Our House...

The other day on facebook I talked about houses and what we'd do for a rental. We're still working on that, but it made me realise how close we are to loosing our current house and getting a new one. I realised I needed to take some photos and write down some memories from this house. Our current home. Where my children have grown up. They will continue to grow here, but in a new way. So I wanted to ensure that the 'original' memories weren't lost.

To start.....

We moved into this house after a very short sale and settlement of our previous house and this one, when Dan was 6 months old (he's now 8, just), only 10 days before Xmas. From sight of this house to sale of ours, to moving in was all of 2 weeks!

At the time, we knew we loved this place for the land. The house was/is old and we would either rennovate or demolish and start again.

We gave ourselves a time line of 5 years to start the new plans, and were well on track until some stuff at Andy's work unsettled us and we put the whole project on hold. That was 2 years ago. Now we're ready to go again and hopefully in less than a month we'll be moving, as will the house.

This is from the front door. As I stand on the front door steps, I face out towards the road. Sarah's bedroom is right there next to me, and our bedroom is next to hers. To the left is our 'sleep out', more commonly known as the 'dumping ground'. It's roof is full of moss, and last year two wasp colonies made their homes between the sheets of tin on the roof. That shed is where I keep all my 'old' scrapbooking stuff, all my class stuff. It is horrible inside. Always a mess and very old. At the very beginning we did use it as a sleep out, but that soon changed as my 'hobby' took over.

Here are my crazy kids wanting to be in the photos. I love it.  You can see here how we've had to remove the original beautiful circular concrete stairs. We did this to get a digger past a little while ago. We put back these ugly, but usable stairs and our chooks promptly took to using the dirt underneath as their dirt bath. We tried to stop them (dust going everywhere), with the wood pieces, but they still keep finding little bits. I love it. Andy not so much. For a week or so, the chooks were laying eggs  behind that bush you can see in the corner by the chimney. Then one day a rat took an egg and they haven't laid there since.

Around the front of the house is our bedroom and the boys room. The boys got the biggest room in the house since they are sharing. It also gets alot of sun! It's a wonderful room. Where I'm standing used to be a carport, but we needed to take half of it down to get the digger through. You can see the big scrapes on the concrete where it drove. Often we'll find Andy sitting on that concrete deck, having a coffee and strumming on his guitar. It's a wonderful spot to while away a few hours. That sink has come from our boat shed down the back. We're making room and getting rid of things. Our landscape gardener is going to use it as a filleting bench. Awesome!

Once we started gardening as much as we did, I wanted to make this grassy area into those 1m garden spots and just fill them with things. But Andy wasn't keen. Instead, up against the fence we created a space for tomatoes and beans with wonderful railings for them to grow up against. It worked really well.

From across the road. Take a look at the fence on the left of the picture. It's such a muddle. In a recent big storm, the fence was blown down, so we have just stuck up any old thing to fill it in until we pull it down for the house to be removed.

Those gates where the kids are have always been a problem. They never seem to work properly even when we 'fix' them. Sigh.

The way this house is placed on the site means that it's really close to the neighbours, because we're starting from scratch, we're having to move over away from the boundary more.

 And that's our back yard. Or part of it. The chooks are running loose up here at the moment as their fence was taken down a while ago. I love having them close, but hate all the mess they make.

We need to take that orange tree down shortly. The big ole pohutakawa is beautiful and protects us from alot of Southerly winds. Alot of people suggest we should try and take it down, but we never would. We love it! When the house is done, we want to light it up. It'll look amazing.

And that's the back of the house. That huge big window is where I sit and scrapbook. It's part of the lounge and I can't wait to get an area full of great storage and space to work. Those big windows have no curtains. They look directly out to the city and the amazing lights so we've always chosen to leave the curtains off (even if it does mean some cold nights in winter!).

Oh and hey, because I can, here's one of our beautiful brown leghorns. I can never tell them apart. But it's either Ruby or Diamond. They are both laying at the moment after a long hiatus so it's nice to have their white eggs in our egg box again.

Our house has been so good for us. It's not flash. It's not anything special, in fact when we first moved in it was freezing and we had lots of condensation in that first winter. After getting the HRV installed it became a much healthier house with way less damp. But there is still little to no insulation so is cold. We sometimes wake up and the HRV will give an inside temp of 14/15 degrees. But we do have a beautiful open fire which for the last couple of years has worked through the pine trees we had cut down a couple of years back.

Even though it's not flash, I will miss it when it's gone.

Comments

[Topkatnz]

Great memories:) we often wake up to an inside temperature of 2-4deg and we are fully insulated! Don't you wish you were here;)

[Brenda]

Fab photos love the kids part so much fun. Awesome memories in this house I am looking forward to seeing the building process.

[Louise Williams]

you forgot the view!! lol... awesome to see your memories as you create exciting new ones. Can't wait to see the new build :)

[Denise]

Things have changed since we were there last Trina. it is exciting to see the changes because that makes the new house more real. Your plans for the new place are awesome and we will have to make a trip up once you're done so we can see it finished. Good to have all these photos which include the kids ... It is something they will treasure and remember.

[Jan Spicer-Boyes]

An awesome story Trina and some lovely photos for the kids to treasure once it is gone and the new one comes to fruition. There will be many fond memories for all of you I am sure.

[mandyb]

im partly insulated and my house is freezing when i wake up....so great to be able to start a fresh and put in all the things you have always wanted

ps i loved visiting your house....esp the loooooong yard all the way down to the water...such fun

[Laura Strack]

What a cool adventure, Trina! You are having the house moved? That's interesting. Is it considered "Historical"? Sometimes it is better to just start over with a clean canvas. Don't you wish you could just add a bunch of Gesso? Lol. Looking forward to watching your new home grow :)