Tuesday; Smashed it out today! I got two coats of enamel on the ceiling, walls around shower and skirting. I got two coats on the windows and the last coat on the weatherboards. I got one coat of Rawene on the wall for the sink. I am ready for wallpaper! Eeee. Cory unclogged the storm water pipes. Turns out one was broken from a tree root which is now all fixed. He has started the garden edging down the path. It will be tiered which will look a million times better. Rowan was on paperwork but he also did a few small jobs for me when he could.

Wednesday; Wallpaper is well underway. I was hoping to get it done in one day but realistically it is more fiddly than that. I was worried about the vintage wallpaper being hard to hang in the bathroom but it has gone relatively smoothly. I picked that up for $2 at a Swapmeet. The kitchen wallpaper is from the local dump and three rolls cost me $10. It is much thicker and very easy to hang. It is very plain, actually this will be the plainest room in the house. I am looking forward to finishing it all off tomorrow. Cory continued the side garden, I expect he will have it finished tomorrow. Rowan was in and out of the council as consents got put on hold because of location of the driveway. I am glad he is on it and I don’t have to think about any of that right now. Laura came to help out. She has introduced me to a friend Jas who can help out with whatever I need. Laura got some cleaning jobs done that I have been avoiding. She also sanded some bits for me for the kitchen and then I let her do the seal and peel removal because I promised her that I would. It is a very satisfying job! We left Ōamaru around 4pm. Starting in the dark and finishing near dark.

Thursday; Long, long day. I started with the kitchen wallpaper, I got most of it done but really wanted the bathroom finished as it is ideal to get the floor done before Monday. It was pretty complicated in the corner you can see in the first photo. I got Rowan to help with one part as it was a struggle with the two electrical points. Around 2pm we went to mitre10 for a bag of lime. I cleared the floor and then gave it a clean. Man it is disgusting. Hasn’t been cleaned in years. I should have taken Rowan’s advice to water blast it when we first got the place. When we went to Morocco 5 years ago to the famous blue Chefchaouen town I was in awe. Such an incredible finish on these concrete buildings. I found out it was lime and blue pigments mixed with water. Then I discovered how people use it as a whitewash on bricks and all sorts of applications, with lower maintenance compared to paint. I have wanted to do a lime wash project for years. Finally I get to do it! I mixed water into the hydrated lime and made a paste similar to the consistency of paint. I then slapped it on with a brush with no rhyme or reason. By the time I finished the bathroom it was getting pretty dark. I did the toilet in the dark finally finishing at 5.30pm. A trip to mitre10 for some sealer so I can seal the wash once I am happy. I may need another coat. We have a dinner date with Kathleen and John. Kathleen walks her puppy Barry past our house most days. If I see them I always stop for pats and a chat. Kathleen invited us to dinner at her place. It was a great meal and awesome company. They live in this incredible Ōamaru stone home on Wansbeck. 170m from us. The rimu details, the ceiling heights, the grandness of the home is spectacular. I really wanted to take photos, which I may ask one day but won’t share them out of respect. Funnily enough Kathleen lived in Matakatia, in Whangaparāoa for years. What a small world! A late night for us, 11.30pm finally in bed with my brain started telling me what I forgot to do at Till St. Doh.

Friday; Eeek, there is staining coming through the lime wash. Not overly surprising since it was disgusting. I used some stain blocker Zinnser to quickly patch any stains coming through. I also did a quick paint job in the toilet getting it ready for wallpaper. Then we headed to Leona’s office to do some paperwork. When we got back I did a second coat of Lime. I think that should do it. Hopefully I can seal it tomorrow. Rowan and I started putting the kitchen in place. We are curious to see what needs to move and how it will all work. The drainage will move a bit and the kitchen taps a bit over. It is doable to have it as a gully kitchen. A tight fit but it is an improvement on what it was before. We visited Fred on the way home and begged for another days work. It will be good to get him to help put in the kitchen.

Saturday; Book wallpaper. There were children books that were falling apart in the free pile at the dump. So I saved them so I can wallpaper the toilet with them. This toilet is like an outhouse, I am leaning into that and giving you something to read and look at when you use the loo! I got two layers of sealer on the floor. Rowan rejigged the living room and we now have lots of space! I am looking forward to the plumber coming on Monday. An early finish for the day. No day off this week so I went home and did 2 hours of paperwork! What fun haha

Sunday; We sold our free oven that we ended up not using. It was $1 on trademe and we had to go to Dunedin to pick it up. We sold it for $100 which sounds like a great mark up but it would have paid us back for our fuel. The guy works at Ōhau Lodge and it is going to the staff quarters. I loved our stay there on the alps to ocean. Since we had him picking up the oven it made sense to be at work. I finished wallpapering the toilet with the kids books. I will seal it so you can easily wipe it down if necessary. Rowan pointed out if someone is sick in there you need to be able to wipe the walls. Good point Rowan! I put another coat of white on the kitchen cabinet and call it a day. We get home around 4pm and Rowan builds a platform for the shower. Much nicer than being on the stainless steel.

Monday; I am working in the dark. There is much to do, I have clean up to do to prepare for Dave the plumber. Dave gets in at 8am, it is light enough I am no longer carrying a torch around. I aim to stay out of the way. My project for the day is the sideboard which was left here. It had a lot of rat nests and the dog had chewed it along with the mice. I got rid of the grossness long ago but now it is time to tidy it up for use. I sanded it down, it is all solid wood, no MDF or chipboard. I painted a few bits with charcoal grey paint and oiled the rest. It is very rustic but I feel it works. I love what Dave has done with the plumbing, it looks awesome, especially the quirky indoor plumbing. The shower is yet to be installed later in the week. Cory finished the wall off today, the weather is making it quite muddy. Doesn’t look like it will ease for a while so we will carry on. Rowan installed the kitchen in between his running around. In the afternoon we cleared out as much as we could easily do in the living room. Which is the next place to attack with wallpaper and paint!

Tuesday; Calming the colours down in the studio. I am not sure exactly what to do with the main door. I haven’t decided yet. There is a little touch ups to do and I will sand the door then make a decision. We may line the roof in there but that is another days problem. Most likely when we have finished the rest of the house. Cory is putting up GIB in the dining room today. I help get the full sheet up and then leave the rest to him. I sand down the bathroom. Once the trim is in place we can paint. Fred came around to say he can help just tell him when. I said well the sooner the better. So he is coming Friday. It also means if he needs to he can finish a job off on Saturday.

Wednesday; After sneaking into Leona’s office early this morning we put her new stickers up on the exterior. The council wants traffic management and cones and all this red tape for $1k for a 5min job. So Rowan and I did it without being in anyone’s way really early. We also don’t charge that amount. We charged Leona one hug each. We got some paperwork done then headed to Mitre10 and Placemakers. At Till St I did some small jobs while waiting for Cory to finish the GIB. When he was done I taped it all up and got a coat of plaster on. Rowan and I popped out to the tip shop. On the way back we visited Fred at his latest job. Sam and Luke are doing a fully renovation to this beautiful original home on Wye St. It is a lot of work. In the 70s it had a lot of changes and they are modernising but trying to keep as many of the bits of character left in show. Can’t wait to see it done. It already looks incredible. The skylight was a bit messy looking in the kitchen with lots of different wood types. So I painted it a charcoal colour and it looks a lot nicer.

Thursday; Rowan and I head to Temuka today to pick up some gates we said we would pick up over a month ago. On the way up we stop at Bunnings for a chat with the trade team and a look around for stock comparisons. Once we have picked up the gates we op shop all the way back. We end up with a rather good haul of jewellery. We got a lot of gold off the hospice. Paying under spot price for a necklace and some cufflinks. Gold has become really valuable lately. We did a stop by in Waimate for lunch and the two small shops there before getting back to Ōamaru around 3pm. Cory worked for part of the day doing some outdoor jobs. By the time we got back to Herbert I was pretty tired. Tomorrow we have Tony coming to help. Can’t wait! I will be in for a busy weekend!

Friday; I dropped the ball. I have no real excuse I just woke up and forgot that I was supposed to be getting shit done today. By the time Rowan pointed it out it was too late. We came into town and went straight to mitre10. It took a lot longer than it should have. From there we raced home and I got the place organised for Fred. Fred arrives just as Rowan is off to get some trim for the house. Poor Rowan spent his day running around being the errand boy while attempting to get paperwork done. Our building consent is underway and he had roading forms and all sorts to fill out. I wanted to stay out of Freds way so I got onto the garden Cory made a good start on. I redid the stones while I was at it. By the time Cory arrived for work I had almost finished. Cory flattened out the top for me then cleared around the Sycamore tree. I let him decide what shape to line the bricks and we ended up with a row boat. It fits in perfectly with the port holes. Fred does a great job of all the trim in the bathroom and kitchen. A bit of no more gaps and I can paint to my heart’s content. I got the wallpaper sample on the wall to help me choose paint for the bathroom. I have booked Dave in for the following week so that gives me the week to get it all done! I did a bit of mortar to the floor before leaving for the day.

Saturday; We had an appointment in Palmerston to see a shipping container. We need storage for the building site. In my infinite wisdom I said to Rowan let’s go to Alexandra to pick up those tools. We headed off around 6.30am and had our container meeting by torch light. It is perfect for us we will take it. From there it wasn’t so dark which made riding easier, we are taking the pigroot. We had to stop a few times to warm up. No ice until we got closer to Ranfurly. Absolutely swamped in fog and I had no idea what to do. By the time Rowan came up next to me and told me to wipe my visor I had my visor half open for a while trying to see. We went quite slow as I couldn’t see more than a few metres ahead. I got to a point where I just couldn’t see and I couldn’t find a safe spot to stop. I started panicking and I slowed right down and indicated. Rowan didn’t get the message that I wanted to stop and couldn’t. Eventually I got so upset I just stopped I had no choice it was bloody dangerous. Rowan calmed me down and got me to go a 50m to a safer spot. It didn’t take me long to calm down and Rowan pointed out the visibility isn’t that bad. Well it is when your glasses and visor are totally wet! I am covered in ice that is how cold it is. Back on the bikes I make it into Ranfurly. We stop in hopes it clears up a bit before continuing. A coffee to warm up doesn’t quite do it but I just want to get there at this point. Not long out of Ranfurly and it is blue skies. We hit more fog but I can see further so it isn’t too bad. We don’t get out of the fog until we reach Alex. Man I hope we don’t have that on the way back. We pick up some tools from a guy moving to Australia and we get this neat $15 antique chair. I think people are entertained by Rowan’s load! Only one op shop it open which is disappointing. May as well race to the pub. We hit the wall of fog again and it slows me right down. Our timing is not great and we want to make it to Waipiata Pub before the kitchen closes. We refuel in Ranfurly and make it just in time. The food is fantastic I can see how this middle of nowhere pub survives. The rest of the ride is fantastic, warm and sunny until right at the end as the day is ending. A long day on the bikes. We got home around 4.30pm. We have a mattress being dropped off at 6pm. We have upgraded our sleeping quarters.

Sunday; A lazy Sunday morning. It is foggy and motivation is low. I have a case of the grumpys and I am being unreasonable no idea why. Maybe it is my period maybe it is lack of food. I perk up and try to be nice to Rowan. Which is actually quite hard when I am in one of those moods. When we get to Till Rowan leaves me to it and runs around doing errands. I get out the no more gaps and start going everywhere in the bathroom with it. For a newly lined room it has more gaps than most but as Fred says you can expect that as nothing is straight or plumb. We are there about two hours before heading back to Herbert. It is 12.30pm by the time we get back and we light the bonfire. It is now open season but we also let the fireys know that we are lighting. Perfect drizzle weather with no wind. It goes off without a hitch. We do some tidying up while keeping an eye on it. It doesn’t take long to burn down to a much smaller pile. By the time we go to bed there is only a few small flames.

Monday; A busy day! We get into town early and do some paperwork and errands. At mitre10 we get some pickets for the fence. They are on special because they have been sitting there so long. It takes me a while to get enough as I am being fussy and not taking any damaged ones or ones with large knots. At $4.30 a picket I am going to be fussy. At the house I crack on with undercoat on the bathroom. Rowan picks up more wood from Placemakers and runs errands. I get one coat on the weatherboard too. I can now see where more gaps and imperfections need to be fixed. So that is next on my list. I spend a full 6 hours painting and prepping. I get my final coat of paint on the ceiling in the kitchen. By the time 4pm rolls around I am exhausted.

Tuesday; Tea and Tears, I start the day by telling the girls we are buying an UM car and how much of a sign that is. I am already feeling a bit emotional and then Sarah gets me going with one of her messages. I end up crying so much I wake up Rowan and he comforts me lol. The weather here today turns foul. It is cold, wet and miserable! I threaten Cory with outdoor jobs. Lucky for him I want this GIB done. I get another coat of pigmented sealer on the kitchen and it is still bleeding through. Hmph! I really am unsure about painting it such a bright white like the cupboards. I may need something more subtle, I have leftover exterior paint. I also find some resene paint I was gifted that is quite beige. I mixed it up and put some on cardboard to see the colour. It looks good with the kitchen cabinets. I think we have a winner.

Wednesday; I walk up the garage to pick Noodly up. I say thanks to Mel and I take her back down the road. Rowan is taking in his motorbike so I head off in the hilux. I don’t get far down the road before the noise starts again. I stop and wait for Rowan to catch up. I make him sit in the car and listen. I decide to head back to Mel to check. His face is grim. Ah fuck, she is rooted. A bearing in the bottom of the engine block will be causing that noise. Well bugger. (Actually Nan I swore like a sailor). So I limped her back home and got on the motorbike to get into town. I text Liz and tell her, I need to pick the car up sooner rather than later. Well that puts a funk in our day. Poor Noodly, we absolutely thrashed you. The large heavy loads over the entire South Island. For now we will make no decisions we will just put her out for pasture and decide if we want to rebuild her engine. Mel said one of the big contributors would have been parking it up for a long time and not turning over the engine regularly, as well as our heavy hauling. We are attempting to put it out of the priority queue for now. At Till St I got some outdoor painting done and that is about all I remember doing. Oh I did get some Zinnser oil based stain blocker, I needed to bring out the big guns to stop the staining on the ceiling of the kitchen. The pigmented sealer wasn’t cutting the mustard, I did four layers before I gave up. Cory finished the GIB in the bathroom, I will get him to plaster it tomorrow! I got a layer of oil on my kitchen doors and got a second coat of paint on the garage doors.

Thursday; An early start. We make our way to Vanessa’s Cafe in the dark and have a spot of breakfast before continuing to Palmerston. Rowan is going to go back on his bike. I am driving the Corolla. We have a good cuppa with Liz, before we know it it is time to leave. The car is smooth as, the gearbox feels tight with no room for error. I think I am so used to the hilux that this feels like a modern spaceship. At Herbert we drop the motorbike off and jump into the car. We make it just in time to see our workers starting haha. Today we have Laura and Cory. Cory is on GIB until the job is done. Rowan realises that Cory hasn’t let the ceiling lights cables out of the GIB. Luckily our electricians weren’t born yesterday. They had a map with where each fitting should be with measurements. Laura is in the garden spreading the hay and doing a clean up. I only get the ceiling in the kitchen painted today and some no more gaps. As I started painting I freaked out a little, it looks super dark against the pure white of the undercoat. I trust I have chosen well and carry on. Once it started drying it started to look quite nice. Rowan and I had a lot of errands to do so we are in and out most of the day.

Friday; Laura and I smash out the paint. A high of 19 degrees today. Talk about saying goodbye to Autumn with a warm day. I got skinny pinny Laura on the roofs. The paint is just leftover paint from several tins of paint. Silly me thought there would be plenty and started painting the eastern wall. Well Laura nearly runs out. I add some water and stir more vigorously to get it to finish the roof. The colour goes darker. What I think has happened is there was some thicker paint bits I pulverised with the water and stirring which made the colour darker. The studio roof looks more like a patchwork quilt haha. It is still much better than nothing. I was planning on doing nothing with this shed. But giving it a quick tidy just helps preserve it until something more permanent is done. Laura really starts running out of paint. So I jump in the car to Mitre10 with my paint tray with dried paint on it. As it is a super mix I will just find a similar colour. I end up with 4L for $70, man paint is more expensive than I remember. I got some funny looks going in with my paint tray. The colour is actually a bit brighter than the last. Gee I hope our neighbours like green! We got a lot done, tomorrow I will attempt to finish the main part. Rowan did some gutters at the back of the house which is really helpful as I find the back veranda gets very wet without it!

Saturday; Smashing it out on my own. First day of winter and we are going to reach 21 degrees. Rowan and I get breakie at McDonald’s and I get chatting to a Māori family on a road trip. They are surprised by the weather and I joked and told them it is the South Island secret that we actually get better weather than the North. I get the rest of the main paint done and start fiddling with the rest. I take it a bit far with a blue colour and quickly paint over it with the bright green. I get over it by lunchtime and my hands ache. Time to give up and enjoy the warm day! Yes the green is really that green! I haven’t put a filter on the pictures.

Sunday; A day off! We have plans to meet Mish, a friend of a friend of a friend who wants to sell her villa in Palmerston. We know her sister through the grapevine and she told her we would be perfect to fix up the place. She has had it for over 20 years (along with other places) and she has never had the time to do it up like she has always wanted. She doesn’t need the money she just wants someone who will bring it back to its former glory. We came down a few months ago and looked from the outside. We have been chatting for quite some time now. Today we finally get to see inside it. We started our day nice and slow and headed out to Palmerston at lunchtime. We went to both dumps. Hampden and Palmerston. The Palmerston one was a great treasure for us, I got a nice ornate mirror that I hope fits the bathroom. We also got some mid century shelves the same as I have had before and installed at my mums place in Papamoa. They were $2 each. From there we had lunch at a local cafe and then to meet Mish. The house is better on the inside than the outside. It will need a lot of work, the question is do we want to do the work? We are there until late afternoon. If we are to take it on it needs a plumber, electrician and builder straight away and $50k straight into it! We cleared out Noodly this morning and put her out to pasture! So sad! It will be good to get some storage in Palmerston. Then we can have a lot of building materials gone!

Monday; Laura comes in for a few hours later in the day. I get painting the outside shed and then move onto plaster inside the bathroom. It takes me 2 hours to sand, cut bigger holes for outlets and do another layer of plaster. Thanks to a magic trowel it means minimal sanding and a much better finish. I am sure the old way is doable with years of practice but ain’t nobody got time for that! Didn’t get a lot done but I am happy to just get a few done. I have asked Fred to come back and do a days work for me. Then I can have the bathroom and kitchen painted and wallpapered next week.

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.

Tuesday; Happy Anniversary! A great excuse for a day off. We woke up at Bridge Point and had a lazy morning. In town we went to Steampunk HQ since we haven’t done that. It was what I expected it to be, interactive and fun. I loved the mirror illusion room the most. The local bakery makes good pies. The chocolate danish was huge. We had a few hours wandering around. I thought we could do something else but we were Victorian out by then. We went to Herbert in the afternoon and stayed cosy, reading books, chatting and relaxing. It was a fantastic day.

Wednesday; A Herbert day. I focused on pulling everything out of the container we dumped a few weeks ago and packing it all back in. It took a long time to sort out but it was well worth the effort. It had been niggling at me, so it was great to finally get it done. Rowan and Cory smashed out the other jobs around. At lunchtime Rowan had an old farm bridge to pick up and left us to it. We got a lot achieved and the place is looking a lot more tidy. Our neighbour Chris came by and will come finish off the area he started. Can’t wait to not need chocks to park Camele.

Thursday; Before heading into town we have a trailer that needs freeing. Rowan and I struggled but got there in the end. The worst bit was the first time we got the trailer out and Rowan hadn’t connected it properly and I attempted to stop it with my hands. I slowed it down enough to stop the trailer taking out all the supports and starting again. My hands were not happy. Rowan tied the rope around the two supports on the left and we tug them out. The bridge dropped neatly into place. At Till St Cory pulled down the last of the lean to. Yay it is finally gone. I kept the front frame as it is rather cool. Cory and Rowan got into GIB in the kitchen while the weather came in foul. I stayed out in it doing window putty for the studio. I am a lot faster than Cory, I just wanted the job done. I came in a few hours later to warm up. I got some little annoying jobs done. Then we called it a day. We had dinner with Leona in her office. It is such a cold evening. Our showers in the dark left little to desire.

Friday; It’s about time we got that lawn seeded. Talk about wrong time of the year! We are hoping the hay will keep frost off while it establishes itself. Cory did all the hard work we just helped at the end. I got some paint on the exterior doors and some satisfying seal and peel removal! Once that picket fence is up it will look like the cutest cottage on the street. A lead light pendant I was going to use inside will be the front light as it has all the right greens to it. I can’t wait for it to be installed.

Saturday; Rowan and I are on a mission to get the water set up at Herbert. We have to go bush bashing to get all connected and we ran into town to get more irrigation parts. It took longer than we hoped but we now have water at Herbert. We no longer need to fill up at the local hall. Wahoo! Now we have the rest of the afternoon to chill and get up Mt Misery to camp.

Sunday & Monday; We stayed camped up at Mt Misery and had two blissful days of nothing but reading our books. It was amazing!

Tuesday; Cory and I against the world! Rowan is at Herbert. I start painting a few hours before Cory gets there. First on the agenda is clean up, the house is extremely messy and even more so from the sparkys. I clean up enough so I can carry on with my day. I plug everything I can back in and get some towels on to wash. Cory arrives and I get him up on the high stuff. Rowan said I am not allowed to get up on the big ladder on my own. Cory and I paint for 5 hours, it is looking better and better! I am hoping to be completed by the end of the week. We shall see.

A bit of a funny. Cory asked if I came in the truck on my learners haha. I said no, I have my full license just my learners motorbike. 😂

Wednesday; Yay a day off, a much needed day off. Rain and snow is coming. Definitely not worth trying to paint. Rowan and I have a fairly relaxing morning reading our books. Into town to go empty Camele and get a spade. We have four shovels but some how no spades haha. After a look around second hand places we end up with a new one from Mitre10. We get some lunch and visit the new antique store. The English man there is selling off his collection of over 50 years. There is a lot in there and I say to Rowan this is what we should be doing haha. After we sort Camele out we drop in to Gerry and Margaret. I sure hope they are home, we haven’t had a chance to see them in such a long time. We have a lovely catch up and the weather turns from warm to this horrid windy, wet and cold storm. It was quite a scene to watch. We say our goodbyes and brave the weather. A few stops before heading back to Herbert to stay warm for the evening. It felt good to have a day off with no real pressure to get anything in particular done.

Thursday; A cold, cold morning. Once the ice was off the ute I headed for Till. The sun will hopefully help dry my paint. I dubiously start on the south side and to my surprise it starts to dry. I am on my second coat on the lighter green colour, determined to get it done. I finish about 11.30am. Phew, now white and darker green to go! I get back to Herbert where the boys have been working. I take care of the bbq, I really need to open up the container and get organising but my motivation is low. It is not a quick job and I would rather do it properly than rush it. Cory has been making a soak. My tomato plants are now dying off with the frosts. I will need to plant something else.

Friday; We are all at Till St today. The weather is too cold and spots of rain, no painting! However we get the place a lot more cleaner and organised. There is so much chaos. Cory loads up the trailer with iron to take back to Herbert. We take out the crappy shelving in the back of the garage and put the rear back door on. I tidy the dining room, it is such a mess stuff everywhere. Rowan and I take a load of stuff to the dump. After we finish it looks and feels much better. I am going to make sure I do a good tidy each day I am here so we stay under control.

Saturday; prepare for photo bomb!

Rowan and I were wide awake, he had to pee. “Kate get your ass out here quick!” I got out and could clearly see the red wall of light. I tell him let’s get in the car and go! Annoying I was about to have my first coffee of the day, but auroras are allusive, they come and go quickly. At the top of Herbert Hill we see a wall of red, orange and a tiny of green. I can’t believe what I can see with my eyes. The camera makes it much brighter but I am amazed by how much is perceived in person. We watch it in awe. Turns out this is what we should expect all weekend! Natures light show. Absolutely incredible we are both buzzing. The sun comes up and ruins everything. Also signalling I need to get some paint on the house. I take noodles in to work, but first I stop at the warehouse. Rowan needs a water bottle and I am thinking some cheap slippers he can wear outside. It is our anniversary on Tuesday and I want to spend the day doing fun stuff. Life has all been a bit much lately. It will feel great when I have finished painting the trim. I won’t bore you with the rest of the day, I will bomb you with photos instead! We came out to bridge point to see the show and was not disappointed. There were quite a few people coming and going, some had good etiquette some had bad. But by 10pm everyone was gone. So let’s start with more morning Aurora Australis.

Dusk Aurora

Brighter as it gets darker

Mellows off from 9pm till Midnight

At midnight, we get a spectacular light show, a little bit of colour but most importantly this incredible pulsating vibing show. It is like going through foggy clouds, with an electrical pulse running through them. We are truly in awe. Most of these photos are taken directly above us. Rowan and I stayed outside and slept under it. I didn’t last all night but Rowan did.

Sunday; Cory, Presley and I are out to get this paint done. I don’t think I will be done today but I will be a step closer. I have done two coats of the lighter green and today I want to get two coats of the white done. I get there by the end of the day, wahoo! Cory completes the dark green of the awnings. Yay we are looking good! Not far off taking the glue stuff off the windows. I came in on my motorbike today and I ride back to Bridge Point. Rowan left to do some work at Herbert and came back. It was a much warmer ride back than on the way in. I definitely haven’t quite got it yet. I just need more time on the bike. We have a stripe club. Now to get Noodly some stripes.

Monday; I came in on my bike early, just in case the sparky turned up. I started with the front door. It has these added on panels and I thought I would see what is under them. Rowan told me not to, but curiosity killed the cat. I started gently and it all looked well. I knew they couldn’t be fully stuffed as it is bare wood on the other side and there are no holes! I take off the middle panel and discover at the bottom the veneer has lifted, bugger. I pull out all the old nails and stick it back on. Looks like we are keeping the panels haha. I remove the paint from the glass and sand the door down before putting on an undercoat of paint. I work of the two other external doors. I get Cory up on the ladder putting a second coat of paint on the barge boards. Then I head out to the tip shop and mitre10 with Rowan. Cory waterblasts the gutters and has another go over the studio. I try cutting out the seal and peel and it works magically. I am never using anything else to mask up glass when spraying or painting. I got Cory to do the dishes since we have no hot water at the moment. I stayed around until after 4pm with the sparkys. I was happy to leave by the end of the day.

Tuesday; Last night was an early one for us and we got into work before dawn. I am on a mission to get the windows prep done. I sanded and filled in spots until I couldn’t anymore. Now to wait for it all to dry. It is a great day to paint but there is rain coming tonight. So we decide not to risk it running down the weatherboards. I do get painting in the veranda area as it is the safest spot. I am loving the greens! This should give sufficient motivation to do the rest! Cory fills in the hole for the plumbing, yay we can walk right around now. It also makes it much easier for me for the windows. He does some putty of the windows for the studio and then a good site tidy with lots of scrap iron that we will take to the dump tomorrow. Rowan helps Dave with the shower tray installation and finish off the framing of the windows for the studio and workshop. I am shattered, we head home early to get an early night. One good thing about daylight saving is I can be hoping into bed at 5pm.

Wednesday; The weather has packed it in. We start off with breakfast at Vanessa’s then we go to the dump to get rid off the old scrap iron. We end up in Ōamaru just before 10am. After unloading the car we set Cory up with the water blaster. Cory is working through like the champ. A quick run to the hardware store for supplies and Cory gets an indoor jobs done. No time to do anything at Till we have an appointment with the surveyors at 11am. That appointment leaves us with questions for the council. Let’s see if we can see the building team. I must say it is the first time we have walked into the council and had rude customer service, I think this lady needs a new job. No luck with seeing anyone as the lady at the front desk isn’t having a bar of it. Now it has changed to a bitter southerly. I try to get some work done but it is not easy. I do get some sanding but that’s it. Fred, comes to say hi and checks out what we are doing. As Fred leaves Jim arrives for a look. Then my new motorbike arrives too. Cory heads off to pick up Presley, while this is all happening. We take my bike for a WOF and service. It does have a current one but nearly out. I will get it some more rego too. Heading off to stay warm, we come across a guy who lost his load. Rowan helps him then we follow him home to make sure he gets it there safely. Rowan cooks us Thai for dinner. I take a hot water bottle to bed. It is the coldest it has been so far.

Thursday; A perfect painting day, I even got a little bit on the Southside of the house done and it dried! I painted up a barge board for the garage to get its guttering. Rowan put up the polycarbonate to make it all weather tight and we have natural light in the garage. Cory sanded ahead of me while I came along with the enamel. It is coming along nicely and I am hoping for another full on day tomorrow. My bike has a fresh WOF and Rowan rides it home. He said he likes it more than his bike haha. I took it for a ride around Herbert. I have to get used to the bigger size, weight, gears etc. I got it to 100km which I hated lol. Rowan is getting me to ride into Ōamaru tomorrow, I am nervous just thinking about it. We have a ride training course on Saturday. I am not sure I am confident enough to be in the traffic. But nothing like getting thrown into the deep end. It is an 8 hour course but is only $20 because ACC subsidies. Makes sense, safer riders less accidents.

Friday; My first long ride into Ōamaru, it went really well. I stayed pretty calm the whole time, when we got to Kakanui the sunrise on the waves was incredible. I slowed right down so I could appreciate it. Rowan was riding in my old bike as the guy was coming back to pick it up. I am a bit sad that it is gone, it was a good wee bike. He made it home 8 hours later, I am glad he didn’t pick it up the other night. At Till we have another beautiful day for painting. I nearly get a full coat of the Te Aroha green on. Most importantly I get paint on the south side and it happily dries. Cory helps paint the high bits on the south side. He is a lot slower painter than me, but he does a good job so I don’t care.

Saturday; We woke up early hoping to get some paint on before our training. The dew was heavy so we knew there was no way we could. Weather was absolutely stunning to paint. On the way in I struggled to keep my visor down, so my face froze. It is an icy morning. I am nervous for our training today, I hope I can keep up with everyone. I get us Subway, while Rowan goes to give his tyres more air. A quick breakfast and we are sitting down ready for some theory. Trevor (same guy for my basic handlers test) runs us through a few things like where to sit on the road so we can see clearly and where it is safe to sit behind a car etc. This goes on for a few hours, now time for practical. Laura has come on the training too, so we only have three strangers I haven’t met before. It is an even class 3 girls, 3 boys. Laura’s bike is having a battery issue. I call AA and pretend I am borrowing her bike for the training and get it started. She heads off to Vinnie at Colin Clyne so he can get her a new battery. We take off to the car park I did my test in. We ride in a line so we all get a chance to be upfront and watched by Trevor. When we get to the car park he shows us a really interesting technique to keep our bikes really steady at low speeds. It is one Rowan and I are going to practice a lot. After that we ride out to Enfield to have lunch. From there we head out into the wopwops further. I am now behind Trevor and it will be my turn next. They have to slow down because I get us far behind them. I am a bit slower as I haven’t done much high speed riding. Now it is my turn in front, I am wanting to brake before the corners and he keeps telling me not to, Rowan pipes up and explains I haven’t done any riding like this. Trevor coaches me through and gets me riding faster around the corners. I definitely need to practice this more. He also tries to get me to do 100km I do 100km on my clock which he says is 92km on his haha. Rowan passes through with flying colours, but that is to be expected. When we head back towards Ōamaru I am getting cold and tired, I have had enough for the day. We have a bit more around town time and do some u turn work and parking. It is now time to say goodbye. We get a little gift each which is cool. The thought of having to ride to Herbert annoys me. Rowan and I head off to the supermarket to get some dinner and then head back. I must say riding in the dark isn’t much fun, but we make it back. Have our showers eat dinner and I am asleep in no time!

Sunday; Rowan and I ride into town, the plan is to get some paint on. I put the washing on and we sit down for a coffee. I waffle trying to decide if it will dry or not. In the end I am really unsure so it is best to not paint. Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit yuck so I will do any prep touch ups necessary. Rowan and I have been struggling mentally. We had a good chat and we are changing our approach. I am in charge of Till he is in charge of Palmerston. This means I can focus on the renovations and not be distracted and same with Rowan. Moving forward I think this will make our lives much easier. After the washing is on the line we head to the supermarket to get supplies for dinner. We ride back all the way along the coast and then up the Waianakarua River. When we get back we charge up Camele, do a tidy around Herbert and I knuckle down and do a few hours of paperwork. Really looking forward to getting the exterior paint done and taking a real day off! Picture of Rowan grabbing my plants from behind the kitchen so they can be watered 😂

Monday; We pull up and there are three shiny electricians waiting for us. Yay today they get stuck in. It is bloody freezing today, I am surprised I didn’t freeze off my bike. I attempt to do some exterior prep. I am limited with no power. Rowan heads off to Leona’s todo paperwork and I am out in the elements with jealousy. I get all I can realistically do without getting in the way. I send a smoke signal for hot food. We end up having pizza with Leona for lunch. Today they said it may rain, it didn’t but it was so cold it would have struggled to dry. Rowan and I decide to take an early day and we head back to Herbert. I ride home doing 60km, the wind is so strong I can’t safely go any faster. All the pre wire will be completed and we will have one live outlet to work with.

Tuesday; Take two! We have mentally prepared for not being able to go today. But I am hopeful we will be on the road in the afternoon. I have a few jobs I want to do today. Trade depot is first on the list. For Till we need a rangehood and a mirror. It takes a while to make a decision. There is a cheap damaged black oven I eyed up. Because the ceiling doesn’t have enough space we need to vent through the wall of the house. This means the rangehood is sitting on the wall next to the oven. We end up with an angular rangehood so that it hopefully fits in a bit better. I have my 6 monthly blood test, then go to get Rowan more hair stuff. He isn’t running out yet but I don’t want to worry about when he does. We throw in some op shops to fill some time. We get to catch up with Jo and Paul for lunch today. I am glad we get to see them, if it all went perfectly yesterday we wouldn’t have. Lunch was fantastic, it was really good to catch up. I got a call at 2.30pm to say the car is ready. We were having too much of a good time to leave. Jo has just moved in her mother so she can look after her. The picture is with Zack, such a cute dog, and now the leader of the pack of Jo and Paul’s two dogs. The three of them must get some attention on their walks. All of a sudden I realised the time and we had to hop foot it to the mechanic to get Camele. Luckily I checked the time because they close soon. We made it with time to spare. As we leave Rowan hears a funny noise but assumes it is the trailer. We get stuck in peak hour and we really notice it when we pull into the gas station. He drives around in circles and try to repeat the noise so we can work out what is wrong. Well there is no clearance for the new tyres we have. It is touching the wheel arch. When we go over a bump it touched the top. Mmm not good. By the time we work out the problem the mechanic is long gone. Luckily we weren’t planning on heading south. Hopefully it gets fixed easily. When we get back to Rick and Liz it is dark. The last lot of colour in the sky. We have a nice brinner (breakfast for dinner) with them.

Wednesday; Rowan calls the mechanic, they order different tyres but they won’t be in until the afternoon. We say our goodbyes and attempt to see Billy to pay him. No such luck. From there we head to the container to load up the back of Camele. We get a few stacks of boxes in. We are nearly at the point where we get past the cabinets and have all the childhood stuff. Camele handles the heavy load well. From there we go to trade depot. I have decided I do want the oven. We can’t fit it through the door, the next idea was the passengers seat. It is too tall and goes too close to the drivers seat. On the draw bar of the trailer it is. At AA we get the tyres changed, we get out of Christchurch at 1.30pm not bad for timing. A slow drive back to Herbert. A stop in Ashburton at the op shops, then on to Timaru where we make it to the St John’s before they close. We get to Till around 6pm and quickly take the oven inside and take the trailer off. We put it at the top of the hill. When we get to Herbert it is dark, I move the ute out of the way and we park up close to the container to unload. The outdoor light does a great job. Rowan stacks everything inside and I stay in the camper handing out each box. It doesn’t take long at all. By the time we finish and I make the bed and Rowan starts cooking the hot water is ready for the shower. I turn my alarm off, let’s sleep in tomorrow. I know it is ANZAC, but I am getting grumpy.

Thursday; Not a huge amount on the agenda today, we are tired. At Till St we unpack the kitchen, which is harder than it should be as there is a norwester wind that slows us down. We had to unload in a different way to make sure we didn’t end up with items flying down the street. It fits in the living room, I am sure not all of this will be used but I am thinking of using some in the bathroom. We will see. I water my plants, a lot of them are very thirsty. I have all these wonderful old crocs I purchased from Liz. They came out of a pub in the UK that her family owned. I don’t want to drill holes in them so I need some plastic pot liners. Once we got some washing done we headed back to Herbert to sort out stuff we dumped. We put a load of it on the other side of the land and it looks much better. Next door at Jim and Sylvia’s we catch up. Jim was nice enough to keep an eye on our property while we were away.

Friday; Cory is here today, he got the garage iron cladding done while we were away. He water blasted the garage for us then moved onto fixing up the studio. I fixed up the leaning pipe and planted them out with succulents. I got more washing done. We only just made it back with a clean pair of underwear each. Rowan helped out Cory and then Dave. Dave came in the afternoon to do more plumbing work. Annoyingly the waste for the shower was supposed to be a corner waste. Well it is a centre waste. Now we have more digging out to do. I was looking forward to having that shower put in place today. I sanded off the last little bits I needed to do. Tomorrow (weather permitting) we will spray the house. We ended up having dinner with Leona, KFC. Very gourmet haha. It was nice catching up with her.

Saturday; Cory can’t make it today, we are on our own. Let’s get this undercoat on. By the time we get the house brushed down and sweep away all the autumn leaves and dirt, then make sure everything is out of the way to spray. There is a light wind that will work in our favour for drying the south wall. The temperature is good. First attempt our Wagner is not priming. Googling doesn’t fix the problem, we better pull the machine apart. Well we don’t have time for that. Let’s go hire a sprayer. At Mitre10 there is a cheap sprayer for $500 that is a lot less than a new Wagner. Off we trot with a new sprayer. Now whanau take a moment with me… I know you all know what an awesome person I am, but I need to a smug moment here. About 3 weeks ago (and repeatedly) I said to Rowan “let’s make sure the sprayer is working and we have all the parts.” Well he checked the parts but didn’t attempt to run it. Now for the smug part. I held my tongue, I didn’t say I told you so, I said nothing. That is until after the whole thing was resolved and we finished painting for the day and were back at Herbert. I still didn’t say I told you so, I said aren’t I awesome for not haha. It really was a moment where I didn’t need to say anything because I knew in his head he was thinking Katie told me to do this weeks ago. Back to the new sprayer. Unfortunately most components we have don’t work with the machine. Rowan tightens it as much as possible but it is still dripping a bit. It’s a bit of wait and see! Rowan has a go and gets the undercoat on. Not too bad! It does pretty well for a cheap sprayer. The paint is drying fast, but the day is getting on. Tomorrow we will get a top coat or two on!

Sunday; Top coat here we come. It is super still here in Herbert. I hope there has been a coastal breeze at Till. The place is dry enough and ready for a top coat, we only have enough paint for one coat. Guthrie Bowron doesn’t open on the weekends. Not that it ends up making a difference as it gets dry enough to get a film on it but you wouldn’t want to do another coat. We do decide to run to Mitre10 and see if they can make the garage paint. They don’t do all of the Dulux colours but we are in luck. The lovely dark green I have chosen is called Waimarama. When we need more I will get another pail from them. We learnt this lesson the hard way years ago, make sure you stick to the brand and to the shop if you need more paint. Each brands base is slightly different which affects the colour and each place has different tinting machines which also affects the colour. The weather is perfect, the first coat goes on without a hitch. Cory and Presley have a few jobs like filling in the holes and taking out old broken glass in the studio. Most importantly cutting the concrete out to a middle waste ready for Dave tomorrow. Tomorrow looks promising for the next coat. Danny has his last day at the dump shop, we have dinner up Mt Misery to celebrate. It was a lovely evening and we get an amazing blood moon to watch. I also sell my wee motorbike to a guy on Facebook. He picks it up on Friday.

Monday; Get that paint on, wait, it is wet. We came in nice and early thinking we can get the paint on, no we need to wait there is too much dew on the house. That’s okay there is plenty to do. Rowan cuts the glass to replace all the broken panes in the studio. So that is 11 panes of glass and four entire windows. Basically every window had a problem or two haha. Cory got some last minute no more gaps in, anywhere I missed. He got the undercoat done on the barge boards and anywhere else that needed a bit. I am stuffed and ready to go home, but Dave is coming soon so we will wait. I do a bit of hand painting around taps and things the sprayer couldn’t get too. Then just a rough site tidy, it was all I had left in me. Dave didn’t take too long, and the beer all round made it much more pleasant. The rest of the week I will be behind a sander, get those windows done! Looking like a real house now. Our neighbours came over to complement the colours. Yes I know, I am clever and modest lol

Tuesday; A bit of an odd day. We had a plan in place but as one knows plans always change. Cory is not working anymore so we change our day around to suit. We drop the trailer off to be signed off for the WOF. We get all prepared to go away packing blankets and strops. Once that is all done we drop Noodly off to have the WOF done and pick up the trailer. We load my old bike and a few other things into the trailer. This is going to be interesting. I hope Camele can handle a kitchen on this trailer. So far so good it handle the empty trailer fine. We head into Till St and do some last minute tidy up. It was a pretty easy going day, nothing major to do or be in a huge rush. We take Leona out for dinner as it is her birthday tomorrow. We end up at Scott’s Brewery which we haven’t been to in years. It was a really nice night. Rowan got a sour beer which he absolutely loved. He even got a bottle to takeaway. After dinner we decided to get some driving done rather than go back south. We got to Wainono Lagoon, which was a great spot to stay the night.

Wednesday; We have a few appointments today, on the road with the first being 7.30am in Darfield. Rowan is meeting up with Andy a friend he hasn’t seen in a while. Then off to AA Hornby to get a WOF for Camele. Waiting at the AA for that to be done to find we need a few things to be sorted for WOF. We book it all in for Monday next week. Then Rowan has a doctor’s appointment at 10am. I sit around in the camper and have a cuppa. It is a bit strange being in the city in the back of a camper. Rowan and I get some sushi for breakfast then head out to Waikuku Beach to see a motorbike that may work for me. The motorbike is alright but it is quite old and needs a bit of work. We continue on and get up to Kaikōura. A quick stop at the dump shop ends up a lot longer. It is really strange Camele won’t start but the light come on. We call AA and a guy comes out to get us going again. It isn’t a flat battery, the battery is good. But it may be a starter motor or alternator. We take it straight to the auto sparky who is unsure exactly what it is as it isn’t happening again. The only thing he can think of is the starter motor. The suggestion is to park on hills just in case we need to roll start. Well that is annoying, we make sure when we park up that we have signal to call AA. We end up at the Hapuku River for the night.

Thursday; Happy Birthday to my Dad! A beautiful sunrise and no need to rush today. Blenheim is on the cards and we op shop around until our friend Jase is available. We catch up with him before heading to Logan’s. We haven’t seen Logan since we left on our free wander. By the time that all happens it is 5pm, time to get to Picton to see Kate and James. Rowan hasn’t seen them since their wedding and I haven’t seen them ever. But heard lots about James, who went to John Paul College with Rowan. James is the deputy harbour master for Picton and moved over from London. Kate is still looking for work as a speech therapist. They have a wee boy Connor who is nearly two. We had a great dinner and we gave them my old bike.

Friday; Off to Nelson today with a quick stop at the Pelorus for an hour. A walk around the river while Rowan fossicks. A cold but beautiful start of the day. It doesn’t take us long to get the op shops done in Nelson. We end up at the Patisserie for lunch which is more breakfast for us. We head to Kelvin’s and hang out the rest of the afternoon and day with him. Kelvin cooked dinner for us. Paula and Millie are in Auckland so it is just us and Lucy.

Saturday; An early start of the day to pick up the kitchen. It takes a bit of planning but Rowan works out how it can all fit in. I only put the glass shelves and doors in the camper. Tony the guy we got it off helps us load it all in and then we get our large heavy tarpaulin to keep any potential rain off. Tony very kindly offers us to leave it here until we go back on Sunday. We were a bit late to the local carboot sale but that didn’t matter as we are not buying much. On the way back to Kelvin we stop at a salvage yard for a chandelier I want for the living room at Till St. Back to the French Patisserie for croque monsieur and baguettes for lunch. Rowan and I pack up the camper ready for tomorrow. We grab a bunch of antiques we have had at Kelvin which he sold quite a lot of it for us. We can’t take it all but we can at least take a bunch of it. In the near future we will come up with an empty trailer to bring it all back. We have Chinese for dinner and call it an early night. I am exhausted.

Sunday; Following Kelvin we headed to the Sunday Market and helped him set up. I ended up finding a Elis Kuappi ring which I was very happy with. It goes into my mid century Scandinavian jewellery collection. After the market we thought we better have one last lot of amazing French breakfast before going up the Aniseed River for a fossick. We headed out to Wakefield around lunchtime and got the trailer and of course a famous Wakefield pie before heading south. We want to get to the Lewis Pass tonight. We decide to get over the major part before finding a spot to sleep. The spot we were recommended was blocked off. We found a truck area and parked up there. Camele handled the weight of the trailer really well. She also hasn’t missed a beat since she decided to play up in Kaikōura.

Monday; On the road at 5.30am. We have to make it to the rust repairer by 8am so no time to dally. We make it in time and go for a walk around the city to waste some time. At 10am it still isn’t done so we wait around in the car park like cool kids

Tuesday; We have some paperwork to get underway. A quick stop at Till St so we know what plumbing we have and can look up the data sheets. Thanks to the lovely Leona we can come in and out of her office as much as we please. We get all our consent in order and I see Dave has messaged to tell us he will be at the house today. Perfect, we will get him to check what we have done before sending it off. Dave checks it through. We wait for Cory and Laura to arrive and get their tasks underway. Laura is painting up high and Cory is pulling down linings so the electrician can access it. They are multiplying! Two hedgehogs in my hole now. Well we will save these two and hopefully have no more. I later find out they are looking for water, if I put a bowl out they won’t go down the hole.

At the office we put in our consent and come back to work. I am outside with Laura doing prep and Rowan is inside helping Dave. The day goes pretty quick and we have a sense of accomplishment!

Wednesday; We remove the bikes of Camele hoping to bring in the trailer from the mechanic but the tow ball is the wrong size and the correct size is in Noodly! First we couldn’t remove the bikes because the key was in Noodly, which we now have, now this. Hopefully we get the ute back today. Paperwork to do, we get a new exterior interior to do list made. I also have a lot of bills to pay, there goes $7k. I feel like we are bleeding money. Before Dave comes back he has given us jobs to do. First is to use leveling compound for the toilet and shower. We try a bit of the bag to see how it goes and just start with the smaller of the two, the toilet. Rowan uses no more gaps to create a barrier, it works really well. We thought we may get Cory today if the weather packed it in and he couldn’t work. Well the Wild West Coast weather hasn’t got to us yet! I take the opportunity to clean and vacuum in Camele after all the building materials we put in her. Especially when we should get our ute back today. I also do a tidy up inside, the place is getting out of control again. Noodly is finally ready $2400 ouch. Today has become very expensive. I think this mirror will work for above the vanity, what do you think?

Thursday; With the ute back we bring in the trailer to get rid of some garbage! Cory fills up the ute and trailer and we take it out to the dump. Rowan and I almost climb to the top of the pile (about 7m) to rescue some carpet. Oh how the heart bleeds. There goes a few thousand dollars of Axminster carpet. We drop off the trailer to get some tyres as the ones on there are stuffed. When I get back I finally get to rescue these old nails that were at the bottom of the pile. Look at them! Handmade, blacksmith forged nails. A thing of beauty. I couldn’t let them be put in the bin, most of them broke but I saved 6! These make me really happy. The rain is coming tonight. I take the opportunity while it is dry to get rid of the dirt that is building up on the paths and the patio area.

Friday; Definitely a yucky day today. Pretty cold and we have jobs to do. Dave needs AP20 so we shall find some. It takes us hours. We get sent from one business to another and no one knows where we can get small amount. Finally we find the only place in Ōamaru that does. It is a total rip, you have to pay for a whole lot even though you can only take a little, but we need it. If you are wanting to start a business in Ōamaru, I can highly suggest a proper landscape supplier is a huge gap in the market. Once we got Cory on some jobs Rowan dropped me at AA to do my learners test and he went to pick up the trailer. It has been 20 years since I did my test. I practiced which I am glad I did as there are extra stupid questions in there now. The weirdest ones are mechanical questions like what causes your engine to seize? Also quite a few about what fines and demerits you get when you brake certain laws. Stupid! Any way I got one wrong and that was because I did it too fast and didn’t look at the question properly. With the yucky weather we got Cory to put up these doors we got for free along the wall in the garage. It continues the random theme of the studio room. The no more gaps was dry now so we could pour the concrete for the shower base. It turned out well, we did it in two pours.

Saturday; Today we have Cory and Presley. Up on the roof! There is a hole from where the old vent pipe was, that got fixed up. There was also a leak from a nail so Cory spent the morning making sure it was all good up there and then he did some exterior sanding. So close to painting, it takes a long time to prep and I want it done properly.

Sunday; A breezy morning, I applied my down time into writing last week’s blog. I was getting far behind. After a goodbye to Danny and a clean up we headed into Till St. It is a perfect day for painting but it really needs more work before we can carry on. Rowan wanted to check out a yacht to use as “garden art.” Really it would be more of another room at Herbert. It didn’t tickle my fancy but it is his project. Our problem is when would we have time to do anything with it! Well after lunch we got back to Herbert and I got some small things done. I organised the boxes of stuff at the front of the container and I finally planted some oregano and coriander. My potatoes are doing really well. We ended up watching a movie with our neighbours and I went straight to bed. Rowan made dinner, but I was happy to just get some sleep.

Monday; Strange day, everything was just tough. It is like someone drugged us. It was a struggle to get some work completed at Till St but we trucked along. Cory worked on the exterior prep and I played with levelling out the floor in the bathroom. I really enjoyed the process. All those years of watching my dad plaster really helped. Finally a few questions from the Otago Regional Council to answer. The reply from that is we will have a draft tomorrow. I hope that is good news! I think they will give us a bunch of conditions to work with, which is absolutely fine. When we got back to Herbert we went for our ride. It was pretty cold and I got up to 80km. The fastest I have gone so far. I am surprised my little moped could reach that high haha.