When I last left off, we were busily prepping the kitchen for installation.

In early December, we got the floors all finished with a stain that blended well with the floors in the living room and dining room.

Ross Ambler from Ambler Joinery was on-site for two days working away with Ollie to install the cabinets.   There were a few hiccups but nothing that couldn’t be overcome easily.   The cabinets and sinks were finally in!

We were all blown away by the transformation of the kitchen.  It felt huge and it felt quite modern, a far cry from the old ‘bach-style’ kitchen that once was.

But no rest for the weary.   In the following week,  Bruce and Ollie installed all the kitchen cabinet handles,   installed the sink fixtures,  did the wiring for the undercounter lights, installed the range hood and vent, and cut some plywood as a temporary countertop since the granite countertops are not coming until the end of January.

It was no small feat to get all that done before the holidays set in.  The sink faucets proved to be a challenge as we kept purchasing the wrong parts which isn’t fun when the store is one hour away.

We also picked up our stained glass windows for the alcove and Ollie finally got them installed as well.

Then it was another week over the holidays to install all the shelving and wipe out all the cabinets and finally start putting things away!   Oh, my heart sings.  We have a gorgeous kitchen now, while not 100% complete, we’re about 90% there and it is totally operational and joyful to work in!

Here’s a try at some ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots:

Another massive (and perhaps the last) project to just about tick off the list!  Just the matter of getting countertops in, making the chopping block counter for the island,  painting the walls, figuring out a back splash, and finishing up the alcove.   All in good time!

You can see from the photos that we only had six small cupboards and the rest of the kitchen design was ‘open’, ie: we had stackable wooden shelves which served to hold all our pots, pans, dishes, cups, glasses and the like.      We’ve often had four to six people working in this kitchen and we always made it work.

But it was really time to make the kitchen the proper heart of our home.

And so when Bruce returned early from his overseas trip last July, I insisted that we make the push to get the kitchen done before the end of 2011.

Bruce met with an architect friend while in Los Angeles in May and Fro drew up initial plans which we really liked.    During July,  Bruce and I met with a joiner (cabinet maker) here in Christchurch and hired him to make the cabinets.  We selected our cabinet style (shaker style, light coloured macrocarpa) and granite for our countertops.

Bruce took Fro’s initial plans and fleshed out the details to come up with an L-shaped kitchen complete with double stacked upper cabinets.   We’re also having a center island made on castors and we’re extending the kitchen flow into the living room by having cabinets made next to the wood-burning cook-stove.    All up, I think we’re going to have a combination of 55 drawers and cupboards when it’s done.   Surely that should be enough for all our needs!  Considering we have no other cabinetry/closets in the rest of the house, we decided more is better.

In August we gutted the kitchen.  Ollie worked on taking out the hot water cylinder and Shacklock coal range which we never used.

Purple wired up new electrical boxes and Pete put in all the new plumbing.

Ollie worked on putting up a new partial wall and kept on gibbing.

It was a week of chaos as six of us lived in a house with what was now a sprawled out kitchen.  The stove and fridge remained in the demolition zone,  but the pantry and excess items got moved into the 3^rd bedroom and the kitchen work area shifted into the dining room.   The bathtub became the washing area.  So in essence, the entire rest of the house turned into a giant kitchen.   Truly a mess!

And then we left on our holiday for two months.

So now we’ve been back three weeks and the boys have been busily working away.  Bruce and Ollie finished putting up the gib.

Last week Ollie made huge progress in moving the kitchen window and opening the outside wall to build an alcove.   We decided to create a little extra space by putting in an alcove which will house all our ‘science’ projects:  jars and bottles in various states of sprouting, fermenting, drying, etc.   We’re adding in a few stained glass windows which should be visually lovely while also letting in a lot more light.    I purchased two six-foot long stained glass windows a few years ago on Trade Me for super cheap.  Some of the panes had cracked and these are getting repaired this week.  The woman at the shop said these were ‘mercedes’ windows and would cost about $1500 each to make now.  Go me!

This week has been sanding week:  the walls had to be sanded and primed and the kitchen floor had to be sanded, stained and left to cure for a week.

It’s a messy job and we did our best to seal off that part of the house so as to keep the dust out (and yes, that is Bruce wearing a vintage 1976 t-shirt which he still fits into!).

Oh the joys of living in a house that’s undergoing a massive renovation!

Cabinet Installation date -  December 13^th and 14^th.   Stay tuned!

We’re home a little over two weeks from our major trip abroad.   I’m thrilled to be home but things have been a bit of a blur as we have arrived in the full force of spring.    Both houses were/are overgrown with weeds and the grass in Wainui was standing proudly at a over a foot tall.

Both houses suffered from some internal issues as well.  Our Christchurch house fridge went on the blink in our absence and we arrived home to a very smelly house as the freezer had defrosted and had not been fully emptied by our neighbor who was keeping an eye on the place.   So it was a day of emptying and washing out the fridge and freezer as well as labouring ten hours to weed the yard.  Thankfully neighbor Kareen did keep up with the mowing so the property had some semblance of tidiness.

Out in Wainui, we encountered further problems.   Rats had gotten into the house and had a field day, running amok amongst our makeshift kitchen which currently sprawls out over several rooms while we’re in the midst of the kitchen renovation.   Rat poo and walnut shells and chewed bits everywhere which equated to several days of cleaning up and washing everything.  On top of that, the second fridge, which was empty and had gotten unplugged before we left, accidentally had it’s door shut for the last two months.  That meant mould and lots of it.  So another day of scrubbing out another fridge.  Pretty gross.

The veggie gardens were all but non-existent.   All the seedlings I had planted prior to the trip had been munched by sheep.   From the amount of poo on the grounds, I suspect the rogue sheep had a very nice holiday at our place, traversing the upper, side, and lower gardens at their leisure.

Bruce got on the mower and spent a few hours getting most of the grounds under control, but two weeks later and I’m still trying to get all the hand-mowing completed.  All the finishing work around the uneven terrain where the sit upon mower can’t go is usually finished by moi.     Mowing and weeding is about all I’ve done.

I’ve weeded about half of the veggie beds and did uncover a few edibles.  We’ve got heaps of parsley, leeks, broad beans, some salad greens, a few peas, some silverbeet, fennel, rhubarb, edible flowers, and some very old celery standing about 3 feet tall which has been processed into delicious soup.     Here’s a photo of the chaos of the lower veggie garden.  I’ve weeded out a couple of beds.  In this garden is thriving rhubarb, broad beans, leeks;  a few fruit trees,  and new seedlings which I just planted out.

The garlic bed is doing well and the pear, peach, apple, and quince trees are all forming fruit.  So things aren’t so bad.    Here’s photos of the 20 three-year old asparagus crowns we have, the broad bean patch, and the garlic patch:

On the plus side,  Nina was thrilled to see us (and vice versa) and is up to her usual antics – whinging in the car and wanting to snuggle under the covers.   She lost a bit of weight (unlike us) and seems to be much better socialized (like us!).

The weather has been pretty awesome.  Here’s a shot from the front lawn with a cruise ship in the harbour.   Apparently we’re due for 90 cruise ships this summer season, almost one a day.  That’ll be great for Akaroa township.

And the kitchen… well, it’s all a go.    More in the next post….

It’s good to be home!

As I sit here in Sydney airport on my six hour layover to San Francisco, I finally have a chance to sit and breathe and contemplate the last few months of life.

When I last left off, Bruce had returned on July 1st from his journey abroad, right in time for the depths of New Zealand winter. On the whole, we had it easy this year – most days were sunny, warmish, and crisp, but the nights were cold and frosty. This gave us a good chance to test out our log burner/wetback/radiator heating system which we spent the better part of 2010 getting installed. It is a big improvement over what we had, though without wall insulation in the house, the rooms can still be quite cold. When the fire is humming and we get the water hot enough to run the radiators, the house warms up quite nicely. But the frigid mornings tempt one to stay under the covers for as long as possible. The heating system needs some improvements and we’ve been troubleshooting the best we can. One item on the list to procure from the US is a moisture meter so that we can adequately gauge the dryness of the wood in our woodshed. Wood matters! And this is a learning curve which we are on – macrocarpa, radiata pine, blue gum; large, medium, small. There’s a myriad of combinations and we are trying to figure out the optimal mix to give us optimal warmth.

The sunny dry days allowed us to continue employing Ollie to help us along with our renovation projects. The retaining wall that he and Darek worked on in May is now finished and ready for next summer’s excavation work. And Ollie built us a second wood storage shed. Bigger and badder than ever, it puts the existing one to shame. We now have a four-bay wood storage area which will allow us to cut, store, and process wood on a two year rotation. We also built the new woodshed with an upper storage area to house various bits of timber that we have lying around for future projects.

And, and, and, my bedroom has been finished! Finally, after five-plus years of living in New Zealand, we were able to unwrap and put together our beautiful Indonesian hardwood bed frame which has been in storage since we left San Francisco. We finally are living in a house with a room big enough for a king size bed and frame. I’m thrilled. There’s still a bit of decorating to do, but for all intents and purposes, my somniferous quarters are complete and ready for occupation!

Bruce’s early return prompted me to hop on the kitchen renovation bandwagon, urging us to use the winter months to design, plan, select, and prep for a new kitchen. We’ve found a joiner (woodworker) in Christchurch who came highly recommended to us and have been working with him to create our kitchen. After many hours of meetings, we’ve just this week finalized the design and while we’re away, he’ll be building the cabinetry. We are shooting for an installation date of mid-December.

Regarding design, this has been quite an arduous and time-consuming process. While Bruce was in Los Angeles last May/June, he met with an architect friend who we employed to draft up a first pass at the kitchen. We liked it and that prompted us to forge ahead. The Christchurch joiner spent four hours in Wainui in July doing the next phase of design (hand drawn), and since then, Bruce has spent countless hours doing up a 3-d design so that we can get a proper visual on the layout. Here’s what we’re shooting for (the first one is the architect rendered drawing; the others are Bruces)

The cabinetry doors will be made of macrocarpa and be of shaker design. We’re going to have two separate sink stations with stainless steel counters and then the main bench between the two sinks will be granite. We will also have an island built on castors so that we can move it around. It’s gonna be nice!

Meanwhile, to prep for our new kitchen, we had Pete, Purple, and Ollie over for a week to demolish the kitchen, but in new plumbing for the sinks, put in new electrical plugs, and gib up (sheetrock) the walls. The old Shacklock coal range and water cylinder got pulled out and hopefully we can sell those for a bit of income.

We have had time for other things besides work! Purple built us a platform in one of our big macrocarpa trees. We now have an authentic treehouse complete with sleeping platform for those who want a ‘bush’ experience. It also serves as a great place to do afternoon yoga!

Purple also worked on grooming up the macro-cuppa, our alive sitting in tree which can easily fit 3 or 4 folks and a dog!

Friend Kat stayed with us for a few weeks and she and I embarked on a daily yoga practice working through my stack of instructional yoga DVDs. Here we are in the living room practicing our wheel pose:

And I continued to work on my weaving. I’ve made heaps of scarves this winter for most of our friends.

And although the sun shined through most of the winter, we got blasted twice with an artic freeze, dumping eight-to-ten inches of snow each time and paralyzing the south island for a few days. Nina had a blast exploring snow for the first time and snowmen (and women) were showing up all over Christchurch! I enjoy the snow but am thankful it only lasts for a few days!

On the earthquake front, things have been relatively quiet for a month making me feel like life’s moved a standard deviation back towards normal. But there were a few M-4’s in the last week which dispelled my hoped-for-doneness-theory. Money seems to be finally making its way through the bureaucracy and a number of folks we know are now starting to get their homes fixed.

And now, in New Zealand, we are officially in to spring. And Bruce and I are away for most of it, heading to the northern hemisphere for weddings, friends, family, and hopefully a whole lot of fun too. We’ll be hitting Kauai, San Francisco, New York, and London over the next nine weeks

Little Nina has gone off to doggy Disneyland, aka, the boarding kennel, where I hope she’ll have lots of fun with her four-legged brethren! I’m gonna miss my little girl!

Bon voyage!

Firstly, the cows are gone and have not been seen since I last saw them jump over the fence and run down the road.  YAY!

Secondly, Darek arrived and has been here for three weeks.   He’s been a super star – he fixed the horn on the 4×4 and has taken over as lead chef here at Birdsong.   We’ve enjoyed a handful of days in Christchurch going out for meals, meeting up with friends, and attending the circus, but mostly we’ve been in Wainui, working, eating, and socializing.

Friend Paulo arrived shortly after Darek to spend two weeks with us.  We met Paolo at Kiwiburn and he spent three weeks with us in March and now another two before he returns to the States.

The guys did a great job doing ‘manly’ things for me –  pruning hedges and cutting down and processing trees (as we’re preparing for a big digger project this spring).  The tree cutting produced a 6’ high x 12’ long mound of tree debris which the three of us spent a full day putting through our brand new shiny wood chipper (a Hansa C6).   We now have enough wood chips to mulch the entire property!

We also spent time landscaping the pergolas/archways that Paulo built for us in the lower paddock.   We dug up the grass, lay down cardboard and weed mat, and threw a 5” layer of chips on top;  planted spring bulbs, and Paulo & I collected several buckets of large rocks from the beach to use to line the path.

Paulo also spent some time turning the telephone pole which sits unsightly in the lower paddock into an artistic ‘totem’ pole which now blends into the landscape a bit more nicely.

Ollie came back last week and so the three of us turned to four.  Ollie’s been working on getting my new bedroom together – sanding and staining the new floor that he & Bruce installed last month and prepping the room for painting as well as finishing up other small tasks around the house.

So, it’s been me and the boys and Nina too.   With Paulo and Darek here, we’ve stepped up the culinary cuisine and they have made some of the best meals we’ve ever had at Birdsong.  We’ve collected fresh seaweed from the beach for seaweed salad;  picked up a fresh whole salmon at the pier which Darek processed and we dined on ceviche, salmon miso soup, lox, and salmon pizzas;  we’ve done roasts on the fire; and had two Mexican-themed nights with chicken enchiladas and burritos with all the fixins.    YUM!

We also held our first full moon party (just the four of us) and spent the evening sitting outside around Paolo’s tree stump candle which he made by taking an old 2’ tall tree stump and chainsawing decorative lines through it which then burned beautifully over several hours.

On the Bruce front, well, I’ve got another announcement to make:  Bruce is coming back to New Zealand!    Yes, plans have changed.    I’ve talked with Bruce many times over the last three weeks.   He had an absolutely amazing experience at Jill Purce’s workshop in the UK.  So much so, that he’s going back to do another workshop over the June solstice.     And so much so, that he’s had a change of heart regarding the temple project and feels he needs to be back here in New Zealand.   I don’t want to speak for him, so you’ll just have to ask him ‘why’ and stay tuned for his blogpost of an account of his journey.    So,  Bruce will be back home in New Zealand on July 1^st in time to hunker down with me for the New Zealand winter.  And then we will still venture to the States in September to attend a wedding and see friends and family but probably not now going to Burning Man.

Life is so interesting!

PS:  Thanks Kat for fixing the blog!

PSS:   Three more mice dead!

Secondly, I have an announcement to make:  Bruce has left the building and will not be back to New Zealand until October!   Yes, that’s right.  Bruce is currently in Glastonbury, UK, attending a Tibetan Overtone Chanting and sound healing workshop with world-class teacher Jill Purce.    After that, he’ll head to the States, where he’ll make a few stops and then land himself in beautiful Reno, Nevada.

Why Reno?  Because that’s the home of the Burning Man temple building crew – the International Arts Megacrew (IAM) – who have been selected to build this years’ temple at Burning Man.    The International Arts Megacrew is being co-led by one of our very own New Zealanders, Chris ‘Kiwi’ Hankins.   Kiwi has been part of the Kiwiburn organizing committee for the last five years and has been our Man builder for the last four.   He’s a veteran burner and we are all filled with national pride at the thought of a New Zealand-led team building the Burning Man temple.    The IAM crew will be over 100 people strong, and Bruce will be heading up the sacred geometry team, an area near and dear to his heart.   Go here to read more about the Temple of Transition.

This is such an amazing opportunity for Bruce and an amazing opportunity for me – to stay behind and hold the fort –  three cars, two houses, and a dog — through winter!   Be careful what you wish for!    I have been whinging for months now saying I need rest and quiet and now it has been delivered.   I will be managing on my own for the next four months before joining Bruce in late August  (yes, that means we are going to Burning Man as well as doing other things in the Bay Area throughout September).

So here I am, one week into my ‘retreat’.  I’m dreaming of idyllic moments by the fire, just me and Nina, relaxing and reading and catching up on all the projects that have been put aside for the last eighteen months while we’ve been under renovation.     Hehehehehehe, I hear some of you saying.   You all know me – it is a true trial for me to sit still, to do nothing, to actually rest.   Can I do it?   Is it even possible?

Let me regale you with my first week ‘alone’.

Day 1:  It’s a nasty wet day and I manage to sit in bed reading for a few hours and just relish in the quietness of the household.   Nina and I go for a walk.    I call the dog behavioural specialist because Nina has been having some issues lately which have gotten progressively worse over the last few months.   Separation anxiety is what it’s called and I need to nip it in the bud.   The woman tells me to try more exercise and to order a bach flower remedy (a homeopathic tincture) for her and to try it for two weeks.   I find someone online and place an order.

Day 2:   After another long morning walk, we drive out to Wainui.   Ahhhhh, it’s a peaceful, lovely day.   I make a fire, putter around, check the mice and rat traps (two dead mice) and during my puttering in the garden I notice a big fat cowpat splotched on the ground.  OH NO!   Cows have breached the property boundary.   I hunt around and follow the signs and sure enough, I sneak upon two big black beasts, who upon hearing me, go running off into our forestry block.   I make a call to our farmer neighbor and he says he’ll come over in the next day or so to get ‘em.

Day 3:  Laundry, tidying, cleaning.  A nice morning spent straightening up the house, putting away things that needed putting away months ago.     I need to head back to Christchurch and decide to take the 4×4 as it needs to be re-registered for winter road use.    En route to Christchurch,  Nina and I have a very nice walk (I can get used to these!)    I drop Nina off at the dog-sitters as I’m heading up to Auckland on Friday!

Day 4:  Off to Auckland for an overnight to attend the Auckland Kiwiburn decompression party and Temple fundraiser.   Friend Shelley picks me up and we have a lovely afternoon out.  Back at the house we watch a bit of the Royal Wedding (so romantic, I really love Kate and Wills) and then off to the party where I gab away for the next five hours and catch up with heaps of friends.   Good party and good fundraiser.

Day 5:   Slept half the day.  Hang out with Shelley, go to an art gallery opening and then back on the plane for a 8 pm flight to Christchurch.  Swing by and pick up the dog and am home in bed by 10:30 pm.

Day 6:   Laundry, reading, tidying, and then a two hour hike with Nina up in the Port Hills.   Home for an hour and then off to a Gangaji satsang.   Bruce & I have recently been exposed to the ‘teachings’ of Gangaji and we like her message.  Once a month, there is a satsang (a gathering where we watch a teaching of hers and then discuss afterwards).     Home by 8 and to bed.

Day 7:   I take the 4×4 in to get a warrant of fitness and it fails the test because the HORN doesn’t work.  What kind of car has a horn that doesn’t work?   Okay, one more thing to figure out how to fix.   Hoping friend Darek, who is arriving on Friday for a month, will be able to help sort this out – cheaply!     Then off to an initial kinesiology health appointment  (I’m a fan of GrabOne.co.nz and am enjoying snapping up various services for half price, one being said kinesiology exam).      After testing me for various items, it turns out that my body is low on minerals and that I also could use a bach flower remedy – I tested for the Elm essence which helps alleviate issues with too much responsibility (do you see the irony in this?).   I also had a few other things going on so am now taking homeobotanicals for that.

Day 8:   Another walk in the park with Nina and I randomly meet a very cool lady and her little wee dog.  We strike up a conversation and walk together for a half hour and it turns out we have heaps in common.   I may have made a new friend!     Then off to Wainui.  Check the traps (two mice and a big rat), make the rounds around the property and notice further telltale signs of cows – cowpats and a munched garden.  FREAKING COWS.  They ate all the kale, broccoli, and swedes!   I was counting on those greens to sustain me over the next few weeks.   Waaaaahhhhhh.    Called neighbor farmer Dave and he said he didn’t see them last week when he came by.  So, tomorrow I have to go into the forest and find them!   Damn cows!.

So, uhm, that’s my first week alone.    Next on the horizon:  Meet Darek on Friday who’s here for a month; a night out boardgaming;  afternoon circus;  out to dinner; fix car; and whatever else may come my way.    See ya next week!

NEWSFLASH:    Said cows were standing on the front lawn after I wrote my initial draft of this post.  They bolted down the driveway and up to the front gate where they couldn’t get out because we have a cattle stop there.  So what did they do?   They just walked OVER the 4 foot high wire fence along our property boundary.  Seriously.  I thought it was a magic trick because one moment they were standing at the fence and the next moment they were through and running off down the road.  Cows are big!

While we work on the house and all the renovations, the garden and grass continue to grow and we continue to mow.   We have tried to maintain the grounds and garden over the last many months and thanks to woofers we’ve managed to almost stay on top of things.

In December we had woofers Iwen from Australia for a few days and she helped us  transplant our 80 tomato seedlings which we started from seed in August.   The tomatoes are doing really well and we should soon be harvesting.

During the time Pete, Kat, and Purple were here, we also hosted woofers Katie and Ashley, both from the U.S.    They were a great help to us and they spent many days sheet mulching around the fruit trees, weeding the gully, weeding the floral gardens, and helping us with general household chores.

Katie is a master sewer and on one rainy day she spent several hours mending one of Bruce’s coats; she also has training in floral arrangements and created amazing bouquets for the house; and she can draw and loves animals and drew an awesome portrait of Nina!

Ashely, also a talented lass and with experience with Habitat for Humanity, helped Pete and Kat with the renovations; cooked us up some fine TexMex cuisine; and found some time to make us some beautiful wall art!

The gals also got a first-hand glimpse of how to distill your own alcohol as Bruce has been busy brewing up batches of vodka for Kiwiburn!

In the garden, we started harvesting our broccoli crop – some of the largest we’ve grown so far!

The cherry trees which we planted two winters ago produced a mighty bowlful of deliciously sweet cherries which we savoured with delight.

We also got two small bowlfuls of strawberries and one big handful of black currants!

The peas and kale did wonderfully and we’ve been picking both for almost three months now.

Our second year asparagus seedlings are coming along.

And finally, the garlic crop was ready to harvest – all 200 bulbs of varying sizes.  I am pleased with the crop and think we might actually have enough for the year!

In the kitchen, we were busy making elderflower cordial and a few batches of strawberry/rhubarb jam – a new favorite!

We all attended a local seaweed walk/tour where we learned about the many varieties of edible seaweeds in the harbour and managed to collect some for sampling.  Katie made us an awesome fresh seaweed salad.

And as we approached the holidays, we were busy with much socializing.

We had a lovely meal out at a swank Christchurch restaurant (Tiffanys) for friend Tobi’s birthday.

And we hosted an amazing solstice party in Wainui.  The summer solstice was quite special this year with a full moon and lunar eclipse.   About 15 people trekked out from Christchurch for the night, in addition to the seven of us already here.  Folks set up tents or slept in their vans and it was quite inspiring to know we could fit so many people comfortably on the property.

Friend Andrew from the States arrived the morning of the 20^th, just in time to celebrate his birthday on the 21^st for the first time in the southern hemisphere!    With cake ready, we welcomed in his birthday and he was treated to a very nice body detox foot spa bath!

We had a big potluck dinner and then most of us trekked up into the hills to watch the full moon eclipse.  It was magical.

And then we rolled into Christmas.  Friends Tobi, Alex, and Dennis came out for a few nights and friend Amba and mom and nephew came out for the day.   Unfortunately I was a bit under the weather with a bout of food poisoning which put a damper on my culinary intake but did not put a damper on my Christmas spirit!

Once everyone departed by Boxing Day, we were just the three of us and Nina for the week leading into New Years.  Much needed quiet time ensued with our New Years Eve consisting of making gourmet burgers and poutine (French fries with gravy and melted cheese), playing board games, and having a few glasses of champagne.  I managed to stay up till 12:15 am to welcome in the new year.

And January 1^st blessed us with a stunningly beautiful day.  We all hopped in the truck and drove around the harbour up to Mt. Bossu and had a really lovely hike with amazing views of the peninsula.

And so we begin this new decade.  May it bring us clarity in our visions, peace in our hearts, and lots of smiles on our faces.

PS:  In case you didn’t know, Birdsong is the name we’ve given to the property.  Birdsong Retreat and Sanctuary – come see us some time!

Bruce, Ollie, and I found ourselves stuck in Christchurch for a week, making repairs on Clyde Road, while Kat and Pete head off to Wainui to continue work on the heating system.

Well, from a pictorial standpoint, it’s not going to look like a lot of work got done in those ten days, but from a technical engineering standpoint, heaps was accomplished.   Apparently the living room floor was laden with copious fittings and pipes which Pete fashioned and welded together and onto our Gourmet stove.  There will be four sets of copper pipes running from the stove up through the attic to the hot water cylinder basket and then throughout the house to all the radiators.  It’s quite a complicated thing to build, but Pete’s our guy to get this job done!

They also started connecting the hot water cylinders together.

And, the easy part, several of the radiators got mounted onto the walls.

So, all in all, a good round of work, but it felt, to me, like very little got done.  (I’m a visual kind of gal).  Everyone was starting to feel tired and in need of a break.   The group decided that Pete and Kat should take the month of August off as they had things they needed to take care of at home and we needed a bit of downtime to heal our weary bones and deal with our impending house sale.

So, the schedule slips even more, but hey, we’re actually staying warm through winter with the temporary stove, so we are in a better place than we were last year.  But here’s my latest guestimate of the schedule now:

• Phase 1: Demolition of existing infrastructure and installation of temporary stove  {March}  COMPLETED!
• Phase 2:  Opening up of kitchen/living room wall and installation of structural wall beam and installation of reinforcing beams in attic space  {April}  COMPLETED!
• Phase 3:   Installation of hot water cylinders and some of the radiators  {May}  {June}  PARTIALLY COMPLETED just a wee bit!  {July}  Kind of COMPLETED!
• Phase 4:   Installation of remaining radiators and piping {June} {July/August} {September}
• Phase 5:   Installation of Gourmet Cooker {July}  {August} {October}

Despite the schedule slip and a few dreary days, the sun came out for Kat’s birthday which we celebrated with bunches of bouquets made from the garden and a yummy cream-cheese frosting cake!    Life is still pretty darn good!