Renovated River Rd.

Here's a collage of some of the transforming of River Rd. It's Pete's family house and I really liked living there...great location and I think we all made some incredible improvements. Wait until you see some of the pictures of the new paint job. 

I know this is a random assortment of photos but I'll explain. About a month ago we were in Queenstown as we came down to show my friend Mim around and offer was sort of placed in our laps that, in the end, was a good one to go with. Our friend has this restuarant and he needed a new manager. Our friend, Ben, offered us a nice big room in his house (with a beautiful Lake view) and an opportunity to save up the money to go on a trip to Greece with them in June. So after some weighty consideration we decided to come down but that put us into hyper drive to finish some of the projects at River Rd. so it would be ready for tenants. Since we've been there, amazing changes have gone (walls removed, french doors in, carpeting, pellet fire in, painted lounge, dry walled, new lights) on we spent the couple weeks we had before needing to be in QT, painting the entire exterior of the house and putting in a new kitchen. Liz, Pete, Mike, and I (with the help of Tom and Mark with the kitchen) did it. The above pictures sort of show the old and new kitchen and the lounge filled with stuff. It's hard to see, but Mike and I also painted the lounge and it was all looking quite smart and cool. As we did all this work, I had major second thoughts about leaving because the house was going to be so nice and we had only lived in it, while it was all over the place. Maybe we'll move back in when we go back. Who knows but I really enjoyed seeing all the changes and being able to help out. Mike helped out so much and instigated so much of it as well. 

So you can get an idea of what we were up against...mint green to a chocolate color. Actually it was called half oil skin. Liz saw it on a house and I popped in to get the name of it. Luckily, it was a couple of guys because I don't know that a woman would be so forthcoming with the cool new color of her house. Liz, Pete, Mike, and I worked really hard out for nearly 2 weeks, scraping, burning, sanding, stripping, and painting this baby. But in the end, it looked fantastic. My painting course I took really paid off (well it was free) but it was fun to see how well it turned out. 

Painter Chris finishing up the windows. 

It was very rewarding to see it all done. It looks so much better, don't you think? 

Mike jack hammered like a demon and then he felt the pain afterwards. A deck went up here the day after we left. 

Our friends and family in Christchurch. The Cammocks, Matthews, and Bergs 

We had a little farwell breakfast. Here is McGregor and Maya enjoying the waffles. 

Off to Queenstown

This was the morning we headed down to Queenstown. It's funny to look back on this even though it was just two weeks ago, it seems farther back. I think that might be because we arrived here and immediately started work , as in upon arrival, so we just got into it. We worked none stop on the house for nearly two weeks but it was all coming together and Rob (Pete's brother) came to help build the deck, the new kitchen was in, the house was painted, and it was looking very spiffy. My friend, Mim, had come back the night before from her North Island adventures so she stayed up until the wee hours of the morning helping us pack...packing is so unpleasant but we got it all set and off we went. 

January 12th brought Mack's 19th Birthday. He got a sweet digital camera for his mission which he is currently waiting to hear what his call will be....I had a dream he went to Haiti. 

Mike sure loves those breakfasts