Week 16, day seventy-six

Sunday, 15 May 2011

Okay, it's officially winter, doesn't matter what the calendar says: this morning we discovered that the fish pot had frozen over. Undoubtedly this is normal in mother nature's world and fish cope with such events all the time, but we're slightly worried about whether Swish Fish, bred in the near-tropical climes of Stanwell Park, has fully adjusted to icy events like these. In fact, we haven't seen him since, but hope he's sleeping/hibernating/whatever fish do near the bottom somewhere. And hopefully my slightly mad city-slicker attempts to cheer him up with a few jugs of warm water don't have a negative effect on nature's plans...

Beading has begun on The Block, which refers to the thin pieces of timber that cover up the places where the cladding sheets join. They look very nice, but seeing them has raised whole new colour dilemmas (where the beading joins a fibro sheet to a Weathertex board, does it get painted the fibro colour or the board colour? 'Cause they ain't remotely the same...) Is it acceptable to phone a friend on these matters, ie one's colour consultant? Luckily our painter, Warwick's father-in-law Phil, is another Zen type, so maybe he'll have all the answers.

Almost all clad now

Need to decide on what we're going to do with our concrete floor soon, as it seems that sealing it before the brickie arrives to do his internal walls could be a good move - then if mortar spills, it should wipe off fairly easily. Warwick has put the idea in my head that if we were ever going to lightly grind or polish the slab, now is the time to do it, while there are no internal walls for grinders to butt up against. He had to grind a small spot when he was doing the five-hour installation of the sliding door and said it looked great... Damn! Had no intention of doing this and now I'm thinking about it - and it's ruddy expensive to pay someone to do it, or hard work to do it yourself. Anyone care to push their barrow for either side of the case?

Arne's Vola from 1968!! Genius.

And this weekend's homework has been taps: Waz sprang on me late last week that James would need any mixer taps (those nifty ones that mix cold and hot warm in one tap, for those living in the dark ages like me) by Tuesday. Jeez, Louise! If he had any idea how many tap catalogues I've collected over the months, or how much research I feel obliged to undertake before making any small decision, he'd know that's approximately fourteen days less than I need... But here's where I'm at. I know what taps and spouts I want (Arne Jacobsen's Vola range, designed in 1968 - no thanks to architect friend Todd for bringing these outrageously expensive things of beauty to my attention). I can't have them (prices range from $1200 to $2000 for ONE set). So, after much hunting around for an alternative that I have any chance of finding for Tuesday, we've settled for the Methven Minimalist range (right) - not quite as nice as Arne's, but hey, who am I kidding? Designer Danish tapware is probably not a true reflection of my current lifestyle...

And to bore anyone who's still with me even further, what do you reckon about our clean-up day outdoor-table chair find? Picked up six of these Nabco numbers around the corner - they were rusty and dirty from years of neglect, but a bit of vinegar and scrunched-up alfoil scrubbing later (works wonders on rusty chrome, ladies) and they've come up quite nicely. Either that or they're a heap of 70s/80s junk – I can't quite decide. In any case, they're free, and that is an excellent selling point at this stage of the proceedings.