Blog 42: Moved in :-)

We are very happy and grateful to report that we have moved into our self contained B&B flat a.k.a Granny Flat in July as planned…. Yeeeharrr!!

Friday 26th July our first night in the house, sunrise onto our bed the morning after

As much as I would like to take the credit for hitting our ambitious target of July, on time, with additional scope and on budget… it all started with a very good and detailed schedule and supporting cost estimates thanks to Pat, and in the end was created with great work from everyone in the Nga Kereru build team, thank you all so much.

So who are the build team you may ask? you can find them here in the construction co-creators section of our web-site, legends all :-)

Our first night sleeping in the house was Friday 26th July, and at the end of our first week sleeping in the house we are now fully setup with plumbing and power for lights, cooking, washing laundry etc...

The ensuite bathroom is a work in progress for the next few weeks as we allow time for the beautiful Tadelakt plaster to cure and harden before we get it wet. But no drama, as we still have our flush toilet with a view on the building site, and we will continue to shower in the caravan which is doubling as our site office and smoko hut.

So to translate for my IT colleagues tracking the build… we have gone live on-time and on-budget in July, piloting the MVP in the granny flat (minimum viable product) and in short order (within a week) the team has completed their next sprint without compromise on the feature set we had scoped to be delivered (we have everything on our wish list) and so we have upgraded to an EIP (excellent initial product).

Huge appreciation to an awesome team for making our dreams come true!

Aless and her linseed oil on plaster kitchen splash back, both beautiful!

Kitchen and dining

Sleeping space

Pat and team have also completed the laundry, with the walls linseed oiled, the old school laundry tub and our new washing machine installed. Our heat-pump hotwater cylinder is also setup along with the house plumbing going live - thanks to Kenny :-)

So the kitchenette, our ensuite bathroom and our laundry all have hot and cold running water and we can return our laundromat key!

First load of washing.. a big milestone

Kitchenette sink, hot and cold running water - luxury :-)

To complete the picture we of course also needed power for lighting, hot water heating and our appliances etc.. etc.. Thanks to Bob, Geoff for all their work wiring up the house and to Mike, Bernie and Jimmy for the final commissioning, we have now cut over from the builders temporary to our house meter board and switchboard.

Vircon EMS testing in progress

Bob and Geoff power on!

So the house is partially live while the build continues - with cunning electrical design, Geoff and Bob wired the house to support this early move in, livening one phase, that gives us power and lights in the B&B flat, garage and laundry.

As icing on the cake we also have the internet hooked up to the house on a wireless link (Rural Broadband from Taylor Communications) with wifi live throughout the house.

Twilight view over the clay plaster factory from the granny flat

For the early occupancy during construction to be kosher we need to have ongoing insurance cover for the build.. and thanks to advice from Kim at Rothburys we have build insurance from the start that allows our early move-in while construction continues.

We have moved out of the caravan and into the house.. a very big step!

But building and planting continues at Nga Kereru, there are several more blog posts to come so stay tuned… We will be moving in again in just a few months time as the rest of the house is commissioned.

It’s still a worksite just through that doorway… :-) the fun continues…