Diary of a House: Frosty Final Friday

I pour water on the car windows to dissolve a rime of frost. The car heater doesn't work and, with sun strike, driving across town in traffic is difficult and more dangerous than usual. I go slowly with the windows down while Kahu practises his seminar. It's an intense start to the last day of term.

I stop in at the house to unlock. There's frost on the outside of the bay window of my room but inside it's dry. Awesome. PVC windows rock.

After staff briefing I get back in the car and head to Pete's. He and Hana are feeding glued planks of rimu through the sander. The laundry is on its way- and Pete needs the dimensions of the front loader. At 22 College the boys are fitting the down pipes and phoning the boss. The one by the garage is tricky- the boss phones me. Que sera sera. The electrician is trying to sort the electric box to accommodate the fittings for the solar panels. He's scratching his head. Some things are fiddly. From my perspective, sorting the electricity has been complicated all along.

Back at school we have a staff morning tea to farewell two leavers: Denise, who's been doing finance in the office for 28 years, and Anne who's having a happily ever after following two bereavements. I teach one lesson then we let the kids go at lunchtime with a collective a sigh of relief. It's been the longest term: 12 weeks, or if you count lockdown when we didn't really stop, 22 weeks. We're done. The English Department settles in with a bottle of bubbly, cheese, licorice and chocolate. We've earned it. And Cards Against Humanity. I lose. A colleague sends out an e-mail to let us know a former Pap High teacher has died. We're like family so it's a loss.

At 2 I meet Finlay and Rene to sort the lights. I realise I need a light strip around the fourth wall of the living room. And I don't need a ceiling rose in the dining room, We unwrap the Iris chandelier, the big one I thought wouldn't fit. And we check the height of the Bollicine chandelier over the dining table. Should work. I'm looking forward to seeing them both lit up in a finished room.

Meanwhile the electrician is still having trouble connecting the photovoltaic panels. Apparently one doesn't work. A sparky from the network comes to check and Powershop comes to install an input/output meter. It's beyond me but we must be getting there.

I stay on to measure the door panels where the knobs are going. They're just big enough for the internals. I stop off at Interior Effects to let them know. They have been so patient. Each time they write down what I need to know and each time there's a bit more. And we're not done yet. I had no idea door handles were going to be this complicated but I'm making friends. These people are exceptionally nice.

I drive home, bike up the hill and drop... exhausted. I've survived the longest, most challenging term ever.