This was it...

the back end of the house where we spent so many hours for the last 12 years. The kitchen, dining room, bathroom and laundry were all in this area as well as where John worked on his computer. It was a lot of living. Christmas day, as I did the lunch dishes I heard a crash,

turned around and John had started ripping the walls down. Little did we know what we were in for as layer upon layer of demolition took place. Over the next few days wall after wall came down and ended up in piles like this.

There are so many things in a house we take for granted as the basis of our lives. As the layers of the building came down It was shocking to see the layers of other people's lives revealed. Down came the photos, the growth charts and the pictures that made our house our home and off to the tip they all went....not to mention the build up of 100 years of dust in the walls

Each day brought on a job that I thought was insurmountable. These concrete pillars were the result of 14 days of digging in the 40 degree heat of summer. There are 65 that are 75m deep and square. That is a lot of digging, blisters, sweat and weight gone!


Then the rain started and the dry dirt of heat turned to mud. Mud every where.

The kitchen got relocated to the backyard. At first this was cause for hilarious laughter. The first couple days I stood there with my morning coffee and only the birds for company thinking, this isn't so bad. Then they excavated and dumped tons of dirt on the lawn....dust and dirt was everywhere turning my pioneer kitchen into a filthy mess.

Everyone says renovating is a nightmare. Until we did it I always wondered how bad it could be. Now I know. It's not the decisions that are hard. It's finding two socks that match. Living with everything non essential packed up and stored away and finding at the bottom of one of those piles is something actually necessary! It's finding that all other areas of live are a mess...bills and taxes, ironing and laundry, friends and work...all gone to chaos in a wheelbarrow.

As the wife of an owner builder I have seen things I thought would last a hurricane come down and disappear.

My biggest concern is that my owner builder husband won't take enough care to see the job done!

The elements have taken their toll. We have endured the hottest days of summer, the wettest and windiest days and still powered through. I say we but I mean John. He has worked like a dog through it all to get it done.

The days of what will go where are gone as we finally have a roof and are expecting some doors this week. It will be strange to actually have to shut a door again since we haven't had any for months.

Ah yes, at the end we will have our dream home. We have been lucky with our builders as they have worked long and hard to give us what we want. Our house might not suit everyone but it has lots of elements built into it that will suit our lifestyle very nicely. That is the benefit of owner building is we have been able to closely monitor what is going on each day and make adjustments accordingly. In placement of windows, doors, stairways and the occasional error in the plans this has come to be quite convenient. In the sharing of a small crowded space with three teenage boys while everything gets torn up around us....well that certainly isn't for every family. Looking forward to.....just looking forward.