning area of concrete at the front. It isn’t quite wide enough to use as a reversing area for the car, so we asked Bert to quote for concrete. This he has done, but we thought we would try an alternative approach to see if it is viable before deciding on the concrete.

Nicky’s friend Valda from life group in Blockhouse Bay is in Whanganui this weekend with her husband at a Riley Vintage Car Rally. We headed into town yesterday morning to see the cars and meet up with Valda. We took her and a friend for morning tea at the Mud Duck Café and we hope to see Valda and Tom here again before she heads home. It was good to have a natter and a catch up.

The boat racing (aka The America’s Cup) has become part of our afternoon entertainment, sometimes as we wander through the living room, other times we sit and watch (if we are winning!). We have also had our first hot cross buns of the season, which we have throughly enjoyed.

This morning while Nicky was at church, I sprayed some of the noxious weeds in the wilderness to try and make clearing it easier. Around lunchtime a local builder (who had called in on Friday just for chat as we had invited him to do when we met him at the Pumice Party a few weeks ago) stopped when passing and said on his way home he would call in and help me fit the range hood. I had mentioned this jokingly on Friday, so had to explain this and that its installation was part of our build contract, but was bowled over by his generosity. I did warn him that we may call on him in future for other projects. It’s just another example of the generous nature of the people that we are getting to know here.

Take care, Rick