some more pictures

the drive works

We are here, finally getting to see progress in real life. Its quite exciting seeing pictures become solid.

More framing and half the upstairs floor ..

Concrete floor going down, everything looks so small without walls.

View from the kitchen.

Another weeks progress

Floors...

We have poles in the ground and the start of the basement floor..

digging nearly finished.

It was hard to imagine before digging what it would look like.. now we do... its a big hole. Now we have to work out things like.. how to get to the front door.

The work begins.. lots of dirt, lots of expensive dirt to move.

Guy Fawkes Update

Well last week we were in the "is it ever going to happen' reality. This week its yes it is.. very quickly.

Got a call from Paul our project manager, He has booked the digger for next thursday, ordered the framing  got the concrete organised .. so , its all on .

The plan is to have all the excavation complete and the concrete down with the framing delivered before Christmas then in the new year building proper begins.

Only one hiccup so far, which we were expecting.. the original quote had an estimate for the ground work for $5k, it will be closer to $50k.. lots of dirt has to me moved..

October 2015... weeds are starting to grow again..

Builder.

Bruce is his name.. Looks like we have a builder secured... Meeting next week. hopefully

Two loos

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Laufen toilets

We had acquired two loos..not new, but used.. Top quality though.. Hopefully they will be suitable.

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Builder Update

We had a call yesterday from Paul, the guy from Versatile who has the job of completing the builds left undone when their franchisee went bankrupt. He told us he has been trying to find us builders with no luck, the problem being since they have said they will honor our current contract, since we have paid nearly $90k so far, that the cost of builders has skyrocketed in the last couple of years and they can make more money elsewhere.. not the best thing to hear..he did however have a plan. He contacted a guy called Heath... we know Heath he was our first project manager with Versatile Auckland central, but left and started his own building company not long before the former went under. Apparently because he likes us he may loan a couple of his builders to do the job.. hopefully... Paul told us we wont be in by Christmas.. which we sort of gathered. So thats where we are.. waiting and hoping.

A few photos from the weekend.

Waiheke section sep 2015

Section sep 2015

Let...the sun shine in.

what a difference all of the central big macracarpa have been felled..yay

Mika the hyena

quite a lot to clear after felling one of the larger macracapa

the workers ..

Big Macro number one

The big macro got leveled by the girls this week so we had a pretty big job tidying up... they will fell the other two this week so we get to do it all again next weekend..

august 2015 panorama

We're in hot water

...and heres the proof, waiting at home is our fancy expensive stainless cylinder with wet back pipes and our econergy hot water unit.. this thing uses heat pump technology to heat the hot water.. two kilowatts of power in give six kilowatts of hot water out, they work all year consistently so you dont have the issues with solar panels.. we are still deciding on panels, they are getting cheaper all the time..

Their new home

Off loading at Waiheke..

Grass

We are off to the island tomorrow with the first lot pf plants to go down.. Builder update! hope to do something this week but we are snowed under .... waiting

360 degree view of the section ..

Panorama of plants...

Nugents Bay

The beach as a seagull my view it , if it was slow or partially sighted..

77 Gt Barrier Rd

First flight with the new quad..

More native plants purchased this week....going to need allot more too.. according to the council.

3.

Unfortunately we didn't get any shots of what the site looked like before doing clearing. It was basically jungle.. jasmine covering everything including my great grandmothers dilapidated sheds which had to be pulled down and removed .... two summer holidays work.

Some computer generated views of the house I did.