First, a brief notice to the effect that this blog is now being syndicated on Livejournal. It’s still better to read it the way it’s intended to be read, but the syndicated version is an alternative if you happen to find it more convenient. Let me remind readers that my archives are indexed here, where you can browse through them at your leisure.
Anyway … further to my previous post, my floors have now been renovated. They look great, and there is a very noticeable improvement in insulation.
I’ll shortly be offline for a day and a half. My carpets and lino will be ripped up and replaced with cork tomorrow, so I certainly won’t be using my computer then. And because the workers will be moving furniture around, I am trying to simplify their task by packing my possessions away either into the bathroom or onto the kitchen benches. Soon I’ll be unplugging the computer and putting it away on the kitchen benches, too. (This isn’t merely generosity on my part; if I let the workers move my stuff around, they’ll put things back wrong.)
Yesterday morning I woke to discover a bird in my house, trying to fly out through the glass of the kitchen window. The only explanation I had for how it got in was that it must have flown in the evening before when I very briefly had the door open and been trapped here all night. This is incredible, but there was no other explanation. I got it out, but sometime later it was back. In my house. With no possible way of having got in. This morning I chased it out at least three times, and cleaned various messes off the sink, basin, benchtop and floor.
Later today, I just happened to glance up at the plastic grate covering my bathroom’s ceiling fan (which hasn’t worked for a very long time, by the way) and noticed it was bent, part of its edge slightly pulled away from the ceiling. This had certainly not been the case before, and the discovery was both good news and bad news. Good news because the mystery was solved - clearly the bird has a nest in the ceiling, and being attracted by indoor lights, managed to push the plastic grate away from the ceiling just enough to get in. Bad news because right now the bathroom contains piles of desk drawers and clean clothes, and a bird could really cause some mischief in there. (It could cause even more mischief in the kitchen, where I’ve stored ornaments and books and all sorts of other things, and that’s the room a bird will try to fly out of because it gets the most outdoor light. So in short, the two rooms I definitely don’t want a bird in right now are the two rooms where it’s most likely to be, depending on whether it’s just got in or is trying to get out. Not good.)
I dealt with the problem by taping up the bathroom ceiling fan with masking tape. I hope that works. Masking tape isn’t all that strong if the bird is determined, but it should slow it down.
Renovation photographs coming soon.
My home is reasonably clean and tidy at the moment, as I’d been told that my floors would be renovated on the 28th, which is two days from now. But I received a phone call this morning to say that the stock has not arrived, so I don’t know when my floors will be renovated. This sort of thing is annoying.
I have previously explained the difficulty of taking photographs of my kitchen - in summary, a camera insists upon rendering as dark blue that which the eye knows to be dark green. However, what with the kitchen being clean I decided to have another go at taking that photograph, in order to show off the colour scheme that I’m so proud of.
Life hasn’t stopped since the last time I wrote about it, so here are a few more updates.
My new kitchen tiles were put in a while ago, and I really really want to take a photograph to show you. The only reason I haven’t is because no matter what I do, I can’t get my camera to reproduce the colours satisfactorily. It seems my camera just doesn’t like dark green. Sorry. Maybe someone with a better camera will help me out some day.
[Update: I had another go at the photograph.]
I was at my parents’ place for much of the last week while my kitchen was renovated by Uzit. I now have a completely new set of drawers and cupboards, and a new sink. Also, the water heater was moved from inside to outside.
I was lucky with the benchtop colour. The colour I chose was a discontinued one, and there was only one sheet of it left in the factories anywhere in the country! I got the colour I wanted (the very last sheet of it) but I had to sign a form saying that I understood that if the sheet cracked during construction or something I would have to choose another colour and that I accepted the associated financial risk. I was determined to have the colour, because I had my heart set on dark green benchtops and none of the other available colours were remotely like it.
I am very happy with the colours of the new cupboards, including the dark green benchtops but also with other aspects of the colour scheme (for example I’m happy with my decision to have white handles instead of the default stainless steel). I do have some reservations about the dimensions of things - I would have liked the drawers to be less shallow and the top shelf of overhead cupboards to be easier to reach - but that’s OK.
Plans to renovate my kitchen are currently under development. Which reminds me: quite some time ago, I had an idea for the wall tiles that I’d consider ideal for my kitchen.
Unfortunately, none of the people who actually manufacture tiles seem to have come up with the same idea, which involves a vine pattern made up of two types of square tiles that can be combined in arbitrary ways. The best way to explain this idea would be with some pictures.
I am back in Adelaide and very happy with the new colours of my home. All rooms have now been painted with my choice of colours, the bathroom having been done before. Renovation decisions still to come include kitchen furnishings, curtains, light fittings and floors. Check the Domestic category for new information.
I am currently staying at my parents’ place while my own home is being renovated by professional painters. To entertain readers of this blog while I’m away from home, I thought I’d post a few photographs. I intend to take more photographs over the rest of the week, and will probably add them to this post rather than starting a new one, so watch this space.
Some of the photographs from around here that I’ve posted to this blog before include:
There are 16-17 new photographs below this line.
This is a photograph of the street where I live.
My home is one of a block of units, rather than a house, but it’s the first non-shared accomodation I’ve ever had. I have no desire to move again in the foreseeable future, particularly because I so much enjoy planning renovations and living with the results.
As I’ve said previously, when I first moved to Adelaide I lived in the Bible College of South Australia. Later I moved to shared accomodation on Shepherd’s Hill Road, in order to be closer to Flinders University. I moved again (to my current accomodation) after a dispute with the person who, at that time, had taken over the role of in-house manager.
