A fresh start: welcome David Haugh

After much labour from David and the kids, the downstairs bathroom, toilet, kitchen and laundry are finished except for a few little touches here and there. Then came yet another big stall. We're back into it again thanks to Rachel and her friend David Haugh. Rachel came and looked at the house and made many suggestions, including contracting David to finish the downstairs. He came around on Wednesday (14/12/16) with Rachel and I could see immediately he was a kindred spirit. He clearly loved Manor Place as much as I do. He had much expertise and advice to share and agreed to take on my mammoth project. Discussed with my David (how confusing) and we're ready to go.

On Thursday, I flew up to Auckland to visit family, including my lovely grandchildren, Zak, Rose and Tommy (and luckily escaping the hard work that was about to commence). Nick and David cleaned out the downstairs of all furniture (except for the piano which was much too heavy to move) and rubbish, ready for David to start.

Dave (i'm going to refer to him as Dave from now on so I can differentiate between builder and my David) started on Friday - preparing ceiling surfaces for sealant coats then moving on to the piano room wall over the weekend. Big de-mould job to do! David will work along side him tomorrow (Monday) and make a progress payment ($350).

Exciting to know we're making progress, and the house might soon earn an income instead of sitting empty!