Kia Ora

Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Wed 14 Jan 2009 18:19
Hi Folks,
 
Its not a drink but the Maori Hello, and as I write from my furrie(House) we are getting more in tune with the cross mix of English/ Maori lingo.
 Events in the last week has been more trudging around looking for houses to purchase, we now have a short list of one !
Gaels back garden has been getting the right royal treatment front Cpt Fluffy, she has torn into the shrubbery discovering an olive tree and other exotics that grow here as weeds but are highly prized bits of horticulture back in the old country .. it was an interesting debate between Mummy and daughter about what should be saved and what not !
I have been planning out the timber decking area, and wind break, then I was off to my favourite tool hire shop to reacquaint myself with a kango hammer to break up the concrete, they do a good solid mix here and it was hard going breaking through four inches of the stuff, once through though the substrate is sand and gravel so my footing of a metre was a relatively easy dig, here the planning is quite strict so everything you do you photo and keep on the house file, as long as I build to the construction codes things are fine, if  you sell the house all additions have to be added and method of construction noted, plus proof of timber used , they have had a bad experinance here in the 70's  dodgy builders , badly treated timber, and shoddy building practices, it got so bad that 70,000 homes have been effected which in a population of just 4 million is quite a high percentage so its buyer beware of that period .
Anyway Gails place is a concrete house, built in the 1940's from the eccess of the large gun emplacments built around Wellington harbour to protect them from the Japanese invasion ! it didnt matter though they just bought half the country fourty years later ! built a good house though it affectionaly known as the bunker, on hot summers days its cool inside but according to Gail as cold as a fridge in the winter, this we have yet to experiance, ice skating in the front room !
 
All lost in the scrubbery the Cpt and I