Painting.. Mowing...I'm A Bit Sore After This Weekends Efforts

Just a quick update... we spent this weekend painting more of the exterior and then spending another 3 hours mowing the lawn. Also there has been some further progress on the inside as the gib has gone up along with most of the internal doors.

The area we are converting from paddock into lawn keeps increasing in size.  Our neighbors have kindly cut the long grass, so it is much easier to get the initial mow done.  Also by setting the mower on a highest height setting and by using a bungy cord to hold the rear mower flap up so the grass is thrown clear of the mower, the mower doesn't clog up all the time and stall.

But in the near future we will need to invest, I'm not sure if that is the right word but splurg for a ride-on lawnmower... it is just taking two long by push mower. I don't want to spend all my time mowing the grass. So a ride-on lawnmower goes to the top of the Birthday wish list..."honey I hope you are reading this".

Pasta/Tomato Sauce With Brandywine Tomatoes

With so many tomatoes to spare, I decided to experiment a little with dinner tonight... and I was very pleasantly surprised at my first attempt and I was more so surprised at how amazing fresh Tomato Sauce tastes!  

So I have to write this down now, so I don't forget.

    About 10 Brandywine Tomatoes from the garden

    NZ Extra Virgin Olive Oil

    3 Cloves NZ Garlic Crushed

    3 NZ Shallots Sliced

    A few Basil Leaves

    Free Range Pork Sausages, cooked, skinned & sliced.

    Fresh Pasta

In the olive oil, lightly cook the garlic, shallots in a pan, add in the tomatoes and let reduce. I did this over a med-high heat and once it started to look like a sauce, I added in the basil leaves and sausages and let reduce further on a low heat, stirring occasionally, then cooked the fresh pasta.

Once the pasta was cooked, pour the sauce over and eat. Easy! I found it to be sweet and just yummy!

This was very simple & easy to put together.

I guess you could use any type of tomato and I started by peeling the tomatoes, but I found that fiddly and I thought what a waste of tomato.  I'm sure there is some good stuff in the tomato skins too. 

I was cooking for 2 and the above was just enough... but I could have made more, as I really loved the sauce. 

Next time I might add some fresh Chilli or Pepper.

 

Another Beautiful Weekend At The Block

We've just had two really beautiful days up at the block, the weather has been just amazing in Kaiwaka & Mangawhai. Perfect for a little painting.

All the doors and windows have gone in, the insulation is in, all the exterior cladding is up and they've started work on the deck. So it's now time for us to paint the exterior.

I must say, I find it hard to get excited about painting, it is very boring, and a time consuming task.  It is not until the job is done, that I get a sense of satisfaction.

We decided not to paint the side with the deck, as we need the builders to finish that first.  So we focused on the other 3 sides. We managed to get 1 coat of undercoat on, along with 1 top coat, and half of the 2nd top coat done.  Not to mention we did all the prep stuff, filling holes/gaps/cleaning, masking up the windows etc.

But despite our best calculations on the paint quantity, we have run short. I think we will need at least another 8 litres.

With the paint, I've always liked Dulux, I've used it on past renovations, and I find it really good for an amateur painter like myself. But what I like the most it's very quick to dry, so you are not sitting around waiting for paint to dry. Also it is easy to clean up, and the finished paint job looks good.

For the exterior we have used:

* DULUX 1 Step Acrylic Primer Sealer Undercoat

* DULUX Weathershield X10 Low Sheen Acrylic

For the exterior colour we have gone with "Kauri Cliff's Double". Very nice, kinda of a natural/neutral/earthy colour. We had to be a little mindful of the "Light Value Ratio" as not to void the warranty on the cladding. Had to have a LVR of 40+ and the Kauri Cliffs Double was 53.

Oh just with buying paint, we worked out what we needed months before we needed the paint. We had a trade quote supplied to us from the building company, which was really good compared to the standard retail price. Paint in NZ is just crazy expensive! But we waited patiently for a sale, and Guthrie Bowron had a 25% discount sale on Dulux paint. So we brought all our paint at once. We saved another $200 on the trade price quoted to us. The timing was very good too, the sale was 2 weeks before we needed to start painting.

But hopefully the deck will done by next weekend, so we can finish the painting. Perhaps enjoy our first drink on the deck!

 Snug As A Bug... Weather Tight & Insulated

Above Picture, Finished Painting 

& Below Deck & The Walls Still To Be Painted

Below, Painted & Nearly Finished

Also We Have So Many Tomatoes!

Tomatoes include: Brandywine,

Orange Cherry, Black Cherry, Gold Nugget, Standard Money Maker, White Cherry, Honeybee, plus there are 3 White Apple Cucumbers!

I'm going to make some sauce... so I need to hunt out a good recipe.

We Have A Roof!

Another quick update.  We now have a roof. The build is progressing very fast, also some of the cladding has gone up too.  So I spent today painting the Fascia, as the guttering will go up next week, and that surely must mean the water tank will be connected soon. Very Exciting!

I'm not sure what I have done but the photos are really bad...so I will only attach a couple, and I will take some better photos next week.