SOLD!!

It took us almost a year to renovate but, in the end, only nine days to sell.

Late last month, we reluctantly put our beloved bach (beach house) on the market. Some arse had bought the empty section next to us (that had been vacant for 30 years!) and plonked an ugly house on there. Which effectively stripped us of our privacy, views and morning sun.

It was time to go. So in late August we put the house on the market and it went under offer nine days later (in a flurry of emails and forms to sign in triplicate the night before we flew to Vietnam).

Yesterday, after the requisite 15 working days, the sale went unconditional. Even better? The buyer bought most of our furniture and big ticket items such as the fridge and beds. Which means we don't have to faff around selling online etc. So it was a big fat win for everyone.

Although I will miss the beach and some of our lovely neighbours (not the ones who've ruined our views, you understand), it feels like the right thing to do. I'll also miss the way my shoulders drop several centimetres every time I see the Welcome to Waitarere Beach sign. For 22 months, that bach was our haven, a quiet little bubble where we got to shuck the worries of the week and recharge for the next. I loved that bach so much I even wrote a story about it in North & South Magazine earlier this year (click here to read).

But, as my mother likes to say, nothing lasts forever. And, just quietly, we made a little bit of cash on it, so that frees us up to look for another rental (and frees me up from having to do some of the horrid bum-on-seat comms roles I was doing). Again, a major win.

So another chapter over. But it was a helluva ride while it lasted

Here for your viewing pleasure for the final time are photos of our former bach...

                    

Long weekend

Labour Day is an annual holiday held around the globe at different times of the year to celebrate the achievements of workers.

So how did we choose to spend Labour Day 2015? With a shed load of hard yakka, of course.
The Animator devoted most of his three-day weekend to the bach garden, weeding and mulching and basically being a good homeowner.

I, on the other hand, spent most of it lashed to the laptop doing the third of seven stories from the recent USA media trip.

We did, however, get to down tools: our neighbours came over Saturday afternoon for a drink and ended up leaving five hours later. But it was lovely to sit in the glorious sunshine, drink cold white wine and catch up.

Sunday night we had our first barbie of the season at our friends' Jo and Jonathan's bach about two streets away from us. There was gin and bubbles in the sunshine and all manner of food and fun.

Today, back in Welli, we fired up our barbie and greedily gobbled down the first asparagus of the season. Summer, you are so close we can almost reach out and touch you.

A long weekend

By pulling every string available, we were able to spend three glorious nights at the bach.

On Friday, in the time it took me to write an 800 word piece for an interiors magazine, the Animator knocked up this wee number for the back-yard. I am truly in awe of his many and varied skills, particularly because if I had to make something out of spare bits of timber and a few nails, it most certainly would not look like this.

Here it is mid construction:

And the finished product:

A weekend at the beach - and an interiors interview

My first weekend at the bach for three weeks - and although it was glorious to be back, it was also kind of surreal because of the tragic events of last week.

On the plus side, it was a weekend of firsts: the sun umbrella was dusted off for the first alfresco meal since winter and I had my first long run along the beach in ages (I can barely walk today).

On the way home, I popped into this Waikanae bach for a story for a national interiors magazine. It was gorgeous - and the beach was so close you could almost reach out and touch it.

 
(Pic credit: Paul McCredie) 

Orange ISN'T the new black

Last weekend, the beach house's nasty 70s orange bench-top was finally laid to rest.

Or rather, covered with a couple of layers of sticky, smelly gunk that eventually turned it black. Thank the sweet Baby Jesus for that.

Now all we have to do is paint the horrid cupboards below and hello, we have nudged the kitchen slightly closer to the 21st Century.

BEFORE:

     DURING AND AFTER:

We also finally got around to doing something creative with the chalk-board wall. Well, the Animator did, I merely persuaded him to get up on the ladder and scribble my favourite Oscar Wilde quote onto the wall.

Hope springs eternal

Hey winter, thanks for coming but I beyond done with you and it's time to go.

I am sick of coughing as though I've swallowed a live seal, of having to wrap myself around the central heating and of wearing more layers than should be allowed by state law.

Besides, the blossoms are starting to show - well these ones at my bach are, anyway. Either they're a little confused  or, despite all signs to the contrary, spring is actually on the way.

I just wish it would hurry up and get it's sweet butt over here.

Today's visuals are of these glorious golden globes from Waiterere Beach. The vase is a very cool vintage jam pot I picked up from the Cheddar Gorge car boot sale for all of a fiver. Score.

Rain, rain go away

Our weekend at the bach turned into a thoroughly soggy one, with some of the worst flooding in the lower North Island for years.

Our neighbour told us this morning that they closed SH1 about 11.00pm Friday night - a couple of hours after we drove through. Thankfully, it was open when we drove home today.

Although the temptation to spend the weekend in front of the fire was strong, there was work to be done. The Animator finished painting the second to last room and I wrote two freelance stories.

We also spent large chunks of time working out how to build an Ark. Did I mention we now have a large water feature in our back garden, where there was none before?

I forgot to take any pics of the watery Armageddon so for your viewing pleasure here are visuals of the Hound on Waiterere Beach in much warmer times.

Oh summer, how I miss you...

Easter

Easter, as the irritating tee-vee adverts tell us, isn't just about chocolate eggs and hot cross buns.

It's also, as we found out this weekend, about the Waiterere Beach Easter Carnival where we spent Saturday afternoon chilling out.

 

It was also about the shit-ton of work I need to get done before I head overseas this coming weekend.

To break the tedium, there were twice-daily trips to the beach (including on Sunday with my friend Jo and her rescue greyhound, who also have a bach at Waiterere). And while the Animator covered every conceivable surface with fine dust as he plastered, sanded and replastered the bathroom walls, I got my own DIY groove on with the painting of the firewood receptacle he knocked up for me.

   
Am quietly chuffed at how well it turned out. Bring on the cold weather...

Belated weekend photos

There was more painting this weekend - for me at least. I spent Saturday turning this horrid pine TV cabinet into something a little cooler, thanks to my new best friend, white paint.

While  I sanded and under-coated and laboriously applied two coats of paint, I almost got drunk on the smell of fat, juicy peaches. Joy of joys, we have several fruit trees on our property which are now pregnant with ripe fruit. As if the bach couldn't get any more joyful.

A couple of months back the Animator's nephew flew down from Auckland to stay with us for the weekend; he pronounced the bach's bathroom so "hideous" he refused to take a shower the entire two days. He'd be pleased to know the Animator spent Sunday making good use of his new sledgehammer, ripping the 70s decor apart.

The plumbers have now apparently finished their plumbing and by this time next week, we should have a bathroom fit for even the fussiest Auckland princess.

 
     

The painting marathon continues

Another weekend, another room down...

The Animator is making great strides with hiding the bach's questionable 70s decor under litres of white paint (and no, sadly, it's not even cool in a retro way).

There were, of course, several trips to the beach including an early morning run on Saturday in which I pretty much had the entire beach to myself. Waiterere is truly my happy place...

Sunshine, pippies and a nephew

Another gloriously sunny weekend at the bach, this time with the Animator's nephew, Caleb, who flew down from Auckland on Friday night.

Early Saturday morning, the boys took Bristol to the beach and collected a bag of pippies, which found their way onto the barbie Saturday night.

   
In between visits to the beach and the scoffing of kaimoana, we also managed a considerable amount of work on the bach. While the Animator and Caleb sanded and prepped for painting, I was assigned the task of paying for someone's else's decorating mistakes, spending hours scraping horrid lino and backing off the bathroom floor. The heat gun is officially my new best friend.