Country Drive

The Earthquake Commission and the last few bits and pieces on my house repair have some into my sights in the past couple of weeks.

There are still some outstanding issues on my claim from 2011 I've been trying to address for months with the Earthquake Commission. Several weeks ago I had a phone conversation with them. Under the Official Information Act they're required to release your entire claim if you ask for it. The new owner will need access to this so that was request number one. To release it takes 20 working days.

The next requests focused on a reimbursement cheque and my official complaint now 3 + months old they've never responded to. I'm told the former is being processed and I'll receive it in 4-6 weeks. I have no idea why it takes so long. The latter progressed no further.

If we can sort out the promised cheque I'll cut my losses and move on. My life it worth more than constantly battling them. It's good to know the end is in sight.

The final jobs on my house repair have been trickling in. I now have a very fine looking glass splash back in the kitchen. That was the outcome of deciding how to deal with the strategy used in the kitchen in my first repair which I did point out at the time was doomed to fail.

It did.

Extra tiling during repair number 2 and the splash back took care of some of the stupidity applied during the first repair, and decent preparation, lining paper and painting took care of the rest. The splash back got caught up in the end of year rush and appeared a couple of weeks ago. It looks fantastic and its installation completed the kitchen.

Today was the designated day for the painter to do his touch ups. They're to be expected with any job. After the first repair the touch ups took 9 months to happen so forgive me if after 2 months I've been slightly twitchy.

We're nearly there. I realised after he'd gone a couple of places were missed. We both should have checked my list and he'll be here first thing tomorrow to finish them off. That's all fine by me. I'm nearly in a state of disbelief that the long journey to repair my home is just about over.

After attending to whatever else required my attention I took a drive to the country. Don't read anything into this other than I'm exploring all the options for where I might live with an open mind.

On the way home I drove via Rolleston a sprawling endless development of new housing on the outskirts of Christchurch. I felt overwhelmed. Between Rolleston and home I did a drive-by on an open home. It's worth viewing at the open home tomorrow.

Tonight I'm having a night off everything and having dinner with friends :-)