Holly's Porirua home was built in 1962, with good bones but no insulation at all in the walls, as was typical for the era. The coldest room in the house, the front, south-facing bedroom where her grandchildren sleep, needed sorting, especially with a couple of them prone to asthma. Her own bedroom wasn't much better.
Holly didn't need an ad to convince her. She needed a neighbour. After watching her neighbour get her walls insulated and hearing how much of a difference it made, Holly decided it was time to bite the bullet.
"She said it made a huge difference, so I got in touch with the guys who did hers," Holly says.
Having already seen the standard of work on her neighbour's home, Holly felt confident before the team had even arrived. The crew talked her through the process and used an thermal imaging camera so she could see exactly where the insulation gaps were in her wooden weatherboard walls.
"The evidence was quite clear that they were tidy and were going to do a good finish," she says.
Done and dusted before lunch
A team of three worked through the whole house (bar the kitchen, which Holly wanted to keep cool for storing fruit and veg) in well under a day.
"They were slick, very onto it, but they weren't rushing," Holly says. "They were just really efficient." The team also took care of the council consent process as part of the job.
Burgers to go
Holly happened to have the day off when the crew arrived, so she made sure they were well looked after, starting with morning tea. By the time she had burgers on the go for lunch, the team was almost done.
"I started putting the onions on about eleven and they could smell it from outside," she laughs. When the crew said they were too full from morning tea for a sit-down lunch, Holly sent them off with burgers to go instead.
Warmer, quieter, drier
The difference was immediate. Holly noticed less road noise and a real drop in noise, even from a neighbour a valley over with a habit of playing music loudly. The grandchildren's bedroom, once the coldest room in the house, now feels warm and dry to the touch rather than cold and damp.
"I rubbed my hand against the wall and it felt warm. It didn't feel cold and wet. A huge difference," she says.
Asked to sum up the Wellington team in a few words, Holly didn't hesitate.
"Top class blokes," she says. "I can't speak highly enough of the service, right from the initial guy turning up to when those guys left. Really, really responsive and just lovely."