Nelson -Tosswill Road Rental Renovations and Covid 19 Level 4 - Week 2

A very quiet morning on Tahunanui Beach - oh for a coffee!

Hopefully he knows how to

put it all back together again!!😕

Week Two of our renovations and Covid 19 Lockdown has gone as quick as week one. There is still plenty of work on the list to keep us both busy.

Bill waiting on the Train!🚆

Bill has been working on creating a room for a second bathroom- on the opposite side of the house to the original bathroom which we will be turning into an en-suite. Teeing up plumbers and electricians for as soon as the Lockdown level 4 is reduced has been organised but with an unknown date of course.

Bread and baking keeping Bill

going.

The lovely Girls next door keeping an eye on us.

Opening up the entrance after years of growth

Love seeing all the ideas people have in Lockdown

The New Bathroom 😉

Trimming back to the boundary which is above Bill's head.

We are still enjoying our morning walks, having a lot of options in the area. We either head up the hill and look out over Tasman Bay and around to the South, Richmond. Or down to the beach and Rocks Road. Totally different vistas but just as enjoyable. And once a week a bike ride just to put a bit of variety into our days in lockdown. We have been enjoying the different Teddies around the area and peoples sense of humour. Children should be enjoying spotting the different bears around the neighbourhood.
Although the mornings have got cooler, they are lovely and still. Been perfect for working in the garden - our piles of waste growing. Thankfully we have enough room to spread out. When I'm not dragging Bill outside to use the chainsaw, he's still demolishing and reusing building materials where he can. It's been good living on site (although still sleeping in the Bus) and giving us the opportunity to create a better layout inside. rearranging cupboards / wardrobes.
Only venturing out in the car once a week to get groceries and topping Bill's Mum Joan up with groceries too to prevent her having to go out. She feels everyday is like a Sunday, but she's lucky she has a nice sunny home and nice flat streets for walks around the block.
Roll on week 3 & Easter........

Still enjoying lovely sunsets

Nelson -Tosswill Road Rental Renovations and Covid 19 Level 4 (They don't go well together) - Week 1

Lovely sunset looking out to the Tasman Bay

The front of the house looking out to Tasman Bay

Thankfully our plans to renovate our rental had been brought forward by our tenant vacating 3 weeks early. New Zealand was to change dramatically from the 26th March 2020, two days after we moved into our Rental.

From the back of the section

 Our Tenant had been in residence for the past 15 years, we had owned the property 3 years prior to that. Angie was a very undemanding Tenant so after all this time, the property was in need of a make over. Which we had thought we may do eventually 18 years ago when we brought the property. So the timing now was perfect. Almost! Except for a nasty virus that was changing the planet - Coronavirus.

Bit of a tight squeeze - Bus. Ute and Car

Original Kitchen almost - except for the stove

that was replaced 7 years ago

Bill & Tyler (the neighbours son) moved a few things up from our Sleepout - important items like fridge/freezer, washing machine, table and a few chairs. And a spare bed in case we eventually have visitors 😊

Moving in 2 days prior to New Zealand going into lock down, it was a bit of a scramble to buy materials we thought we may need to start renovations on the property. Not easy when we weren't really sure what we were going to do.

We weren't panicking too much as we knew we had at least a months worth of stripping walls and lifting carpets and getting the garden sorted after 20 odd years of neglect. ( They weren't in that great a shape when we took over all those years ago).

The initial job was for Bill to cut back the overgrowth enough to allow the Bus up as we planned to continue living in it while on the site. Getting the bus up the steepish driveway from the road was a bit of a challenge but Bill was up for that. And then to squeeze the Ute up the side too was daunting to me but thankfully not to Bill. Pretty close though! Aye Bill 😉

Bill happy in his basement workshop.

We have just completed our first week up at the Rental and completed our first week in lock down! We have enough supplies at present that we are coping. Have started a ritual of going for a walk first thing before breakfast. And then getting into work. Bill has set up the basement into a great workshop (even room for a kayak etc).

There is a bit of trimming to do.

 The grounds are rather overgrown, so we have been cutting back huge rose bushes and dead trees and revealing a stunning view. Even the neighbours are benefiting from the extra daylight. 

Lifting carpet/underlay in the lounge

As we are currently in lock down we can't visit the Green Waste - so we are building up large piles of waste that we will get rid of once lock down is lifted. But at least 
we can do the hard work of clearing the section in the mean time.
The house had a rather unpleasant dog smell throughout, so Bill was pretty quick in lifting the lounge carpet where we thought the smell was worst. And what a difference. Smells so much better. Again, we've had to cut it up and store it downstairs till we can take it to the Transfer Station and get rid of it.

Not sure where to start!😮

A beautiful morning looking along Tahunanui Beach

on an early morning walk

Looking out to Haulashore on a morning walk

We have met our new neighbours on one side and caught up with our front neighbours once again. Not socially or any closer than 2 metre's of course. But nice to catch up over the fence.

The views from here are quite different to our home further along the hillside, so we are enjoying a different vista and lovely sunsets. The weather has been very settled since we've returned to Nelson but cooling down and certainly a lot darker in the mornings. Daylight saving ends next weekend.

Enjoying all the Bears and peoples ideas during

 Covid 19 Lockdown

Keeping these Bears dry and out of the sun 🌞

We've had a good start - for week 1. Fingers crossed the country is doing well too after it's first week in lock down.

Our return to Nelson (For now)

Stunning Kaikoura Coast

We had planned a couple of leisurely weeks to return to Nelson, taking our time up the East Coast. The weather was looking great to have a look around, and doing a few walks. Get back to Nelson, have a week in Golden Bay and then a week at our neighbour Kathryn’s to help her with a project and by then getting close to moving into our rental in Tosswill Road, with our Tenant moving out at Easter.

Our new (1996) Ford Courier Ute

But one text changed all that! Our Tenant was checking we had got her earlier text (No!) that she was moving out in two weeks. What!! Panic!!

Thankfully Bill had been keeping an eye on

Bill and Kathryn sorting who was Team Leader

( I was of course as I took the photo)

Utes around the South Island as we were going to need one up at the Rental (not a lot of room for a trailer, plus a steepish driveway), so a day later we had another vehicle – a Ford Courier Ute from Temuka. This was to be my vehicle for the next week as we returned to Nelson. Bill was driving the Bus towing the Suzuki. Three vehicles once again!

Tyler's taken over the neighbours property 👍

I felt a bit of a Bogan and needed a cushion to see over the steering wheel (it’s not that I’m short but the springs had gone in the seat). The radio didn’t work but thankfully the CD player did and we still happened to have a few CD’s with us.

Bill and Kathryn making a plan 😆

We drove around the outskirts of Christchurch as we headed north, only coming off highway 1 as we reached Hornby to visit Bill’s favourite shop (other than AliExpress) Trade Depot. We checked out a few ideas for the Rental and picked up a few basics. It was considerably depleted since our last visit and the impact of Covid 19 on China was starting to have on us with a shortage of items. Little did we know at that point how different life really was going to become!

Marfells Beach

Tyler's new fleet

We arrived at southern Kaikoura where the weather had cleared to a stunning day, so we decided to walk around the headland/peninsular that we hadn’t done for a few years. The views were stunning. The landscape had changed so much after the 2016 earthquake. Lots of visitors walking along the trail, all hoping to spot seals of course. They weren’t disappointed. It is still a stunning coastline.

We moved on to stay at the new NZMCA Camp once again. We did a 16km walk the next day from the camp up to town and then out to the Pier Hotel for lunch and a wine/beer or two. Very pleasant in the sun. Lovely relaxed day, Kaikoura was nice and busy with tourists once again.

We had our last night before returning to Nelson at the Doc camp at Marfells Beach in Marlborough.  Five and half years ago we first left Nelson back at the end of August 2014 when we began this adventure, we had our first night here. With 3 vehicles. Bill’s work van, Big Yella and a trailer. And here we are again with 3 vehicles before arriving back in Nelson. Funny how life goes sometimes.

We arrived at neighbour Kathryn’s for a week to sort a few things from our container and shed before moving up to our Rental.

Kathryn was ready to go with her ceiling upgrade – gib over the Michael Angelo Tiles come the weekend. As she works as a theatre nurse during the week, the plan was to spend the weekend putting up the gib that arrived just before the weekend. I was happy to keep them fed and have a wine ready at the end of the day of course. Great job Guys. Just waiting on the plasterer to come now.

And we were ready to move up to our Rental and begin the renovations.

Bill found a new bit of driftwood he wanted
to bring back to Nelson 😎

Not sure whether it was coming or going!