Building consents in New Zealand

Everyone loves bureaucracy, right? Okay, maybe not, but it does serve a noble purpose in some regards. The Christchurch earthquakes, when compared with events of a similar magnitude in less regulated nations, were a good demonstration of what the standards exist for - not a happy example (nor a perfect one) but they do remind me why our houses are better built strong.

So, to ensure our house is good and sound once we've made all our changes we need a building consent. Some works are exempt, but three main things needed to be consented... And then because we're doing other works at the same time which wouldn't otherwise need a consent but should be factored into calculations around bracing etc those get added into the mix.

The most significant structural change, and therefore in my mind the most important bit to do by the book (because *cough* we're not doing everything in exactly the right order) will be the removal of a wall between what was a bedroom and a passage, to make a reasonably proportioned lounge. It's a structural wall and also provides bracing so we've got the engineer on the job!

Adding a north facing window into that lounge also needs a consent, because it's a new opening. If you are swapping a door for a window or vice versa, so long as they're the same width and height, i.e. don't need a new lintel, you don't need a consent, though as I understand it the work should be carried out by a Licensed Building Professional to ensure everything is watertight.

And the third thing on our list, and this is when our sequence is getting a bit out of whack, because we're doing this now and the consent submission is still being prepared, is moving the kitchen. If you are replacing a kitchen or bathroom in the same location you don't normally need a consent, but if you're moving them to a different location (and therefore making substantial plumbing changes) you do. We're working around this by making sure any changes we make remain visible until we get a building inspection, and at that point we'll be doing a lot of finger crossing that we get a friendly inspector!

Because our consent is still in progress we don't have the bill for it yet, but it will be a four digit number so not something you want to do too often!

The list of things that do and don't require consents are largely common sense - the big stuff that might compromise your house generally does, and smaller jobs that don't relate to the overall structure usually don't. We've found this guide really useful for working out what we can press on with.

The most surprising thing I've discovered that needs a consent is adding insulation to exterior walls. I was told - though by an insulation salesman so don't take this as gospel - that many councils waive this requirement, but I guess it makes sense because there is the risk of messing up the waterproofness of your house.

Have you had to get a building consent for anything? Were there any snags or was it smooth sailing? And are we the only naughty ones - did you wait for it to be granted before you started work?

Renovating with a baby

Someone asked me the other day how we find renovating with a baby. As today is said baby's first birthday (don't ask me where a whole year went!) I thought it was an appropriate day to expound upon this.

Just a few hours old and blissfully
unaware of the turmoil his DIY
wannabe parents will thrust upon him.

The short answer: it's much slower and trickier than without a baby!

The worst part is having large areas of the house very much un-childsafe, which means we've been spending a lot of time in certain rooms. The downstairs bedrooms, which we finished before we moved in for this purpose, are safe, but still aren't ideal for playtime; our freshly folded clothes seem to be mysteriously strewn across the floor more often than I'm fully comfortable with.

We find ourselves trying to get a lot done during naptime - but these are becoming less frequent... And as any parent will know, the day I really want him to have a nice long sleep because I need to finish a coat of paint will be the day the nap only lasts half an hour.

Sometimes we ambitiously try to get things done with the small helper around, but more often than not this ends with one of us fully focused on the boy to prevent him from eating screws / playing with saws / falling through holes in the floor.

Which is not to say that the baby-wrangling is bad - it's lots of fun and for every set of challenges there are rewards too (we like him!). But it does definitely need to be factored into the planning because it... changes things.

Baby loves Bunnings!

And the most helpful thing: I'm currently unemployed (a recent development of my own doing) but we have kept our part-time childcare arrangements in place, as I will seek work again soon. This means I get some time to spread out the tools without having to worry about little fingers, which definitely supports progress!

If only I could work out a way for these self-indulgent projects to also generate enough income to make this more than a temporary arrangement... Anyone want to pay me to project manage their renovations? ;-)