Short List
Our list of things to be done to finish the house build has become much shorter this week, due to visits from various tradies every day except for Wednesday, when we won the America’s Cup again. Coincidence?
On Monday Caleb came and did the tiling of the window sill behind the gas hob to make it legal. He also tiled splash backs for us in the downstairs loo, shower room and laundry. This was partially to use up the one whole black tile and three sections of grey tile that we had left over from the original tiling in the shower room. However, due to the way they had to buy the extra tiles, we now have four whole tiles and bit of another left over! Hey-ho. All the tiling looks really good and works well.
Tuesday was Bert’s turn. He finished the balustrade and built a retaining wall by the drive to stop the gravel disappearing in the rain. This has produced a nice “boxed” area which Nicky is looking forward to planting. He did a couple of other minor fixes too.
Thursday was the “big” day, with both electricians and Bryan from Pace Modular on-site. Bryan put an additional bracket on the long rail in the wardrobe to stop it bowing, and extracted the fridge/freezer from the cabinet so that the sparkies could install the correct wiring. They also installed the range hood above to cook top, the heated towel rail in the shower room (really good to have somewhere to hang the towels at last) and fitted the replacement lights outside the living room, which I had purchased on-line. Come the evening I switched them on with a little trepidation but they are just brilliant and do exactly what I wanted.
In terms of the build contract, that is almost everything done. There are a few minor things to complete and the grab rail and accessories basket in the shower room still need to be fitted. Our Code of Compliance inspection is booked for next Friday, the 26th, and I think we are now ready for it.
The other tasks are down to us. The Roman blinds might arrive this month, broadband might arrive next month, but the fencing is still anybody’s guess. We finally had a proper quote for it arrive on Monday, but at $47,000 it is way beyond us and way more then everyone we ask thinks it should be. Simon, the friendly builder from up the road, is going to quote for us. I asked him if he could come and give us a tutorial because we were starting to resign ourselves unhappily to the idea of Nicky and I installing it. We also have another builder in the diary for late Monday to come and have a look and do a quote, but we have been there before. The quote which we have received was the ninth that I had asked for.
But wait, there’s more! We had Frances round for dinner on Tuesday. Frances is one of the locals who watched our house being built and then came and said hello when spotting that we had taken up residence. She runs a nursery up the road and calls in every so often with gifts of fresh eggs and other produce from her garden. We had the courgette flan that Nicky had made some time ago and we had frozen, and an “interesting” berry fruit dessert that I found in one of our favourite cookery books, and a very good evening to boot.
On Friday Valda called in unexpectedly with her son David and daughter-in-law Lily (who now also live in Whanganui), so we had a good chat and another couple of tours of the house. We thought Valda had headed back to Auckland earlier in the week so were very pleased to see her.
The other big news of course is the America’s Cup. The racing was much more exciting this week and culminated with the result that everybody here had hoped for. It became our regular afternoon viewing and replaced The Chase for awhile.
Nicky has been making good progress with the front garden, and I have been digging up hemlock and nightshade due to being impatient with the weed killer that I applied last Sunday. I have also done a reasonable amount of MacOnSite work down at the Yellow House Café.
The weather has been very settled, with crisp clear starts, sunny days and hot afternoons followed by cool evenings. We are really enjoying the light inside and outside the house. I also really enjoy being able to see the stars through the bedroom windows when lying in bed.
Yesterday Nicky had another Church Ladies Breakfast down the road which was good, and she had time to walk there this time. I spent an hour getting my printer working, and then when Nicky got home we headed into town. This weekend has two arts events - Artists Open Studios (which we may do some of next weekend) and Whanganui Walls - street art as it happens. We walked round all the street art sites before heading home for lunch and a quiet afternoon, as we were both feeling very tired. We have had a little more energy today so joined the St John’s church congregation for lunch at The Brick House (which was good), and had a few hands of Mah Jong. I made some fruit bread for tea - my first loaf of the year.
We realised earlier in the week that with no longer having a bread bin (we don’t have fresh bread very often, we just get slices of Vogels out of the freezer when needed) we didn’t have anywhere to put “in use” items such as scones or hot cross buns. So, Nicky is very pleased that we have pressed into service a flour jar made by her cousin Tim Kendall to fill the void when required. It’s currently housing the remains of the fruit bread.
Take care, Rick
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