Coffee at our place

Think I have mentioned before we sit in the house in the family room and have coffee at the end of each day before it's dark. It's so relaxing we think if we had comfy chairs we would fall asleep!

I took a video today of the sounds of the peace and quiet. Well hopefully you can't hear the flies - I don't know why 9perhaps it's the builders lunch scraps) but there are heaps of flies in there at the moment!!

How would you like a quick tour?

Let me show you around....staring in the west wing...

Hee hee - don't get dizzy.... best viewed sitting down.

Where did today go?

I am not really sure where the time went today. I got up late (10.15am) I must have been tired from not sleeping very well the night before the drain layers arrived. Plus I added another duvet - the weather media says we have a low of 10 and a high of 21 at the moment but out here we get more extremes - last night it got to 8 degrees at about 4am and to a high of 26 degrees at 8.30am (thanks to our weather station). So yeah - the nights have been cooler but the days lovely and hot! In fact today was so hot while I was doing all my jobs I was sweating.

I went to the nursery in Muriwai - it's a cool place called AWA nurseries and up a gravel road but huge and has lovely large specimens. I got 7 (because that's all I could fit in my wheelbarrow) Tenaxe flaxes. The place was crazy busy - a queue a mile long of people buying stuff (as I keep asking - what recession??). They were a great size and only $12. They have a sale on for three weeks so I'll go during the week I think. I really do need some more plus something for this side of the pipe as well. The Tenaxe flax is good for swampy areas it said (plus I checked with the lady and she said that was the only flax that would be ok with water).


I then took a couple of barrow loads of topsoil down to back fill the pipe as it's kinda sticking out on the track side and we can back fill on that side - but only plant out on the other side. I wanted to add some to the top of the pipe that crosses the track too as it was not buried very deep there. I added some river stones to the part that is out of the ground so the horses wouldn't stand on it.


After I dumped the topsoil I filled the barrow twice on the way up with clay from the digger treads that had been munged into the grass!! So annoying.

Then I found all the plastic bits from where the guy drilled holes in the 16m long plastic pipe - they were all over the paddock - hundreds of them. Good grief - some people really do not think about the fact they are in a horse paddock, or that I only have 3 acres of grazing so grass is like gold and having clay munged into it a foot each side of the covered trench is very annoying indeed. I literally lifted up sheets of it in track patterns with perfectly good grass underneath.

My bird scarers seem to be working well. On the part on the track where I don't have any the birds were eating the seed so I gave it a sprinkling of hay to cover up the soil and the seed.


The boys were a bit iffy about the pipe - I walked down there to take this photo and Maraschino gave it a sideways stare.


There are also a flock (?) of ducks - paradise ducks in the maize field and they have white heads some of them so I think they look a bit odd to the horses.

Not really sure what is happening to this grisilinea - it's dying from the side!

Speaking of dying - these two flew into the garage window I think - they were outside the window - they would have been able to see right through as there is no garage door on the other side. Poor things.

Drain day

Woke up early so that I was ready for the drain layers when they arrived at 7.15am. It was all foggy so a bit chilly but didn't take long for the sun to burn it off. I told them where the sewer pipe was and left them to it. They were really nice guys and seemed to know what they were doing.


When the digger went into the paddock I closed the boys into their stalls. I had to tell the workment to look away while I got Coco in as they were just standing along the fence line staring.

It's a pain seeing the paddock all dug up - knowing that with my luck with grass growing I'll end up with a strip of dock - but also good to know all the storm water will be diverted away from the paddock now which is fantastic.
This is the side nearest the detention tank - I have not replanted this in grass yet as it will need to be re-levelled etc - plus the tank needs to be back filled.
The digger man did a good job and compacted the soil down well -I spread some grass seed.. and... made some bird scarers!!

The boys were very happy to be out and have some new grass (in the track) and went and investigated the new rolling patch!


The builders were there all day - they did alot more of the soffits and I am not sure what these bits are for - I think they are battons for the soffits.


I started putting some water into the tank - hopefully soon the drain pipes will all be connected (with any luck before it rains) and we can start filling it up!

Oh - did I mention they dug through the sewer line???
I saw them do it - I heard a bang and they said shit that didn't sound good and the digger driver put his face in his hands. They fixed it all up - took about an hour.

Lovely fine week

This was a nice view through my Canon at 7.30pm....

It has been amazing weather this week and more to come yet by the looks of it.

The builders seem to have fiddly stuff to do at the moment because there is not much visual progress....

This bit's now done - so getting closer to being ready for the bricks (but the painter needs to come first) - oh and the front door is in (bar the actual door).

The spare room now has cladding too....


The office kitchen window is now in and the weatherboards on.


And George and our home office windows are in.

The water tank - sorry - detention tank is now finished and the drain layer arrives tomorrow to lay the trench/pipe from this down to the lowest part of the property - so that means digging through both the horse paddocks so I am staying home to keep them in the yards.

Another aerial shot

We flew to Whakatane for Shawn's wedding and in the way back we went over home and took this. You can see the horses if you look carefully plus the new water tank in the hole in the ground. The barn looks really big too.

Another bloody hole

Yes, more holes, more concrete, more dirt piles. Ross Tanks guys arrived bright and early and the base of the tank was poured about lunch time.

The soffits have been done on this large area. We have coffee every evening as the sun goes down over here - we borrow the builders chairs - it's so peaceful and quiet.


We got some paint (Pauatahanui) and George started painting the fence.

The bath fits

George trying out the bath for size.

The amazing view from the lounge.

My office, looks bigger now it's all swept out. The builders have been sweeping up heaps.

The weather boards here are ready for painting - this is my office window, and Shelley's.


And now we have another swimming pool - aka hole for the water tank. Coming along really well hey.

Back from OZ

We got back from Australia after a weekend away and heaps has been done. The roof is finished and all the guttering is on, bar the drainpipes. Most of the windows are now in, and the plumber has done the pipes to the shower and basin in the ensuite and the bath is nearly in. George lay in it last night (in the guest bathroom).





The soffits are nearly all done and the weather boards are on. George has run the network and telephone cables, and speaker cables for the fancy Apple TV system he has designed.

Looks pretty cool huh. Not even two months after the builders started.

We have just realised today that it will really only be a matter of weeks before we are in. We are really looking forward to the bricks going up. We have double glazing so lovely wide window sills.

Fenceline

When the neighbour mows his lawn the grass comes onto our property. I am thinking of planting some flaxes down the fence line behind the grisilineas. What do you think? You can see one there I planted. Ideas anyone?

Jolly windy day

It was really windy today but the roofers, the builders and the electricians (4 of them) were all here today. We found out some good news - the windows are arriving tomorrow!!


These are the wires all in the walls....


View from the future patio - initially it will be concrete but George is going to tile it.


The soffit boards (I think that's what it's called) were put in under the eves today - well most of them anyway. Nice blue sky - pity about the wind, but it's drying out the puddles.