Garden weekend

This weekend I was busy in the garden. Owen is going to build a fence so I spent most of Saturday clearing out the wild bit of garden between us and the new path. The fence will give us some much needed privacy from people walking up the path.

The cleared garden next to the new public access way that goes past the house

Helen spent the morning in town doing some shopping, but in the afternoon took out her frustrations on the tree in the back yard.

The destroyed bush at the bottom of the bank - just a few stumps left!

Sunday we got a jack hammer to break up the concrete in the front.

Most of the path is gone - it took 6 hours of work!!!

Not the most fun weekend, but we are slowly making progress.

Beautiful evening

Tonight was a beautiful evening so we opened the house up.

The lounge flows out onto the deck

Still some work to do outside

Helen at work in the kitchen

Water tank and splashback

The splash-back turned up on Thursday. It looks really good. We weren't super happy with the colour at first - it is kind of a non colour. But, it is growing on us.

The water tank has been installed. Due to several crappy days it is nearly half full all ready!

The massive pile of dirt in the backyard is nearly gone.

The bottom of the extension is turning blue.

The west wall is nearly finished which means the main room is nearly done as well.

Renovation update

Things are happening pretty slowly these days. We have been doing some painting lately and the long awaited water tank arrived this week.

The kitchen got another coat of paint on the walls and the trim was finished thanks to Elizabeth and Helen. David worked on the banister giving it a nice coat of blue to match the doors and the existing house. Elizabeth had a go at staining the rough-sawn boards beneath the extension and deck. We weren't very happy with the stain we chose - it wasn't very dark. We found something Saturday which looks like it will work though.

Kitchen trim mostly done

New blue banister

The long awaited water tank

Fun day

Finally we got to enjoy a nice Sunday in Wellington, instead of spending the whole weekend working on the house. (Still plenty to do.... but we figured we deserved a day off.)

David and Aaron were dropped off with mountain bikes is Johnsonville to ride the Skyline track, and Helen and Elizabeth took the kayak to Petone to kayak over to Somes Island.

Cake Tin and CBD from the summit of Mount Kaukau

David negotiating one of the many descents

Helen paddling with Miramar Peninsular and the city behind

Looking through a hole in the rock towards the city

A beautiful day in Wellington. Bring on summer and the end of renovating.