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October 30, 2007
Bungalow-deluxe
Here is a shot of the bungalow-deluxe, almost finished.
I'm afraid the photos doesn't do justice to it, it is a thing of wonder and beauty and the builders have delivered exactly what we hoped plus some.
Since then, Ron and I have sanded and stained the doors you can see, inside and out, sanded and stained the oregon beams supporting the roof inside (original to the garage), sanded and beeswaxed the old work-bench that has been in the garage for several-previous-owners, and applied a coat of enviromentally friendly primer to the interior. All we have to do now is the final top coat. It is all happenning at a snail's pace but it IS happenning. I can't wait to move in!
We also plan to clad the wall of cement sheeting you can see in the photo with corrugated iron. I wanted rusty corrugated iron but caught the neighbours dismantling some iron from their verandah roof and was so taken with it that I couldn't resist. It does have some rust but also the vestiges of white and red paint, the end effect being a distressed pale pink affair.
We may also one day, (probably after winning tattslotto) lay a real floor. We are torn between floorboards and polished concrete. Not being able to afford either and the original concrete floor of the garage being in excellent condition we will for the moment settle for a slate coloured floor varnish from Bio Products.
I'll post more photos once it's really finished!
Posted by Faith at 05:16 AM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2007
Luxuries
Saturday afternoon Ron and I were pondering the diasasters besetting our lives at the moment ie: 'new-pond-syndrome' and two broody chooks.
Ron pointed out that if we were still living in Amsterdam we'd have to be millionaire's to be able to afford the possibility of such disasters. Millionaires or wheelchair-bound-senior-citizens who'd spent quarter of a century on a waiting list for a ground floor apartment. Such luxurious disasters!
Posted by Faith at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2007
What my mother did
Like many four-year-olds Jacob is firmly of the belief that you should never walk anywhere when you could hop, skip or jump. Better still is an amalgamation of all three. This method of perambulation combined with the varied and creative condition of many of the footpaths in these parts does, unfortunately, frequently find him abruptly sprawled face-down.
Last week, insult was added to injury when not only did he find himself once again counting ants, but his absent-minded-six-month-pregnant-staring-up-at-the-sky mother failed to notice and proceeded to walk on top of him! Luckily, only his index finger and sense of maternal care and consideration were injured. The latter taking quite some fixing, I might add!
Ice applied to the injured finger halted the swelling and an enormous blood blister beneath his nail eventually subsided although I did warn him that the nail may blacken and fall off. Jacob wondered if he would be able to show it to the kids at creche and when I assured him that he would he responded with a very enthusiastic "Cooooooool!"
Reality however is apparently not quite so cool. The creche just rang to say that Jacob's fingernail is loose and coming off and Jacob is unnerved enough by the experience to want to come home. After some telephone discussions he has agreed to settle for having a bandaid applied, preferably a Bart Simpson one, eating his lunch with the other kids and seeing how he feels after that.
I suggested he also make use of his fingernail at this afternoon's show-and-tell session. I suspect his pre-school teacher may be hoping for more uplifting topics but then again, as the class obsession at the moment is farts, poo and bottoms Jacob's dead fingernail is practically high-brow!
Posted by Faith at 05:49 AM | Comments (0)