It's started ...

Finally, we have diggers and trucks clearing and leveling the site for our new house. The process of getting quotes, getting consents, sorting out the builder and the pre-build stuff took a lot longer than I imagined but that is finally over and we are on the go!!!

photos coming ...

Life continues...

In between meeting the draughtsman and making some changes to his original plan, we've been having weekly phone calls with Terry's uncle in Lower Hutt who is selling our house for us, as well as work for Terry, kindy for Tori, school for Matthew, swimming lessons for the oldest 3 kids, meetings for Steph ... and Terry's been re-baiting the pig pen.

A lot of things have happened this week - we've sold our house, we've signed off on the concept for our new house ... and this morning the cherry on the top ... Terry caught pigs!!!

After almost 3 years here we've now notched up between 60-70 pigs in Terry's pig trap. It's amazing how successful it's been, but as the years have gone by it's taken more and more work to get them. Which is why when Terry went up the back this morning to check the pen with Matthew, Tori and Ryan, he wasn't expecting much. There hadn't been much action on the dead sheep he'd used as bait, there was a lot of tucker about anyway, and the only sign that anybody had seen was a sow with some young piglets. He'd also become a bit lax in making sure that the gates he used to make the pen were rock steady and immovable ... such is life. So as he came up the track towards the pen his heart started pumping a bit harder when he saw 5 young piglets trotting about in front of him, then around the bend ... it was mayhem!!!!!

Boars, sows, trotters and piglets were all crammed in the pen, and crazily trying to get out. Adrenalin high, he ordered Ryan and Tori to stay in the cab of the truck (Matthew was in the dog box on the back and couldn't see anything, so he was screaming to see), and jumped out with the gun. Then Matthew could see something - pigs were escaping as one of the corners of the pen jumped open after not being secured properly. Terry raced to that corner and hauled the gates together holding the ends in one hand while trying to aim and shoot the gun with the other. It was only the .21 though and after 4 shots the mag was empty and nothing was dead. Two big pigs had escaped, but there was still 2 boars, 2 sows, 1 medium sized pig, 3 young ones and 1 piglet milling around ... the truck was 10 metres away, the bullets were in the truck, the gates weren't secured and Terry was shaking as he tried to figure out what to do.

Spying some loose wire he wound the top of the gates together and prayed that the pigs didn't rush into that corner when he vacated it to get more bullets, as the bottom of the gates had a hand span gap - plenty big enough for them all to nose into and escape. He rushed to the truck and let Matthew off instructing him to go to the loose corner (mmmm not sure how I feel about him putting Matthew in that position!!), he grabbed his bag from the car, but a strap had wound itself around the gear stick and he couldn't get it loose he was so panicked. Eventually (probable it was only seconds) he got it and raced to the weak corner, madly filling the magazine with bullets.

Mag full, gun loaded and calm settled. One by one he popped off 6 of the pigs (3 bullets in the head for the biggest boar before it dropped) and took a breath. Two young ones and the piglet were still madly tearing around, but Terry jumped in and caught them. Stuffing them head first in a sack to take home. The kids are really excited - it was an unexpected haul of pigs.

Not able to lift the biggest boar onto the truck, Terry guts him there before he can lift him, then stuffing them all on the back of the truck and into the dog box, he races back down to home to share the news.

I can hear the excited chatter from inside the house, and come out to see Terry putting the 3 live ones in a sheep pen - what he doesn't do and what I and the kids didn't notice was that the gate wasn't snibbed shut so half an hour later the two young pigs have escaped and there is only the piglet still in the pen. Bummer!

Terry still has adrenalin pumping through him as he narrates the story back to Jack, and Claire and I. We had been getting worried that our pork stores were dwindling but I guess that's no longer a concern. Now the hard work starts ... gutting and skinning 6 big pigs will probably take Jack, Terry and I over an hour. That's where I'm heading now.

A House in Pictures

We met with the Draughtsman on Saturday - I was really excited; like Christmas waiting to open my presents. The morning seemed to drag but at 1.30pm we were all seated around the kitchen table with the paper versions and computer versions vying for space.

At first glance, WOW. At second glance, WOW. At third glance, WOW. At fourth glance ... what's this? Why is that there? Where is north? Where is the view? Where is north again? How do you get into the main bedroom? How big is the stud? 2.7. Does that mean it's more expensive? How high are the windows from the ground? ... and so on and so on.

Excitement warring with the practicalities of trying to imagine how this house in pictures would translate into a house of bricks and mortar, (and yes it will be bricks and mortar).

We all seemed to be on the same page and really excited by the possibilities and what the next step would be... Our draughtsman suggested that we take some time and think, relook, and really consider our needs at this stage of the build and get back to him. Well ...

I would have been completely happy with whatever after our current abode but give me some time and a license to consider my needs ... well, changes could become major.

Which is exactly what happened... the more I think about walking through Terry's office to get into the main bedroom, the more I realise that I'm just not going to be able to handle the mess that Terry's office would naturally be in. And to walk though it morning and night would put me in a bad mood first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening - probably not conducive to harmonious living. The more I look at the front door, the more I don't get why the back door (laundry) is right beside it... and nowhere near where a clothesline is going to be. The more I look at the hallway the more I realise that I don't need one. Expanding the family room would be a better fit for me. The more I realise how the plan would sit onsite the less and less happy I am with the position... and so on

I guess it's a good thing that the draughtsman insisted we take a few days to look it over ...

Decision Day

I remember buying our first house in Wellington, just under 5 years ago. It can't have been 5 years because I was still pregnant with Tori. The 2 bedroom house we were renting was no longer going to be suitable and the time seemed right. It was a scary prospect, as well as being really exciting ... we were living the kiwi dream. Married, 2 kids, owning our own home, and the dog ... well the dog didn't arrive till Tori was 6 months old but you get what I mean.

Well, that dream is now coming to an end, and once again it's a scary prospect as well as being exciting, but there's a tinge of sadness as well. We made a phone call this evening to begin the sale of our place in Wellington. Granted, we haven't lived in it for over 2 years, and there was never the intention that we would move back to it but... once upon a time it was really important to us. So I'm a little sad.

But now we're living a different kiwi dream ... we're going to build a house. Today has been a busy day; we (Jack, Claire, Terry and I) have agreed on how we want to do this, and with whom we want to do it, so it's now a matter of making some phone calls tomorrow and getting the ball rolling.

Baby steps. The steps might be little but they are getting us closer to the goal.

Storm in a Teacup

For most properties the issue of access shouldn't be a concern... you drive up the driveway. Easy.

In rural areas, tracks, gates, fences, sheds, yards... all these things are added over time and they are not necessarily in the right place, or even not allowed to be there at all.

The property we're building on is 25 hectares of one paddock and it is surrounded on 3 sides by Lowburn Station (crown owned but leasehold) and the 4th side by the road up to the main farm. There is a gate into the paddock, and a track to connect the Lowburn Curling Club to the Curling Dam, which is situated in the corner of the paddock. Sound complicated? ... Well it's about to become more of a handful.

Apparently, power is important when building a house (unless of course we decide to go fully solar and wind powered... mmmm... not sure about that). Anyway, to get power to the paddock is proving to be a bit of a problem, because the side of the road between the road and the fence is actually crown land. The Curling Club has access but only as long as Lowburn Station remains as crown land, if it was to be sold privately then the access would be gone, and the gate into the paddock shouldn't actually officially be there as access to the property for Jack and Claire.

Great! (heavy sarcasm)

So, we're looking through files and come across the LINZ report for the farm - YAH! there is access... sort of. Well, there is an official, above-board entrance to the paddock, however that access is currently blocked off as there is only a fence and no obvious way of figuring out exactly where on the fenceline the entrance should be. But it does exist! Great, problem averted. We'll be able to apply to have resource consent, building consent and whatever other kind of consent is needed because officially we can.

Of course, the Curling Club and Jack and Claire are going to try and move the access to the actual gate into the paddock and begin the process of making that the only official access to the farm paddock whether or not Lowburn Station is privately owned or crown owned. The process will take about 4 months but it shouldn't stop us from starting anything. It's amazing the things that you discover when you start digging.

Should be the end of the story, right? Well, not really. Completely happy that things are above board I'm doing the grocery shopping this morning with Ryan, when we look up into the roof of the supermarket to see the Power man we've been talking to. Recognising us he waves me over to deliver some disturbing news - DELTA the power people who will be putting a transformer in for us and connecting the power bits have had their lawyers looking into the property and as far as they are concerned there is NO access to the property at all.

I can see that you need to roll with the punches a bit when you're building a house because it's all a storm in a teacup. There is access to the property, and it's just a matter of everyone looking at the same piece of paper. A family friend, who is also a surveyer, has the matter in hand and no further problems regarding access should eventuate.

We'll see...

A New Direction

“But I don’t want to live in the paddock with the sheep.” Tori is not too impressed with the prospect of moving. What she fails to see, not surprisingly, is that a} we are planning on building a house, not actually going to live in the paddock and b} some would say that we are currently living in a paddock with sheep anyway. It’s an interesting dilemma for a 4 year old – she can’t see how us walking around a paddock measuring the distance from the boundary fence (we have to be 25m), the distance from the water race (10m), and talking about moving the existing track could possible become a house. But that is the plan.

Early discussions have ensued regarding getting power to the site, getting an easement across what was, before now, believed to be public access, but is actually crown land, figuring out where the actual access to the land is, working out who could give us a quote for the drilling of a bore (actually there is only one outfit that does this in Central Otago so the quote will probably be high), and having a draughtsman come out and take down our requirements. By our requirements, I mean the requirements that Terry and I expect from a new house AND those which Jack and Claire (Terry's parents) expect from a new house going on their farm. It’s an interesting dilemma – however we’ve got rats back in our current abode (I hesitate to call it a home) and after discovering a rat nest of shredded plastic bags in the wall of our kitchen after a suspicious sound coming from the plastic bag cupboard, I can put up with whatever anyone decides!

We've been living in the second house on Terry's parents farm now for 2 and a half years, and it has been a struggle. Rats, stoats, a leaky roof, no inside toilet or shower or laundry for six weeks, holes in the walls, around the windows and doors, and numerous other housing disasters. Things that should have sent me screaming from Terry's family farm down here in Cromwell and escaping back to the North Island to my family. Instead I've stuck it out and only complained to my family and a few close friends, while also bursting into tears and confronting Terry about how I just "cannot do one more winter in this house." We've suffered Terry losing his job, and the stress of starting our own business just so we can keep ourselves afloat, but we haven't had to pay any rent... which is why the initial move into this 100 year old house (which was only ever going to last 3 months) has elongated out to almost 3 years. On top of this we moved in with two children aged 1 and 2 and have since had 2 more children - but it is now looking up...

If I think too much about managing a building site as well as looking after 4 kids under six years I might freak out so I'm taking things slowly. Little steps. And it's a new direction.

The great thing about the living in a small community is that invariably you end up being friends with builders, plumbers, painters, and plenty of people who have gone through the process themselves. So calling on some favours I've now got a time line of the process and my aim is to be living in a new house before next April because I am NOT living in this house through another winter.