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| Southern Patarau Beach |
Easter 2021 was a quiet affair, with a fairly wet weekend and plenty of renovations to get on with, but sadly no Easter Eggs 🐰. Not that that was a reason to sit around and feel miserable. With having just caught up with Shannon & AC in Wellington - Easter Bunny managed to do a drop off there 😉. But with Rocky & Daniel now living three hours south of Perth, down Nick & Em's way - Easter Bunny was running late to WA 😕. At least we all managed a good catch up through Zoom - wonderful to see everyone 😍.
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| Dining / Kitchen areas almost ready for painting |
Prior to the weekend Bill finally got the screw put into his implant in his gum after a four month wait to ensure he had no reaction to the titanium. All was looking healthy and is now ready for his new tooth! Another two weeks till the tooth can be fitted 🤞.
It arrived!! But didn't fit!! Another two weeks before it was finally fitted and Bill can eat normally once again.🦷
Easter also brought daylight saving to an end and the feeling summer is over with the evenings getting dark so much earlier now. The autumn tints are full on in our area - the reds are amazing.🍁🍂.
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Joan enjoying
Happy Hour |
Our concerns for Joan while we were away were unfounded with her coping quite well especially with her Companion Hilary. She made such a difference. Unfortunately soon after our return she had another fall at night leaving her a lot more confused and meals becoming a challenge, it was time to move her into more care. It was a hard decision for her Boys but choosing the Ernest Rutherford Resthome was the best decision. She accepted the change very well, letting go of most of her possessions. At least she could have all her paintings she did years ago, on the walls in her bedroom. The Carers are amazing and are wonderful with all the Residents, which you can imagine all have different needs. For now she is quite settled and getting into the activities that keep their days quite busy.
Our renovations have been moving along with the completion of painting in the lounge / dining and kitchen area, which has made such a difference to the place. Feels very spacious. And finishing off tiling the old fireplace which we have kept as it was installed only 10 years ago to meet the Council Clean Air Regulations. We will be so much warmer this year with the double glazing and extra insulation in ceiling and walls.
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| Last Winter |
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Old bricks removed
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The stairwell was next which is like a two story open space - Bill cleverly built a floor out from the top hallway to make a platform to work from while he replaced the old window with a new double glazed one. Finished plastering and painting.
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Don't Jump Bill!
Stairwell |
I painted the lower half once the floor was removed and Bill had finished plastering. It was also at this stage we removed the last of the old carpet off the stairs which we knew was the cause of a lot of the smell in the lower half of the house. To complete this section of the house was the beautiful $5 bargain light from the recycling centre. 😄
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| Busy day on Totaranui Beach 😍 |
We managed to take a week off in the middle of May and head over to Golden Bay to join up with friends / fellow Motor Homer's Sam & Pauline down from Hahei (Coromandel) who were spending 6 weeks in the top of the South.
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| It wasn't easy to find firewood at Totaranui |
Apart from the gale force winds when we first went over, we had amazing autumn weather. Pauline being the younger of us, was the only one to have a swim 🏊😁. S&P hadn't been over to Golden Bay before, so it was lovely to show off the region looking it's best. Totaranui had 10 other camp sites occupied (Holds 850 campers at it's peak!) - perfect time of year to visit. We even made it out to Patarau River Mouth - a lovely remote spot Bill & I enjoy on the west coast of Golden Bay. Fires on the beach at both these spots - the Boys were in their element.🔥
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| Patarau River Mouth |
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| Lovely evening Patarau |
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| Stunning sunset Port Tarakohe |
Returning once again to the renovations, we planned the new kitchen and ordered it through Mitre10 - Bill having installed a few of their units over the years with good results, thought they were good value. We would sort the bench top through a Christchurch company AGB Stone. So a plan was made to do a quick trip to Christchurch for a couple of nights and have a day shopping for stove / induction hob / rangehood / vinyl plank flooring / benchtop and a few other smaller items. And not least of all - my new gumboots after my old ones fell to bits. It was a very productive trip plus a catch up with good friends Marg (whom we stayed with) and Helen & Ralph when we all went to Formaggio's for dinner.
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| Fireplace finished waiting on TV (Not by us 😏) |
The kitchen units arrived in good time (we had expected delays due to the high demand of building materials since Covid began) and now there was no holding Bill back. With the flooring in the kitchen / dining area now done, we will be ready for the benchtop that is due in the next two weeks.
We've also had the house measured up for carpet through friend Karen from The Flooring Room and that is due to be laid a fortnight after the bench top arrives. So no pressure Bill - to remove the old kitchen and finish what will be a fourth bedroom / study.
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| Tea break with new kitchen being installed |
And for those of you who are wondering what I have been doing while Bill is working - besides my online part time job, he does need feeding etc. And luckily for Bill my culinary skills have improved, plus a little help from Google. I have assisted with painting too. And still working on the patio area out the end of the house. I've moved a few Ute loads of gravel and white stones. But I've also needed Bill's help with building a small block wall to help with retention of the corner of the area, so I have had to wait till he has the time to spare me. I also had a couple of days work back at Austin Transport assisting Sheryl who took over my administration role there 8 years ago - good to see the company had grown quite a bit since I started with Bryan when he only had 3 trucks - now nearly 30! During school holidays I was honoured to be asked to babysit my 6 yr old Great-niece - fun to get to see a children's movie once again. Unfortunately Daisy had already seen Peter Rabbit so we made do with Raya & the last Dragon. Which was still enjoyable 👏
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| Making concrete for the block wall 💪 |
So we are on a roll with renovations, a little bit of pressure and now that we have had the shortest day (longest night) - roll on Summer 🌞🌻
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| Flooring going down |
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Looking good
(Cooker on loan from friends V&T) |
