In mid May after 2 years living in the garage almost to the date we moved into the upstairs of our new house yeehaa! We are so happy to be in and whilst we still have a bit to do we are doing it in comfort. We are so very happy to be out of garage as the last month before moving we had to move the oven over to the house for the gasfitter to install it in the games room/lounge. So cooking dinner became a bit of a juggling act, as we had to cook the dinner in the house but then take it over to the garage to eat as it wasn’t quite warm enough in the house.
Which leads me to the big thing we needed to do before being able to move in was to get the fire installed. We have had the fire for a very long time and thought we had all the flue parts we needed but alas no there were parts missing so we had to wait for those to arrive. Then the time came that everything was ready and the weather was looking good. You may have noticed that we have quite a high pitched roof and the scaffolding has long gone, so it was not the easiest job but we had a plan in place. Our motto is ‘how hard can it be’ and with the help of Jon Matthews (Choppa) we got it done without too much pain and suffering (except for Choppa, sorry Choppa, bruises heal).
In between working on the house we have had to do some paid work. Al has quite a few design projects on the go and clients champing at the bit so has had to put his head down for a few weeks and do a big catch up. As for me I have been doing some shifts in Greymouth & Hoki on ambulance and patient transfer. We’ve also attended together around 40 callouts so far this year on Blackball Ambulance. On average a callout takes approx 2-3hrs when transporting so often that is half a day gone. Not that we begrudge that as that as that is why we volunteer.
So some of our larger tasks still to do: install Fibo panel, shower and fixtures in the downstairs guest bedroom, finish the flooring in the entrance and downstairs hallway, build the joinery for the the wardrobes and cupboards, install the guest kitchenette and laundry joinery, build the stairs and finish Sharkey’s bar. How hard can it be…. Thanks as always for reading our blog. Until next time Margie & Al x
Kitchen being installed The lounge ceiling feature. Very grateful for the loan of Grant’s scaffolding and our gib lifter. Loving the look, just one panel to finish. Installing the Fibo panels in the bathroom. They are floor to ceiling panels but they looked like tiles. Once we got the hang of it and learnt the tricks, apart from the fiddly bits it was quite easy to isntallThe shower was one of the fiddly bits. Bathroom flooring down and fixtures in. Al working on the electrical – one of his many trades. The flooring is Quickstep engineering timber flooring. Once we knew how it work it was pretty easy to lay. Just time and patience for the fiddly bits. The kitchen bench being lifted onto the upstairs deck. Fortunately the hiab was just able to reach phew! Really happy with how the kitchen has turned out. Our bookcases needed a slight adjustment in height before we could shuffle them along the floor in the office into place. Fire plinth Now for the tilingLoving the final look. Installing the flueIs that santa coming early 🙂 Ta Da! Installing the glass shower doorAlmost finished just some skirting Loving my pantry Laying the floor in the entranceway. We haven”t got any further as we are waiting for some more channel for the doorways. So hurry up and wait as usual! The Games Room about 75% finished. We have a pool table on loan (thanks Sam!). More photos next time when it’s not so messy. The loft – we didn’t think Sammy would be able to get up the attic stairs but nope up he went and found a cosy wee spot. The downstairs bathroom pre tiling. Undertile heating This is the garage where we were for 2 years all emptied out. It has since been filled up and is now a workshop. We just need to relocate the lovely painting by local Sue Green over in the house. Workshop bench already started. View from lounge down to stairs/lift on left, office right of stairwell and bedroom at the end. That hole in the wall on the right is going to be our laundry chute. Our (and Sammy’s) bedroom All of our furniture has fitted in well. You think someone might have designed it that way. 🙂 Blaustrade posts are almost in and hopefully in 2-3 weeks we will have some glass. There will be a gate at the top of the stairs so Sammy can venture out for some fresh air safely.
