Whanganui

We arrived in Whanganui on Friday.

Judy’s friend Jenny had recently left her philandering husband and had moved into a house she owned but that had been rented out for many years, and it showed. Jenny’s family had pulled out all the stops last weekend and helped her move in, but more importantly, they cleaned the place enough that it became livable.

When Bruce and I got there, Jenny had established some sort of order in the house but she seemed to be a bit overwhelmed with the amount of renovation needed to make the house a home. We had planned to spend 3 days with Jenny, but Bruce (dear man that he is) decided to offer to renovate the kitchen and dining rooms to give her a good start. Jenny agreed to the plan, so off we went shopping for tools, paint, filler, brushes, rollers etc.

Sunday was spent cleaning surfaces, filling holes and sanding. We could not believe how many nail holes there were in just these two rooms? What were they all for? Jenny had to go to work Monday so Bruce and I spent the day painting the ceiling and scotias  in this area. By the time Jenny came home from work it was all done. On Tuesday, we painted the walls. The place looked lovely when we had finished – welcoming, clean and attractive.

On Wednesday we put the room back together as well as doing odd jobs such as regrouting tiles; mounting the TV on the wall, Stripping down the bathroom window frame (that was water damaged from the shower) and getting that all undercoated; replacing the kitchen lights; getting the electrics going in the garage and repairing the gate.

All through these days Jenny kept us well fed and plied us with wine! The dogs also seemed to enjoy their few days break in one place and they made themselves at home.

On Thursday we packed up the motorhome again and hit the road again – headed for Napier. We had not done any sight seeing in Whanganui, but we loved our time of extreme renovation and having that precious time with a true friend.