Bach update

Over the winter I've spent most of my weekends and holidays working on the bach. l've left the bulk of the work to the two very skilled builders who I have hired to do the build but have also been doing all I can to help out to cut down on costs.  I've been doing stuff such as taking all the rubbish to the dump, labouring for the brickie, picking up materials from the hardware stores in town, putting in the insulation, painting the ply and battens prior to the ply sheets going on etc. During my last holidays prior to heading up to Panzershrek I spent five days labouring and helping out on the build- the first two mornings we finally got a winter, -5 and -7 first thing in the morning. Unfortunately there was no insulation in at that stage so it was as cold inside as it was out! After a very, very mild winter up to that point it was a bit of a shock to the system!

The build has been a bit slower than I'd hoped but we were held up a couple of times and the guys have had other smaller projects now and then that they've done but we are finally reaching completion, hopefully the end of next week they'll be finished.  

About to start- as you can see is a small typical kiwi bach. It was pretty small at about 65m2 in floor area. I'd cleared most of the old deck prior to this shot.

The digger prepares the hillside for the build

Foundations are laid.

A few weeks later we finally see the addition starts to take shape. Upstairs will be a bedroom with a balcony, below is the new north & west facing lounge- so gets maximum sun.

A few from where the car parks- which ha always had the best views!

Last school holidays I spent a couple of says putting in all the insulation.

Last weekend it is finally starting to take shape. Eventually I intend to get rid of all the old cladding (which I hate) but need to see how the finances hold up- so far we are on track with the budget so might be able to do that too. If not it will be painted black to tie it in better with the new build.

I arrived down there yesterday to find that the walls had been gibbed and stopped and also that the stairs were finally in- no more clambering up a ladder to get to the upstairs.  So we are now on the home straight.

Below is a shot taken yesterday. The scaffolding finally came down this  week. The balustrade for the balcony was supposed to arrive on Friday. My wife headed up to CHCH to pick it up only to be rung up when up there by the company to say it had a scratch on it and was going to need to be re-powder coated over the weekend. It is now due tomorrow and I'll take it down after work.

Last weekend I gave the upper storey a second coat before the scaffolding came down.  I was hoping to stain the lower level today but the weather was a bit crappy so worked on the inside instead- prepping to paint next weekend. By the time I got down yesterday there wasn't time to take a load of rubbish to the dump (hence the pile of rubbish for me in the photo below).

 You may notice that the front is a completely different colour to the rest of it. My plan was always to stain it black but a couple of weeks ago the building inspector informed us that as the front is also a  bracing wall it can't be stained but must be painted and in a lighter colour to reduce the impact of UV light. To say I was a tad annoyed is an understatement but will come up with a solution to the problem. I've a couple of ideas in mind.

The above photos also shows my latest purchase. On Friday after work I headed up to Christchurch and picked up a hottub! I've wanted one for quite a while but they also seemed to be very, very expensive. A mate of mine however has recently had one made by a friend of his so I contacted the guy and he was willing to build another and at a very, very reasonable price.  As well as hand building the tubs he is also a sheet metal worker so built the heating unit as well. It is pretty simple woodfired and takes about 3-4 hours to heat up. Note the firebox/heater unit is just sitting in it and I need to install it next weekend once I've settled on a place for the tub. 

So a 3 hour drive south was in order yesterday with a rather large hottub on the trailer - the weather was a bit dodgy too- strong winds around Ashburton preceding a cold southerly blast which made the trip a tad interesting.

Anyway, this was the view from the balcony this morning after the southerly. The Kakanui ranges finally have a reasonable covering of snow.

So the finishing line is now in sight but I've still a few weekends of painting ahead.

Current project

Not much to report on the gaming front again unfortunately but Kent and I are planning to have a game next Weds all going well. The only gaming news of note is that Poochie and I have decided to go to Panzershrek FOW doubles tourney in Palmerston North in July.

Most of the guys I enjoy playing against in FoW are based in the North Island these days and over much umming and aahhing decided to partner Poochie and go on a road trip with the Regiment- as an honorary member (or is that the only member?) of their southern branch. Haven't played FoW since Day of Days 2014 so no doubt will be a bit rusty but looking forward to catching up with a large number of gaming mates.

Bach Reno project
However, I have been keeping myself busy. After about 15 months of planning I've finally started my major renovation on my old bach. I had to wait till Julie was back working before I started and the council consents took 3 months rather than the 20 working days we'd anticipated so the timeline has been thrown well and truly off track.

The bach is about 60 years old and currently about 60 square metres with two small (under 10 square metre each) bedrtrooms so I decided to add a larger double bedroom for Julie and me. However, the best views are from the carpark area as the bach is nestled down the slope (and so protected from the prevailing winds) so I decided that if I didn't go up as well that in a year or two I'd be kicking myself for not having done so. So in the end I came up with a design that had a lounge and an upstairs bedroom. The addition will bring the bach to about 100 square meters so still quite small- I've become a fan of the small(er) house movement. It is interesting to note that since the 1960s our houses have grown from about 120m2 to more than 205m2, the third biggest in the world!

Anyway I digress. Over the past 8 weeks or so I've spent most of my weekends down at the bach getting involved in my building project- not exactly a grand designs scale project but fun nevertheless.

Easterweekend weekend finally got started- we had to excavate part of the hillside as the build is going to be set back into the hill.

Foundations went in- after a 2 week delay as we'd hit a seam of limestone and council needed to approve changes to the piles- yet more expense.

 As you can see the existing bach is nothing flash (a typvcial old school bach, not a fnacy arse holidfay home), built 60 odd years ago, clad in horrible hardiplank (I'm going to change to ply and batten to tie in to extension). The new lounge and upstairs bedroom is built on the north (sunny) side of the house.

The upper storey is built back into the hillside and sitting on a block wall- which we needed to build.

The ground floor framing goes up.

Indoor/outdoor flow- the existing north wall is removed- this will increase the size of the lounge.

The upstairs is underway

Upstairs framework complete.

Finally,  I get to see the view I've been planning on capturing.

The above photo was taken last Friday- a stunning day. Saturday it pissed down and I spent the day sweeping away water which was coming through under the ply into the existing lounge we'd put up till the interior is enclosed.

I popped down after work last night and yesterday the roof went on and they started wrapping the exterior.

And there we have it to date./ Am off down for the long weekend to do a few bits and pieces but hopefully by next weekend it will be clad

Plans for 2016

Hi everyone

It’s been summer holidays down here in NZ so have been off to the bach and surfing, camping in the Southern Alps with the family etc and generally making the most of the summer so not much happening on the gaming front. However, I did manage to get in a game of Bolt Action just before New Year vs Kent and my Free French came away with their first comprehensive win.

I think one of the things that worked in my favour, was deciding to experiment with smoke to shut down his artillery and stug. It was more effective than I'd hoped and was a major factor in the win...

...along with my uber 105mm howitzer than was once again MVP.

Plans for 2016?

Haven’t too many plans regarding wargaming at this stage this year; I hope to get a game in vs Kent in the next week or so but have no projects on the go- or planned. However, I am about to start my largest building project to date. I've decided to renovate my old bach, actually it's something I started planning this time last year. We enjoy our new bach and it is working really well as a holiday home rental/let so my plan is to do up the old bach and move into it- keeping the new place as a rental. 

The old bach is really small (the two bedrooms are less than 9m2 each) so I'm adding a new lounge and upstairs main bedroom and aim to make it my permanent home- hopefully from the end of this year.

It’s been  a year in the making so far but had to wait till my wife finished her studies before we started. Should have building consent in the next few days and will be underway early next month. At this stage I am aiming to spend 3 days a week down there working on the alterations but will depend a bit on work. I had arranged ot cut down to 4 days a week for 2016 but we have just merged with another polytech )so am still trying to renegotiate my hours/contract for this year with the aim of cutting down to 4 days per week while my wife works fulltime as a midwife. 

So I've decided this year is going to be about looking into options to try to set up living in Kakanui fultime, such as exploring  options for work or starting a small business to support myself.  It’s fast approaching time for a major career change I think so have this year to sort out what my next move is going to be. I aim to cut down to part time and get a better work life balance but will need some sort of work as well. I've a few months to try to sort out what I'm going to do for work but I’m really looking forward to the alterations and finally putting a plan into action.

So here is the plans- removing a small section of wall and...

adding a lounge area with a bedroom above. The design is something I came up with the night before finalising the plans with the architect. as it is being built into a hillside decided to step the upstairs back into the hill a bit to make use of th hill slope and give space for a balcony. 

 So with these plans starting may not be so focused on gaming and hobbies for the next few months either but will get the odd game in all going well. 

Craig

A new bach

Somehow over the break I managed to buy a new holiday home. We  spotted it while on a walk one evening at Kakanui and went for a look the next day and ended up putting an offer in. Being an unintended purchase it has meant we’ve spent quite a bit of time tidying up our current bach and getting it ready to sell. We enjoy the place we have, it is sunny and secluded and is a proper bach, no flashy modern holiday home here; it's pretty basic but a great spot to relax but if we were to live in it long term it would need some major renovations- I had an draftsmen teed up start drawing up some plans for an additional bedroom the day after we found the new place. 

The new place is a modern (holiday/family) home-  (iits only a few years old and has all the mod cons you'd expect). It’s on the seaward side of Kakanui and has great views over over the northern beach and Kakanui river mouth. I am buying it with an eye to the future, intending it as a place for us to move down to and live in permanently (sooner hopefully rather than later). In the short term though we’ll rent it out and maybe aim is to set it up as a holiday home rental with book-a-bach for next summer (probably from round Oct).

We went unconditonal and put the deposit on it this week so now just have to wait till the official purchase date at the ed of February. 

Kakanui- the surf beach (Campbell's bay) is at the bottom of the shot and is about 4km of golden sand and great surf. 

The new place.

It's also about a 250m-300m walk down the hill to the surf beach.  Now all I need to do is sell our current bach to get the mortgage back down to a reasonable level.

 Craig

Teaching the kids to surf

I first started surfing back in the early 1990s but gave up about  1995 when  I got into white water kayaking instead. When the kids came along I no longer had the spare time for kayaking either so for the past decade or so have mainly been using my playboat for surf-kayaking and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been on a river in the past few years.

Looking south from Kakanui towards Moeraki

 Over the past 3-4 summers the kids have been doing plenty of boogie boarding at Kakanui and for the past year or so Finn has been asking me to get him a surfboard. At the end of last summer one of my soccer mates gave Finn one of his old boards so he has been very keen to get started. Finn gave it a go the last time we were at Kakanui but wasn’t too successful (he quickly realised it is harder than it looks) and wanted some help. I'd been thinking about getting back into surfing so while we were in Blenheim for his soccer tournament I caught up with a mate who I’d given my old surfboard and arranged to get it back. I picked up the board when I was in CHCH for Conquest but one look at it I realised I’d be struggling to use a short board these days so last week I bought myself a 7’ 9” mini-mal - short enough to be able to control pretty easily, long enough to be able stand up on without too many issues and have “loaned” my short board to Hana to learn on.  

Kakanui- not a bad spot really!

  I took the kids out both yesterday and today and they had a blast. Both were able to get onto their knees and it’s only a matter of time before they’ll be standing. It took me awhile but I managed to catch a few waves. By the end of today Hana had, very briefly, managed to stand a couple of times.  They’ve bruised knees, arms and legs from being hit by the boards but both are rearing to go again next weekend. Tonight they spent their time watching how to surf vids on Youtube to get a few more tips. I’m not sure if they will stick with it, at this stage it looks like they might. They spent about 6 hours in the water over 2 days (not bad since they only have spring suits and the water is a “tropical” 14 degrees celcius!) and were both absolutely buzzing once we’d finished. Surfing is a great sport, so I hope they get bitten by the surfing bug and stick with it. There are a hell of a lot worse things they could be doing.

Alas, this isn't me.

Craig

New Bach

Not really wargaming related but yesterday was my wife's birthday and we also went unconditional on our new bach (holiday home- whcih she claims is her birthday present. If it keeps me in the good books who am I to disagree?).

Small language lesson: Apparently the term "bach" ( that's spelt "bach" and not BATCH!) comes from the word "bachelor" and comes from the small houses that single men lived in in the bush and goldfields of NZ. These days it is the term for a holiday home, although in Otago & Southland they call them cribs.

So we've paid our deposit, all the reports have checked out and we take possession next Friday, which also happens to be our 15th wedding anniversary, and ill definitely be heading down for the weekend.

Here are a few pictures.

It has views out over the Kakanui Mountains.

The bach is located in Kakanui, a small coastal town about 10km south of Oamaru and off the main roads so is not at all touristy!

This is the main reason I love Kakanui- All Day Bay.

A 4-5 km stretch of golden sand, protected from the easterly by the headland so even when the easterly is closing out the surf further along the coast it still quite often has a decent wave. All Day Bay is the first surf beach between Christchuch and Dunedin (and is about 270 km from ChCh - but only 90km from home so an hours drive for me!). The only other surf spot being Patiti and Jack's points at Timaru but these are both reef breaks and can be a bit dangeorus in a kayak-but can be a lot of fun.

Quite often when out surf-kayaking (I don't surf these days) there are a couple of hector's dolphins swimming about. 40 people on the beach at the height of summer is a busy day! Kakanui truely is still a place unspoilt by development and unlike many other parts of the NZ coast bachs are not ridiculously overpriced (although you do pay top dollar for views over All Day Bay- hence our view on the protected landward side of the Kakanui hill).

Craig