Adams Lane 15 -25^th Feb

Well another 10 days gone at lightning speed.

We started the week finalising plans for the kitchen & choosing ovens & hob tops

That was followed by a session on colours for various aspects of the interior, colour of vinyl planking for wet areas & today we chose carpet & finalised interior paint.

The roof is finished & once the scaffolding is down windows will go in then bricks go on.

We might get a breather now from decisions as there can’t be many more to make…… but you can guarantee someone will ask a question.

After all that activity I wasn’t well organised for our trip on Thursday to Christchurch. We were later than ideal when we set off but we made it in time to book into the motel & get to the airport to meet my UK cousins Roger & Ann. Luckily the fog had lifted so no delays to their flight.

Once we got back to the motel we took them for a bit of a look around the Red Zone. We got stuck in rush hour traffic going through Hagley Park! Our original idea was to go up onto the Port hills but fog was still hanging over the hills.

Change of plan & we headed into the Square, cathedral still looking very neglected & sad but the Square was looking quite cheerful as there was a Floral Festival on & some lovely displays. We hopped back into the car & went to the cardboard Cathedral & struck it lucky as there was a service & we could get into the foyer to have a look. From there we went across to The Restart Mall, unfortunately closed but intrigued Roger & Ann especially the ATM in the BNZ portabank.

We were all feeling hungry by now so we headed for old faithful the Lone Star at Church corner by Bush Inn for dinner.

Next morning Christchurch let us down with grey overcast skies & no sign of the sun. We had breakfast together before Roger & Ann left for their tour down south, heading first for Lake Tekapo.

We headed into Archives, Restart again, then over to Woolston to look at the Old Tannery, a fascinating remodel into boutique shops of the tannery, only half finished but impressive. We headed home via Riccarton to pick up essentials before going to Church Corner to visit my grandparent’s grave & look at the damaged St Peters. It was good to see some repair work going on.

After dinner we went to call on David & Nancy & catch up their news.

Saturday we went to visit St Barnabas before going back to the Square for more photos in the sun. We bought some lunch & went back to the motel, it was very hot 31C.

In the afternoon we went for a drive to Lyttleton,  there is some rebuilding starting out there which was good to see, then Sumner & Brighton beaches.

We headed back for Blenheim Sunday morning & it was pouring with rain & windy. We cleared the rain by the time we got to Cheviot but still the wind was strong.

We had a coffee & filled the car & headed off for Kaikoura, we stopped to stretch our legs & it was the same as further south, as soon as we stepped out of the car this cold wind was whipping through.

Back in warm Blenheim again making more decisions!

Take care all

 

Roof finished, windows to come next.

11th Feb 2014,
Spouting on

Adams Lane build for Lis & Les

15.2.14

This is a simple version for those of you like me who aren’t into technology.

We got the building permit on the 17^th January & the following week the ground works were complete, the one after all the floor was set out & poured by the Friday & last week we got all the framing & trusses up for the roof.

We are going for a nosey shortly to see is all the scaffolding is up for the roofers. We’d hoped it’d be done by Thursday & maybe there’d be some roof by Friday 14^th, but no such luck.

Meantime since arriving down here on the 10^th we have been busy. On Tuesday 11^th we meet Rowan on site to look around & then went back to their base & spent ages making decisions about door types, locks, door handles, bathroom fittings etc.

Rowan gave us the name of the firm who will install the kitchen & we went to see them on Wednesday & spent a fruitful time with Chris bouncing ideas & wants around. We came away with plenty to think about. We went back on Friday after going looking at ovens, hob tops & so on. Chris had been thinking as well & by the time we left we’d virtually solved the kitchen layout. More than the original  quote so Lis gets her oven & a half plus the hob top we wanted, hush closures on the drawers & bench top of our choice.

Before we got home the Electrical firm doing the wiring were in touch & we meet them on site Tuesday.

On Monday we have another meeting with Chris so she can give us new costings! Later in the morning we have a colour consultant meeting so it’s all on.

Thursday we head for Christchurch & hopefully the roof will be on by then. We’re away 4 0r 5 days so on our return may have windows & some brick.

While all this is going on we’re staying with Mark & Anne, Bryn & Kody.

We had a full on trip around the North Island & ran out of time to see everyone, but we did pretty well.

We travelled over 4000 k’s going north through Taupo, into the Waikato, up to Auckland before catching my nephew & family in Hamilton en route south to New Plymouth & Whanganui.

We eventually got back to Wellington & had a lovely almost week with Claire & Lauren.

We dropped Claire at work on the morning of the 10^th Feb & headed to the ferry queue. Got there early & spent 35 mins getting to the head of the queue! Once through there we were quickly on board BUT there’d been an eight car pile up just south of Porirua That closed the motorway both ways so…….. they nicely waited for their passengers. The Kaitaki holds 1650 passengers & 600 cars & there wasn’t any spare space.

We finally left 45 mins late which they pretty well caught up. However the ferry saga continues. When we got to Picton the Arahura which should have sailed at 11am was stuck in our dock with a broken lifeboat………….eventually they moved it out to Shakespeare Bay to crane the thing back & we were able to finally berth & unload a good hour late.

Mark was waiting at the Picton end very frustrated as he should have sailed north on the Arahura so he was sitting waiting for our lot to unload so they could get on, he eventually got to Wellington at 6pm instead of 3pm as planned.

So now we’re all unwinding after a morning out collecting pine cones that will be a fund raiser for ATC (Air Training Corp) which Bryn has been involved in since he was 13, now almost 20!

The next update will be next weekend.

Watch this space

Lis & Les

ROOF SHOUT!!!!
Well not quite but not far away.

Well things are happening fast now.