How It Started

We settled on our first house in January 2006. Isn't she a cutie?

We didn't move in until December of 2006, just before Christmas, and amazingly enough, we managed to live there relatively comfortably (bearing in mind that learning to live harmoniously together for the first time in a tiny 4-room house with a dog is not particularly easy) until 2008, when we got married.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves! We must admire the beauty of the little cottage first!

The cute little doorbell near the front door. None of your prissy electric buttons for this old girl!

The resident guard dog, who just happens to still grace the front patio of our second house!

The kitchen, which just happened to perform the function of lounge, dining, family and media room as well.

It's amazing. Even just looking at this photo, I immediately recall the smell of the house when we moved in.

Note the little timber bench on the left of the sink? That's the only bench space there was. To the right of the sink was the space for the fridge, and then the front wall of the house.

The bathroom (also carpeted, might I add)

One of the two bedrooms. They were so small, I couldn't actually get the entire room in the photo.

The northern side of the house, with both the front ramp and the back stairs visible.

Actually on the day we moved in (with my great grandmother's antique piano), one of those back stairs gave way under the removalists. Fortunately the piano only bounced a couple of steps down and was rescued. Thank you giant Maori removalist men!

That little add-on to the building that's on ground level and not raised on stumps is the laundry.

And here is the laundry! All class.

The giant backyard, shed, barbecue and classic hills-hoist.

After much consideration, we then decided that our best move was to demolish the house and rebuild, and so started the next chapter in the little house's life - a chapter that involved building retaining walls and demolition!