House Build

House Build Update 10

Beautiful Blackball

Can you spot our house 🙂

This is a panoramic view of Blackball and its surrounds. This is just one of the many reasons why we chose Blackball.

The view from our upstairs deck snow in September just magical!

Progress since our last blog

Al’s fabulous stairs – with Essie photobombing 🙂
Guest bathroom
The final touches to the lift – the floor.
Our kaboodle kitset laundry
And kaboodle kitchenette in the Games Room
Guest Bedroom

The work behind the scenes

Al spent many hours planning, measuring, cutting, test installing and then staining the stair treads.
So many stair treads!
This is going to be the shoe cubby just inside the front door.
Installing the fibo panels in the downstairs guest bathroom.
Installing the shower in the guest bedroom.
Installing the kaboodle laundry
Putting up the previously stained ply in the porch ceiling. The gib lifter has been a god send!
The final internal doors (lift and cupboards) to be spray painted.
Although we have town water supply we are also self sufficent with our own rainwater tank. We were very excited to get the water pump installed to increase the water flow to upstairs.

Sammy (2007 – 21 July 2024)

Sadly, we lost our wee Sammy mid July. We thought he was doing well on his meds but his body had other ideas.  After 17 years of having him around it has left a huge hole.  We miss you Bubba xo

House all tidy and ready for the council inspection for Code of Compliance

Looking from games room, the door at the end goes to the garage.
Looking down towards office and bedroom. The hole in the wall is where the fish tank will go.
Upstairs lift hallway
Temporary balustrade
Front entrance
Downstairs hallway
The painting on the wall was purchased at a Blackball art auction. It is appropriately called ‘Going Home” by local artist Sue Green
Going Home by Sue Green
Al’s photos add the finishing touches to our bedroom
Laundry and Quasi & Essie’s bedroom 🙂
Guest bedroom
Guest Bathroom
Games Room
Games Room/Guests Lounge
Games Room/Guests Kitchenette.
The garage has finally been cleared and the Hilux just fits in. It will probably live in the carport lol.
We are getting closer to having a driveway. My vege garden will at the back by the shed.

June to September

This year has just raced past and we are coming up to 2 years from when we started the foundations on our house. And also a year since I ‘broke my neck’ which is now a distant memory fortunately – feeling very lucky! The last few months have been a challenge for many reasons – physical and mental fatigue, motivation and winter being a few of them. But this week we finally got to the stage of a final inspection for code of compliance. The last few weeks have been a race to get the required items finished so we could book that inspection.

In between working on the house we have both been doing paid work. Al has a few projects he is juggling and clients to keep happy. One of Al’s major new clients are his parents Neil & Dianne, they have caught the Blackball bug and have decided to sell up and move here! Last year we bought a section around the corner for a reduced price with a view to developing at some stage, this section is now going to be Neil & Dianne’s new home. The first stage is building something similar to what we did here, a garage/temporary accommodation that they can live in until their house is built. So on top of his paid work and finishing here in the last few months Al has been working on the building consent and getting pricing for this project. This has now all been finalised so the next step for us is starting the clearing and fencing the section and getting the build underway. Whilst Al has been doing this I have been working casual shifts in Greymouth & Hokitika on ambulance or patient transfer. I also have a job kicking off in Blackball cleaning for a new accommodation unit (Blackball Connection), mostly catering for people walking or biking the Paparoa trail. It looks like it will be a busy season ahead.

As far as our house goes there are still a few jobs to complete – plying the underside of the carport and garage ceilings, the upstairs balustrade and the joinery for the wardrobes and walk in robe. We will fit this in between our other projects. And not to forget the shops out front of our section – these are still in the plans. and sometime between all the other stuff going on this project will start.

Finally the Code of Compliance inspection went well but we are still waiting for the official sign off, once that is done we can breathe a bit easier and change to normal house insurance. Until next time and thanks for reading. Margie & Al

6 thoughts on “House Build Update 10”

  1. Gee guys congratulations on your beautiful home! It really is a testament of your hard work for TWO years! … Absolutely amazing effort!!
    Lovely to here Neil and Dianne will be over there too. ( I guess I will be out of a job😉) . I totally understand why they are moving there too. Blackball is one very special spot.
    I am very sad to hear wee Sammy left us. What an amazing innings he had, I’m so pleased he lived in his new home and enjoyed the deck.
    Congratulations again ,
    Kate xx

    1. Aaw Kate we miss you x And yes we are very sad about Sammy too but glad he got to spend some time in a bigger space and he especially loved his sunny spot in the bedroom. And don’t worry you always have a place here. Big hugs xo

  3. You have done such an amazing job. As life goes by you need your happy place and by the looks of it that’s just what you have. Enjoy your home and each other. 😁

    1. Thanks Anna and yes we have definitely found our happy place and looks like you have too. xo

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