It was not quite as chaotic on site today but still a hive of industry. There were reports of 22 people working in the house yesterday so good job I didn’t venture up there – there wouldn’t have been room! Still, we are periously close now. Money paid to builders, insurance in order, Master Builders [...]

After a miserable visit at the weekend when we thought that there was no way that the building site would be turned into a habitable house I was pleasantly surprised on my visit today. There was a gang of trades doing their stuff – fine tuning or in the case of the electricians finally getting [...]

I noticed something yesterday about builders in NZ I hadn’t noticed before. Instead of it being a man in a white transit van, it’s a man in a white mini van. I was visiting the plumbers (don’t ask) and there were loads of them littering the parking and when I turned up to site there [...]

So, how many people does it take to build a barn? At least 3 plus a man in a van to supervise it turns out. Still, posts in today, concrete in tomorrow and cladding up by end of week. Then concrete and finishing. It’s going to be a close run thing for it to be [...]

Has been busy on site today with painter, carpenters and kitchen fitters crawling all over. It is organised chaos, I think. No electricians which is always a worry. Still, piece by piece things are coming together. Our builder requested another 2 weeks to finish up – won’t print my reply here! Needless to say we [...]