MenzShed Kāpiti build new community hall

MenzShed Kāpiti's new meeting room.

The final touches are being applied to MenzShed Kāpiti's new community hall.

The 130sq m building has been a long time in the making, and faced various obstacles, but is now all but complete.

Project director Peter Blackler estimated the final cost of the building was about $150,000 "which is essentially material costs and a small amount of labour costs".

Fortunately a number of grants, donations, sponsorship, repurposed goods, and lots of helping hands made a big difference.

Some of the things which have also kept the costs down included a kitchen unit and appliances from a retirement village's refurbished villa, outdoor decking from a Mahara Place upgrade, heat pump from a local school, and a beautifully handcrafted rimu wood bench top by John Daly.

Final work inside MenzShed Kapiti's new meeting room. Photo / David Haxton

The fully accessible hall features a large meeting space, kitchen, toilets and large outdoor covered decking.

It has been a herculean effort spearheaded by builder Murray Cardie and lots of others.

The hall will be available for MenzShed members as well as community groups - a lot of which have already expressed an interest in using it.

It will mean MenzShed can extend its programmes for members, especially those who can't use the workshops, but also enable guest speakers and so on.

"We will be able to cater for more guys in the community who haven't been able to come to the workshop environment.

"But now they can come here and play cards, chess, do a jigsaw, or sit out on the deck and supervise all the action."

Members had taken a keen interest as the build progressed.

"It's going to be interesting to see how they react to it.

"I've been telling them they'll have to take their boots off when they come in," Blackler joked.

The new building was well worth the effort.

"We're incredibly pleased with the work our builders have done and the great support we've had from the community and council."

The community hall will be officially opened on Saturday, June 5 at 10.30am.

MenzShed Kāpiti is located at 25A Rangihiroa St, Waikanae Beach.