sustain:if:able kiwi

the kainga returns

kainga – a Maori word for home, address, residence, village, habitation, habitat.

This is the colours we’re painting the outside of our house – offwhite (Quartz) walls and chocolate brown (Balsamic) windows (inside the window is a wine bottle, a gift from one of my classes, and a VW combi model).

Unsure about how the stresses of being Principal would impact me, I’ve taken a month off the house. But it was good today to be back into it today. Painting top coats is always very satisfying. Instant gratification, although they rely on the hours of undercoat preparation.

Anyhow, the overall result is pleasing.

This is our kitchen window, which had totally stumped our local window tradie. He spent over 20 minutes walking around it, inside and out, scratching his head, to eventually declared he’d never before seen anything like it.

The previous owners had taken a window out. The window they tried to put in place didn’t quite fit! So they just put it in anyway, leaving left 10 cm “air holes” either side. It must have been a cold place in winter!

So it was out with the old window. Which also meant new exterior cladding to cater for the hole left. On the way, it was worth putting in batts, before a new window got inserted, undercoated and now – today – painted.