News from Nelson - December 2 2009

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

News from Nelson - December 2009

Hi all,

We have foundations, the tray deck is done over the garage, and the framing arrives this week, so things are really moving on now.

Montrose Drive as all ready to rent - we have bookings for three weeks over Christmas thus far. Check it out at http://www.holidayhouses.co.nz/properties/15874.asp. I managed to get a chap in to bond the carpet where it needed it, did the painting and Jan replaced all the dodgy power sockets & light switches. We bought a second-hand washing machine from one of Jan's sparkies at Nelson Pine (with a warranty, what's more!). We have two borrowed beds in the house - one from Murray & Julie & the other from Magda, so that all four bedrooms can be used. The locksmith fitted new deadbolts to the garage so that our gear mountain is secure, and Richard Barry, Technical Manager at Nelson Pine, is going to store our wine for four months. Neil didn't have room in his garage for another dozen cases!

The weather has been good to us, and we have moved in to the shed - primitive but OK. We have no running water, and are surviving on hot water heated up on the gas cooker and cold from 20 litre containers, but it is only for a couple of weeks. Jan goes into work each day for a shower, and I am going back to Montrose Dr to use the shower and the washing machine while it is empty (we don't expect tenants for another couple of weeks).

I got all our personal belongings packed up before our moving team arrived on the 21st, with the extraordinary help of two very special people; Nick Rae and Kathleen Hofman. They were both great, and came for two big sessions each, as well as Kathleen coming on the day. The moving team of John Fitz, Gary Rae, Murray & Julie, Kathleen Hofman and my Dad came on Saturday avo, and had us all sorted in four hours. Gotta be the fastest move both of us have ever done; but it is really only a third of a move... as we still have all the cartons in the garage and the furniture to move in March when we move in to the new house and permanently rent Montrose Drive. Thank goodness I had done all the sorting and the decision-making during the week; it allowed us to get the house pretty much sorted, cleaned and laid out with beds made and presented nicely.

At Montrose Dr we still have the back yard to finish (putting in a path out the back & moving the clothes line), and to re-vinyl the laundry (and amazingly I found some matching vinyl when we were moving out, so we are merely waiting on a time for the vinyl layer to come and lay it). Jan has been very busy practicing for the NSO concert this past weekend - 28 November - but now that is done (and went very well) he has more time in the evenings for getting the shed done. So now we both have some time to work together on getting the water on and building some shelves in the shed, and getting Montrose Dr finished.

That's all for this time - back to you soon.

Jan & Sam

News from Nelson - November 2009

Hi all,

We are rocketing on now; the roof is going on the garage next week, and hopefully the foundation slab will be poured then too. It is all quite exciting as we get further out of the ground.

Currently we are working on getting Montrose Drive ready to rent - odd jobs, painting, small repairs etc. We have one quite big job, and that is putting in a path out the back & moving the clothes line (as it swings into the hedge) which will only cost us time, not any dollars as we have the materials already. However, we also need to get the laundry re-vinyled (as there isn't any!) and get the carpet stuck down in places where it isn't; and Jan needs to replace some power sockets & light switches that will snap the second anyone who doesn't know their limitations uses them. I also need to get the locksmith in to fit new deadbolts to the garage so that our gear is secure, and talk to Neil Hodgson about storing our wine for four months!

The locksmith is currently also prepping a quote for the new house, so I am hoping that we might be able to get a whole job price. Fingers Xed.

Next week is blocked out for me to pack up all our personal belongings into two piles; one to go to the land for us for the next four months, and the other pile to stay cartoned here in the garage. We also need to pick up two beds on loan from friends, buy an old washing machine, reorganise the office to work as a bedrooms and pack up all our books, CDs and some of our artwork... and have a big clean up.

Both of us are well, and the weather has been a lot kinder to us. Jan is busy practicing for the NSO concert on 28 November - it seems to be going well.

We went to a few more Nelson Art Festival shows - "Collapsing Creation" about Darwin (turgid), a monologue by Te Radar (fun) and an art movie "Beyond Love and Dreaming" which I thought was interesting and Jan thought was two hours too long (it was 1 hour 50 minutes). The Butler and Le Sud were the best pieces we saw by far - on the first weekend!

We hope Guy & Sonia's shindig went off like a bomb, and best wishes to Doug & Morv with theirs in a couple of weeks.

That's all for this time - back to you soon.

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson – October 2 2008

Hi all,

We have been flat out in the past few weeks; I don't think our feet have touched ground. Just a few notes & then I will update you properly in a few weeks as things are just too busy right now!

   Jan has been taking Coco to Dog Agility & she loves it (photo).

   We have our Brazillian exchange student, Ana Sylvia, with us now. She is wonderful! She heads back to Brazil on Boxing Day.

   Sold some stuff on Trademe to make room in the garage for the new motorbike, so we could sell the old & clear out the spare room so we could fit Ana in!

   We caught up with Warren & Trace & Erica in Marlborough last Sunday of Labour Weekend which was fab

   Christél & Ray got married - pix at http://www.flickr.com/photos/29854470@N04//show/

   Tessa & her new girlfriend Helen were up in Nelson this last weekend & we had dinner with them

   We are both largely recovered from our colds

   Next holiday will be heading over to Golden Bay for our Anniversary while Ana Sylvia does the Milford Track

   Brigitte & John are coming to visit at the end of November

   Otto, Jeremy & Tina are coming to visit on Boxing Day.

Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson - October 2009

Hi all,

Boy, it has been wet here. October is usually a rainy spring month, but 2009 is doing us proud. It has rained so much that the build is already ten days to a couple of weeks behind. We have footings dug (which will hopefully be concreted today, weather permitting), and some volclay - waterproofing membrane - down in the garage, and the garage pad poured, but the builder hasn't started the garage blockwork yet (rain delays).

We have put the lights and power sockets into the shed, so have actual power, which was quite exciting. Jan has also hooked up the header tank system so that the water from the 25,000 litre rainwater tank gets pumped up the hill into our thousand litre header tank so give us some water pressure. While it isn't the equivalent of mains pressure, it will be fine.

I think we have come to a date that we can both live with to move out to the land - the third week of November. I am really conscious of not trying to get too stressed or make my workload too heavy at the moment, and I think Jan will manage to live with the later date. If all other things go very smoothly, we might be OK to move in the second week.

We have come back to our original decision to rent the house out as a summer holiday rental. That means we can leave most of our furniture, some of our pictures, some books and half our equipment at Montrose Drive, lock up the rest of our gear down in the garage, and only have to take our clothes & personal items with us to the land. That means we don't have to buy a container & pack it to store at the land - our gear will be a lot safer from rodents, damp and other un-natural catastrophes at Montrose Drive.

Then we can move our gear more or less straight into the new house at the end of summer, which will make our lives a lot easier - and a LOT less stressful.

I have managed to source some tiles for the house, and am currently trying to get samples of all our handles - door, window, drawer, cupboard - to check that our chosen options look consistent throughout the house (and feel good to use). I put together the design for the shelving unit for the end of the lounge with Jan & Merrill (see attached). We are just waiting for a quote for that from the joiners. The bank has given us a magnificent floating rate mortgage (!!!). We have ordered nearly all the bathroom gear, but I am still to sort out getting quotes for the showers, and am thinking about all the finer details and making a list to advise the builder.

We are both relatively well - Jan has had a bit of a cough, but at last it is going. He bought some sour cherry juice and is taking that once a day. It is supposed to be intensely good for you - these things are always worth a try.

After the stroke I was getting a lot of migraines, but they have tapered off, which is a relief. I have managed to get an appointment with the neurologist tomorrow; I started ringing up his office at the hospital last week and leaving messages asking for an appointment. I figured if I was polite and persistent they would want to get rid of me - and this strategy has apparently worked. I have had my cholesterol tests back (slightly higher than my last tests - was 4.5 now 5; LDL was 2.7 now 3.2), clear echocardiogram & carotid arteries. So that's all good.

The Nelson Art Festival started on Friday night, and we have been to two events so far; we went to see The Butler (a piece inspired by The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, played by acting / acrobatic troupe from Lyttleton) again, which was fantastic, and Le Sud (a 'what if' play presuming that the French had colonised the South Island, the English the North Island; and the negotiation of power - aka electricity - between the two). Both excellent performances. We paid for our tickets for the festival way back in July when we felt flush. I am glad of that, because now we feel poor, but still get to have a 'last splurge'!

Magda has been away in Holland for five weeks, but got back last week. We had a really good catch up last night - she had a great time. I am glad to have my tennis partner back again though :-)

Happy birthday, Trace - we still haven't managed to get to talk to you in person, but hopefully will catch up with you, Warren, Erica and Jen L this weekend (all things being equal).

We will also be having a 'painting party' in February-ish (whenever as the plastering is completed), if there are any volunteers who want to come & wield a roller or cutting brush for a day or two or three to help us out. We have a LOT of area to paint, but will crank up the BBQ and open the wine cellar. Everything will be matt white too - and the floor, kitchen, skirtings won't be in yet - so it will be relatively easy. And as previously mentioned, we are aiming for a housewarming in April; exact date to be advised.

Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan