The House Finishing Hair Cut

My head is fuzzy. In the kitchen the island is scattered with the detritus of the night before. I chip away at tidying up but there is so much other stuff lying around I barely make a start. It's going to take a while. While I'm out in my dressing gown tidying up boxes I chat to Dan and Shelley across the street. They come over for a look. Dan says the patchy concrete may be the concrete curing, rather than a messy tiler. It's a mystery and not the biggest disaster in the world. 

I contact Anjie. It's been 4 years since she cut my hair. In November 2016 I decided I wouldn't cut my hair till the house was finished. It's not finished yet but I'm living in it. Close enough. At the time I understood how anorexics feel. It's about control and I was trying to reclaim some. I've been pulling at the ends so they are not as long as they should be and, as a result, they are straggly. Tui used to have a thing about my hair and I had some horrendous cuts over the years. Harking back to her youth, Tui liked shorter cuts and they often looked like a bowl had been placed over my head and cut around. I grew to dread hair dressers. Short hair doesn't suit me and in the early 2000's I got dreds. Just before I got pregnant with Kahu...19 years ago now. So easy to look after. Towards the end of her life, Tui didn't see my hair, dreds or not. Today I'm eager to close this chapter of my life and am in the chair before Anjie has her scissors out. As she starts she comments how, over the years, she's learned to shape the ends. We have a hair thing happening. I did her hair before her wedding 12 years ago. Big responsibility and a hair dresser had given me a lesson. We made it work.

I feel lighter as I get back in the car. I stop at Lighthouse and tentatively suggest bringing back the Balloons light. It's too big and the wrong style for the house. Alan is ok thankfully. I take the lamp I've had my name on for ages and go to pick up Kahu. Chris wants to relocate his office back in the spare room tomorrow so we need to tidy up. We make a start but there's a lot of stuff to move. 

Tonight is Kahu's first sleep in the house. He's put it off and put it off. But it's unavoidable now. His bed is ready; he's needs to make the space his own. Obstacle to be resolved, curtains. I borrow a hammer and nails and pin up a thin sheet. It's not going to block much light come daytime. My first is a warm up in the clawfoot bath after a swim at the beach. It works. Takes a lot to half fill the bath but it gets the blood flowing from my core. Meanwhile Tim, the ex-groundsman from Hagley Cricket Oval has started the landscape tidy up by spraying the weeds in the long section at the back. I haven't done any gardening for a while and it's a mess- weed wise and level wise. Dancing in town with my new hair, the finish of today.

Drinks in the New Whare

A red letter day. I'm opening the house to visitors to celebrate. I haven't got sign off, consent or insurance but I'm in residence. The formalities will happen and the finishing could take weeks, especially with Christmas looming. The pre-Christmas, I want to be in my house, rush has already started. 

There's cloud and it's cool. Not so many kids as it's school activity day. I have two slots practising the school haka. It helps embed the movement and words- when you repeat and repeat, the brain recognises and welcomes the patterns. I'm home by early afternoon and Kahu is washing dust off windows. We have an argument carrying the bench in and he picks it up by himself again. When he puts it down and moves it along the floor it makes a deep, visible scratch. Another. Moving the couch the argument flares again. I know where I want it but he questions. This times he leaves for Chris's and I'm on my own rushing to tidy up before people arrive. Really annoyed. 

Nothing a drink can't fix. My colleagues arrive and I pour my first glass of bubbly. There's a stream of friends who celebrate with me. They're stoked, I'm stoked. It's been an epic journey. And I'm nearly there. Later in the evening we turn on the chandeliers and the light strip and reach for our sunglasses. Dimmers essential. It's a celebration. I go to bed tired but happy.

Finishing Up

 We're on a week's countdown till the end of school. Paperwork needs to be collated and filed. Same with the house. I start chasing up compliance papers in earnest. I need consent and insurance before Christmas. Paperwork never ends. I also start to tidy the paper round the side of the house. Strong paper, cardboard, to be exact. I've got a pile of boxes which I'll be able to file in neighbours' yellow bins tonight. At school we're onto farewell morning teas. I race round to set jobs for Kahu and pick up pads for the undersides of furniture so it won't scratch the Tasmanian Blackwood. I was going to buy another broom but Edie kindly fixes my old one: 2 screws, 60 seconds. Since there are so many kids away on camp I opt to show them Strictly Ballroom, a Baz Luhrman film. Surprisingly, for a 1990's film, it holds their attention. I blog while the screen is on extended mode and am so absorbed with what's in my head, I put the computer to sleep and shut down the film at the same time, just before the end. Dah moment. 

On the way to pick up my car I drop in at Designastyle, having firmly established in my head that Gideon has washed grouting onto the new concrete, since Ian says he didn't and Kirk is sure the marks are from grouting. They give me a wash to try and fix it but they're surprised because they tell me Gideon is always very careful with his work. 

The car is a mere $400, what I'd anticipated, and Neil shows me the bent metal bit- bashing into kerbs or potholes or speed bumps. He's also replaced a tire and put a sealing potion in the radiator. Hopefully I won't be needing to spot check water levels on long drives anymore. It's been another day of constant movement when I get back to College Ave and pick up Kahu for a swim. There's a strong, cool easterly but brilliant blue skies. The sea is fresh but oh so rejuvenating. A game of volleyball with the Morris Minor then half an hour of bin filling and a smaller pile of cardboard at the end. Time for a red wine. Kahu is still camping out at Chris's. His latest rationale, there are no curtains in his room and he late, in bed by 4am, so needs a dark room to rest. 

Spot On

Cam and Johnny arrive early. Johnny tidies up the drains round the back, Cam tidies up inside jobs. And the portaloo is going. I race out to the Department of Conservation tree bank. They grow seedlings of plants which are native to this area, Waitaha, many of which have become rare because of tree clearing for agriculture by settlers. A former PHS girl talks me round so I can buy trees which won't grow too big. I drop the Suzuki off at Sockburn to get the rattle under the front wheels looked at. Cars and me are an uneasy mix. I'm always spending money on maintenance. Kahu and I hang about for Scoff who's returning party glasses and has offered to help set up the stereo. He helped me buy it back in the early 2000's. We don't have the wires and plugs we need and can only find one speaker. Of course. First thing Scoff notices when he walks in is the grills in the ceiling and my feelings of, I wish they were less visible and I wish I had made different choices, flare up. I'm feeling discombobulated as Kahu and I drive to the beach for a swim. I can't turn back the clock and I can't change the holes in the ceiling. I've got two options: get used to it, and mitigate to hide them.

Greg arrives as we return to the house with fish and chips. He's got his tool box and his expert picture hanging eye. It doesn't take long to get the big picture up in the entry. Looks amazing. And we discuss the merits of the Time and Tide Split Enz poster which Kahu wants in front of the living/entry door. I'm doubtful but it's spot on. Art on the walls has power. I feel immediately better about the space from the ceiling down. We hang several other frames before we reach our limit for the day. Rome was built in more than one.