Houses and Weather - North and South
May 20th 2009, 9:07 pm
#46
A land far far away
Joined: Aug 2005
Location: Northland
Posts: 1,288
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
Liza you absolutely must have at least a woodburner though I think - I guess it would be expensive to just use electric heaters or oil filled electric ones or whatever they are! Anyone use just them? Is it expensive?
thanks for the karma!
oh and I love Northland, there are a few of us on here - there's some people live in Whangarei, someone in Paihia, I'm in the Bay of Islands , not sure if there's anyone from as far north as Kaitaia.
thanks for the karma!
oh and I love Northland, there are a few of us on here - there's some people live in Whangarei, someone in Paihia, I'm in the Bay of Islands , not sure if there's anyone from as far north as Kaitaia.
May 20th 2009, 9:09 pm
#47
Newbie to NZ
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2009
Location: CHCH
Posts: 223
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
Just been admiring your piccies on the other thread - stunning, especially the one of the Bay of Islands!
Last edited by Lizaberry; May 20th 2009 at 9:11 pm. Reason: typing error!
May 20th 2009, 9:11 pm
#48
A land far far away
Joined: Aug 2005
Location: Northland
Posts: 1,288
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
it's the Bay of Islands! 
May 20th 2009, 9:11 pm
#49
Stoke City fanatic
Joined: Jul 2007
Location: nelson no more :-(
Posts: 693
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
We live in Central Nelson and have found it a great place to settle. Nelson is sols sunnier then anywhere in the UK although it can be pretty cold in winter (we have a frost today). Generally houses are much colder but we have put in lots of insulation, have a heat pump arriving next week and have a great log burner. Hardly ever wear a coat now as well. Any questions on Nelson fire away.
Darren
Darren
May 20th 2009, 10:02 pm
#50
you dewty owld maan!
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: is practically perfect in every way
Posts: 5,565
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
Liza you absolutely must have at least a woodburner though I think - I guess it would be expensive to just use electric heaters or oil filled electric ones or whatever they are! Anyone use just them? Is it expensive?
thanks for the karma!
oh and I love Northland, there are a few of us on here - there's some people live in Whangarei, someone in Paihia, I'm in the Bay of Islands , not sure if there's anyone from as far north as Kaitaia.
thanks for the karma!
oh and I love Northland, there are a few of us on here - there's some people live in Whangarei, someone in Paihia, I'm in the Bay of Islands , not sure if there's anyone from as far north as Kaitaia.
We have 1 oil-filled rad and one fan heater in a 3-bed 4-person home with proper walls (concrete block/brick), some insulation in the loft and a downstairs (so reduced heat losses into the floor). We have a greenhouse feel in the living spaces as there is so much glass so this can get cold. No one available to monitor the windows in the day time as everyone works/schools/Kindys.....but our thermally lined curtains help a lot, in spite of being mould magnets at times.
The dehumidifier works well and gives you a couple of degrees of chill taken off in the mornings and keeps the mould down during the day. I find that when it is running I wake up with a very dry throat/mouth some mornings - worse than central heating.
Need another dehumidifier as we have house guests at the moment and I work downstairs now.......this technology seems to me to be the only real concession we have to modern living as far as the heating of living spaces and DHW goes. All the rest is back in my youth of the early 70s in the UK - metal framed windows with single glazing, condensation, damp, musty wardrobes, draughty rooms with "snakes" to keep the cold air out under the doors......but then this is only for four months of the year and it ain't that cold.....sometimes it is too hot!
Wouldn't be British in origin if we didn't moan about the weather, the cold, the heat, etc, etc.......
LOL at Browner though, he must have thick skin........but a lot of what he says is true, although not as extreme as he put it.
BTW, OP you may need to become less sensitive to survive here as Kiwis are blunt.......and they find us Brits "rather obtuse" as I was told over a business lunch yesterday!
Good luck and glad to see that you are researching it all. BTW, Sky also did a self-build. She is no longer here but there may be some threads with her ideas on.
May 20th 2009, 10:10 pm
#51
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 4,298
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
Thanks for that TeamEmbo. I hear what you're saying but when everyone on here is so nice and friendly, and all that, it can come as quite a shock when someone speaks 'in that tone'.
Nice post, Pixi-Dust! Have given you some karma. Haven't heard much from those living so far north, but Northland is an area where my OH could get work (not saying he will), so it is worth knowing about things up there. My OH doesn't really care for central heating as he says it is 'drying' so he would probably be alright in a shed without heating! Guess I have much to consider.
Thanks again folks!
Nice post, Pixi-Dust! Have given you some karma. Haven't heard much from those living so far north, but Northland is an area where my OH could get work (not saying he will), so it is worth knowing about things up there. My OH doesn't really care for central heating as he says it is 'drying' so he would probably be alright in a shed without heating! Guess I have much to consider.
Thanks again folks!
May 20th 2009, 10:11 pm
#52
you dewty owld maan!
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: is practically perfect in every way
Posts: 5,565
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
nice pun......
What's the smog like in Nelson? ............is it as soupy as the ChCh version?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10521328
or is that old news?
That's the other aspects of 60s/70s life I forgot - air quality in NZ in the winter can be, erm, variable.........../cough/
What's the smog like in Nelson? ............is it as soupy as the ChCh version?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10521328
or is that old news?
That's the other aspects of 60s/70s life I forgot - air quality in NZ in the winter can be, erm, variable.........../cough/
May 20th 2009, 10:22 pm
#53
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 4,298
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
Its been posted before, but it seems appropriate to re-post it here.
This is just SO true....
To give you a taste of NZ without leaving your own home try the following:
1. In your back garden build a very large shed. Divide the shed into rooms, ensuring that you DO NOT insulate it or provide adequate heating. It helps if your garden slopes 30 or so degrees. The shed (NZ House) MUST have a roof made of "Wriggly Tin" or "Long Run" (posh name) This is to ensure you get the full benefit of the noise caused by the constant rain.
2. Take your kids out of their current schools, and then do tons and tons of research to find the worst schools in your area. Enroll your kids immediately. If they are not offered drugs on their first day complain to the Head Teacher! Don't let your kids do any research of their own and don't encourage them academically. Start brainwashing your kids with statements like "Your so sporty!" This apparently makes up for under achievement.
3. Go into work and ask your boss to give you a 30% pay cut. During the meeting offer to work Saturdays for free.
4. Carry on paying your Council Tax, but ask your local authority to reduce their services to you. Insist on disposing of your own rubbish and start calling your local tip the "Transfer Station".
5. If you are conducting this experiment in the winter then every morning get the garden hose and spray the entire inside of your shed. Walls, ceilings and especially windows must all be dripping wet. Throw open all the doors and windows to dry the place out. If any family members complain of feeling cold and ask to light the fire shout "Toughen up you pommy bastard!" at them.
6. NEVER heat your house in any way - It is classed as being a waste of money!
7. Buy a large bag of gravel / stones. Find a local gang of kids and pay them to thrown the contents onto your roof all night long. The stones against the wriggly tin will sound just like the rain. You will need to hire the gang of kids for at least 8 months of the year to replicate the frequency of the rain storms.
8. Go to the worst supermarket you can find and ask to buy any food from them that is only fit for animal consumption. Pay 5 times the price marked on the food and prepare you dinner with it. Keep any leftovers as these will be needed to feed you for the next 4 days.
9. By now some members of your family will be suffering from depression. NZ has the highest rate of depression per capita, so don't panic. Go to your doctors, pay him £50 and ask for Prosaic.
10. Never watch the news and never read a national news paper which may tell you about events outside a 10 mile radius of your shed. Insist that everyone in the house only watches sport on the TV. No matter how badly your chosen team play always say that they are the best in the world!
11. Ask all your friends and neighbours to remove the exhaust systems from their cars and to drive up and down outside your house all night.
This is just SO true....
To give you a taste of NZ without leaving your own home try the following:
1. In your back garden build a very large shed. Divide the shed into rooms, ensuring that you DO NOT insulate it or provide adequate heating. It helps if your garden slopes 30 or so degrees. The shed (NZ House) MUST have a roof made of "Wriggly Tin" or "Long Run" (posh name) This is to ensure you get the full benefit of the noise caused by the constant rain.
2. Take your kids out of their current schools, and then do tons and tons of research to find the worst schools in your area. Enroll your kids immediately. If they are not offered drugs on their first day complain to the Head Teacher! Don't let your kids do any research of their own and don't encourage them academically. Start brainwashing your kids with statements like "Your so sporty!" This apparently makes up for under achievement.
3. Go into work and ask your boss to give you a 30% pay cut. During the meeting offer to work Saturdays for free.
4. Carry on paying your Council Tax, but ask your local authority to reduce their services to you. Insist on disposing of your own rubbish and start calling your local tip the "Transfer Station".
5. If you are conducting this experiment in the winter then every morning get the garden hose and spray the entire inside of your shed. Walls, ceilings and especially windows must all be dripping wet. Throw open all the doors and windows to dry the place out. If any family members complain of feeling cold and ask to light the fire shout "Toughen up you pommy bastard!" at them.
6. NEVER heat your house in any way - It is classed as being a waste of money!
7. Buy a large bag of gravel / stones. Find a local gang of kids and pay them to thrown the contents onto your roof all night long. The stones against the wriggly tin will sound just like the rain. You will need to hire the gang of kids for at least 8 months of the year to replicate the frequency of the rain storms.
8. Go to the worst supermarket you can find and ask to buy any food from them that is only fit for animal consumption. Pay 5 times the price marked on the food and prepare you dinner with it. Keep any leftovers as these will be needed to feed you for the next 4 days.
9. By now some members of your family will be suffering from depression. NZ has the highest rate of depression per capita, so don't panic. Go to your doctors, pay him £50 and ask for Prosaic.
10. Never watch the news and never read a national news paper which may tell you about events outside a 10 mile radius of your shed. Insist that everyone in the house only watches sport on the TV. No matter how badly your chosen team play always say that they are the best in the world!
11. Ask all your friends and neighbours to remove the exhaust systems from their cars and to drive up and down outside your house all night.
May 20th 2009, 10:51 pm
#54
Account Closed
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 336
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
Hi Yes we did but did not move in!! found a much nicer home with just 5 drive to the beach and just 15 mins drive to the Christchurch.
Have to say on Double Glazing, It has to be installed in all homes After 2005, it would not pass a Building Code standard compliance( Resource Management act) if it had not been installed. The double glazing in NZ is not up UK standard and many other places in the world but much better then not having it at all.
You can if you build put what heating in you would like!!! put this is mostly an extra cost the builders you will get a PC Sum towards but we had this taken out of the build cost and put in heat pumps SAVED on the cost with what the builder was asked us to pay.
Building still in this market will take around 5/6 months.
You need to get a good feel for the new houses to see how you would like to build so its best to have a good look around first, cos like us you could change your mind( we built and had been in NZ for 3 years) and it could cost more then what you first intended
it does not help with my job as a real estate agent as I see so many nice houses.
But I would never go for a wooden one unless it was built as new with a sold floor as piles can go on the older homes But thats my choice...
The total cost to build when we put the house on the Market was for below building cost and we stand to lose quite lot of money even with a good Valuation
So for now its been rented out the land size is 942m2 and the house is 234m2 with 4bed 2 bathrooms and lots of heating, most of the old wooden homes are mostly around 150m2 and have a good garden size and lots with just one bathroom good thing is we have a separate Laundry in nearly all the homes and dishwasher.
Have you look at the realestate web sites this will give you a more understanding of what the homes look like?
Building cost with most home are running at around $1300, m2, and it is up to you Or pay the builder to put the driveway in landscaping, irrigation system, fencing, garden shed, paths patio, at an extra cost also lights outside and inside lights, you may well require extra plus the same with plugs and tv points as builder some times only give two tv points per build. You will also have to pay for the section, some of the builders at this point in time offer land/house build all in.
Lin
Have to say on Double Glazing, It has to be installed in all homes After 2005, it would not pass a Building Code standard compliance( Resource Management act) if it had not been installed. The double glazing in NZ is not up UK standard and many other places in the world but much better then not having it at all.
You can if you build put what heating in you would like!!! put this is mostly an extra cost the builders you will get a PC Sum towards but we had this taken out of the build cost and put in heat pumps SAVED on the cost with what the builder was asked us to pay.
Building still in this market will take around 5/6 months.
You need to get a good feel for the new houses to see how you would like to build so its best to have a good look around first, cos like us you could change your mind( we built and had been in NZ for 3 years) and it could cost more then what you first intended
it does not help with my job as a real estate agent as I see so many nice houses.But I would never go for a wooden one unless it was built as new with a sold floor as piles can go on the older homes But thats my choice...
The total cost to build when we put the house on the Market was for below building cost and we stand to lose quite lot of money even with a good Valuation
So for now its been rented out the land size is 942m2 and the house is 234m2 with 4bed 2 bathrooms and lots of heating, most of the old wooden homes are mostly around 150m2 and have a good garden size and lots with just one bathroom good thing is we have a separate Laundry in nearly all the homes and dishwasher.
Have you look at the realestate web sites this will give you a more understanding of what the homes look like?
Building cost with most home are running at around $1300, m2, and it is up to you Or pay the builder to put the driveway in landscaping, irrigation system, fencing, garden shed, paths patio, at an extra cost also lights outside and inside lights, you may well require extra plus the same with plugs and tv points as builder some times only give two tv points per build. You will also have to pay for the section, some of the builders at this point in time offer land/house build all in.
Lin
May 21st 2009, 12:15 am
#55
Sleazy Dippin Doodle
Joined: May 2007
Location: wellington
Posts: 1,363
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
Its been posted before, but it seems appropriate to re-post it here.
This is just SO true....
To give you a taste of NZ without leaving your own home try the following:
1. In your back garden build a very large shed. Divide the shed into rooms, ensuring that you DO NOT insulate it or provide adequate heating. It helps if your garden slopes 30 or so degrees. The shed (NZ House) MUST have a roof made of "Wriggly Tin" or "Long Run" (posh name) This is to ensure you get the full benefit of the noise caused by the constant rain.
2. Take your kids out of their current schools, and then do tons and tons of research to find the worst schools in your area. Enroll your kids immediately. If they are not offered drugs on their first day complain to the Head Teacher! Don't let your kids do any research of their own and don't encourage them academically. Start brainwashing your kids with statements like "Your so sporty!" This apparently makes up for under achievement.
3. Go into work and ask your boss to give you a 30% pay cut. During the meeting offer to work Saturdays for free.
4. Carry on paying your Council Tax, but ask your local authority to reduce their services to you. Insist on disposing of your own rubbish and start calling your local tip the "Transfer Station".
5. If you are conducting this experiment in the winter then every morning get the garden hose and spray the entire inside of your shed. Walls, ceilings and especially windows must all be dripping wet. Throw open all the doors and windows to dry the place out. If any family members complain of feeling cold and ask to light the fire shout "Toughen up you pommy bastard!" at them.
6. NEVER heat your house in any way - It is classed as being a waste of money!
7. Buy a large bag of gravel / stones. Find a local gang of kids and pay them to thrown the contents onto your roof all night long. The stones against the wriggly tin will sound just like the rain. You will need to hire the gang of kids for at least 8 months of the year to replicate the frequency of the rain storms.
8. Go to the worst supermarket you can find and ask to buy any food from them that is only fit for animal consumption. Pay 5 times the price marked on the food and prepare you dinner with it. Keep any leftovers as these will be needed to feed you for the next 4 days.
9. By now some members of your family will be suffering from depression. NZ has the highest rate of depression per capita, so don't panic. Go to your doctors, pay him £50 and ask for Prosaic.
10. Never watch the news and never read a national news paper which may tell you about events outside a 10 mile radius of your shed. Insist that everyone in the house only watches sport on the TV. No matter how badly your chosen team play always say that they are the best in the world!
11. Ask all your friends and neighbours to remove the exhaust systems from their cars and to drive up and down outside your house all night.
This is just SO true....
To give you a taste of NZ without leaving your own home try the following:
1. In your back garden build a very large shed. Divide the shed into rooms, ensuring that you DO NOT insulate it or provide adequate heating. It helps if your garden slopes 30 or so degrees. The shed (NZ House) MUST have a roof made of "Wriggly Tin" or "Long Run" (posh name) This is to ensure you get the full benefit of the noise caused by the constant rain.
2. Take your kids out of their current schools, and then do tons and tons of research to find the worst schools in your area. Enroll your kids immediately. If they are not offered drugs on their first day complain to the Head Teacher! Don't let your kids do any research of their own and don't encourage them academically. Start brainwashing your kids with statements like "Your so sporty!" This apparently makes up for under achievement.
3. Go into work and ask your boss to give you a 30% pay cut. During the meeting offer to work Saturdays for free.
4. Carry on paying your Council Tax, but ask your local authority to reduce their services to you. Insist on disposing of your own rubbish and start calling your local tip the "Transfer Station".
5. If you are conducting this experiment in the winter then every morning get the garden hose and spray the entire inside of your shed. Walls, ceilings and especially windows must all be dripping wet. Throw open all the doors and windows to dry the place out. If any family members complain of feeling cold and ask to light the fire shout "Toughen up you pommy bastard!" at them.
6. NEVER heat your house in any way - It is classed as being a waste of money!
7. Buy a large bag of gravel / stones. Find a local gang of kids and pay them to thrown the contents onto your roof all night long. The stones against the wriggly tin will sound just like the rain. You will need to hire the gang of kids for at least 8 months of the year to replicate the frequency of the rain storms.
8. Go to the worst supermarket you can find and ask to buy any food from them that is only fit for animal consumption. Pay 5 times the price marked on the food and prepare you dinner with it. Keep any leftovers as these will be needed to feed you for the next 4 days.
9. By now some members of your family will be suffering from depression. NZ has the highest rate of depression per capita, so don't panic. Go to your doctors, pay him £50 and ask for Prosaic.
10. Never watch the news and never read a national news paper which may tell you about events outside a 10 mile radius of your shed. Insist that everyone in the house only watches sport on the TV. No matter how badly your chosen team play always say that they are the best in the world!
11. Ask all your friends and neighbours to remove the exhaust systems from their cars and to drive up and down outside your house all night.
May 21st 2009, 6:41 am
#56
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 968
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
Browner you usually drive me nuts with your negative comments and your down on NZ life but this post just made me laugh so much. Sadly what you are saying is basically true, if a tad way over exagerated and the mental picture I had of someone back in the UK actually doing this was so funny. Thank you for brightening my day
May 21st 2009, 12:06 pm
#58
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: In a large village called Auckland
Posts: 5,249
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
It is, as you probably now realise an extreme mickey take, but it's not a million miles from some truth and a fact that many of us have to live with or find ways around to some greater or lesser extent.
May 21st 2009, 2:46 pm
#59
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 613
Re: Houses and Weather - North and South
Browner, you had my husband in stitches with your comments!
So lapsed kiwi is male! That's a surprise as I think he is a bit nippy for a bloke.
So lapsed kiwi is male! That's a surprise as I think he is a bit nippy for a bloke.