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Mystical~ The Almost House

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Remember when?

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Remember when I changed around our whole spareroom and moved every single piece of furniture so we could fit my bedside cabinet and chest of drawers in there and Will's cot in our room. Well I never did get it finished but here's how it ended up.....




Well, honestly, it sucked and on the weekend we changed it all back.


I can't tell you how good it feels now.

We have a new plan and these aren't the final resting places of these things but Will is going to stay on in our room till around Christmas and then we're gonna do a few more changes that will be semi permanent. I can't say I'm looking forward to it but it does solve a problem or two. We had serious issues deciding what to do; we have 2 big kids of the opposite sex who have too much stuff so we don't think they should or could share a room. And we have one very loud and wakefull small person who no one should have to share a room with and then we also have two rather space consuming hobbies which we need to retain for our sanity. We are "LUCKY" to have a four bedroom house but space is at a serious premium, obviously whom ever designed these houses didn't see any need for people to have SPACE for a LIFE which they could ENJOY.

So come Christmas I will be scrapbooking on the dining table and will have to pack away after every session... blahhhhhhh.... but it's better than nothing, and the trade off for this situation is Will who I wouldn't change for the world!

Come on over Kieley there's a wide as chair perfectly placed and waiting just for you...

So many reasons...

I got a feel good email from Shannon today with real reasons to be happy this (semi) fine Friday morning. So here's my list...

1. Happy to be married to the same awesome, handsome, kind and amazing guy for 10 years.
2. Happy to be rockin' it out to the Conchords today. Thanks awesome, amazing handsome, guy.
3. Happy that he is still asleep so I can write this post.
4. Happy for family traditions.
5. Happy that we decided to pare down the number of gifts we give our kids each year.
6. Happy that she's happy.
7. Happy for solid food that really is solid food.
8. Happy to be spoilt for choice.
9. Happy this didn't go any further. I'll be taking finger print evidence later. I suspect I'll find female DNA.
10. Happy I realised which one of these melts, before things went horribly wrong. And that I had an alternative on hand for the one that doesn't melt.
11. Happy that this is done already.
12. Happy to have these to help energise me for the process.
13. Happy that she's happy.
14. Happy for good and kind teachers; Ms C, Mrs J, Miss R, Miss W, Mr H, and Mrs M.
15. Happy to have these 3 in my life.
16. Happy to get to see the world from his point of view everyday.
    
    
    
    

Interesting Developments

So last week fed-up again I sent an email to the Base Welfare Facilitator...

Good Afternoon,

My name is Gypsy Stockley and I am dependant living in a MQ residence. I am writing because I hope you may be able to find the answers to some questions for me. The following came from JLSO around a month ago, my questions follow;

INSTALLATION OF UNDERFLOOR INSULATION AND HEATPUMPS IN SERVICE HOUSING

FMS has recently been allocated additional funding to acquire dual-cycle Air Conditioning Units (heat pumps) and to install underfloor insulation in a proportion of our housing units. Since the funding was allocated late in the Financial Year and must be expended in accordance with defence procurement regulations (which take time), it will not be possible to fit all the heat pumps before the end of Jun 08. FMS staff are currently in the process of arranging the necessary contracts and developing the programme of installations. Precedence for installations will be given to those families with small children or previously-documented health issues. That said, it is likely that the vast majority (but not all) of our properties will have either a heat pump or underfloor insulation installed within the next few months.

At present, the volume of enquiries from tenants relating to the above installations is hindering the project. Tenants are requested not to contact FMS in respect of installation dates - FMS or contractor staff will contact tenants in due course to advise them if their property is to be upgraded and to arrange timings for the work to take place.

So my questions...

1. If precedence is being given to "Families with small children" then why have there been houses in Brigham's Creek and Clark's Rd that house single people and couples that have had Air Con units installed?

2. Why does it appear that precedence is also being given, to a certain extent, based on rank?

3. Why do my neighbours have one when their three children are over the age of 7 and mine family includes a 7 year old who gets environmental Asthma attributed to our home and a 6 month baby? NB. With winter coming we are at in peak season for Cot death and our baby is at the peak age.

4. Further to the above my neighbours arrived in the country approx 10 days ago and if "these things take time" as the above paragraph states then their house which was empty for over 6 months must have been slated to get Air Con when it was still empty. Why is this so?

5. In the past we have been told there is nothing that can be done with regard to upgrading the house in relation to our daughters health. (I asked Robyn when the inspection was done late last year). With regards to the last paragraph in the excerpt above even though we were unsure if JLSO were aware of our health problems we did not contact them as per the instructions in the statement. We believed that decisions were being made in the best interests of housing personnel and their families. But we find out from work colleagues that they rang JLSO and essentially requested a Air Con unit and got one. This suggests that it is better to ignore guidelines and give no consideration to friends and neighbours in the interests of getting what you want. Is that the case?

I am happy for you to pass this email on to anyone that you consider appropriate.

Many thanks in advance for your time.

Yours faithfully,

Gypsy Stockley

And here's the reply I got. I have removed some personal information she wrote regarding her own daughter who is also a MQ resident... I'm not sure why it was in there I guess to establish some sort of 'I understand where you are coming from empathy'

From:
Sent: Friday, 13 June 2008 3:32 p.m.
To: 'Les or Gypsy Stockley'
Subject: RE: Base Welfare

Dear Les

I am only too happy to answer your questions as best as I can. I realise the enormity of this work for FM who are trying there best to address all the housing issues as quickly as possible. I understand WGCMDR sent a base wide letter several weeks ago, informing all service personnel (their wives/partners) to exercise some patience regarding Insulation/Air Con etc. FM have certainly stepped up to the plate trying to service all MQs concerns and complaints, as you would see in my references below.

All I can say is the Service is doing everything they can and that the information below i s a little more informative for you to peruse over .

My daughter ..... edited ...watch this space).

I will do everything to help get things moving, if your child has health problems I suggest you document and sent FM asap. I can come and visit you if you wish.

---

From: Les or Gypsy Stockley [
Sent: Friday, 13 June 2008 12:47 p.m.
To:
Subject: Base Welfare

Good Afternoon,

My name is Gypsy Stockley and I am dependant living in a MQ residence. I am writing because I hope you may be able to find the answers to some questions for me. The following came from JLSO around a month ago, my questions follow;

INSTALLATION OF UNDERFLOOR INSULATION AND HEATPUMPS IN SERVICE HOUSING

FMS has recently been allocated additional funding to acquire dual-cycle Air Conditioning Units (heat pumps) and to install underfloor insulation in a proportion of our housing units. Since the funding was allocated late in the Financial Year and must be expended in accordance with defence procurement regulations (which take time), it will not be possible to fit all the heat pumps before the end of Jun 08. FMS staff are currently in the process of arranging the necessary contracts and developing the programme of installations. Precedence for installations will be given to those families with small children or previously-documented health issues. That said, it is likely that the vast majority (but not all) of our properties will have either a heat pump or underfloor insulation installed within the next few months.

At present, the volume of enquiries from tenants relating to the above installations is hindering the project. Tenants are requested not to contact FMS in respect of installation dates - FMS or contractor staff will contact tenants in due course to advise them if their property is to be upgraded and to arrange timings for the work to take place.

So my questions...

1. If precedence is being given to "Families with small children" then why have there been houses in Brigham's Creek and Clark's Rd that house single people and couples that have had Air Con units installed?

A: I understand while this is documented, FM is still doing everything they can and will endeavour to install AC asap. As for singles and couples - there is no pecking order, as it would appear these houses will be occupied sooner or later by families, who will ask why they have no Air Con, when all the neighbours have.

If FM could employ 470 insulation installers and 470 air con installers FM could do them all at once. But FM have only 4-5 firms working on each so some people will have to wait. FM are working by areas because it is more efficient (see further comments below) and the workmen waste less time travelling between locations and spend more time doing the job. FM need to do as many as FM can whilst the funding "window of opportunity" is open and thus FM are working their programme to maximise the number of installs. In this way FM are likely to get to most of the people with issues more quickly than by doing the job in penny packets.

2. Why does it appear that precedence is also being given, to a certain extent, based on rank?

B: There is no ranking order that I am a ware of. These houses have been here for over 60 years (in some cases). Many occupants have been living in the properties for several years without any prospect of getting either underfloor insulation or a heatpump. FM have been working on this project (to install heat pumps and underfloor insulation in all the houses) since Mar 08 and have so far made more progress than they have done in the previous 60 years. By end Jun 08 FM will have installed over 140 heatpumps and carried out over 250 underfloor insulations. The funding for installing the 400 heatpumps was in next years programme but FM have pushed ahead to install these early. As an aside, at the beginning of the financial year FM only had funding to purchase and install 25 heatpumps and do 50 underfloor insulations. In the Feb Supps FM were given additional funds to buy another 200 aircon units to be installed next year (FM actually bought 400 and have installed a quarter of them already) and do 200 underfloor insulations.

3. Why do my neighbours have one when their three children are over the age of 7 and mine family includes a 7 year old who gets environmental Asthma attributed to our home and a 6 month baby? NB. With winter coming we are at in peak season for Cot death and our baby is at the peak age.

C: Is there any documentation forwarded to FM and has this been done recently, and when? FM I am sure will only be too happy to try and get this done. Do you have under floor insulation, carpeting etc as yet? Most houses are occupied by: A. Families with children or, B. People with health issues relating to living in damp, poorly insulated housing.

4. Further to the above my neighbours arrived in the country approx 10 days ago and if "these things take time" as the above paragraph states then their house which was empty for over 6 months must have been slated to get Air Con when it was still empty. Why is this so?

D: There are very few of the tenants who do not fit into one or other of these criteria. In a row of say 4 or 5 houses FM are not going to do 4 houses and leave one to come back later as this is not an efficient way of achieving the aim. In addition, the few people without children/health issues are still paying the same rent and deserve to be fairly treated.

5. In the past we have been told there is nothing that can be done with regard to upgrading the house in relation to our daughters health. (I asked Robyn when the inspection was done late last year). With regards to the last paragraph in the excerpt above even though we were unsure if JLSO were aware of our health problems we did not contact them as per the instructions in the statement. We believed that decisions were being made in the best interests of housing personnel and their families. But we find out from work colleagues that they rang JLSO and essentially requested a Air Con unit and got one. This suggests that it is better to ignore guidelines and give no consideration to friends and neighbours in the interests of getting what you want. Is that the case?

E: Please refer to the above paragraphs. It maybe you may not have to wait too long, as I understand they are working in patches and hope to have completed much of this task by Aug 2008. Each insulation I understand is done separately such as: Underfloor insulation (in one patch), Air Cons (in one patch), Carpet (in one patch), but then I could be incorrect, and would need to confirm . Refer to C

I am only too happy to support you, it is still encouraging that you have taken the time to write your concerns, as oppose to public frustrations being vented out on FM staff. In the meantime please try to be patient, I realise how frustrating this is when your children have health issues? Send documentation to FM and we will take it from there.

Most of the above references have been conveyed to me for my information and to pass on to those who are seeking some clarity. Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss

Kind regards

Welfare Facilitator
Operational Support Wing
RN Z AF Base AK
Whenuapai, Auckland.

I must say she lost me at the start with the fact she had a addressed the email to Les. Um hello???
The answers were all pretty disappointing. Especially the fact I was invited to circumvent the process which is something which I was taking issue with! I don't want to complain so we get something before others if there are others in a worse position!

And then yesterday this came out to all MQ residents from the BASE COMMANDER!!

From: WGCDR
Sent: Tuesday, 17 June 2008 10:35 a.m.
To:
Cc:
Subject: RE: For Married Quarter Residents Only

For Married Quarter Residents Only

Approximately two months ago I sent out the email below advising that we were doing some work on your MQs to improve heating and insulation. This is part of a two-year plan that will result in all houses having under floor insulation and a heat pump installed. I am pleased to inform you that because of the extraordinary efforts of the JLSO Property team, we have purchased heat pumps for all houses and hope to have them all installed by late August. The under floor insulation is progressing well and we hope to have 60% of the houses completed by July. Intentions are to purchase additional kits and install early in the financial year, assuming funding is approved.

When I sent this message I requested that you be patient, due to the size of the project and the current workload of the JLSO. I am therefore disappointed to report that the JLSO staff have been harassed, and in one case abused by service members and/or their families. This behaviour is unacceptable and it is to cease. If you have a welfare/medical issue, then please utilise the Welfare team on Base and/or go through your command chain. I have instructed the JLSO staff to look at all welfare cases on their merits and if possible, we will do what we can to meet your individual needs.

Please be aware that I will not tolerate service personnel or their families directly approaching JLSO Property personnel and behaving inappropriately. Therefore I request you use the proper channels to register your complaints. When appropriate, I also strongly encourage you to provide positive feedback.

Welfare is a command responsibility and it is one I take very seriously!

Meeting

To help with communication to family members I intend to have a regular morning tea to discuss issues that you are facing. These meetings will be facilitated by the Mrs Deana Lye our Base Welfare Facilitator. The first such meeting is planned for 25 June 2008. Time: 0930-1030. Location: Base HQ Admin Joe room. I look forward to meeting with you.

NB. This notice will also be placed in the Base Bulletin.

SIGNED...
WGCDR
CO OSWAK

All I can say is WOW this is really positive!! I will of course be going to the meeting. I told Les I'll be good and I will, if anything I just want to say 'thanks for listening'. I do have a few questions/issues that I may raise... but we'll see what happens. I hope all the other Bases Base Commanders step up and do this sort of thing... Base Auckland MQ's are actually some of the better ones, Navy and Army are apparently much worse. We're never going to get to Aussie standards but knowing that somebody is listening and trying is a good start. Yay!

We interupt this blogging hiatus to....

.... well to blog actually.


Despite his newfound passion for tree hugging Will took some time out today to watch the tree guys. As always, non-essential maintainence seems to be the thing to spend money on around here so the airforce got some tree surgeons to remove some dead tress (that have been dead since we moved in) and prune some others. It was apparently fascinating...


When they did our backyard tree we went outside to have a look. The chipper and the chainsaw were super noisy.


But we operate an OSH approved house around here...

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Tidbits

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Hello,

A quick note, I have written a goal for myself to work my butt off to finish getting the house sorted following the 'great cot installation' because I can't create till it's done and there's a bunch of other stuff that I just can't let myself enjoy till it's sorted- like planting spring bulbs and reading magazines etc. So my blogging will be sporadic till that's all done and dusted (well not dusted exactly- hello? I'm not that committed) :-).

In the meantime we are all good (cept Merenia).

The snot seems to behind us... yay!

Les is ramping up for Turkey- very exciting, he leaves at the end of the month. Check out the countdown.

Kieran had the worlds best weekend; Indiana Jones with Kieley and friends, Crusader Victory in the Super 14 final, new Lego sets in the toy world sale and with one exception he's happy with the new All Black Team (I'm sure Graham Henry will be pleased to have Kieran's blessing).

I enjoyed lunch and starbucks with Kieley today and have a cape-seed loaf for tomorrow, Yum! I was also delighted to be personally invited to attend the opening of an exhibition of photographs of local people this evening at the library. The photos were taken by Willow Harfleet who attends Kieran's school and had a couple of stints in G.a.T as she is also a passionate scientist. Her photos are exceptionally good, she has an eye that most adults don't have when taking portraits. Super cool!

Will was pleased to catch up with Ma, Kieley and Room 20 today. He also enjoyed a trip to the beach with some close up seagull action and a jaunt around the cool pet shop at Brown's Bay. And he liked the exhibition as well, mostly because he was fascinated by Willow's 3 week old nephew and entranced by the sound Kieran's teachers voice (she was at the exhibition too).

Merenia is not so happy as she came home from Penguins tonight to discover my statement regarding her bedroom was not just an idle threat, and that the contents of her bedroom with the exceptions of furniture, books, clothes, and Mary (her unicorn) are now gone. That said she is still unable to accept that the mess was her responsibility and that she broke the rules by having food and pens in there as well as a bunch of other transgressions! Oh well, such is life I reckon.

NB. Everytime I refer to 'Penguins' I always imagine some sort of Nun school for kids... you know how in the Blues Brothers they refered to the Nun's as Penguins... it's actually St Johns Cadets.

A few notes from the weekend....

If you have kids aged say 5 and up try the game Zooreka... very cool!

Me and Kieran want one of these... (use this link if you are in a hurry), a steal at just US$3000.

If you are an Outrageous Fortune Fan Check out the promo on You Tube... if you aren't then why not?

If you love collecting books check out this.

If you are a scrapbooker check out these. I am so going to get me some of those.

Check this out because I said so.

And finally if your baby has died or you care for someone who's baby died then you may like to read this and this. I am a lot further down my grief track than Kate, Saskia will be 9 on Sunday and she seldom gives me anything but joy- (NB. not all whose babies die reach a peaceful place), but I can so remember that searing pain in the newness of loss.

Like I said I may not be around much the rest of this week... if I can I will try and complete some more of the book posts. The book lists are already sorted (I am on the second shelf in the lounge now) :-) .

With any luck I'll be a brighter happier me with my creative thirst quenched when you next read my words. Time to sleep, then to focus.

Slap'n it up

As I sit here freezin' my butt off with most of the windows in the house open it may not be the best of days to talk about the adventures with the painters, but I'm gonna anyway.

Looking over the pictures this could be the world's most boring blog post but I am writing it for me to remember when I get around to scrapping it later on and also because the kids read the blog and I thought it may interest them.

So here's the house just after they started scraping the windows. You can see from this picture that the base boards needs a coat or two but in general the house looked fine. Murphy's Baby Law's also apply to painters in that where ever you have a baby that is going to sleep or actually asleep then you will also have a painter making a fairly decent amount of noise. That said if I could employ a water blaster full time then I would. It would be a terrible waste of the worlds water resources but the window would sure as heck be clean and Will slept a LONG time when he was here doing his thing!


Just for reference sake here's the back. We did have a big stack of firewood under those 2 little windows but they had to move it. (Glad it wasn't me)


This is 'little english' he has said five words to me; baby, half (as in half a year), yes (as in I was right about the babies age), two (as in two coats of paint) and toilet (as in can I please use yours).



And this is 'no english' who swings between cheerful and scared. I don't like referring to them using these names at all... but I haven't got much to go on as far as personality to differentiate them.

This is when they started wrapping the house. Sam is down the bottom doing some filling.



Merenia's windows one wrapped and the other getting wrapped.


Cool plant art... or at least how you keep the plants away from the house. We were a little worried about Ruby trying to come in the cat door over the step that they were painting dark grey... she has the furriest toes of any cat you have ever met and she's quite temperamental... it would not have been fun trying to trim her painty paw fur!


Back door all masked out....


And Sam starts to spray the first wall... Les is not impressed by house spraying... that's not the way they did it back in his day!


And here's Sam about 5 minutes later almost finished the first coat... and that is also not the way Les did it back in his day either. :-)


This is a very poor picture but I can tell you that would have been the best light to take family photos in- full sunlight brilliantly diffused!! Alas alak... who knew they'd work weekends?


Here's the hole in the front door masking that I just came through. Sam told me around 1pm that they'd have to mask both doors and that once they did there would be no coming or going for 2 hours. And I told Sam that I needed to pick the kids up at 3pm and he said fine we'll do the front door after that. So I was more than a little taken aback at 2:20pm when I went to leave to get milk and vege etc on my way to school to find out I was masked in. I made a little hole in the masking stuff and meekly called out hello. They came and made a bigger hole and I passed Will in his car seat through it. Then I popped through as well.

And then the kids went in through the hole when we got home. Kieran...

Merenia...

And Merenia's friend Courtney...

They started scrapping the windows on Thursday afternoon and by about 5:30pm Friday they had painted both coats over the whole house....


Saturday they worked on steps, base boards and filling holes that appeared after paint dried. Sunday they had a day off which was good because if they had have been working like the neighbours painter then I wouldn't have been happy. Yesterday was raining. And today like I say we have practically every window in the house open. When he's awake Will and I are holed up in our bedroom with the oil heater on. I think maybe they will finish today or perhaps have a little more to do before they move on down the road. Yay! Nice shiny new 'Spanish White' house looks great on the outside... fairly bloody crap on the inside thanks to the logic of the NZ Defence Force! I'll post a picture when it's all done and dusted. I bet you'll be waiting with baited breath for that one! Now I'm off down to the scrapbooking room as I didn't open those windows either.