The house is finished -for now at least!

We went down on Sunday 27th without the kids and left very late Monday 28th. It was the only time we could get down, so we had to nearly run to try and fit everything in. Wouldn't have made it if Murray and Linda hadn't helped too!

The new addition is complete and even painted! We plan to take the new yellow colour round the rest of the house next summer.
We think it really sets the place off.
The other side of the addition (its L shaped). The door is the original pantry door and is newly painted 'Castlecliff'. The kitchen. Much better than the old look.

The breakfast bar finished including 'Castlecliff' on the wooden leg.

The lino looks great. It gives the place a warm homely look -better than the original wooden floor and easier to clean too.

In the bathroon on the step that Mark built.

And in the wash-house. The place is now ready for its new tenants!

For those who want to we suggest you scroll down to the first blogs and compare. The place has certainly changed!

May 4th to 9th -Building the cover over the sleepout doors.

We went down again this time to construct a covered in 'porch'. This means that the 2 sleepouts will be sleepouts no longer. We will be able to now call the place a 4 bedroom house! This process happened mostly without a hitch. Mark had Murray from next door helping over the weekend and they did heaps. Mark then carried on through to Wed to get it done.
Fitting the new french doors.
The roof is on. We used pvc roofing in keeping with what was already there. It should be a nice little sun trap.

Nailing on the
ply.


Robert's 'roads'.

Starting the other side of the covered in area.

Putting the roof, walls and door on.

The 'completed' porch. We still need to put glass in the french doors and do a little exterior painting, but neither job will take long.
The floor ready for lino. Mark came down alone at the end of April and laid 9mm ply over the whole wooden floor. Quite a job really. There are 1400 screws in that floor.
We return once more to inspect the lino once it is down (and to re-fit the doors that had to be removed for the lino). The end is in sight. Already the property manager is looking for a tenant.

Easter weekend. 7-10 April

For the Easter break, we came down again and did some fun Wanganui things with the family. All the while getting a bit more done and visiting a rental agent.

Rather blurry, but this is a pic of the wash-house floor. We lifted some floor boards which had been cut some time in the past and laid replacements down.

The kitchen floor free of the dreaded purple paint at last (Note the breakfast bar at the side which Mark made). After putting so much work into doing this, the rental agent told us we really need to lay lino as this floor will be a serious downer on renting the place. Oh well, its only money!
Sanding the boards for the wash-house.
This is the neighbourhood friendly "pain in the neck". We named him Humbug but he prefers Ginger.
The completed pantry. It even has adjustable shelves. Isn't Mark clever?
The finished floor.
I started to paint the house. I don't think we'll get much more done until next summer though. Its getting too late in the season.

The place is now nearly done. Apart from the lino, the last thing to be done is to enclose the doors to the sleepouts. This is so that they are internal bedrooms and the property is more appealing and liveable.

We have really enjoyed doing up this house, it has been an absolute ball! It has also been a welcome escape from certain stresses of our life in Auckland. We feel jealous of whoever gets to live here. It is now a great house to live in and of course it has always been right next to the sea...

Work continues every second weekend. -4th of March

The neighbour, Murray, begins to strip this very tired window for painting. We think the paint was decades old.

Hard work, this renovation business.

The larger sleepout. We did very little except carpet it and hang curtains. O.K. maybe new skirting boards...
Mark lining the new pantry location. We stripped out the old gib 'cos it was absolute rubbish.
Robert in the back yard.Caroline.

Starting to look better. Waitangi weekend visit

The carpet is down!!! The carpet people came while we were gone and laid it through-out including the sleepouts. We were very priveleged as they usually have a 3 month waiting list but squeezed us in. The same was true for other tradesmen that helped us. God's provision we think. The fireplace is now white and grey instead of purple, blue, red and orange! By a coincidental turn of events the best colour for the hearths was called "Castlecliff". We went with it and used it elsewhere too.

Putting in the kitchen benches. We purchased two lengths of bench from Mitre 10 and used it in three places in the kitchen as well as the wash-house. We got the stainless steel bench second-hand and put that in ourselves too.
Mark cooks sustaining meals for the 'troups'.
Painting the front door yellow instead of purple.
Lunch with Ellis and Steph who visited again and helped us take a load to the dump.

The kitchen cupboards are now yellow and the fridge space is stripped of shelves, re-floored, wired and painted. The purple floor still lasts however.

The kitchen nearly finished. All repainted a warm white and yellow. Gone is the orange, gold, green, and nearly gone is the red! New power points are installed for a microwave etc.
The "piece- de- resistance", a new gas cooker. It looks great, we think. Not bad for a Trade-me purchase.
The wash-house beginning to come together. The bench unit used to be brown veneer with an orange top.
The bathroom with the horrible blue on the bench top painted over and the rotten floor replaced (one of five places where Mark rebuilt or built sections of floor)

The transformation of the sleepout.

This is what the 2nd sleepout looked like before we started. It was originally a woodshed that had become many previous tenant's junk storage area. We worked on this room from Jan 22- 27. It was painted by myself and the neighbour in the week after that. By the 1st of Feb it was carpeted and done!

To the left of the picture above is where we put in a window as the room had none.

Mark putting in the window. The mask and overalls are because he had to cut through asbestos!
This is the pile of stuff from in that room, including what was left of the floor. It was rotten and full of slugs and everything foul. We wore masks as the smell was evil.
Laying down the silver paper to stop damp.


The new floor joists go in.
Cutting the extra ceiling rafters needed.
Putting the first one in.
The ceiling is mostly on and the pink batts go in.

The gib is on and Mark begins to cover the joins with boards. Time was of the essence and so we did this so that we wouldn't need to do much plastering.
This ceiling shape was the quickest and probably the best for light placement etc.
The edgings go on.

The completed and painted room. It was carpeted by this time too.