First glass

The bottom window in Bed 2 is in.

They have finally started to put the first panes of glass in!  We couldn't understand why the glass was taking so long to arrive - the small panes got here a few weeks ago, but the large ones just kept not turning up.  It turns out all the large ones shattered in the Christchurch earthquake (our glass came from CHCH).  If they'd told us that, we would have been more understanding!  The large panes finally got here on Thursday, and we were told the glass was going in on Friday.  Naturally the wind started howling on Friday.  So only a few small panes went in.

The wind also ripped off some of the building paper around our en-suite.  But we were lucky not to suffer more damage, as it did cause chaos generally in town.  And lots of lambs died in the snow.

The ripped building paper in the en-suite

In other progress news, the builder has been putting in the soffit linings.  Now the painter (ie. Regan) just needs to paint them before the scaffolding comes down.  The laundry door has had to be pulled out and remanufactured as it was measured wrong and The Architect did not like the remedial measures offered.  That might put the lock-up stage back a bit too.

Carpet samples - red, brown, green...

First plywood cladding

The north face and east face (east = back)

The first lot of cladding has started going on the back of the house.  It is plywood, and will be stained black.  We've also had the Great Cladding Debate concerning the non-plywood faces.  The bank manager won.  Macrocarpa it is!  I think we're leaving it untreated so that it will weather silver.

I've spent some quality time looking through the paint swatches and have presented The Architect with 9 shades of white to choose from.

The plumbers/roofers have continued their work on the flashings, and you can see that they've put the big flashings on the back of the house as well as most of the front.Two big boxes of lights have arrived, but they were all the small boring ones.  Hoping for the big, exciting ones!  Not all of the glass arrived on Friday for some reason, so the glass hasn't gone in yet.

The electrical engineer (Regan's dad) and electrician's apprentice #1 (Regan) went down on Saturday and started putting in the flush boxes that the electrical plugs will go into.  But the freezing winds that blew up soon put a stop to that!  It was snowing up where we live now.

Some floating flush boxes.

Doors in

South west end, lounge & main bedroom

All of the doors and windows (bar two) are now in.  It is amazing what a change this has made to the way the place feels.  I suppose adding the building wrap has helped too.  You can now tell what is solid and what will stay open, rather than guessing based on the myriad of frames lying around.  The glass should arrive this coming week, so we are not too far away from being weathertight (as the building wrap does give some weathertightness).

The concrete floors have also all been ground.  They've cut a couple of holes through the floor in the kitchen for the sinks, so you can now look straight down a storey!

North west end, dining/kitchen above car port

North east, dining/kitchen

It turns out that our shopping trip to Christchurch was ill-conceived.  We were fine (though shaken and stirred) and miraculously Mom & Dad suffered no damage at all.  However of course all the shops closed.   Thankfully we had taken Friday off work, so the trip wasn't completely wasted - going up on Friday night and turning around again would have been a killer!  We found some beautiful lights, and they weren't destroyed in the earthquake.  However the lighting shop found that its ceiling panels weren't properly fixed, so they lost pendants that they shouldn't have lost.  (Lights should arrive this week too!)  We did see some cool taps which were on sale, and we were going to go back on Saturday and buy them...  We didn't get to look (much) at extractor fans or curtains - there is just so much more choice in CHCH!  We were so fortunate though with the timing of the quake - the areas where we had been shopping on Friday were covered with fallen masonry.

Now we need to put some serious time into deciding Which Shade of White Paint [it is a question that necessitates capital letters].  And of course debating the Great Cladding Issue.

South east, back of en-suite and bedrooms

Roof on

Main bedroom on the right, with the lounge on the left.

Looking on to the dining/kitchen/courtyard area & bed3

The roof is on!  Regan has carried out his duties and held a roof shout while I was away (ably supported by Dan).  It seems that the roof shout does not involve standing and pointing at the roof while yelling "Roof!  Roof!".

So you can now get a proper idea of what it will look like!  A capping still has to go on each corner where the roof "folds" down onto the cladding.  For some obscure reason, it's called a Canterbury Prickle.  They're also busy putting the flashings on.


The bits of the walls that don't have roofing material on will be clad with a different material.  Exactly what is still the subject of debate...  You'd think we'd know by now.

The doors are all on site now, and apparently the door in our bedroom is on, as is the bathroom door and the dining room doors.  Hopefully the glass will arrive next week.

We're off to CHCH this week-end for a buying spree before the GST increase hits!  Nothing like a snap decision.