HUTCH COMING

 

How exciting!

Our new dining room cabinet is arriving sometime today.  The shop is ringing me around 9 am to give me a time of delivery.

Funny thing is, I have nothing to put in it... YET.

All the china that's going in it, is still in storage somewhere. lol

Once that is delivered, we are jumping in the car and heading back up to Auckland.

The light fitting I bought for our bedroom is now going in the spare bedroom, and as I've not seen anything here that I love, we are going back to Eden Lighting in Auckland.  They have the MOST AMAZING selection, and I know I will find the perfect light for our bedroom there.

It is HIGHLY LIKELY to be a *bling bling bling* light!  Stew talked me out of getting a blingy light fitting when we were up there the other day, but now he's said I can get one.  I didn't even have to cry!  😂😅😆

For anyone who feels sad we had to give away our gorgeous pale blue, corner lounge suite.  Never fear!

We have ordered this:

ABOVE:  Same.  But different.  It's a slightly smaller lounge suite, but with the same pale blue leather.  I hope it fits in our new lounge... we have measured it out and it will be a wee bit snug... but I will make it work.  

We will be selling the cream lounge suite once the new one arrives.  It's not due until August at the earliest.  It is worth waiting for.

...

10.44 am, and the dining display cabinet arrived, we took ages to un-box it!  You certainly can't complain that it wasn't well protected during transit.  It weighs HEAPS, so quite hard to get in position, but Stew did most of the hard work. 

ABOVE:  Our clock ended up having to move.  The dining area, except for it's pendant light, is now  sorted.

Time to get in the car and head off to Auckland.

ABOVE: Safely in Auckland... and happily  looking....

3.55 pm.  And we are home again.

I looked at all the blingy lights, fell in love with a couple, but damn!  My sensible head kicked in pretty quick and I ended up buying one that is very similar to the one I got the other day for our bedroom.

ABOVE:  The one I bought the other day was made with wood, this one is metal.  It's slightly less chunky, so will go in the spare bedroom, which is smaller than our bedroom.  

After light shopping, we had lunch at Manukau Mall, then went on to Sylvia Park Mall.

Which was PACKED.  Too many people for my liking, it was a pain in the butt trying to walk through the crowds.

I bought some round leather placemats for the table.  And we also got some of those EVIL donuts from 'Grownup Donuts'.

They are just amazing.

I doubt we will get up to much more today, we are both decidedly jaded.

6 pm:  Why do I even bother saying we are not going to do much else today?  I decided to sort out a 'Sewing Box' that came back from storage yesterday.  And the 'What Not Box'.  That's the box that all the batteries, picture hooks, curtain hooks, push pins etc etc etc got chucked into.  Doing those two boxes has taken me about 2 hours.  Stew hung the big clock in it's 'next' position.  I'll show you tomorrow.

Right now, I AM taking a break.

8 pm: I have totally finished doing anything else for the day.  I cooked us dinner, working in a tiny kitchen is CHALLENGING to say the least.  That is probably the hardest thing I'm gunna have to get used to.  

Catch ya tomorrow.

WHAT DAY IS IT?

 

Wake up, roll over, check the time, wonder what's on today?

We have a 'free day' from people coming in to give us quotes, or just talk to us.

This morning we are:

- Taking our coffee table back to our 'old' house at 10 am.  The new owner has bought it. DONE, and it was so weird seeing other people and furniture in 'our' house!  'A' is such a delightful woman, she took us around showing up what she had already done.  Repainted the studio, garage and walk in wardrobe in the master bedroom.  Plus a few other things here and there.  We are welcome back anytime!  lol

- Break up the cardboard boxing and take it down to the recycling area. DONE

-  Stew is going to buy some wood for shelving for the 'man shed' and the attic. NOPE... has to wait for another day.

- Buy lights for the hallway and front bedroom. HALF DONE

- Buy new Range Hood. DONE

(The electrician will install them, among other things, sometime next week.) 

So today will see us doing jobs and trying to have some down time too.

I will possibly do a run to the storage unit later on as well... there's a few things I'd like to get out sooner rather than later.

ABOVE:  My view last night.  It's going to change several times over the next few months. 😊 What fun.

Well as you can probably tell by my lack of updates, we have been busy.

Out and about until after 2 pm.

ABOVE:  We ordered these lights for the hallway.

ABOVE: Also ordered a new shower and vanity... they will take 2-4 weeks to arrive.

We also ordered a new range hood and a new Samsung Induction Cooktop, as the Induction Cooktop that's here is not working properly.

One half works, the other - not at all.

Quite annoying, as when we did our Pre-Settlement inspection of all the electrical things, the cooktop seemed to be working.  But of course, we didn't come over with a pot to check it with eh? 😖

ABOVE:  The new Samsung Induction Cooktop we just ordered.  It's got the same configuration as our last one, but doesn't have the pretty blue lights when it's on.  I can live without the blue lights.  😕

ABOVE: We had lunch at Fergus, as I was too tired to contemplate cooking anything.

We also got a load of stuff from the storage unit.  

Stew is about to unload it...

ABOVE:  I found our lovely wall clock in storage, it came back pronto.  It's now in it's place, same situation as in our last home, under the heat pump.  

It looks right at home there.

I have about 4 boxes to unpack now.

ABOVE: We saw this rug in our storage unit, and for the life of me I couldn't remember where it was in our last home?  Then I unrolled it, and remembered.

It was in the lounge.  And it looks perfectly fine in the new lounge.

Score.  We don't need to buy a new one after all!

Funny how you forget what you've got when it's in storage. 😅😏

ABOVE:  First drink in our new home.

Had to be bubbles.  Stew's havin' a beer.

8.14 pm:  I have managed to unpack two more boxes.  I say unpack, but in reality, half of what was in them is sitting on the dining table waiting for somewhere to go.

I am freaking out a bit, because there's just so much more to bring back from storage and unpack.  And I have NO BLOODY IDEA where it's all gunna go!  

I suppose I'll just have to tackle it one box at a time... one car load at a time.  

Time to sign off for the day.

Catch ya tomorrow.

DARK CARPET

 

The carpet in our new home is a dark grey, bordering on charcoal.

And it's a bloody nightmare!

Who the hell puts a dark carpet throughout their house?  It shows up every single little bit of fluff, dust, dropped bits 'n' pieces... OMG I will be vacuuming every day!  Grrrr.   As it's a fairly new carpet, we won't be replacing it either.  That would be a waste of money.  

Right, little bitch over.

Moving on. 

People coming today:

- Quote for DVS at 9 am. DONE

- Quote for HRV at 11.30.   We will be getting one or the other.  DONE

- Plumber due sometime to assess jobs.  DONE

- Bathroom Renovation firm at 1 pm to give a quote.  DONE

- Village Nurse due sometime for chat, get to know us.  DONE

- Electrician due at 4 pm to assess jobs.  DONE

I cannot believe ALL of them decided today was the best day to come!

Tomorrow we have NO ONE coming.  So clearly, today we will be home all day, talking to all these people about what we would like done.

Except the nurse.  She just wants to make sure we ain't gunna drop dead any time soon. 😂😅😉

ABOVE:  So, I decided overnight that the trolley would fit better in the front lounge window area, not the coffee table.

As the purchaser of our previous home had expressed an interest in buying the coffee table, I just sold it to her.  She will get it tomorrow.

Yaaa, one less thing I have to put on Marketplace.  

We just had our first visitor, the DVS man. His visit went well... he was quick and efficient.

Second home ventilation guy is here.  He has been rambling about all the aspects of home ventilation for about an hour already... he's doing my head in.  Luckily I can walk away, and leave Stew to listen to him!  lol

If this bloody salesman doesn't leave soon I'm gunna have to kill him!

He is now walking around my house with a metre... taking measurements.  NOT NECESSARY.  Just give us a goddam quote to put three units in the roof and bugger off.  

HOLD ON, he's already done that... now he's just being annoying.  

I'm trying to cook our lunch, we have someone else coming in 9 minutes, and I'm getting bloody angry.

20 minutes later:  That HRV guy was wandering around our house doing his measurements, and I just felt like he was invading our privacy!  He spent ages in our bedroom... ikkkk.  In the end I said to him he needed to leave so we could have our lunch, which was cooking and nearly ready.  And I told him I was getting rather annoyed.

HE LEFT pretty quickly after that.

Can't think why.

Next minute, the bathroom renovation guy arrived, so I stood and ate my lunch while talking to him!

And then he left, and the village nurse arrived.

Nice friendly chat ensued, then she has just left as well.

It's now 1.45pm, and we get a break from visitors until the electrician arrives at 4 pm.  Thank goodness.  

My head is pounding.  Too much going on, and super tired.  I've been sleeping quite well, but waking far too early.  Then the brain kicks in with all the jobs ahead, and I end up just lying there, not sleeping.  Fairly normal for this situation though.

Stew connected up the washing machine, so I could do a load of washing.

Murphy's Law... the connection to this home's water pipes leaked.  Steve came over and did a temporary fix.  It will all be replaced once the new laundry tub gets put in.

Stew is now at the pub, he walked there.  I am going to visit the kids shortly, then join Stew at the pub for hot chips.  

I had a relaxing visit with the kids before going down to the pub to meet up with Stew. 

And...  the washing is done and I've thrown it in the dryer.  I'll have something to wear tomorrow now.

I hope in the next week or two we will find the boxes with my winter clothes, that would be nice.

And that's it, the day is done.  Catch ya tomorrow.

NOT TOO MUCH TODAY

 

We will be back into the unpacking/sorting today.  Last night I went over to the storage unit and bought back one load.

I specifically wanted to bring back the sewing 'room' computer.  I always have it on when I'm sewing, so wanted it back fairly quickly.

I also got about 5 boxes, some smaller paintings and this:

ABOVE: Our beautiful Blue/Green glass jar.  That coffee table with the plants and jar will be set in front of the lounge window, once the credenza and TV are on the other wall.

The SKY man is coming this morning to put the Sky connections in the two other places we want them

I can't wait  for that.  The TV can then get OUT of our front window.

After lunch today we are attending our first 'Residents Meeting'.  Hopefully that is informative and interesting.

Once that is over we can finally do a proper, full grocery shop.  Restocking the fridge, freezer and pantry, which are rather empty.

So, that's me for now... catch ya later.

As I sit here sipping on a very hot Jarrah's Chocolate Mint drink, I find myself wondering... how long before I say 'I'M BORED'?  Something tells me with everything that needs unpacking, sorting, gifting away, selling, re-arranging and so on, IT.  WILL.  BE.  A.  LONG.  TIME.

And let's not forget all the new activities I can get involved in here!

There's SO MUCH I can now join in on.

And there's the pool and hot tub.  

And   and   and....   I'm a very happy girl.

ABOVE: LOOK at that!  I'm not a complete idiot.  I got the computer set up and GOING!  I had to take the stand off the screen, otherwise it didn't fit in that gap.  Yaaa.

NEXT...

ABOVE: The spare bedroom.  For now it has two lounge chairs in it... they will be replaced by a sofa bed around August.  It is taking about 5 months to get here!   This room also has all of Stew's clothes in the wardrobe, and his drawers.

ABOVE: On top of Stew's drawers is the TV he will be watching SPORT on.  We are waiting for the SKY Guy to arrive to set that up for him.  We are also getting Sky put on another wall in the lounge, so the configuration works better for us.

11.23 am:  The Sky guys are here installing the cables... all going well Stew can bugger off to the spare bedroom this evening to watch his sports.

One of our neighbours just called in to say 'Welcome'.  I'm sure there will be more.

ABOVE:  Finally, the main job for today is done.  The TV is in it's permanent position.

ABOVE: And the lounge is sorted until we get the new lounge suite.

NOW we are going out to get a few things, and do the grocery shopping.

We will not be attending the residents meeting as we have run over time.

5.17 pm:  Grocery shopping.  What can I say about that?  We got it all, then had to load and unload in the pouring rain.  It was not fun.

ABOVE: That was the BIGGEST shop I'd done in years!!!   And that's what happens when you run all your Frozen and Fresh food down to virtually nothing.  Thank goodness, I won't have to grocery shop again for quite a while.

8.07 pm:  We have actually done bugger all this evening.  Taking a well earned break.  I was even too tired to go for a soak in the hot tub!  Maybe tomorrow that will happen.

But for now, I'm off to be super early.

We have another busy day tomorrow.

AUCKLAND BOUND

 

Today we are escaping the chaos here, and going up to Auckland for the day.

I ordered a really lovely light fitting for our dining 'room', so we are picking it up today. We will also check out the shop and see if there's anything else that catches our eye for other rooms.

We are then going to look for a new rug for the lounge, and maybe one for the dining area as well.  We'll see on that.

I'm sure we will end up having a lovely lunch somewhere in Auckland before heading home again.

ABOVE: Stew in the pool last night.

ABOVE: Me in the hot tub.  It is a really good size hot tub.

ABOVE: The gorgeous pool room ... it's roof is so nice to look at.  We had it all to ourselves last night.

There's fantastic His and Hers changing rooms, showers, hair dryers etc.  

Right, it's time for me to get out of bed and start the day.

I will probably get a couple of jobs done before we head off.

...11.32 am.

We are in Auckland safely.

We have picked up our lights.

Now heading over the harbour bridge to the North Shore to look at rugs.

It's a lovely day here in Auckland. 

ABOVE: Sky tower.... 

1.44 pm. No rug was bought today. We didn't see one that we loved in either of the very large rug shops.

Not a problem,  we will wait until we see the right one.

Just had lunch and are heading home.

4.21 pm:  And we are home.  It wasn't as restful a day as I imagined.  I'm bloody tired from shopping.

Before we came home, we went and looked in a 'designer rug shop' here in Hamilton.  NOTHING screamed 'buy me'... SO we didn't.  

Now we are home, and it's probably time to do nothing till tomorrow.

ABOVE:  I ALMOST bought this for our bedroom.  Stew was going to let me too... but common sense kicked in and I opted for...

ABOVE:  I got this instead.  It matches the style of the new dining room light fitting.

ABOVE: Eden Lighting, New Lynn, Auckland. AMAZING shop!!!!  So many Crystal chandeliers!  I was in awe of the selection.  Sadly no crystal chandeliers for me though.

ABOVE: (X's 3)  Auckland harbour from the bridge, so pretty.

ABOVE:  So many pretty skies today.

7.15 pm:  I'm done for the day.  Looking forward to Coronation Street, then BED.

Catch ya tomorrow.

EXHAUSTED

 

Is it possible to wake up feeling like you have already done a full day's work?

If so, I think Stew and I feel like that.

Being on the go for several days, doing jobs we are not used to doing, is taking it's toll.

If I only get the curtains up today, I'll be happy.  I have to go and exchange one set of curtains, as I got the measurements wrong.  Derr.

Stew is going to assemble the new dining suite today.  I can't wait to see it!  

I will be ringing the Plumber/Gasfitter and the Electrician today, to tee up a time they can come over and suss out the jobs we need them to do.

I think fitting the new laundry tub is top of the list.  I need to do some washing in the next couple of days.

We are also ringing around to get a quote for a Home Ventilation System, as this home does not have that.

ABOVE:  I shortened ONE net curtain last night.  Then I ran out of energy again.

I decided not to hang any curtains last night.  I did not want to hang them up, then take them down to shorten them, then re-hang them.  I'm too goddam tired for that.

Because we are both running on empty, we WILL be pacing ourselves better today.  We really do have to just slow down!

12.03 pm:  Lacy and Bex came around, and brought all the pots and garden stuff that was stored at Bex's home.

They helped us position it all too, which was an enormous help.

ABOVE: A dozy bumble bee.

ABOVE:  A 'Welcome to your new home' gift basket was delivered... From the Village Management.

ABOVE: Lily in her socks on the wet grass.  She was having an absolute BLAST running around.

ABOVE:  Cooper and Lacy, he's the builders dog.

There's jobs getting done all over the village at the moment.

ABOVE:  Out the front now has more of our garden stuff.  I'm so happy with how it all looks.

I have managed to hang two sets of net curtain so far today.

I'm about to go out and buy one more set of curtains.

I really hope by the end of today we have all the windows sorted.

Curtains are bought  and a small bin for my sewing area.

Stew has been busy while I was out...

ABOVE:  He has assembled our new table, and is now working on the chairs.

I have lunch cooking in the oven... not sure if I've got the settings right in the oven that is here?  I'll soon find out if I've burnt lunch, or not cooked it at all.  😂😅

After lunch I will shorten the curtains for our bedroom... I want them done by end of day.

The other ones don't matter as much, as there's curtains up already.

They are going though ... I cannot stand burgundy curtains in my home.  Nice if you like them .... anyone want some???

Lunch is over, and then we wandered down to the Village Management office to get all the legal eagle shit sorted.

AND we got the pass to the pool and spa pool.

Yes Peta, we will be getting in the spa tonight to soak and relax.  I can't wait!

ABOVE: 5.20 pm:  Our bedroom nets are up....

ABOVE:  And our bedroom curtains.  Tonight I can get changed in my bedroom.  Excellent!

That was a big job getting them done.

Tomorrow I get a break from all of it.

7.30 and we are done for the day.

We went down to the Community Centre and had a soak in the hot tub.  I felt so relaxed, it was wonderful.  It was the exact right temperature for me, not too hot, not too cool.

Now we are back at our home, and are going to have a light dinner, then do NOTHING else for the day.

Catch ya tomorrow.