Stairway to heaven (but battens are a bother)

Sunday, 17 August and The Old Forgery is nearly there now. Inside we now have a staircase, which makes going to view the bedrooms and mid-house sunroom a whole lot easier, and what lovely wide stairs they are. As you get to the top, the snowy mountain view is perfectly framed in the mid-gable window to welcome you. The main bedroom has its wall of louvre-doored wardrobes, which looks fantastic (and is something I asked for a couple of years ago when this whole project started, so many thanks, Desmond, for remembering that) and now that the gib-stoppers and plasterers are in residence too, the whole upstairs is taking its final shape. The spare bedroom is a delight - sunny, welcoming, great views and like the main bedroom, seems to have a lot of character. Hard to explain, but all of you who will be coming to stay with us will no doubt see what I mean!

Downstairs, the study and living room are being finished, while the final adjustments to kitchen and laundry joinery have been made and installation work should start very soon now. We had another highly productive meeting with Desmond and made final decisions on colours and finishes in the kitchen, laundry and bathroom, and had a stab or two at the other rooms, but time yet for that. We also inspected and OK'd the bluestone from Timaru Bluestone Quarry people for front porch, hall entrance and hearth surround - the effect should be just right.

Outside, the house is looking as handsome as ever, and the hebel block has been finished and painted, so is now 'done'. And the board and batten, which helps give the house its character and suits the village location so well, is in the process of being protector oil and colour coated. Trouble is, different colours and batches were delivered to the painter, so we now have about three discernible different finishes on various parts of the house ... the more middling colour is the intended effect (the others are too light, or too dark - shades of Goldilocks) but we've decided that as long as it's all the same in the end - consistency please! - we don't much care if the final colour is a little darker than we envisaged.

Everyone is still reassuring us that the building part of the house will be completed by the end of September (or thereabout) so we're going along with that timeline and will start thinking about carpets and other flooring to be organised some time in October, before we can actually move in. Up here, at the Christchurch end of things, we're still waiting for our signed-up buyers to sell their townhouse before they can satisfy that final condition on our sale (still a bit of time, and spring is definitely in the air). But we're ready to get the movers in - another couple of months to go, fingers crossed. We're really excited now and have worked out where our furniture, pictures and books will go (and shuddered at how much stuff we really should chuck). Lots of lovely storage we may have, but it shouldn't be taken up with cartons of crap lugged from one hidey-hole to another ... surely? On that note, really will keep you posted.