House Build

House Build – Update 8

Halfway through upstairs deck
Gib fixers Mike & Ricky
The giblifter we bought from Toolshed has been a god send for the high bits.
Another new trade for Al – Gibfixer 🙂
Assistant gib fixer Al
Flying solo with his own assistant (Me)
The stairs had to be removed and then narrowed for the gib to go on.
Gibstopper Wayne hard at work on the cathedral ceiling.
It’s hard work being a cat
Just a wee bit of paint which means we have a lot of painting to do.
An ingenious idea that Al googled to be able to spray paint several doors at once.
Sorting out before moving tools back to garage now it is empty of gib
Al took me to Karamea for my birthday
Box Canyon Cave at Oparara
The completed upstairs deck, just the balustrade to come.
All the workings for the louvres which is all connected and been hidden up above the fireplace.
That bloody ceiling is done this height is a little bit easier.
Preparation of the revels prior to painting
Al organised a visit up to the Roa mine for our joint training with the fire brigade. Amazing views.
Woody wood pigeon – can almost touch him. They have eaten all the berries so probably won’t be this close until next year.
A sneak peak of the ceiling feature. It looks amazing but not quite finished.
The kitchen joinery being installed.
Will share more photos when it is completely finished.
Some great publicity for Blackball Ambulance. This was in the West Coast Messenger.
Sammy had strunk in size but always hungry. So we took him to the vet and sure enough he has hyperthyroidism just like Freddy. So back to the old drill of rubbing medicine into his ear each morning. So pleased that it was something that could be sorted. He has already started putting on weight.

It is already nearly the end of March – where did it go! 

We haven’t had much time for updates and have only done a couple of facebook posts as below (some of the photos from those post are are here the rest are on FB if you want to see)

25th December

Merry Christmas to you all 🎄🎅.

We have escaped to Bluespur for a couple of nights but before we left we prepared the foundations of the lower deck (or Sharkey’s Bar). This is going to be a well used area on the hot Blackball days. 👏🥳

Usually the sun shines for us on Xmas day at Bluespur so we can’t complain about the rain this year. See what Al has whipped up this year – an outdoor kitchen with hot water. ❤️Cheers Margie & Al

5th January

Belated Happy New Year all.

We’ve had some lovely weather in Blackball so we’ve been working on both decks depending on the UV intensity. The louvres on the upper deck under the watchful eye of our neighbour Irish who has built many before and installing the decking for the lower deck aka Sharkey’s bar.

28th January

 A lot has happened since our last post. The louvres are installed and all wired up, the bottom deck is all finished and thanks to Neil who finish the screwing off, and the top decking is started. The big milestone is getting the Gib all installed. Mike and Ricky worked like demons to get it on. The big ceiling was a concern but with the gib lifter for the lower parts and the use of Grant’s scaffolding (via Smithy) we got it all up in less than a day. Ricky left for holiday in Rarotonga (lucky bugger) and Mike and Al finished off the remaining tricky spots. Mike left Al and I to finish off around the stairs and some other areas. There was a wee celebration when the last bit of gib was fixed in place in the walk in robe. So now the stopping has just started. We have heaps to carry on with but at last there is a definite end in sight. 🥳👏

So now it is the end of March and there has been some painting, painting and more painting.  Poor Al had the job of painting the lounge high ceilings which was back breaking work.  Fortunately we still had Grant’s scaffold which made life a bit easier.  While Al was doing that I painted the pantry and the window and door revels in the lounge.     We have now got the kitchen 90% in, we are just waiting for them to come back and finish off – no date as yet for this.  Wayne finished the plastering last week so once we have finished upstairs we will start down there.  We have already painted the stairwell and entrance way, so just the games room, guest bedroom & bathroom, hallway and laundry to go! We have laid 99.9% of the flooring upstairs and the bathroom is all finished.  Just heard the plumbers can come tomorrow so can make a start on getting us hooked up.  

We will do a further update when we are finally able to move in upstairs.  It is looking so good and more like home. 18 months of living in the confined space of the garage with 2 boisterous German Shepherds and a hyperthyroidic cat have lost its charm. We are looking forward to being able to find things, having our ‘stuff’ back out and more space for work and living. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer and it starting to get exciting. Also we are pleased to say that Neil has recovered well from his operation before Christmas and he and Dianne have been back for a couple of stints to help out and will be back in a couple of weeks for the final push.