Hi all,
We have a
roof now - we had a "roof shout" for the builders and the roofers
last Friday night, which was nice. They are finishing off the roof today, but
Glenn is hoping to get the house wrapped tomorrow, to keep any inclement
weather out over Christmas. It is looking great - exactly as I expected.
Jan &
his tame sparky are running all the wiring over the break; I will be on wire
pulling duty, as will any visitors foolish enough to arrive at this point! Jan
has one hundred flush boxes to go in for data, power and lights (not too bad,
apparently). However, we may put a few more in, as it pays to put in heaps now
while it is easy, as opposed to retro-fitting things later.
Jenny
Ladley has threatened to come & visit on Boxing Day, which will be great. I
will first ply her with wine, then she can go on wire pulling duty!
The shed
now has running water, a working hot water cylinder, a shower, and a washing
machine. Yay! Jan is still going to put in another set of shelves for bathroom
& laundry stuff, then we should be as organised as we can be, in what space
we have. Cooking is certainly much simpler without an oven, but I have been
thinking today about whether I could build a clay oven. I will do a bit of
research!
Montrose
Dr is as finished as we are going to leave it - the clothes line has been
moved, the gravel path out the back is in, the laundry has been re-vinyled,
weeding, pruning & tidying up done. Our first tenants had to cancel as the
husband had been made redundant (and we can understand that derailing a
family's holiday plans!). If you know anyone who is coming down for a holiday,
get them to take a look at http://www.holidayhouses.co.nz/properties/15874.asp
and see if they want to book in for a few days.
We have
been to two Xmas functions in the Moutere - one at Daniel & Diana Whitten's
place for all the Roses Road residents, which was great fun - we got to meet
the three couples whom we didn't already know, and reconnect with everyone else
in the valley whom we had met before. The other function was at Glenys &
Kevin's place at the Mudcastle (http://www.themudcastle.co.nz/) for all Upper
Moutere residents. We met some weird and wonderful people as there were well
over fifty guests there (mind you, Glenys & Kevin's place is far too big and
spread out to be able to count numbers with any accuracy - there may have been
more than a hundred there). We arrived at the start and didn't go until the
last gasp, despite having both felt initially like we would stay for a couple
of hours and then slide away. We have made some new contacts in the area and
heard acres of great local gossip :-)
Fliss has
had an eye ulcer, but it is healing well, and both of our 'barking doorbells'
are having a wonderful time. If they aren't barking at the builders for arriving,
they are trying to get the builders to play, or cadging food at lunchtime.
Jan has
threatened that Christmas Day will be spent nailing in flush boxes, but I
suggested that a breakfast of waffles, followed by a nice espresso, some
bubbly, a read and a short sleep might be a better way of spending the morning!
I was thinking of bringing our bikes out from Montrose Drive this week, so we
could have gone for a bike ride on Christmas Day too - but Tessa is going to be
here & wanted to borrow my bike, so we might leave that until New Year. It
will be so quiet here with everyone spending time with their families - Jan can
instead teach Coco how to walk nicely on a lead on the day, as there will
hardly be any traffic.
That's
all for this time - back to you soon.
Take care
& alles liebe!
Sam & Jan
