Tag Archives: House

Taranaki 2024

Small world stuff at Ohakune

With all the trips we’ve done over the last 10 years or so up State Highway 1, I thought it would make a nice change to head across to Ohakune and check out the other side.

Click on any Image to Enlarge

The Ohakune Club

We arrived in the middle of the day and with the door to the Ohakune club shut, we walked into the town for a look around. We checked into a Bar there for a sly Gin and Tonic while watching people come and go, and bought some of Ohakune’s famous Eclairs to take back to Rafe…. and they didn’t disappoint 🙂

Downtown Ohakune

Later, we checked into the club and bought a drink at the bar.  While we were having tea, we met some nice people at the next table who it turned out, grew up in Devonport! They also owned a house in Devonport too, in Roslyn Tce.. “What number?”, asks Fiona. The reply was .. jeepers that’s our old house that we sold four years or so ago.

The back lawn Ohakune Club

It turns out that Rob and Jane bought it as a bit of a wreck as it hadn’t had anyone living in it for a few years. I had scrim on the walls, no light fittings and no taps on the plumbing! It was also smaller at the back and downstairs.

Amazing… it then turned out that we both knew someone from Taupo where they now live who parked in our driveway once… crazy 🙂

We spent another very pleasant half hour or so more with them before heading back through the rain to Rafe.

Rafe’s tracker map to Ohakune – Armada GPS
Preparation

Another go with the House

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We tried and we failed earlier in the year after putting the house on the market without any real tarting up. The house had been rented out for a couple of years and needed tidying up. The advice we had was let the new buyers add their own stamp which is what I thought too but the Devonport market seems to be a wee bit pickier than that.

The feedback was the house needed a bit of TLC and everyone seemed scared to come near it!

Blinds cleaned, room, windows, skirtings, doors all painted.

Over the last month or so, we’ve sanded, fixed up and painted all the doors. We’ve repainted 7 rooms through the house including windows, architraves and skirting boards.

Click on the Gallery below to see a slideshow

How the doors were.. freshly dipped a zillion years ago and simply hung as they were.
6 Doors in the hall all sanded, fixed up, filled and painted.
As the stairs were.. some rotten and cracked
The front stairs repaired and painted

We’ve had the garden made over and the house professionally water blasted.. its looking great. We also had some lots of help from stylist friend Stacey, along with Jenna and Fiona with the staging and it looks heaps better.  Lighter and cleaner looking seems to be the name of the game!

Check out the piccies below…Click on the Gallery for a Slideshow

Garden all tidy, everything waterblased, steps painted.
From the back
Painted hallway and loom at those doors
Kitchen the same.
Bedroom was yellow.. all painted.
Painted fireplace, window and door frames
Downstairs media room was a yellow studio.
Living arera not really changed.
New Bathroom
Garage carpeted

The first open homes this weekend and we already have plenty of interest so its looking good. It also has powered Motorhome parking and we have a Motorhomer interested in it 🙂

And what we did before.. Click on the Gallery for a slideshow

Lounge
Across the back
Main bedroom
Dining
Living area

Fingers and toes crossed !

Friends, Northland

Catching up

There was nothing in my diary for a few days and Anniversary Weekend was coming up. Fiona had to work for three days so I was off. I thought if I could, I’d try and catch up with old friends Gary and Chris who were with Mark and Tina  at Ruakaka.  After checking that they were there, I was off.

Click on the images to see Hi Res or a slideshow

Motorhomes and cars everywhere you look
Motorhomes and cars everywhere you look

After arriving early in the afternoon, Mark and Gary arranged for a parking spot on Marks front lawn.

Their House
Their House

Mark and Tina are getting stuck into a house that they had bought that needs plenty of TLC and had some experts in the previous day to remove all their weather boards which had some asbestos in them. Mark and Gary were wrapping building paper all around the weatherboard less house to keep the weather out. I was just in time to help where I could but they’d pretty much done the worst of it by then.

Mark up top with Gary helping below
Gary pulling out more strapping
From the inside
On the lawn

It was Mark and Tina’s wedding Anniversay so we headed into McLeods Pizza Barn in Waipu for tea. The pizzas were fantastic and the McLeod beer is good too. The girls were knackered afterwards so the 3 of us headed into Rafe for some after dinner drinkies. Very pleasant and nice to catch up them all again. 

Early the next day, the building inspector turned up and then a safety inspector. Both were happy with what was happening but I couldn’t get over the “dob in” factor of the neighbours. It’s great to be a concerned neighbour but I couldn’t help but feel that this was just trying to cause trouble.  A needless waste of many peoples time.

Tina and Chris keeping an eye on things
Tina and Chris keeping an eye on things

Great to see their new house and that they’re really tearing into it.  It’s just as well they’ve got a Motorhome they can stay in while they’re doing it up.

See  Mark and Tina’s  Motorhome here and Gary and Chris’s Motorhome here.

Ready to go

The view from the new pad

Who would have thought that by the end of the day we would have thunder, rain and hail. I went upstairs today to be greeted with this amazing view.

From the Lounge window
From the Lounge window

These have been taken on a camera as opposed to a cell phone.

Click on the images to see the detail.

Rorqual in front of the Cruising club
Rorqual in front of the Cruising club

Andrew couldn’t have set this up any better. After handing our Whalechaser Rorqual to the next generation, Alex and Andrew, Andrew has managed to get a house where he can see the boat lying in his bed out of the window!

The Dethleff Owners meeting is on this weekend at Miranda which I’m looking froward too. Look out for plenty of images from that.

Preparation

Wow .. How is that Black!


Tough painting on your knees amongst the plants. The base of the steps look great.

The black really looks good … More rent ?  🙂

Preparation

We’re online !

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We had the property manager today to list the house for renting. I’ve been busy painting trellis by brush ! .. The spray gun started to paint things I didn’t want painting so it ended up in the big green bin……

Why are we doing all this ? … To hit the road fulltime.. so  Bugger it, We are off

We’ve done the sums and by renting the house out, along with some other income, we can live very happily on the road….

Sir Rafe on the park we made by chopping down an oak tree and installing a gate.
Rafe on the park we made by chopping down an oak tree and installing a gate.