Here comes Winter

Yes that time of year has arrived here in New Zealand.
Yes I know that the weather is getting nicer for some of you in the northern hemisphere but please enjoy because it will soon go away when it wings its way back down under to us!
So it has come to the time of year when the heater is set everyday for the time we want it to come on.
The washing is rarely dried on the line outside or even in the garage as it is now too damp, so that means the washing rack has crept back into the family room by the heater.
1 layer is no longer suitable to wear and suddenly a snuggly sweater is very appealing.
No one wants to get up in the morning because it is dark and cold.

Soccer has commenced and even though the sun is shining whilst their games are being played the wind that whips around manages to find just the right place in your ear to hurt, so the woolly hats and scarfs have appeared.

I do love this time of year as well, the colours all around are beautiful, lovely browns, greens, oranges and red.
When the sun does shine everyone is out in the crisp air having fun and it re boosts your energy for when the days are cold and wet.
I do love coming home at night and slipping into snuggly sweats and sweaters and curling up on the couch with a blanket catching a show.
The crockpot is used much more and the aroma in the house is all warm and cosy. And I don't mind the oven being on making some nice hot dinner for us all to enjoy.

So to all you northern hemisphere friends, enjoy your spring and summer, enjoy your water play and outings to the beach, enjoy your BBQ's. Have fun watching the washing blowing in the summer wind drying nicely but just remember it will all go soon and then you will be in your winter but then having said that enjoy your cold dark nights with the houses lit up as you head towards Christmas, the pretty lights twinkling in the dark..

On second thoughts...I better stop now or I will have to move north back to what I remember!!

The Wall That Was....

We have been making some adjustments to the house.

We decided that there was one room in the house that was not getting utilised to its full potential.

As you come in the front door there is a room either side. The left is the study and the right , well it was a spare room, come playroom, come anything room, but because it is cold in there nothing much happens there.

The living room though is too small and the wall between the front room and the living room was a false wall, as you can see in the pictures.

So on Saturday we took it down, now don't fear this was not a spur of the moment decision, we had already talked about doing this. In fact we had even gone so far as to plan it, with the position we put the heat pump when it was installed last week.

So we planned to knock the wall down and extend the living area, thus creating a tucked away lounge and now a lovely sitting welcoming area where the boys can play with their toys in the warmth and everyone is much happier, oh yea and with much more space.

The wall actually came down very simply and cleanly, apart from decorating, which we are planning on doing very last, it looks so well done.

Of course the boys helped us and it was very much a family smashing of the wall.

I was a little eager in my picture taking and that is why everything is still in such a mess!

Now the living room is warm and cosy, very important, we have a lovely big play area for the boys, plus somewhere to sit that is different from the living room when someone pops over, and the fold down sofa bed has lots of space, ok those staying do now have to sleep in the middle of the house at the bottom of the stairs with no privacy, but who cares, we don't get that many over night guests versus our comfort whilst living in the house.

So now we are better utilising the space within our house and I am sure all those house sorting programmes would be well please with our efforts to conserve and maintain an efficient heating system within the house, that is using the heat correctly and with minimal effort and cost!

Man I am good, too good sometimes!!

Heat Pump

Yes we finally got a heat pump installed. Yeh
The house is a lot warmer than it was last week and the whole feeling in the hosue is nicer.
The pump is so quiet you hardly know it is on!
As for the outside unit, well that just ticks over quietly too. If you are in the garden you don't know they have the pump on in the house.
Now all we have to do is take down a wall in the lounge and we will have a lovely large room with lots of heat.

Doors and Heat

We have an old house and a heat problem as I previously mentioned.

We have a doorway between the dining room and the living room and have decided that we need to place a door there as the dining room gets cold. This in turn is making it difficult to heat the living room.

In the garage is 3 old doors that Steve has found and he is sure one of them will fit the doorway.

So he got them down last weekend and proceeded to strip them of all metalware so he could consider sanding them to get rid of the green.

Of course he had little helpers to make the day go smoothly along.

They did lots of work on the doors, but did one little thing backwards.....and that was that they did all this work on the door and then decided to see if it would fit!

Of course 1 of the doors was way too big and the other too small.

So the whole day could have been utilised slightly better, had they measured the doorway first.
So am not actually sure when we will now have a door in the doorway!?