Kim and Lee's Kiwiland Diary: April 2013

I can't stop playing that Aerosmith song "The Farm" in my head. Every time I leave work for our new home that thing comes on.

Yeah we moved! Out of Titters and on to the rural lifestyle of Coatesville.

Coatesville is a little rural borough of Auckland which sits about 30km Northwest of the city center. Lots of equestrian type activity, schools that have "Ag Days" (I think this is where the kids have to raise a chicken, or something). Its lovely. This area was also made famous by the FBI/New Zealand raid of Mr. Kim Dotcom's multi-million dollar mansion. If you dont know who this character is, google him up! I think a lot of Kiwis fancy him a Robin Hood type.

Over the XMas holiday season Kim and I used a lot of the time off to house hunt. Our lease in Titirangi was comming to an end and we had to find new accommodation. If you don't know anything about the Auckland real estate market, then keep it that way. It is absolutely bananas.

Let me introduce you to the spot...

This is an aerial shot of the property. It is a long skinny guy that runs along O'Brien Rd which seperates Coatesville from Lucas Heights. I drew the border of the property in RED (like a 2nd grader) and have identified our 3 paddocks in green. Kim and I had always wanted a "lifestyle block" since visiting NZ and this is it. It is 1.66 acres...so not unmanageable. The house is a simple 3/1 bungalow built in 1955. Then there is a 3 car garage with an apartment above (can rent, or use for our visitors). The previous owners took fantastic care of the place. We are pretty much at the top of Albany hill, so the view out over the Coatesville valley is spectacular.

Lets get to it....

front entrance from parking pad

hard to see, but there is a sandbox and a little play area out in front of the house

yeah buddy. time for a cold one...

this is where Beau stays

shut the gate to keep the crims out, and the doggies in

in the grand yard there is a chook coop

Kiwis growing on the chook coop

i told Kim to get a picture like we were in a rap video. mission accomplished.

But I have been remiss...Please! Allow me to introduce you to our new additions!

1) Chooks - Harriet and Henrietta (we arent sure which is which)
we suspect the light cheeky oneis Henrietta :)

2) Ella....yeah you know her

3) Feta - the goat to the left of Kim

4) Mara - the sheep to the right of kim

a 6-shot.

Feta

Mara

Looooonggg paddock. For some reason I LOVE big wood fences now. And brother, I got one.

Other new addition.....

mower...its just a mower

Beau is getting to appreciate "Big Boys Toys"

Show of hands....beer?

So the house is old, but it is really well set up. It has HRV, 2 heat pumps, 3 water tanks (one under the houes, 2 out by the garage, and plenty of storage.

2 water tanks....dont want to run out..

But we did have to make a few modifications to make the place liveable.

#1....tired of the European sized refridgerators..so lets go!

1) demo the existing cabinets

little piddly fridge...

take it down

2) Make sure new man-sized fridge will fit....it does.

3) get bench top (counter top) modified.

BAM! Beer and baby food compete no more!

A builder wanted to charge me 4300$ to do this job. Nah. With a little electrical help from our friends, got it all done for 350$ and learned how to demo cabinets, re-cut cabinets, move electrical outlets, plumb the water line for the fridge, and NOT pay some wanker 4 large to do the job that took us a day. (the most pricy bit was paying 260 for the stainless benchtop to be cut and folded to the new size.

Also had to upgrade the dishwasher to beloved Dish-Drawer. Again did it ourselves.