Slab Party

We christened our slab on Saturday night with a raging party!  It was fantastic and we were up ALL night long.  Though this wasn't because of too much partying, it was because Olivia has a cough like a barking seal and was doing that all night.

Here are some pictures of our concrete christening.  Note that such a party isn't complete without playdough.

Playdough for five

I love the indoor/outdoor flow.  Those two beer bottles aren't mine.



Dinner for five!  Pork roast, sausages, salad and fresh bread.  AND apple cake by Nikki and ice cream for dessert!

Zoe, the building site's ferocious guard dog.

 

Of other building importance, we have:

 

*  Picked up our new dining table (thank you Michael Kerr)

*  Picked up some Macrocarpa sleepers for the garden bed at the top

*  Moved out of our dining room!  The dining room is now in the girls' bedroom, and the kitchen will be there when we lose that shortly.

*  Moved the twins into Max's room in their bunks.  It's a tight fit but awfully cute with three sleeping babies in there.

*  Moved the spare bed into the new dining/kitchen!  Great for a midnight feast if you stay with us.  But I can't figure out where to put the fridge!  The BBQ is now on the front porch.

 

This is mostly in readiness for the builders to rip off the back wall so that they can start to join up the roofing.  That will happen this week and will be a major change as we'll lose our front row view out the dining room windows!  That was quite a good breakfast backdrop.

 

It's 12.30am and Steve and I are finally done.  Hopefully what we've sorted out this weekend will mean minimal upheaval when our kitchen does go!  I will take some pics of our new set up soon and post them.

 

In non building related news, Max has had a hair cut (he was looking a bit like the crazy professor on Back to the Future) and is wearing his first pair of trainers.  These are shoes Max picked out for himself at Stirling Sports with Grandma Moira.  "Thanks Grandma", said Max if he could talk. 

 

Check out both items here:

 

 

Signing off because I am ready for bed - good night.

 

x





Monday Monday la la la la la la

Good evening,

Tonight I'd like to talk to you about concrete slabs and what happens if you do not put the right pipes in before the slabs go down.  The concrete slab has to be cut into in order to put the pipes in, and then concrete re-poured over the new pipes.

We don't know what happened to cause the above situation, but I do know the builders are blaming the plumbers and the plumbers are blaming the builders.  Only because I overheard comments which didn't make much sense until our main man builder sent through an email outlining the problem above.  He downplayed the problem but reading between the lines he is a bit annoyed.

Moving right along, we have bought a dining table off Trade Me.  It's an 8 seater!  It's massive!  We can have many parties!  Here it is:

A heavy-duty, glass top, 8-seater dining table strong enough to withstand the activities of small children.

It's definitely not 'the one' but it will be great with small kids and I know that I will not worry about what they do to it. The chairs are not ours, and I am still searching for some lovely pieces to perch our bottoms on.

We spent the weekend camping, or at least we tried to.  We left Auckland at 3pm on Friday afternoon to find it took us 45 minutes to get to the first motorway exit on our way north.  This meant that our one hour trip would actually take three hours, approximately.  We turned around and went to McDonalds and took the kids to a park near the beach.  It was great fun and less stressful than sitting in traffic, hauling up our tent and cooking dinner in the dark.

The next day we set off and arrived at the campsite to find our friends looking a bit drawn and tired, but ready for a party for three little ones (a 1 year old, a 4 year old and a 5 year old).  There were balloons, party food, games and streamers which is not bad for a camping party!  It rained a bit on and off but stayed mostly dry and we had a dinner of burgers (home made ones this time). 

However the next morning, it poured!  We all took down tents in our rain jackets, juggling sodden children and soggy breakfast cereal. 

This is the amount of rain that fell in mm.  See the highest bars there?  That is the time we were packing up camp.

We arrived home wet and cold and tired - but having an adventure like that is kind of fun.  After hot showers and some rest, we were all feeling better and then lentils for dinner ensured we felt virtuous nutritionally also.  Next time shall we trust the weather forecast? 

Framing turns out to be great for drying wet tents!

More house stuff to report in the next few days.

x

Slab down

Here it is, the long awaited house update!

Since last week, the builders have been going gangbusters.  I might let the pictures tell the story. 

Now, where were we up to?

Ah yes, that's right.  The trenches were dug.


And we actually bought the lights.  Remember these?  We ordered one in smoke grey, one steel blue and one pink.  I figure that our kitchen is all white and our walls will (probably) be white too, so to inject some colour this way will be fun.

Our new kitchen lights (look at the three larger ones and you'll get the idea).

The poor builders have had no more biscuits or tea because I have been a working woman this week.  I filled in as Sandy from Grease at a trade show.  The girls thought it was excellent because Mummy got into dress ups every morning.  It was lots of fun but it has left me under no illusion about how organised Steve and I would have to become for me to go back to work full-time.  Another realisation is that I feel like I have had a break equivalent to that of a 5 star cruise in the Bahamas for ten days. 

I don't look that relaxed but this was the first day.  I was semi-waiting for little people to jump out from behind trees asking me to wipe their bottoms.

Despite the lack of baking, the builders were happy because the nanny was a young gorgeous blonde Irish girl.

And perhaps she made them work harder. This is the progress this week:

Not really a progress shot, but don't Uncle Mike and Steve look sweet together? 

 The insulation laid down

 

And the concrete pad!  All marked out for our beautiful big stacker doors. 

We will have enough room for our dining table!

 

And that is all for today because it's bedtime.  Tomorrow the framing goes up and it's door day.  As in, choosing some doors for our new house!  And then it's the weekend (we're going camping!) so look forward to an update on Monday.

 

Lots of love,

 

Sandy x

 

Day 5

Dad wants me to write more often, ideally daily. 

So Dad, I am ignoring my children (well, one is asleep) to write this.  Currently - and I kid you not - Sofia and Olivia are climbing on the balcony at the front of the house and while they are very good at balancing and gymnastics I am not 100% comfortable with it.  But we have lost our climbing tree out the back for a while and it seems they need a height fix every day.  I could tell them they can't do it, but it makes them want to do it more.  And I am supervising, sort of!

Now they're back inside and practicing their ABCs.  Much safer.

Where we are at today building-wise:

- we have had the concrete poured for the foundations
- we have the base course down (two loads from the big truck which actually managed to back down our driveway)
- the plumbing for the kitchen is in - for the sink and for the fridge which has water in it
- the roof angles have been measured in preparation for getting a roof on! 
- we are losing our kitchen in about two weeks - hello kitchenette/BBQ/Gas cooker!

What I found out today:

The apprenctice builder is 17.  Seventeen seems so young (and the plumber on the job still has his L plates). He's only been on the job for five weeks so he is a total newbie.  His father was a builder so he knows how it all works and anyway, he is good at doing what he is told, which is his job right now.  He drinks tea with one sugar. 

The builders work 7:30am until 5:30pm and the main man on site said that's normal - he said that the owner has them on a pretty strict schedule.  Today though they are finishing early to have a few beers due to another builder guy leaving.  I just thought that the apprentice is not even legally old enough to have one. 

Back to how the builders have their hot drinks.  Steve is firmly of the belief they should be catered to and he is a wonderful host to them.  On Tuesday, he took them out some cuppas in takeaway cups and wrote their orders down on the fridge so we would remember for next time.  I felt guilty I hadn't been making the offer so yesterday I baked chocolate chip biscuits (doubling as an activity to do with the girls) and took out about eight enormous biscuits and hot drinks to the three builders.  There was a knock on the door about ten minutes later, and it was the apprentice delivering the tray and empty containers back to me.  I stupidly thought the biscuits would last all day.  So I can't be baking for them all the time; they'd eat us out of house and home.  Anyway - I won't be having an oven for much longer.  That won't excuse me from tea and coffee-making though! 

Chocolate chip biscuits made by Sofia and Olivia

They wee behind the shed. 

OK change of subject:  http://www.markdouglassdesign.com/#!he-says-she-says/c1vzw.   Latest thinking on lights is a cluster of these, and perhaps two of the wall lights for the lounge area.....just not sure on colour yet.

The kids are all back to climbing outside, after having a dance on the dancing rug.

The builders have packed up and have gone home at 3:21pm - so we are free to go outside and play! 

x