moving in...

I wasn't able to go up to the bach to document the last steps, because I was back at work. But the weekend we went up and had our first look at the (mostly) finished new home. And we were very happy! It looks great, and I am very happy that I extended the deck to three times the original size - that will be our main living room! The skirting will be next - will we have wood? Or a hedge? Or planter boxes? Hmmmm...

Now with deck, roof and spouting :)

When we arrived, the floor varnish was still not 100% dry, so we opened all windows, and put a heater in at full blast. Rest assured, not long and it was dry enough to put stuff in. We got everything out of the car, and also shifted gear from the shed to the bach. We had to assemble a few things, but that went quick and easy. In the evening, we already had the kitchen corner pretty much operational, and made grilled cheese in the new oven.

The still very unfinished interior. We just chucked stuff in at the moment...

We tried to sleep inside, but the smell of the varnish was so bad, that we both got a headache, and felt like we were gradually poisoned, so we just moved the futon out on the deck, and slept there. It was amazing to see the stars from our "bed" - just like in old times when I was in scouts :)

Next morning

The Bach

Before I left for South Africa (see blog here), we put up our first "building" on the site: A shed! It was just much easier to store all the camping gear there, than loading the car every time we want to go up. Believe it or not, but it is a whole van packed full of stuff. While the shed looked quite big in the hardware store, it looks much smaller on the large section. Just as well, since I was worried if it was a bit too intrusive, since it is not exactly a beauty. But it fits well...

We also found a builder who is specialising in portable cabins (Portable Kiwi Cabins), and when we saw him, we got a good impression. He had a bach there that had just been built, and it looked good. The workmanship was what I expected, and in addition he was very flexible with custom changes. Thus, I decided to go for a small cabin and ordered it. It is only 10 m2; the maximum size you can have without a building consent. Just as well for us at this stage - we can always add later (when I win lotto... ;-). So while I was in South Africa, the cabin was built. Earlier this year, Linda put in a week of annual leave for me, which was now very handy. Well, while we thought we would spend most of the week in the bach, it turned out that we got delayed repeatedly. Firstly, the bach hadn't been totally finished, but that didn't really matter, since it was a week with horrendous weather, and thus it wouldn't go up anyway. But Thursday was sunny, and Friday was supposed to be the same. Thus, the builder decided that Friday would be the day, after the ground could have dried up a bit on Thursday. We went up on Thursday to check the ground and it looked terrible. Some time in the past weeks some people just drove up and tried to turn their car/truck on the section - and got stuck in mud. It looked nice and firm, but it was soft and wet. We were a bit worried that the builder wouldn't be able to get the cabin up there, because he would lose traction on the mud, but he decided that it would be fine. So we went back on Friday morning, and found the ground still to be quite wet:

Thus, in the spur of the moment, we decided to go to a concrete/quarry company and asked if they would be able to deliver gravel the same day. "No problem", was the answer, "we can deliver within the hour - how much do you want?". Hmmm, I am not good at guesstimating, but the lady there thought that we would need 10 tons. Are you kidding me - ten tons??? Oh well, we ordered it, and with a slight delay the truck came with 10.36 tons. The driver was worried that he too would lose traction up there, and decided that he'd try to go backwards, dumping the gravel on the way, and thus build his own "driveway".

Waiting for the gravel truck and the bach...

The following photos are in the correct order - remember, he reversed while dumping...

We asked him to dump a pile at the end, which is the place where the bach is going. But he still had some gravel left, and suggested he does a second trail next to the first one. And in the end dumped the rest in another pile next to the first one.

When he drove off the second time, he almost got stuck, with his wheels spinning. Both his tracks left quite deep grooves in the mud. So over the next couple of hours we took the shovels and moved about 2-3 tons of the gravel piles to fill any holes and tracks, and spread the rest around the building site. We weren't prepared for it, and thus didn't have a wheel barrow, so we just walked a million times back and forward, with loads of heavy gravel on the shovel. Our arms and backs were aching once we were finished. But we were happy and agreed that without the gravel there would have been no way the bach could go up. And the 10 tons were just enough - we could have done with quite a bit more. Once the bach is done, we will need another 10-20 tons.

And, after heavy Friday afternoon traffic and road works, the builders arrived late afternoon. They did not have a problem getting the bach up to the site, but still churned up the gravel and mud a lot. But eventually, they had the trailer in the right spot, and started jacking up the bach, and getting the trailer out. Well, at least they tried. It took much longer than anticipated, and we were losing daylight quickly. But after a lot of work, they finally got the trailer out, and slowly lowered the bach. But since it was late and totally dark by now (the last hour or so they worked in the headlights of the two trucks), they unloaded the deck and additional material for the suffit and roof, and said they'd be back on Monday to finish the job - weather permitting! Well, it is Sunday night, and it rained like mad yesterday and this morning, but now it is clear, and tomorrow and Tuesday are supposed to be nice as well, so there is hope...

Finally, it lifted off the trailer...

and they pulled the trailer out.

It is standing on jacks and blocks only!

Eventually it will stand on these feet on concrete slabs

And done for the day: The cabin and half the deck, holes covered for rain protection...

Camping

Although the title hasn't come through yet, the developer of the land is really nice, and lets us use the land already. We couldn't wait to spend a few days there, thus we went camping for 4 days. One day, we had Carol, Colin and Rob coming up as well. Rob stayed the night :)

Our temporary home away from home

Happy campers at the fire pit

One morning we woke up, and the whole valley was covered in fog

The land...

Earlier this year I saw a piece of land advertised that caught my attention right away. I had been looking on and off for a while, but never really seriously. Thus, I had a bit of an overview about what was on offer, for what prices, in what areas. I always said that if I buy land for a bach (for non-Kiwis: bach = cabin/cottage. For South Islanders: bach = crib ;-), it would have to be relatively close to Auckland, not more than 3 hours driving time. If it was further away, we wouldn't go up there for a weekend, but just a couple of times a year for holidays. This one is just over 2 hours away from Auckland, and I could convince Neil to come along and have a look at it. What can I say? We both fell in love with it immediately. Even the drive to it already "felt right", and once we got to the entrance gate, and drove up to the land we loved it. And when we got onto the land and saw the view, we were hooked! To cut a long story short: I put in an offer and got to buy it. Not without hiccups, but we got it!

Here are a few photos:

The gate at the access road. There are five lots up here, and three are still available. One was sold last year, so we pretty much had free choice, and think we got the nicest one!

Our land comprises of a small piece of forest (about 30 large pine trees - across the access road is the real forest), a well prepared building site, and a large steeply sloping part, which makes the largest part of the land, and is a conservation area. Overall, the section is just under 8,000 m2.

The driveway from the access road to our site

The building site, facing East

The building site, facing West

And - tadaaaa! - the view over Kaipara Harbour!

Google Earth has only an old photo in their system (from 2004), so lots of details are still missing. But I put a yellow rectangle roughly where our lot is.