Getting there!!!

We are making good progress with our kitchen, butlers pantry and laundry.  Last weekend was Labour weekend here in Wellington, so we had Monday off work too, well Dave did!  This was great as we had three full days to prep and paint the areas.  As well as celebrating our daughters 25th birthday, with friends sleeping over, fancy dress party on the Saturday evening, theme being the Hunger Games and catching up with friends at their BBQ.  A full on varied time was had by all.

We firstly wiped down all the new jib walls and ceiling with a damp cloth, to remove all the plaster dust.  Then we undercoated / primed the jib to seal it.

I then sugar soaped the ceiling and scotia in the dining room to clean all the grime off.  While Dave started on the first coat of paint on the ceiling in the kitchen areas.

Don't know when the dining room was last painted, we certainly haven't painted it in fifteen years!!! You can see here the difference where I have started painting the ceiling rose with white paint, the original is quite yellowy/brown... ewh!!

Once we painted the ceilings with two coats of ceiling white, we then started on the walls.  I did all the cutting in while Dave used the roller on the walls, he's quite the expert!  We chose the colour Tasman by Resene which is nice and fresh for a kitchen.  The photos don't really do it justice.

looking through into the laundry room

Kimi and Jono inspecting the work done so far... kimi is concentrating sourcing a Thai restaurant for dinner takeaways for us!!

The kitchen cabinets have all been delivered, and will hopefully be installed 6th & 7th November 2014, fingers crossed... were just waiting on the painter who is painting the panels that go in-between the cabinets, apparently they have been undercoated already so hopefully they will be ready in time.

Once the cabinets are installed the builder has to return to finish off the scotia and the framing around the breakfast bar.

We then have to install the splash back behind the cooker before the cooker can be connected and certified safe.  I think we are going to tile instead of the coloured glass look.

Landscaping : Stage Three continued...& now completed

Monday 20 October was a great day weather wise to pour the concrete in to our outdoor entertainment area.

Here's the WelTec team working on our landscaping. Bryan their supervisor is on the far right at the front.

To begin with they sorted out all the gear they needed for the task at hand...

this was their challenge for the day!

They first had to hammer two nails into each side of the wood strips, this helps the concrete stay secure (I think!!)

The concrete truck arrived on time at 9.30am.  Once it was all set up and the first wheelbarrow was filled, it was non stop till it was all poured!!  We used just under 3 tonnes of concrete.  The guys finished pouring around 11.00am.

The first lot of concrete being poured....

then it was go go go!!!

Bryan returned later that evening to water blast and clean the grit away.

The next stage is to grind down the concrete as some parts were not completely compacted down.  Once ground down a top coat and sealant gets applied to finish it off.  They also have to clean off the concrete from the wood strips and re-coat the timber with the stain too.

During the day I also took a couple of shots of the spring flowers in our garden...

rose, not sure what type!

Iris's

Wisteria

Until the next update!

30 November 2014

Bryan and the guys returned to finish off the concreting for us... the squares had to be ground down, coated and sealed.

Unfortunately they didn't get a good run of nice fine days, so it was gradually done in between the wet days... we got there in the end though, with an amazing finished outdoor entertaining area.

now that it has time to weather it looks even better....