Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Birthday Sunshine!
Yesterday I had to wait around for the plumber to come over and hook up the drain to the tub. My friends Michelle, Nicola and Jennifer stopped over for coffee and helped me celebrate my birthday. It was such a nice surprise! Nicola made a yummy cake and the girls helped me to blow out the candles! It was sooo great! and really fun!
Here is a picture of Marcel our plumber. He made a special trip over to our house for my birthday to hook up drain to the tub that Eric framed! Sooo nice! Hooray! I can finally give the girls a bath!! He also brought me a bottle of wine! Super cool! 
our new toilet =)
our new toilet =)Eric came home and took me out to lunch at a great Chilean restaurant (YUM) and later in the evening he hired a babysitter to watch the girls and treated me to a movie and drinks! (we were still pretty stuffed from lunch to have a full dinner) It was sooo nice to go out with just Eric! We have been really busy with life and the bathroom remodel that we have not had any time together to just hang out! This was a great birthday gift!
What a Super Terrific Birthday!
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Happy Birthday Anna Banana!
It's Anna's Birthday Today! Her favorite day!Although, it's not the same as it was in the states. Autumn weather, orange leaves, chilly mornings, and lots of Halloween spirit in the air.
We had chocolate cake last night (Anna's Birthday Eve) so we could have a family party.
We also went out to the girl's favorite restaurant. The girls got themselves all dolled up for it! Ahhhh McDonalds....
Tonight, just us adults are going out for a night on the Wellington town!
I know it doesn't count as a birthday present, but we got the bathtub in last night. One small miracle for us.
The plumber is coming today to put in the drain so that we can actually use it. He didn't want to come over till I had the walls up so that he could do the rest of the plumbing all at once, but Anna told him "It's my birthday.", so he is coming over just to get the tub working.
We sure do love her!!!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Happy Birthday!
October 27 in Canada!
We are thinking about you today and hope you have a great day!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Rooting for Renovation Man Reynoldz.. ;)
MONDAY MORNING FUN******************
This morning the sun was shining brightly, Eric got the girls dressed, packed a little food and we went out and had a breakfast picnic on the beach.
Over the weekend the girls and I decorated the house for Halloween! Our container of Halloween decorations was one of the items that PaPa and Grandma Jo helped us ship over earlier this year. We are practically the only house in the neighborhood with Halloween decorations and we have had fun with them. Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Halloween.... 
Home Renovations*******************************
I heard scurrying in the roof when I woke up the other day and thought with dread,.. "oh nooo we must have rats in the attic." It turns out we have a bird making her own home renovations in the corner of our roof..... Eric is not too happy, but I will take a bird over a rat any day... =)
We STILL do not have a functioning bathtub/shower in our house. It is a pain but we have survived. During the week the girls and I have used the showers at the swimming pool and Eric has been showering at work.
This morning the sun was shining brightly, Eric got the girls dressed, packed a little food and we went out and had a breakfast picnic on the beach.
We were out for a bit and the wind shifted instantly and all of a sudden we got a bone chilling gust of southerly wind from the Antarctic. Brrrrr.. We packed up and went inside. It sure was fun while it lasted! =)
WEEKEND Halloween Fun ******************
Over the weekend the girls and I decorated the house for Halloween! Our container of Halloween decorations was one of the items that PaPa and Grandma Jo helped us ship over earlier this year. We are practically the only house in the neighborhood with Halloween decorations and we have had fun with them. Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Halloween.... 
Home Renovations*******************************
I heard scurrying in the roof when I woke up the other day and thought with dread,.. "oh nooo we must have rats in the attic." It turns out we have a bird making her own home renovations in the corner of our roof..... Eric is not too happy, but I will take a bird over a rat any day... =)Now to give you a bathroom update (this would be day 16 if you are counting)
We STILL do not have a functioning bathtub/shower in our house. It is a pain but we have survived. During the week the girls and I have used the showers at the swimming pool and Eric has been showering at work.
I was able to bring our dirty clothes to a drop off laundry so we now have clean clothes. (this was really cool, you drop off your clothes, come back a day later and receive them back clean and folded.. I could get used to that =)
Our good friends Nicola and Ian returned from their 7 week trip back to the UK last Thursday. Even though Nicola was jet lagged to the gills, she offered to have the girls come over to play at her house on Saturday so we could get some work done on the bathroom. Since Eric works at his "other job" during the week he did not get as much renovating done as he had hoped. So he was totally THRILLED with Nicola's offer to have the girls!
It IS amazing what you can get done without kids. =)
In about 5 hours we were able to install insulation, drywall on the ceiling and 3 of the walls!
When I picked up the girls Nicola offered to let me use their shower (which was great because I was the one installing the itching insulation) and to top it all off she had prepared a take away dinner for us to enjoy back at home! What a friend!!
We did get some work done during the week. We had the electrician in to finish off the RCD/GCFI sockets. While we had the wall exposed and he was available. We had him prepare the electrical for our future kitchen renovation. (I hope it was smart thinking on our part =)
The cement board is now up and we are ready for the plumber to run the water for the tub. He will be coming over this week sometime.
We did get some work done during the week. We had the electrician in to finish off the RCD/GCFI sockets. While we had the wall exposed and he was available. We had him prepare the electrical for our future kitchen renovation. (I hope it was smart thinking on our part =)
The cement board is now up and we are ready for the plumber to run the water for the tub. He will be coming over this week sometime. So things are SLOWLY moving along, we still need to sort out what we are going to do with our bathroom windows. Eric had a builder come over on Sunday to pick his brain about what can be done. The builder lives in the neighborhood and kindly offered to come over to give Eric some advice.
While he was over we found out that he was the guy who actually updated the bathroom that we just demolished.... oops..
To make small talk Eric asked the builder about who he was "rooting for" during the world cup rugby finals. (The world cup Rugby finals were Sunday morning..) Not a big deal right?? but
see the definition of "ROOT" in NZ
ROOT - to have sex. A warning to folk from the USA! - A female visitor from the US has this to say... My first time in NZ I made the unfortunate mistake of listing off my hobbies to a family that had me over for tea.... among my hobbies? "I like to root for the football team!" (one of the boys said, "What, the WHOLE team??")
Hee hee.. Double oops.. =)
Have a great day everyone!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Progress, Hiccups and Optimism
Just thought I would bring you up-to-date on our bathroom remodel progress so far... (if you are counting, this would be considered day 8 =)
1) Eric has been really busy and the bathroom is pretty much gutted. No turning back now!! He removed tons of rotten black moldy drywall called jib board here. (yep we found Black mold hidden in the drywall.. glad to get rid of that stuff!!)
2) We won a brand new Kohler shower tub on the NZ "Trademe" auction site. It was never used/still in the box! We got it for over half the price it would cost us Retail! Woo hoo! Plus the guy selling it also gave us the bath spout ($199 retail), shower mixer ($289 retail) and shower door ($789 retail) Deal! (ha ha ha)
3) We bought the new toilet. (a spindly $589)
4) We have picked our tile for the floor and Eric has purchased plywood to lay on the floor so he can remove the beautiful hardwoods that are there now to use in another place in the house. (A sheet of plywood is 150 bucks, tile are 21 bucks each.. we had to buy $500 worth.. )
3) The electrician came yesterday and installed bathroom safe electrical sockets that you can test/reset (called RCD here, can't remember what they are called in the states but you know the ones they are in every bathroom/kitchen where you have water). The socket piece alone costs $200 each and we needed one for by our washing machine, one by the bathroom sink and he replaced the non RCD one in our kitchen that sits directly by the sink. (that is 3x 200 bucks just for the sockets plus the price of the electrician..) (yep, you are doing the math correctly.. things are getting pretty expensive)
Things are moving along..
Now for our Saturday HICCUPS/Problems/ @&$@(#$*@(*#
1) THE BIG ONE!!! Well the old tub is gone, which is great because our new one is getting installed Wednesday! We can shower at the pool during swim lessons on Monday, Tuesday so we are set. Eric cleaned out the area to get the place ready for the plumber. We went out to get the new tub to make sure it would fit in the area. We took it out of the box and revealed our beautiful new tub..
Only the picture below is what we thought we were buying on Trademe. The guy selling it said, "it was exactly like the picture posted".. Notice the difference in the photos?? They are not the same.. the one we actually have now is a "Lefty" and we need a "righty", like the one in the photo that was posted on Trademe. We contacted the guy who sold it and he is going to give us our money back but now we do not have a tub/bath spout/shower door/shower mixer.. AND we will have to pay RETAIL prices plus wait for a new tub to get ordered and delivered..
2) The beautiful hardwood floors.
After being deflated by the tub incident. Eric went to remove the old hardwoods floors so he could salvage them. He found it was literally impossible to get them out without breaking the wood. The nails that have been holding the wood in place are like super cement and they are not budging. So the wood floors will not be salvaged after all and we have some floor patching to do.
That is not all, throw in...
1) A stinky neighborhood tom cat that has decided to spray under our house now that the crawl space has been exposed. (P... U....),
2) The huge amount of demolition debree that is piling up in our backyard. Eric told me to call the Got Junk guys he heard about to come in to remove it. I had to remind him that that service is one that Kevin and Kate used and he heard about it from their blog in LA. It is a service that is not offered here in Wellington.
3) Finally, the fact that things are REALLY expensive here and that the hardware stores just do not always have all the same things available. (ie insulation for keeping hot water pipes warm, recessed wall laundry hook-up kits etc..).
This is turning out to be a big, big, big, and expensive project.
Being optimistic....
1) We do not have mold in the walls (because we do not have any).
2) I do not have to do laundry because we do not have hookups any more.
3) Our electrical sockets in the kitchen and bathroom are up to code and safe.. No chance of getting 240V of electricity shock if I drop the toaster in the tub. (oh yeah no tub and the wires all all exposeds.. no dry wall installed yet...)
4) Haidyn said, "we should have a Halloween party because our bathroom looks like a scary dungeon". =) I like her thinking.. =)
There is no turning back. =)
1) Eric has been really busy and the bathroom is pretty much gutted. No turning back now!! He removed tons of rotten black moldy drywall called jib board here. (yep we found Black mold hidden in the drywall.. glad to get rid of that stuff!!)
2) We won a brand new Kohler shower tub on the NZ "Trademe" auction site. It was never used/still in the box! We got it for over half the price it would cost us Retail! Woo hoo! Plus the guy selling it also gave us the bath spout ($199 retail), shower mixer ($289 retail) and shower door ($789 retail) Deal! (ha ha ha)
3) We bought the new toilet. (a spindly $589)
4) We have picked our tile for the floor and Eric has purchased plywood to lay on the floor so he can remove the beautiful hardwoods that are there now to use in another place in the house. (A sheet of plywood is 150 bucks, tile are 21 bucks each.. we had to buy $500 worth.. )
3) The electrician came yesterday and installed bathroom safe electrical sockets that you can test/reset (called RCD here, can't remember what they are called in the states but you know the ones they are in every bathroom/kitchen where you have water). The socket piece alone costs $200 each and we needed one for by our washing machine, one by the bathroom sink and he replaced the non RCD one in our kitchen that sits directly by the sink. (that is 3x 200 bucks just for the sockets plus the price of the electrician..) (yep, you are doing the math correctly.. things are getting pretty expensive)
Things are moving along..
Now for our Saturday HICCUPS/Problems/ @&$@(#$*@(*#
1) THE BIG ONE!!! Well the old tub is gone, which is great because our new one is getting installed Wednesday! We can shower at the pool during swim lessons on Monday, Tuesday so we are set. Eric cleaned out the area to get the place ready for the plumber. We went out to get the new tub to make sure it would fit in the area. We took it out of the box and revealed our beautiful new tub..
Only the picture below is what we thought we were buying on Trademe. The guy selling it said, "it was exactly like the picture posted".. Notice the difference in the photos?? They are not the same.. the one we actually have now is a "Lefty" and we need a "righty", like the one in the photo that was posted on Trademe. We contacted the guy who sold it and he is going to give us our money back but now we do not have a tub/bath spout/shower door/shower mixer.. AND we will have to pay RETAIL prices plus wait for a new tub to get ordered and delivered..
2) The beautiful hardwood floors.
After being deflated by the tub incident. Eric went to remove the old hardwoods floors so he could salvage them. He found it was literally impossible to get them out without breaking the wood. The nails that have been holding the wood in place are like super cement and they are not budging. So the wood floors will not be salvaged after all and we have some floor patching to do.
That is not all, throw in...
1) A stinky neighborhood tom cat that has decided to spray under our house now that the crawl space has been exposed. (P... U....),
2) The huge amount of demolition debree that is piling up in our backyard. Eric told me to call the Got Junk guys he heard about to come in to remove it. I had to remind him that that service is one that Kevin and Kate used and he heard about it from their blog in LA. It is a service that is not offered here in Wellington.
3) Finally, the fact that things are REALLY expensive here and that the hardware stores just do not always have all the same things available. (ie insulation for keeping hot water pipes warm, recessed wall laundry hook-up kits etc..).
This is turning out to be a big, big, big, and expensive project.
Being optimistic....
1) We do not have mold in the walls (because we do not have any).
2) I do not have to do laundry because we do not have hookups any more.
3) Our electrical sockets in the kitchen and bathroom are up to code and safe.. No chance of getting 240V of electricity shock if I drop the toaster in the tub. (oh yeah no tub and the wires all all exposeds.. no dry wall installed yet...)
4) Haidyn said, "we should have a Halloween party because our bathroom looks like a scary dungeon". =) I like her thinking.. =)
There is no turning back. =)
Thursday, October 11, 2007
All I want for Christmas..
are my 2 front teeth =) 
The other big event that happened at the pizza birthday party was Haidyn lost her 2nd tooth.
The other big event that happened at the pizza birthday party was Haidyn lost her 2nd tooth.
At first she was really sad, she thought she would not be able to talk any longer
Here is her note to the tooth fairy.
Athea finally got her to smile by pretending to be a unicorn using the party hat for her horn. She gave Haidyn a ride on her back. See birthday post below for the picture.. If you look close enough you can see in that pix both of Haidyn's teeth are missing but the pix on the left where we are eating pizza Haid is only missing one. Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Happy Birthday to Daddy Reynoldz
Today we celebrated Eric's 41st Birthday! The girls and I threw him a pizza party and made him apple crisp with ice cream and a candle.
Haidyn says, "My Dad has the best smile in the world and is very beautiful. I am so glad that he takes care of me!"
Athea says, "I have a nice Da Da. He goes to work and he also fixes the bathroom. He is fun!"
We sure do love him! Happy Birthday!
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
House paints aisle 7, Face Paints in aisle 2
We went to Mitre 10 Mega store (a NZ Home Depot) over the weekend and they had FREE face painting for the kids.This store is pretty cool it has the typical Home Depot stuff, plus a full cafe inside and a big play area for the kids.
The kids were delighted by a trip to the HW store for a change, and for a change, Eric was able to spend more time than he actually wanted browsing the aisles.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Lot of fun.. and lots of messes..
We had a huge playdate at our house yesterday with Mia all day and Lenka, Demitrije in the afternoon..
In true kid fashion they were really loud, creative and messy..
At one point I went outside to find Haidyn, Mia and Athea covered from head to toe with a sidewalk chalk and water mixture... Wish I had a pix for you but I quickly sent them in the house for a bath so we could get ready for Lenka and Demitrije who were due to arrive at any minute. (I did not want the new playdate recruits to come over and immediately join in the chalk sludgefest game).
The bath water was black and the cute girls left a hefty ring in the tub that I had to scour 2 times to get rid of (the chalk stained the porcelain a bit as well as the girls skin.. =)....
Here is the rest of the house after the playdate...
A village was assembled with the polly pocket and old and new fisher price structures.
Then there was lots of lego, tunnel obstacle courses, stuffed buddies and dress up.
heaps of art work!
Also.. a trip to the park, 3 snack times, and lunch.. what a day.. Eric says he thinks our house looks like a daycare center.. today I had to agree with him =)
Now here are the girls this morning ready for a brand new day of play..
Today though...
Eric is the one making the mess in the house..
looks like we have started a bathroom remodel.. Eric was not happy with the way the hot water pipes were run in the house... He wanted to investigate. Guess I should not have spent so much time scouring the tub yesterday. =) But isn't that always the case, the place that is just cleaned is the one spot the kids like to make messy... brand new canvas.. so to speak. =)
I sure love all my kids.. big and small...
In true kid fashion they were really loud, creative and messy..
At one point I went outside to find Haidyn, Mia and Athea covered from head to toe with a sidewalk chalk and water mixture... Wish I had a pix for you but I quickly sent them in the house for a bath so we could get ready for Lenka and Demitrije who were due to arrive at any minute. (I did not want the new playdate recruits to come over and immediately join in the chalk sludgefest game).
The bath water was black and the cute girls left a hefty ring in the tub that I had to scour 2 times to get rid of (the chalk stained the porcelain a bit as well as the girls skin.. =)....
Here is the rest of the house after the playdate...
A village was assembled with the polly pocket and old and new fisher price structures.
Then there was lots of lego, tunnel obstacle courses, stuffed buddies and dress up.
heaps of art work!Also.. a trip to the park, 3 snack times, and lunch.. what a day.. Eric says he thinks our house looks like a daycare center.. today I had to agree with him =)
Now here are the girls this morning ready for a brand new day of play..
Today though...
Eric is the one making the mess in the house..
looks like we have started a bathroom remodel.. Eric was not happy with the way the hot water pipes were run in the house... He wanted to investigate. Guess I should not have spent so much time scouring the tub yesterday. =) But isn't that always the case, the place that is just cleaned is the one spot the kids like to make messy... brand new canvas.. so to speak. =)
I sure love all my kids.. big and small...
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Imagination, Inspiration and little fixes..
Happy October everyone!! My favorite month!!
We are in week 2 of our spring holiday break. School will start up again for Term 4 next Monday. In the mean time we have been playing a ton of dress up around here... Haidyn and Athea have been playing really well together. Athea has finally reached the stage where she can play imagination games. It is really cute. Today they are both princesses. (I am listening to them while I type) Haidyn lives by the sun and Athea lives by the sea. One has a house on the big chair and one has a house on the couch. It is really sweet. =)
These are two kitties taking a bath..
We have also been busy doing a few projects around the house. Not like the Scott's but they have been our inspiration.. =) (see the Scott's blog if you want to know what they have been up to)
Anyway we had the outside of the house pressure cleaned and guess what I found on the kitchen window after.... a paint chip from our windows that now need a paint touch up=). Hooray!!
On the brighter side, this is not an ordinary paint chip, take a closer look... (must be a bit home sick.. some people see the virgin Mary in objects.. not me, I see Minnesota =)
I just finished another curtain for our bedroom window, so I can finally take down the sheet =)
I only have one more window to go.. (maybe I will get it done with-in the next year.. Hey Scotts keep up the blog inspiration because I am already tired of this fixer upper stuff =)
Eric on the other hand has not lost the inspiration.. (he amazes me with his stamina)
He has put in some new lights and a new "mixer faucet/tap" in the bathroom. "Water mixer" taps (where you can make warm water) like central heat, are a rare item here in NZ. Not many sinks or tubs have them. I do not understand why.. I personally really hate washing dishes or my hands in HOT HOT HOT or COLD COLD COLD water.. =)
Eric wants you to know that the bathroom faucet is a "quick fix" until he can replace the whole sink. The girls could not turn on/off the water and when they did they could only use COLD COLD COLD water. This "little" temp fix has been huge and has made my life soooooo much easier. The girls can now wash their hands and brush their teeth with warm water and with out my help with the faucet. A little bit of independence can be nice.
Notice that the left old "cold tap" is still in place. It does not work any longer but we do not have the correct tool to remove it.. and if we did remove it there would be a big hole where is once was... so.. it stays for awhile.. to fool our guests.. =)
Eric has also just put lights in the attic and is starting to clean it up and lay down particle board on the floor so we can have a nice place to store things up there. (another nice thing that makes life easier for me =) This takes a bit of time because in the process he wants to make sure that he documents where the wires and pipes are located and wants to make sure they are all orderly, labeled, tidy and sorted.
Eric has big plans for major kitchen/bathroom remodels and again the Scotts have made him itchy to get started. But me.. I am happy with the "small" fixes.
We are in week 2 of our spring holiday break. School will start up again for Term 4 next Monday. In the mean time we have been playing a ton of dress up around here... Haidyn and Athea have been playing really well together. Athea has finally reached the stage where she can play imagination games. It is really cute. Today they are both princesses. (I am listening to them while I type) Haidyn lives by the sun and Athea lives by the sea. One has a house on the big chair and one has a house on the couch. It is really sweet. =)
These are two kitties taking a bath..
We have also been busy doing a few projects around the house. Not like the Scott's but they have been our inspiration.. =) (see the Scott's blog if you want to know what they have been up to)
Anyway we had the outside of the house pressure cleaned and guess what I found on the kitchen window after.... a paint chip from our windows that now need a paint touch up=). Hooray!!
On the brighter side, this is not an ordinary paint chip, take a closer look... (must be a bit home sick.. some people see the virgin Mary in objects.. not me, I see Minnesota =)
I just finished another curtain for our bedroom window, so I can finally take down the sheet =)
I only have one more window to go.. (maybe I will get it done with-in the next year.. Hey Scotts keep up the blog inspiration because I am already tired of this fixer upper stuff =)
Eric on the other hand has not lost the inspiration.. (he amazes me with his stamina)
He has put in some new lights and a new "mixer faucet/tap" in the bathroom. "Water mixer" taps (where you can make warm water) like central heat, are a rare item here in NZ. Not many sinks or tubs have them. I do not understand why.. I personally really hate washing dishes or my hands in HOT HOT HOT or COLD COLD COLD water.. =)
Eric wants you to know that the bathroom faucet is a "quick fix" until he can replace the whole sink. The girls could not turn on/off the water and when they did they could only use COLD COLD COLD water. This "little" temp fix has been huge and has made my life soooooo much easier. The girls can now wash their hands and brush their teeth with warm water and with out my help with the faucet. A little bit of independence can be nice.
Notice that the left old "cold tap" is still in place. It does not work any longer but we do not have the correct tool to remove it.. and if we did remove it there would be a big hole where is once was... so.. it stays for awhile.. to fool our guests.. =)
Eric has also just put lights in the attic and is starting to clean it up and lay down particle board on the floor so we can have a nice place to store things up there. (another nice thing that makes life easier for me =) This takes a bit of time because in the process he wants to make sure that he documents where the wires and pipes are located and wants to make sure they are all orderly, labeled, tidy and sorted.
Eric has big plans for major kitchen/bathroom remodels and again the Scotts have made him itchy to get started. But me.. I am happy with the "small" fixes.
