An early Tuesday start with dropping David to Dunedin. We may have hugged longer than the allotted time.

Thanks for visiting us!

Rowan and I headed to Lawrence to meet up with the expander home people. It turned into a very long day with us getting back at 9pm. I was exhausted.

On site in Palmerston with the builders. With a big tidy up to do, Rowan and I organise the sites by moving everything in a big pile and clearing bins. The sites are looking much better and are well organised now we have changed builders. We planned to be here for the rest of the week however a last minute change of plans we are racing up to Christchurch tomorrow.

The time has come, we have been first in the queue for a back load since November. A very early start to get us up to Christchurch and meet the truck driver. We take the opportunity to bring the trailer and take our boxes out of Rick & Liz’s garage.

It takes two tries to get the truck onto the trailer. The first try we broke the rope. Billy (where it was stored) was a great help, it would have taken a lot longer without his big tip truck. We didn’t leave Christchurch until that afternoon and got back to Herbert around 7pm. Thanks to Jimmy who helped get the truck off at the local hall. Another late night and more big days ahead. Hopefully we will get a break soon.

I rush off to Mitre10 in the morning to get paint before heading down to Palmerston. I am painting weatherboards today and Rowan is mowing lawns and finishing off other jobs. It is 30 degrees and hot! Actually not great for painting as it is drying as fast as I can roll it on. I am not complaining, we will run out of nice days and soon it will be very hard to paint outside. When we get home around 6pm there are more jobs to do. There hasn’t been really any down time it is definitely eat, work, sleep repeat!

Saturday, it is the Swapmeet today in Orari. we booked a stall a long time ago, but decided we will just attend. We almost didn’t go as there is a lot on and it means another early start but we need a bit of fun. It was a nice morning out and we got back to Oamaru and did some errands before getting back to Herbert in the afternoon. There is loads of jobs to get on with but at least tonight we can have a bath!

Sunday, Rowan’s birthday but not really. We have no time to celebrate, there is too much to do. Sorry Rowan we will have to find some time when I get back from Auckland next week. Down in Palmerston, Rowan unloads all of the boxes that came from Christchurch while I paint another load of weatherboards. That is two thirds of the house done. Just as we are finishing off, Jimmy calls to say let’s move your truck into place. We get back and Jim has a plan with his tractor to get it onto our driveway. It takes a bit of time to remove the boat, camper and clear the driveway. Once done we get it into place relatively easily. A bit of damage to the bumper but nothing to worry about. Another exhausting day but it feels good to have a few big jobs off the list.

No builders on site until Wednesday. Monday is a paperwork catch up day for half of it and some jobs around Herbert.