Tuesday; I felt slow today. I got the no more gaps done on the ceiling of the living room and anywhere else I needed it. I then got the sander out and did all of that. There was a little bit to do by hand. By the time I did all that is was lunchtime. After lunch I started on the ceiling, I am doing a texture which is taking a lot longer than just painting but it looks pretty good. I got a third of the way through by 3pm. We had our showers and went back to Herbert. The deal was an early start an early finish. We popped next door to say hello to the neighbours and ended up building a bed for Sylvia. Jimmy came home not long after we had finished it. We ended up having dinner with them. I am envious of their lovely fire! Finally light enough to take a photo of the blocks for you.

Wednesday; A full on day, with three people all arriving at the same time. We had Dave, Cory and Jas all at once. Jas is friends with Laura and they are on a cleaning mission for me. I want all the house with clean enough surfaces so I can paint. They got through a lot of my list but of course there is more to do! My plan was to be painting while they did that but it was too hard. I had organising to do and it was more important. Sorting out the tools, taking loads back to Herbert and only keeping here what we now need. I need to access the dining room so I can paint it. Cory tackled the studio with some plywood. It looks much better than it did. He also did a few other jobs but Rowan was on that so I don’t know exactly. By the end of the day I was spent. We ended up with takeaways for dinner and getting back to Camele around 7pm. Let’s do it all again tomorrow! Oh and what a beautiful job Rowan did with replacing the glass in the bedroom door. We couldn’t get an exact match but this glass works perfectly for our quirky home.

Thursday; Rowan is staying at Herbert waiting for Cory to arrive while I go to Till. I have quite a few jobs to do, but when do I not have quite a few jobs to do haha. I have to sand the GIB stopping in the dining room and unfortunately Rowan has all the batteries so my tools are useless. I use a plug in sander and turn the house to dust. Don’t worry I wear a mask. After the house is covered in a fine white dust I move on to my last coat of plaster. Just as I finish the door gets a knock. Oh yay it is Kathleen and her dog Barry. I texted her last night and told her to knock if she is walking past. Now that I am inside I hardly see any of my neighbours. I have been keeping an eye out but haven’t had much luck! It was lovely seeing her and she hasn’t been inside the house so I showed her around. It also has the benefit of not standing out in the cold. A package arrived while we were chatting. Yay I got my custom house number for the fence!

I ended up on the phone to my dad while I wipped up some mortar and to use on the fireplace and realised I made too much. That’s okay I have some holes that need filling outside. I get a bit artistic with some bits lying around. Wabi sabi at a shabby chic level. Wabi sabi is the Japanese art of fixing things that are broken and leaving them looking repaired which in itself makes the object more beautiful. I started filling in gaps in the main bedroom and Cory arrived. I got him onto the jobs we wanted done here. While I continued on in the bedroom. I didn’t get very far and then I had him pulling out any random screws and nails for me. Rowan arrived not long after and then took off to go to Placemakers. Andy from Bunnings wanted to catch up so we he had a bit of a meeting with him. Before we know it Cory is going home and we need to go too. Rowan is making curry for dinner and needs time to get it done.

Friday; Today we have a visitor actually two. Paul from Christchurch is here with his brother Harry from Sydney. Harry came over for the week to celebrate Paul’s birthday. Happy big birthday Paul! They come check out the house and we go out for a lovely breakfast. Jas is here today finishing off some jobs in the house. She gets the last of the cleaning done and then gets on to filling some gaps in the smaller bedroom. I

can’t believe how much different the house looks after today. Rowan and I attack the picket fence. It takes three tries before we actually get the hang of it. The first time we ended up on a slant as I wasn’t holding the spacer in tight enough at the bottom. We got there in the end and it looks great. Yes we are going to paint it white. It is the proverbial white picket fence. It also feels much more private in the backyard and in the two front rooms. I am ecstatic.

Saturday; Gap filling. This is my day, the whole day. Filling in gaps. I think I went through 5 tubes. I will have to count out how many I gave gone through for the whole project. It will be a lot! It does make a huge difference and people who skip this step are silly, it really finishes it off. I want all the no more gaps or at least the majority of it done. I manage to tick off all four rooms.

Sunday; It has been a year since my grandpa passed away. It really doesn’t feel that long ago. Talk about a crazy year. My Nana is doing very well and the family have a small get together. The Māori side of the family would traditionally do an unveiling which it is not. I know they are finding it hard not having the ashes in the ground. Nana plans to have them put in the ground in the summer. They have a little get together at grandpas shed and celebrate his life. Rowan and I got a Behemoth beer a few weeks ago ready to give a cheers.

Today is a day off, sort of. We take 50 posts down to Palmerston this morning and unload them at the blocks. There is 70 metres of fencing we need to get sorted before we start. It was pretty early still as we headed back to Herbert and we made the decision to keep working. I got all of the undercoat done at the house. It took two coats of paint on the ceiling of the dining room. Now everywhere is ready for the first coat of paint. Our intention was a day of pottering at Herbert but alas one day closer to getting it done.

Monday; Yay it is time to get those blocks in place. Chris is here with his daughter Aurora. There is a fair bit to do and the digger makes light work of it. I run off at 9.30am to go to Till. Rowan comes with me to do a couple of errands and rides back on his motorbike. It is a nice enough day for outdoor painting so I get Jas on the picket fence doing an undercoat. I tackle the ceiling in the main bedroom and I get the fireplace first coat on. Talk about seeing blue for me! I am really happy with the colours. When I got back to Herbert around 4pm I got to see the progress they made. It looks way better with the stones in place. It is not cheap to do this but it really makes a difference.

It is Rowan’s grandmas birthday today. Happy Birthday Bette!