Things are moving. Subcontractors have been in and out and I’ve had to stay over, doing my project management thing and helping make quite a few decisions.

I really need to be in Wellington as well, to pack up my town office, which I hope to vacate by the end of next week. Like it or not, I have to be out by the 20th, when new owners take posession of the office floor I’ve shared with Steele Roberts Publishing since 2003.

In the last few days Bruce has added facings and sills to the new windows, and they’re looking good. They’re unlike most aluminium window installations, but we’re trying to match the window style of the rest of the house, which is nearly  100 years old.

Bruce fixing the position of the new sill. Aluminium windows don’t usually have sills, but we have an old-style craftsman who wants the new work to be as sympathetic as possible. And he has the skills to do it.

Completed window on the east side. Bruce is starting on the weatherboard facings.

Our plumber, Wayne Roper and his son Adrian have been installing plumbing that goes inside walls. Wayne and Brent are the third and fourth generation of Ropers in this Martinborough plumbing business, which  started in 1907.

Left: Wayne pondering the best way to connect to plumbing in the existing bathroom. Right: Brent pressure-testing piping and connections in the new kitchen.

Today Wayne and Brent installed the roof guttering.

Wayne gluing two sections of guttering together.

Snapping guttering onto the brackets:

Completed guttering and downpipes on north end of the house. Facings installed on the corner and arpund the door. Now we can start to clean up the adjacent ground, which, towards the camera, was once a garden.

We’ve also had Rhys Severn from Pete’s Kitchens over, measuring up for our new kitchen.

Glenn, our heat pump installer, has put his various pipes and wires in the wall cavity and through the wall to the front verandah where the floor unit will be installed.

Our sparky, Bill Stephen, did more work a few days ago and tomorrow, finally, he’ll be back to do major wiring that requires the new roof to be lifted yet again. The insulation is going in at the same time, then the roof can be screwed down permanently. And he’ll replace the missing boards where the new roof joins the old end of the house. This job has been delayed for several weeks due to Bill’s other commitments and a long period of heavy winds. Tomorrow is expected to be fine and calm.
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