Our House

Our house, in the middle of our street

On Friday 27^th September we completed the purchase of our new house. It’s about 2 miles from our previous place on Ira Street, and a bit further away from the shops in Miramar, but still walkable (on a good day).

We had a bit of an overlap, as our lease expires in November, so we decided to get some of the major works done before we moved in: these included the minor points that had been discovered by our builder in his builder’s report, and also getting the place painted entirely indoors. The previous owner had lived with the builders’ undercoat that was applied when he bought the place new, and either never got round to painting, or didn’t have the time, inclination or money to do so. Either way, the place was badly in need of a proper, professional paint job for all the internal walls, ceilings, skirting and doors – a big job, and one that would be best undertaken whilst the house was empty.

The builder also came round to tile the kitchen splashback behind the sink and cooker, and also to install some heated towel rails; and to put in sliding wardrobe doors in bedrooms 2 and 3 (the master bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe).

Once again, we put in the call to Coolmoves and got the men to shift all our stuff. They turned up at 8:15 and after scoping the job, started to move stuff out. We told them that they’d have to take some of it out over the balcony and garage, as that’s how it had got into the house in the first place, and they managed this without too much difficulty. Given the access issues with many houses in Wellington, I guess they’re used to every eventuality when it comes to moving furniture in tight spots, and in and out of steeply built houses.

They got everything moved and into the new place in the morning, which left us the rest of the day to get things straightened out – well, sufficiently to be able to sleep at night, which was our main objective. I’d taken the precaution of booking us a table at The Larder for dinner, as I didn’t think I’d feel like cooking, and it was by no means certain that all the cooking implements would be unpacked.

We were moving over the Labour Day weekend, so had an additional day to unpack and start getting things into order. By Monday, we were unpacked and finding out all the little things that needed to be fixed or changed to make the place more like home. Little things like:

• the wall bracket kindly bequeathed to us was too small for our tv;
• a key broken off in the back door lock;
• a shower door that won’t close because it’s magnetic closure has lost its magneticness;

…and many other similar little things. We’ve been wearing a groove in the road between us and Bunnings Warehouse to get the wherewithal to put these things right, and it’s gradually coming together. Pictures have been hung, a tv aerial installed (we had no tv for two weeks – the previous owner had only had cable), and the internet now works. By the end of the week we hope to have wardrobe doors fully installed – this has been a tale in itself!

Parking seemed to be an issue at first, because the garage has a very narrow entrance. But I’ve now got the hang of reversing out in a three-point turn up a hill to get out. This is normal for Wellington.

The list of what needs to be done has now shrunk to a manageable size, and we continue to make progress with it. In the meanwhile, admire the view:

Counting Chickens

For the past few months we’ve been spending a substantial amount of our Sundays going to “open homes” – the traditional way of house marketing for most New Zealanders. These are normally held on a Sunday. We started off looking just in Miramar and surrounding areas, as we quite like the area. Having exhausted all the suitable homes in these suburbs, however, we started looking further afield, including the central city and also the Northern suburbs, in search of something that meets our exacting requirements. I say “exacting”, but they’re not all that…but it’s surprising how many homes fail to meet them.  Internal access from the garage and 2 bathrooms means that we’re looking at modern houses; older houses tend to have a separate garage and only one bathroom.  What can I say? We’re a fussy couple.

We came close to finding what we wanted with a house almost on the coast in Strathmore Park, with views out over Point Dorset…but felt it was a bit too far out, with no express bus service (see? Fussy!), and another just up the road from us, which we felt was possibly a “leaky home”, so we walked away from that one.

A couple of weeks ago we went to see another home in Miramar, and decided that this ticked all the boxes. The only drawback was that the sale process was by tender. For those not familiar with this process, sealed bids are deposited with the estate agent by a specified deadline, and the vendor selects from the bids (not always the highest bidder – often there are conditions attached to the bid which may cause him to sell to a lower, less conditional bidder).

The time period for submitting bids was quite tight in this case, so our bid was conditional on a number of things which we weren’t able to complete prior to the closing date;  however, after a bit of toing and froing on the final day, our bid was accepted. We are now in the process of satisfying all the conditions which we set out, and plan to settle at the end of next month.

The house is on a hill in North Miramar, and has views out over the peninsular and to Lyall Bay. There’s a good deck for barbies in the summer, and it’s double-glazed and centrally heated so should be cosy in the winter. There’s an express bus nearby, and our local café will be The Larder, so I look forward to spending more time in there!

I can see your house from here

On The Move

On Monday, we moved house. The men from Coolmoves turned up at 8:15 and loaded up the truck – a process which took a couple of hours – then drove it a mile down the road to our new house, and started unloading there. We’ve now got loads of stuff, because we bought loads of furniture to move into Calabar Road, and the new place is a bit smaller, so we’ve had to be a bit creative about what goes where. I think we’ve managed to squeeze it all in though – although there may be some rearranging to do.

The new place is still in Miramar, only a bit further away from the city. In driving terms this is negligible – the main advantage is that we’re a couple of stops further on the bus route, so our chances of getting a seat in the morning have increased somewhat! We are fortunate to be on an express bus route, and previously had boarded at the last stop before the CBD, so getting a seat wasn’t always guaranteed. Ah, the small things around which our lives revolve!

We had a minor trauma on the day of the move: the man from Telstraclear came round to sort out the transfer of our telephone number and internet in the afternoon. Our new house has a driveway which is quite steep, and is also at an acute angle to the road: 

New house

He’d tried to make the turn in his van, and failed to get round the corner, so decided to reverse back and do a 3-point turn to get round the angle; he reversed too quickly and managed to dig the tow bar into the road, lifting the van off its rear wheels. He was now unable to go forward or backwards. Unfortunately we were parked on our driveway, so our car was trapped and we were unable to get back to the old house to clear up a few bits and pieces that were left behind originally. Eventually a tow truck arrived and was able to get the van back onto the road. 

We're working our way through the boxes trying to unpack everything and find a place for it. I'm also sorting out the technology so that we can skype from the living room again...once we've got the place tidied up a bit.

Anniversary

Wow! Crikey! It’s been a year since I landed here in New Zealand. A lot has happened in that time (see the previous 110 blogs for details), including moving into two houses, getting a job, buying a car and becoming an official New Zealand resident.

Freakin’ Freezing Up Here, Mr. Bigglesworth

Yesterday was the coldest day ever in Wellington (well, since records began) –snow fell in the centre of town (briefly) and on the hills surrounding. Traffic, air and rail systems have ground to a halt in large swathes of the country…it reminds me of somewhere!

Not much else to say at the moment – came first in the pub quiz again tonight, but that’s become such a commonplace these days that it’s hardly worth mentioning ;-) Hopefully by next week we’ll have finished all the immediate moving-in tasks and can then get on with being exciting again!

Fridge Fable

So, as our newly-acquired fridge doesn’t fit into its allotted place in the kitchen, I got on to Bond & Bond again, to see what we could do about it. They were very helpful, and I’ve now selected a model that meets the height requirements. It was delivered at lunchtime today (I took the day off, as there are several other bits and pieces that I needed to do) and now sits in pride of place in our kitchen!

I know. It's a picture of a fridge. Life doesn't get any better than this!

Now all I’ve got to do is figure out how it works. You’d think “plug it in and fill it with food” but apparently there’s more to it than that…there’s a compartment marked “water” for one thing. I’ll have to go and read the instructions.