Holy cow (Oh la vache) time flies. We’ve been a bit slack in the writing and photo uploading department lately but we’re catching up now. There are five, count them FIVE, fresh, new photo albums with loads of fabulous photos. Go check them out!

In the past month there’s been quite a lot of progress on the house. In the beginning of October we saw the piles for the house go in. Then a week later we had a large dance floor. We were nervous about how small the house seemed until the framing went up. I had Seb lay down in our bedroom to make sure our bed would fit and phew! Yes it will! We’re both thrilled with how big the living room/kitchen area is. It will be completely open with a vaulted ceiling so it’s going to be big and spacious while not being overwhelmingly huge…and with a gorgeous view.

Last week Peter (our builder) started on the veranda. It’s taken him just as much time as the house foundation due to ridiculous building regulations that require our veranda to have piles as big as our house…but more of them. Completely insane. It’s so obvious that this regulation was pushed by the timber industry. Our veranda is now stronger than our house. In case of a serious storm I think we’ll just strap ourselves to the deck.

The weather hasn’t been flash this month. We’ve had many days of rain…and even sleet two weeks ago. Spring seems to come to the mountains a little later than it does to the city. The weather systems get stuck in the hills and release their rain on us constantly. What this ultimately means is that it’s now unlikely that the house will be finished by the time Seb and I leave for the U.S. for Christmas. Damn! I’m quite sad about that but when we get back it will be like a huge Christmas surprise.

In the month of October we also had our first guest. David, our super helpful friend spent the weekend with us on the land. He helped Seb with the windows and managed to avoid the ice cold “showers” Seb enjoys in the mornings. While David was there we hiked along our stream from the mid-point down to the bottom and discovered we have a few waterfalls and swimming holes! It was a gorgeous hike and we have plans of making a path to one of the swimming holes for use in the summer. It’s going to be fabulous!

In New Zealand, the building sector has been crazy for a decade. The country was for sale, signs everywhere advertising for the best building spot, the best house to renovate, the blank canvas..It was said that finding a builder in all that building/renovating party would be a nightmare…So at an early stage, we started to look around for a builder that could build our house in the time frame we had set for our project. The first reflex for computer addicts like us was to go on the internet. There are quite a few builder websites out there, all trying to convince you that their listings are free of building ‘cowboys’. One of the more serious sites, the registered builder association, had a little section on Coromandel builders. From this list we chose one that seemed to be well established and professional, we rang him and had an appointment the next week-end on the land.

Our first meeting was full of promise. The Builder seemed very confident , knowledgeable, trustworthy and his schedule seemed to match perfectly with ours. “What a pick”, we thought! The first one we meet is the one, how lucky we are!

Thanks to him, we found our architect and had a great time designing our house. In the meantime, the earth movers cleared the land, we built the shed, and the consent process was started. Then came the quoting time…

We provided the Builder with plans, specifications, and our choice of materials. According to the budget we drafted, from speaking with people and doing research on the Internet, we had a good idea of how much we were going to have to invest to get to the lockup stage. After weeks of delays due to slow responses from the material providers, the Builder sent us his quote.

We fell from our chairs.

The Builders quote was 40% more than we estimated and we were stunned. Were we being totally unrealistic with our budget? We thought it could be this or perhaps he didn’t really want the job…or even that he was taking advantage of the fact that we’re not kiwis and (gasp!) that we’re Aucklanders. Not only were the figures excessive for ‘travel to site’, ‘insurance’ or ‘preliminary work’(?) but we would have to pay a solicitor extra to lock the money into a trust account and sign up a complete set of contracts and appendix.

A storm of thoughts and talks went through our place. We then decided to do what we should have done from the beginning…ask for other quotes. We decided to talk with builders on the Coromandel side instead of Whitianga. After many unsuccessful calls, we managed to find two builders to come up to our land the next week-end. Our hopes were up again!

Builder 2 and Builder 3 arrived on time that Saturday. After a brief look at the site, the plans and the schedule, it seemed each of them could jump on board. The questions then were…when and for how much!

That next week, the wait was unbearable. Eventually, on Thursday, Builder 2 rang and gave us a price that was perfectly inline with our budget and with what our research told us we should expect to pay. We were thrilled and at the same time cautious. “Is that material AND labour included?” All included, as per plans, and he could start early September. A faxed confirmation later and this time we were jumping from the chair!

Unlike the first builder, Builder 2 was very keen to show us his work and we were excited to see it. Considering the difference in his price from the first quote we also thought it best to see the handiwork of the magician we were going to give our dream project to, so we popped over to his place on the way to Coromandel Town the following weekend. Our first impression was that his house and lifestyle agreed with us. He took us for a ride around the area, showing us the many houses he built - half of the town really - and then he took us to his masterpiece. Hidden in a valley, he proudly guided us to a huge American Barn which took him a year to build. It was gorgeous and enormous. We spent half an hour admiring the job, inside out. All beautifully hand crafted in timber, from floor to roof. We couldn’t have been happier after seeing his work and especially the barn.

Not only did we like the guy, but he didn’t require a contract or financial securities, in a good old kiwi style. We felt very comfortable with him. In an effort to minimize any misunderstandings we did draft up a short contract that he signed with a grin.

On Tuesday 18th of September 2008, the house started to rise from the ground…

For any house-dreamer, the term building consent gives a chill from head to toe straight away. We were not different than others. The perspective of getting into this battle with council - hereafter named ‘the Devil’ - impacted on our choice of a local architect and on some of design decisions. In the last months we heard stories of long, painful and costly processes of getting a permit for any kind of building. But that was mainly in town, where it seems to be crazy. On our side, we were lucky not to have to build in a small section subdivision, where an army of experts have to determine where you put your house, your fence, your driveway, your sewage pipes and your mother-in-law. In our case, when the limits of your lot are hundreds of meters away, it was easier.

With our architect, we worked to be able to present plans as fast as we could in order to deal with the unavoidable issues that were due to arise. It took a month to draft plans and make little adjustments. As our architect mentioned, we were very lucky to ask for this consent now, because the law on windows is due to change in October. From that date, all new dwellings will have to have double glazing windows. A rule that would condemn all our great restored timber windows to the fires of hell! Ouuuf, that was lucky!

On the 30^th of May, our architect had the first meeting with the Devil. It seems all went well with the plans, but in the back of our minds we thought it was too easy. The Devil found an odd expertise that could slow our process, gnark gnark! Which one? Well…on how we are going to spread our s..t in the bush basically. So, there we go, 2 weeks and $1600 later, we had to provide them with a report on where the wastewater dripping lines will be lined up in the bush…and so the building consent process began. Tic tac tic tac.

The wait continued. A week later, a letter arrived with serious issues to sort on our plans, involving a scary mix of letters and figures (NZ1034?), basically meaning some of our timber was not big enough on the deck - or some similar thing. Luckily, our architect defeated the Devil and sent some corrected plans without the use of a crucifix or blessed water. What would be next?

Another week later, the Devil - mimicking a woman’s voice over the phone - thought he would strike and take our souls away. But we were prepared and provided clues on how we would respect the QEII Trust’ covenant with regard to colours of roof, walls and windows. Ah ah, good try Lucifer!

In the meantime, we found out that our application could be followed up on the Devil’s website (www.tcdc.govt.nz). So all strikes and blows could be foreseen before the letters even arrived! Was that another trick to distract our attention and attack from the side?

Eventually, 5 weeks after the application, exhausted by nights of watching our backs - and sides - we received the letter with the invoice. After a check for poison on the paper, it seems we have our consent!

Thanks to all the saints - and our architect - for that good news!

But it’s not finished. At building stage, we will have to call for Lucifer’s messengers 10 times on site to check on us. We’ll be ready and waiting!