There are lots of new pictures in the gallery; enjoy!
29 April 2000: It has been several months since the last update of this site, as seems to be the pattern nowadays. There have been major transformations to our gardens since the last update: see our garden work in October to December and January to April. Also updated is the tree heights page.
10 October 1999: Another few months have gone by, and we've managed to do some more tidying up outside: see our garden work in June to September. There have been signficant changes to our garden plan: we have decided that we don't want any grass, and have made a number of other changes to it. Also updated is the tree heights page, and the last of the pictures of neighbouring houses.
4 July 1999: It's been a long time since the last update! We have been rather broke of late, so things have slowed down, but we've managed to tidy up several areas over the last few months: see our garden work in January to May, a couple of new pictures of neighbouring sections, and a new page on our tree heights. Also of note is a few new pictures of the pond.
10 January 1999: The only change today is that I've drawn a new version of the garden plan, showing the current short- to medium-term plan, including the current ponds, trees, and other recent thoughts.
30 December 1998: We've sowed the lawn out front, which has since grown and had its first two cuts. Other garden work in November/December includes planting a tree, flowers, a vege garden, and trellis for the climbing roses. The major project for December has been to create the fish ponds -- not the large pond as planned for the future in the garden plan, but short-term smaller ponds. These have cheap liners and a tiny pump, with a total cost of only about NZ$200; in a few years time, when we can afford it, we'll do the big version with a large quality liner and filters and dual pumps, etc, estimated to cost about NZ$3,000. The construction work on the neighbouring sections across the street has proceeded quickly, too.
15 November 1998: We've planted 30 trees around the back boundary line (marked as privacy trees in the garden plan), and are working on the front lawn. I've added lots of new pictures, including pictures of the letterbox construction, the earthmoving, the garden work in October, and started a page on construction work on neighbouring sections.
26 October 1998: I've added a picture of Albany from the air to the site.
22 October 1998: The earthmoving has been completed, at last. Now we just need to sow the lawn, do the gardens, etc etc etc! There aren't any new photos yet, but I've scanned in the latest plan for the gardens, and updated the description. I've also moved the Timeline to its own page.
19 September 1998: The first site update for a while! I've added pages showing pictures of our driveway and patio, plus a picture and description of our plans for the gardens. I've also updated the Albany map to the latest edition, that actually shows our street.
17 July 1998: We've moved in!! Finally, 11 months after we first found the section, we've moved into the house. It feels very good!
9 July 1998: Things are even more finished now -- the tiler has just finished, the kitchen has been finished, as has the electrical and plumbing work. The carpet is being installed as I write this. We will definitely be moving in on the 11th -- two days from now. In fact, we'll probably start moving some things over tomorrow. Sorry that there aren't any new pictures yet; I'll do some more filming tomorrow.
30 June 1998: The tiler was delayed a few days (story of our lives!), which will probably push back the moving in date by a week. But we should definitely be in the house by 11 July, less than two weeks from now. Things are looking even more finished now, and the tiling is well underway -- there are a couple of pictures of the floor tiles in the gallery.
21 June 1998: Not far from completion now! Painting and wallpapering has been completed, the kitchen is looking more finished (but still not completely finished), the plumbing and electrical fitting out is well underway, and the tiler is ready to start work this coming week. We're in the process of getting the next drawdown from the bank. We should have possession of the house in the next few days, and the tiling work (which we are arranging) should be complete within 1-2 weeks. We plan on moving in in two weeks time, on 4 July -- independence from rent! There are lots of new pictures in the gallery; enjoy!
6 June 1998: Apparently the TV point can be added later without having to mess up the wall, which is good. The gib work has been completed and today they've been preparing to paint the doors etc. The most exciting thing is that we have a kitchen! It looks very nice, too. There's a couple of pictures of it in the photo gallery; I'm sure we'll add many more as things progress! We're meeting with tilers this weekend to set that up, since that is one of the next major steps. Painting and wallpapering should be complete by Thursday, then the electrical, gas and plumbing fitting out will be done.
30 May 1998: The garage door has been fixed as good as new. The gib installing work is nearly complete; the gib board has been put up and plastered, and the skirting boards and scotias are in the process of being fitted. The correct bathtub turned up, too. We also got another few piles of dirt from Neville's section, mostly clay this time. All going well... but then we noticed that there is no TV outlet in David's office! Oops! There is supposed to be one. We'll have to get the electrician to fix that, and the gibbies to patch up the walls afterwards. At least the walls haven't been wallpapered yet. The kitchen is scheduled to be installed next week; that'll be exciting. In web site news, I've split the current Construction page again. BTW, in case you haven't noticed, scroll to the end of this page to see links to all the other pages on our house -- there's a lot of information there!
21 May 1998: The garage door has arrived and been installed, and slightly damaged already -- it came off the runners. Should be easy to fix, though. The wall insulation has been installed. The plumber turned up, albeit a week late, and has done his work. The gib board has arrived, so hopefully work on installing that will start today or tomorrow. The bathroom vanities have also arrived, along with a corner bathtub... just not ours! It is the wrong kind and colour, so they probably got ours mixed up with another one when delivering it. Shouldn't be a big deal to correct.
16 May 1998: Gas pre-piping was on time, though they had to come back to move one pipe that was in the way of a light fitting. Electrical pre-wiring is all done (except a speaker wire in the lounge). Internal doors and insulation have arrived. They plan on starting the gibbing (installing dry wall for US visitors) on Monday, but the plumber hasn't done his bit yet, so that will probably be delayed. We met our immediate next-door neighbours today; they were out planting grass and we chatted briefly; they seem like nice people. I've split the Construction #2 page into two, since it was starting to get quite long.
8 May 1998: It's all go now. The electrical pre-wiring is underway today -- they estimate about 12 hours work! The bricklaying is also underway. Gas pre-piping is booked in for Monday. The garden window and the other window have arrived, ready to be installed. In other news, my brother Neville's house is underway; his site is just up the road from ours. We've got several heaps of topsoil that had to be scraped off his site, which we can certainly use.
3 May 1998: We resolved the mortgage situation fairly satisfactorally; the bank agreed to give us the amount the bulder was asking for, and we kept part of that for our own stuff and paid the builder the rest. The amount we kept is enough for the electrical and kitchen variations, and the appliances etc, but not enough for the tiles and driveway etc; we'll get the money for those with the final drawdown after the builder has finished.
30 April 1998: We have windows! No, not Windows 95, windows on the house. The garden window was sent back as the builder thought it was the wrong size, though in fact it was the right size but the framing is wrong. And a ranchslider and another window were also wrong. The guttering has also been installed. We're in the process of extracting blood from a stone, I mean money from the bank (as if there's much difference). They're giving us some talk about not giving us the amount we need, which is causing us some stress. They knew what the payments required by the builder were, so I don't see that they have a leg to stand on. I'm sure it'll be worked out somehow, since we can't continue building until we have, which isn't in anyone's interest.
22 April 1998: We have a roof! We found out that the roofing company was backlogged, so the builders had to use a different company. The roof going on is a major step, since it means that rain isn't the huge problem that it was. It also means that it'll soon be time to make the next mortgage drawdown, which is good since it means we'll have money for appliances etc; part of it goes to the builder, part to us.
18 April 1998: Been a while, and still no roof. Things have slowed down quite a lot; they've added the soffits, facia, and black insulation paper, but haven't made much progress. They said that the roof should go on this weekend, but it doesn't look like it now (Saturday night). We've had to cut back on a number of things, as we were over budget by several thousands, but we're okay now. Our immediate neighbours have just moved in; we haven't met them yet. Their house was started not long before ours; we shouldn't be as far behind them as we are. We're now anticipating very late May completion, maybe start of June.
6 April 1998: The roof tiles arrived on-site today. Still a little to go on the roof, but hopefully they'll be able to start adding the tiles by the end of the week. Unfortunately the weather is supposed to get rather nasty soon, so that will probably delay things.
31 March 1998: The roof framing is nearly finished now. Quite a complicated roof! We signed up for a gas connection and installation yesterday.
24 March 1998: The framing for the walls went up today! It makes it seem so much more real now, and it's especially nice to actually be able to walk through the house and get a feel for how it'll look.
20 March 1998: The concrete floor has been poured and finished. We're a little concerned about some of it, though, e.g. they didn't leave a recess for the tiled shower, and we can't see a drainpipe for the floor drains. We'll query them about those.
17 March 1998: The blockwork of the footings was finished today; it took most of a week to complete. Also, the framing arrived today.
9 March 1998: The concrete of the footings was poured today.
7 March 1998: The steel reinforcing for the footings was constructed today.
6 March 1998: The trench for the concrete floor footings was dug today.
4 March 1998: As usual, the builder needed pushing; nothing happened until today. The site has been profiled, i.e. stakes and string to mark where the house will be located. They say that the framing should arrive on Saturday (it's all pre-framed, so it should go up quickly). Hopefully we'll have a floor by then.
17 February 1998: Apparently the Council got the permits mixed up; ours won't be available until later this week. So the next stage should occur on Friday. The builder thinks it'll be complete within 10 weeks, i.e. by 1 May. Other news: we found out what street number our house is: it is number 23. So our street address will be 23 Brigham Young Drive, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand. Don't send anything to that address yet, though!
12 February 1998: Okay, it wasn't on the 10th, but it was on the 11th. We now have a hole in the ground! A picture has been added to the Construction gallery.
9 February 1998: I've been informed that the builder plans on starting the excavations tomorrow!
5 February 1998: The mortgage is all sorted out, the building contract signed, and we take possession of the section today. It's all go now! Hopefully they'll be able to start work immediately, and get the excavations done in the next few days. We'll update these pages regularly.
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