I found it! It is the almost perfect secondhand kitchen! After months and months of looking. There are so many pieces, we will have extra cupboards to fit out the laundry! So far Darrel Demo'd part of the old kitchen leaving the sink and old cupboard in place, then we set up a temporary kitchen with the old bench top to make do while we fix up the walls, do some painting and get read for the big install! I installed the pics in reverse order so believe it or not the first few pictures are of our temporary set up (we still need to put away all the dishes and food)!

Darrel is in the middle of the demo at in this pic:

Some bits of the "new" kitchen, it will need to be painted and we are going to replace the handles, but all in all it is in prett good condition!

Demo done, for now:

Now, we just have to figure out remove the stuff that is under the lino to reveal the wooden floor. Any suggestions??!!

Zoe would like to say that we have been enjoying some great weather here in Christchurch. The last few months have been beautiful- plenty of sun and warm weather- much different from our first NZ summer. I am really glad that we cleared some of the old veggie garden and planted some seedlings back in December. The garden was/is filled with Twitch Grass, which is a terrible weed; the tiniest bit of root will sprout and start growing. The above ground part is miniscule in comparison to the miles of roots threading through the soil. I wish that I have counted the hours of abstracting these roots from the soil, because it would be shocking. I have been given encouragement by the lovely neighbours that see how we are fixing up the place, especially from the few who were here when the original owners were before everything got out of control. Besides the twitch grass, we have had heaps of silverbeet (swiss chard), potatoes and pumpkins sprouting up voluntarily in every garden that we clear.

Besides the veggie garden, we have built a raised bed, weeded and mulched the perimeter gardens and around the edge of the house, removed/moved trees and shrubs, taken 5 huge trailer loads of green waste to the dump, sanded-painted-covered-planted the greenhouse. (I have spent almost every weekend in the gardens and there is still heaps to do!) At least we are starting to see some serious improvements. I am a bit late planting my winter garden, I plan on doing it tomorrow (finally filled the new raised bed with soil today). Hopefully the weather will stay warm for the plants to get established. I will be growing broccoli, peas, beets, spinach… and silverbeet of course (I can’t help it, it comes up everywhere!)

Other than working away in the garden, we have taken a few trips over to Banks Peninsula, just south of Christchurch (check out the monument camping trip photos), we refinished half of the wood floors in the house, Darrel started a new job as principle designer and manager of ArchitectureDM Christchurch, I have started biking to my job in Kaiapoi (it is 18 kms) and we have been playing weekly with our band DYDIMO. Please check our Myspace page…

Well that pretty much sums up the last few months, hope you enjoy the pictures!