Temporary accommodation

As I mentioned last time, our earthquake repairs are finally underway. It's been quite the process getting to this point - we were originally told that our repairs would start in September last year and I spent quite a bit of time getting ready for that. But that ended up not happening, and everything went on hold for a few months. 

After the big earthquake in 2011, my house was damaged along with thousands of others. In New Zealand we are lucky that earthquake cover is part of our house insurance, so it was always known that the repairs would be done, but no one realised quite how long and frustrating the process would be for everyone! I'll cut a long story short and say that thanks to my builder's determination to start the job we managed to push forward and get going on things. I'd been slowly packing my belongings into boxes (since last August!) but there was so much stuff... plus there are always the things you can't pack till the last minute... not a fun job and I'm not really anticipating the unpacking with much joy either!

I found a house to rent not too far from home. Luckily our insurance company also pays the rent for this place. It's an ok place to stay in - it's furnished and comes with phone, power, internet and Sky TV - so there's plenty of entertainment, but it's just not home! I brought all my houseplants and put them on the windowsill so that helped a bit. And of course, we brought Mr Lui. He took a few days to settle in but he's fine now, sleeping on the couches like he owns the place. And when he's not on the couches he's on my computer case, an even better bed apparently.

I miss having a big crochet project like a blanket to work on. Since we are doing a few renovation projects on the house my spare money has to go towards that, so I'm not going out to buy yarn for a new project. And my stash yarn is all packed! So in an effort to create something cheerful and colourful, I've been painting my nails. Nail polish is cheap and there are plenty of ideas on Pinterest.

So that's the update from the holiday house. There are plenty of things happening at the real house too - I'll tell you about them soon. I also have some updates on my vege growing this season. In the meantime I'll be scouring Pinterest for manicure home decorating ideas.