Tuesday; Rainy and yuck today. Inside jobs kind of day. Rowan and I get Cory into the GIB. It is starting to look like a real room. Once he is done in the kitchen I sand the ceiling ready for pigmented sealer. It looks like it will need a few coats to seal the ceiling properly before I use an enamel paint. I am avoiding filling in cracks and nail holes. I want it to be its authentic self, just cleaned up with paint. I got paint on the front lead light door but not on the attached door as it is too wet. I need a good day or two with my paintbrush outside. Hoping for better weather at the end of the week.

Wednesday; Rowan planned on following me in later morning but ended up next door helping Jim cutting down trees and getting it all sorted. They had a big digger there moving a large area of dirt and getting down willow trees. Meanwhile I attempted to kintsugi the broken soap dish for our pedestal basin. Cory removed the stumps out the front and does a site clean. Then up on the roof of the garage with some flextape filling in any holes. I get a second pigmented sealer on the kitchen (I will need more). I start the dirty job of the built in kitchen cupboards and discover more rats nests. My mask has gotten a work out today!

Thursday; I started Cory in the garden, but he was a bit slow. Rowan told him to stop and move inside. I was a bit oblivious because I was too busy sanding the kitchen doors and drawers. I think I may need to learn embroidery so I can cleverly fix the holes in the old metal mesh. Mmm I will consult Pinterest. I got the paint out of course. It was sunny enough that I dared to paint the back door. It dried, phew. I just want to get moving so I have one room complete. Well ideally kitchen and bathroom.

Friday; I headed off early. Well dear me, my ute is making an awful noise. I pull over asap and call AA. It smells too, not a good sign. While I wait for AA I pay some bills. The guy is really nice. He gets some more oil with me from Herbert as it is very low. We limp it back to Herbert to take it to the local garage. I really didn’t want to turn it on again incase I stuffed it. The oil was low but we have accidentally let the oil light come on before so I am not sure if it is that. Hopefully it is an easy fix. Rowan and I ended up riding in together. Looks like I have no choice but to use my motorbike as transport. I have been feeling anxious about frosty mornings and wet roads. Oh well, will need my big girl panties. At Till Street, we finally get there at 10am. More GIB on the agenda today, but most importantly we got our first coat of stopping on the kitchen. Yay two more to go! I was useless today. I mean I got a lot of paperwork jobs done but I struggled to work on the house. The cold was uninspiring. I did get some small things done, paint, filler, mortar. I certainly didn’t get as much done as I would have liked. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Saturday; I leave Rowan to do his Herbert jobs and I ride in on the bike. I have a million things I want to achieve, it is great weather and I want to make the most of it. Must be a Saturday thing but I had lots of visitors! Neighbours swinging by for a chat. Jerry came by to take a look. Laura came too, she will come do some work with me next week. I found the day pretty good. I did run out of steam. I am looking forward to getting a few tasks ticked off my list next week!

Sunday; At midnight we gave up and came back down to Herbert. The wind was at the point Rowan thought we may blow over. I read my book for a few hours before I got back to sleep. The wind was roaring but we are quite sheltered on our block. Rowan convinced me to ride in the wind. We headed to the dump shop in Hampden. It was a horrific wind and I struggled to stay where I wanted to be on the road. Rowan pointed out how I should try and control the bike which helped on the way back. Not lasting long in Herbert before hoping back on our bikes to go into Ōamaru. We had a late lunch and did our errands. It was a nice lazy day.

Monday; Another day off. We ride into Palmerston to see a friend Lauren who we haven’t seen in 7 years. She moved to Scotland and is staying at mutual friend Liz’s place. We ended up there all day catching up. Looks like I have taken inspiration from Liz’s kitchen for Till St. Liz has an old red Toyota Corolla UM702 she is selling. It must be a sign. Anyone who knows my late grandpa knows his favourite vehicle was his Toyota Camry UM551. Our ute is in unknown condition and this will be a cheap back up car for us. Especially since we are doing a lot of things separately at the moment. Now Camele is set up with water we hardly need to move her. On our cold windy ride back we stop at the mechanics and ask how Noodly is. Apparently absolutely fine haha. A few filter changes and a service not missing a beat! We will pick it up tomorrow once they install the new air filter. Great news indeed. There is a reason old hilux utes go up in value. They are hard to kill.