And The Fun Continues…

So we scheduled the carpet to be installed in the still mostly empty house on the 25th of March with an extra day the 26th just in case they needed more time. 

Our furniture and boxes were scheduled for delivery the 27th and 28th. And the plan was to have the long Easter weekend 4 days to unpack and settle in. 

The carpet installed on the 26th ended up being flawed. There was a missing line/row of yarn through the whole batch! (See photo below- that was not a seam) And it was not “noticed” until the install was completed. So we had to have our stuff delivered onto the carpet knowing it would all have to be moved to remove the bad carpet and then re-installed. 

We hoped that the company would get this fixed quickly but nope- 

Going through all the proper procedures and claim forms took time plus the Easter holiday …the soonest they could possibly get new carpet to us was the 9th 😜

So with the help of generous friends we spent part of our weekend moving stuff around to clear as much of the carpet area as we could. 

A royal pain in the ….

but then on the 9th they were delivered the wrong carpet and then need to reschedule again!

We were beside ourselves with frustration. And we have the plumber scheduled for the week of the 15th. 

After much pushing and some juggling, they managed to arrange for the new new carpet to be installed on the 10th. They were unable to finish it, but enough that we can start to put things where they go. Hoping to have it finished next week. 

And after several appraisals and quotes, we have determined the amount of work and money necessary to keep/restore/redo the wood flooring in the hall and dining room is too much. So we will be ordering carpet for those locations. 

That is likely another 4-6 weeks away. But that is fine, we have plenty of other stuff to focus on. 

As for our belongings…

Everything arrived and is accounted for. Yay! It is still too soon to know if there are any damages. But so far the big items, the items we were most concerned about are all fine. Especially the big screen tv! There are a few other minor breaks, but nothing we can’t fix or live without. 

A huge shout out to folks that packed everything up in Seattle and to the Wellington Allied Moving crew. You were rockstars. I wish I could say the same for NZ MAF- they opened up about 20 boxes to “inspect” and did a terrible job of packing them back up? Check out the gold and black box above.

We did enjoy a fun Easter Sunday with friends. We drove out to Kaitoke Regional Park - where Rivendell is from Lord of the Rings films. Good food, fun games, and the weather even held out for us. 

Eric has been super busy. Working on house stuff and trying to keep me sane.

The space behind the oven now has a wall.

We had been planning to remove the very old gas hot water cylinder from the upstairs linen closet and wanted to go with water on demand (called infinity water here) but along the way the plumber found that we had a gas leak. Not in the house itself, but somewhere between the outside meter and the house. There is a driveway there and we would need to cut through the asphalt to run new line. And to complicate matters that part of the driveway is not actually our property. It is the cities and is shared with our neighbor. So we took the easy way out. We will be shutting off the gas. The water heater was the only use. And installing a new electric cylinder in the basement. Easier and cheaper in the end. 

Eric has now made the steps to the basement room safe and will start building the platform for the new water cylinder and our washer and dryer. 

Original unsafe entry

It has been stressful, but is getting better. Our friends have been an enormous help. Not only with moving furniture and boxes back and forth multiple times but in keeping us smiling and semi-sane. Thank you!

Not our house- A friend is fixing his roof and exterior paint. 

We did get our bedroom set up! So great to finally spend our first night in our bed!❤️ We have not slept in this bed since Aug 27th, 2023! We will be getting new blinds and curtains in the not to distant future.

Really looking forward to making more progress soon. 

And just because…a shout out to my sister who continues to follow her dreams. Congratulations! She was the announcer at Oracle Stadium for the San Francisco Giants opening weekend! We really wish we could have been there. 🎉

We also celebrated Sue’s 81st birthday🎂!

ps- Some friends have been leaving nice comments, please know that they are appearing as anonymous. So please add your name in your comment if you want us to know who you are😁. 

First Week!

 

Wow!,  hard to believe we have been in the house for a bit over a week now. It has been an exciting whirlwind of activity. 

Kitchen cleaned, two cabinets removed to make room for the new refrigerator, carpet removed, lounge ceiling painted. There has been a parade of contractors coming through- electrician, plasterer, the plumber called to postpone due to Covid, 3 to quote restoring the wood floors, washer and dryer delivered but fridge was damaged and had to be reordered and delivered two days later. 

There have been a few fun surprises. 

As to be expected… exposed insulation/unfinished wall behind the oven. A broken step on the staircase, and a small gas leak somewhere between the meter and the house. To name a few. -Oh joy!

But we love the house and are excited to be getting our stuff delivered next week. 

We had hoped to get a bit more painting completed before the delivery of our stuff, but it will have to wait. 

We did manage to squeeze in a fun show at the St James Theater Belle: A performance of Air -Visually beautiful show with light, smoke, mirrors and dance. 

And I started work. It was great to be back and the first week was relatively easy with setting up my desk and computer and lots of introductions. 

Here are some fun house photos 😁

The next chapter begins!

It has certainly been a chaotic three weeks… 

We loved seeing Dune part two,(How do they get off the worms?) and enjoyed seeing Rocketeer on the big screen after so many years. The Rocketeer included a fun themed dessert and beverage too. (lol the rocket was very phallic shaped)

The Dr. Who event was about what I expected. Had fun and enjoyed it, but it could have been better. The moderated questions fell short and the attempt at selling merchandise was very weak. The event was already pricey and then they wanted more $ for autographs and photos. Which we knew as that was how it was advertised, but it still felt like more could have been offered. But still glad I went, am really looking forward to the exhibition opening in June. 

I also got the chance to see Meow Meow’s Panemonium. NZ Art Festival is going on and Cassie was offered 2 tickets last minute, so we went having no clue what to expect. The seats were great and we were thoroughly entertained. Meow Meow is a singer performer and comedian and the show was definitely laughing out loud funny. 

Works has not started for me yet, but I went into the office for an induction/on-boarding session and am really looking forward to the new role. Eric is enjoying a few freelance days, before the house projects start. 😁

AND…We made it! 

This is our last night as nomads. 6 months almost to the day of selling our home in Seattle, we are moving into our new home in Wellington NZ. We are very excited and looking forward to spending the next several months, and/or years making it into “our” home. 

It has been a great adventure. And we couldn’t have done it without all the encouragement, love, and support from our family and friends both here and back in the States. 

Thank you all !!!!!

We have shared much of the journey along the way on this blog. And while it was genuinely a great adventure, it was not without a few bumps. 

We had some challenges navigating the banking/loan options and job opportunities and offers have been a little delayed. 

But the biggest bump came 3 weeks ago when we gave notice to the woman with whom we had been flatting…

Suffice it to say. Mistakes were made, lessons learned. 

“The short version”

The woman has mental health challenges. (the kindest words we can use)

She believed we were trying to short her one weeks rent. And when we tried to show her the bank statements and a calendar, all hell broke loose. We were verbally abused and threatened. In the end it was easier to pay the “extra” week than to fight a losing battle -there is no reasoning with crazy. 

(A report will be filed, but we needed to be out and away from her first)

But at the end of it all, what is the old adage?…. we refuse to let one “bad apple” spoil the lot ?

Again we were reminded of how wonderful and caring our NZ family is. Everyone offered us help, support, extra hands and vehicles and places to temporarily stay. A special thank you to Chris & Cassie, Etainia & James, Paul & Claire, Andrew & Lauren, Daniel & Catherine, Lance, Henri and Kim & Warren and everyone else. Again “thank you”!!!!❤️

To add insult to injury, our car was sideswiped/damaged while parked on the street the other night. Roads here are quite narrow, but there is enough room to get by if you are paying attention. Unfortunately not everyone does. Also auto insurance is not required here so many folks do not bother to have any. Certainly those who are already struggling to keep up with the raising cost of living. I find it genuinely ironic that in a country where I continue to tout the kindness and politeness of the community, there are still those that will not stop to leave a note on a car if they have damaged it. It is frustrating. The damage is minimal. Just cosmetic. But just like in the states, you do not want to make a claim. Between the deductible and the threat of rate increases…

We will likely get it fixed at some point, but trying to focus our current expenses on moving into the house! 

We apparently maxed out the number of items a customer can have in a single transaction at the local hardware store- lol!

And now we move in…and our belongings get delivered in 2 weeks

Stay tuned for house renovation photos- coming soon! 😁

Three weeks and counting!

Not too long now. We are excited and have been busy working on all the logistics. We have purchased appliances, gotten some quotes for initial projects, scheduled some work, and scheduled the delivery of our stuff!!!

It’s been a great 6 months of nomadic living, but we are both ready to start to put our roots back down. I am very much looking forward to setting up and having a full kitchen again. It will be about two weeks in the new house before our stuff gets delivered. And I suspect another week to get some of the boxes unpacked and the kitchen set up, but we will have a refrigerator, microwave and toaster oven to start with. And a countertop to dine on. We also picked up a couple of used plastic yard chairs from the second-hand shop and can fashion a table out of one of the many empty appliance boxes. 😁

In the meantime, we have continued to enjoy more time with friends, sunny walks, played games, and seen more movies. 

I also did a fun 5.5k walk “Around the Bays” last Sunday with my friend Cassie. It was a great day for it. Sunny with partial clouds. Not too windy, not too hot, and no rain. We actually probably walked more like 15k as we wondered back to Miramar afterwards, had a delicious meal at DVB - Double Vision Brewery and then back to Cassie’s to sit out on the deck. 

We saw the film “Next Goal Wins”, Taika Waititi’s film with Michael Fassbender about the American Samoan football (read soccer) team. 

Was lots of fun. The critics didn’t like it much but we enjoyed it. We also saw “Argyle” with Henry Cavill - lots of laugh out loud moments. Very silly and entertaining. And in anticipation of Dune part two, we went to a screening of part one so it will be fresh in our minds. 

We also watched the Super Bowl - noon on Monday here. 

We went to a local pub that was showing it on their big screen. 

And as you can see, not a lot of attendees. We were really the only ones interested in the game. Another couple wandered in about mid game. But the random others that came in, came to eat and leave.

We enjoyed the game, but not quite what we were hoping for. 

The feed was through Sky TV and was a local (NZ or Australia) ESPN station. So we had sub-par (read bad) commentators, and NONE of the   cool advertisements!!! We had to watch all the commercials on-line later on our laptop. All that said, it was a close game, both teams made errors, both teams had some great plays. In the end, I was happy for the Chiefs. 

Eric has had a few days of work at Scale Studios! (Sorry no photos)And is planning on starting work on the house as soon as we get in. Murphy’s Law says that’s when he will get other work offers. -Lol.

I have purposefully been avoiding all the “political stuff” 

But for your entertainment, here are a few photos of a local brew.

More fun ahead…A few birthday celebrations, Dune part two, a screening of the classic Rocketeer, and a Dr. Who event with Christopher Eccleston and guests!

Stay tuned…