Week 20, day ninety-six

Friday, 10 June 2011

I think I am almost too tired to think (there have been an awful lot of late working nights these last couple of weeks) but there is mucho to report, so here goes...

Tilers arrived as promised on Monday and laid the beds (concrete-ish floor to go under tiles) in the bathroom and laundry, ready to start tiling on Wednesday. We only had the wall tiles at that point but that kept 'em busy for this week, in any case. Stephane of Danemark is the artiste on site and a very fine job he's doing too – he informed me that in Denmark they have a catalogue of 990 possible brick-patterns to choose from for one's tiles. I told him that one or two options would probably be enough for me, and happily we all agreed on his very first suggestion. Who would have thought a one-third brick pattern could have so many possibilities?

Bargain basement $10/sq.m wall tiles...

...we're spending the rest on the floor!!

A sneak preview in the meantime...

Meanwhile, the painters are kicking on and it is looking good (well, we think so, anyway). Just have a few trim issues to smooth out to get it all tying in nicely and then I shall reveal all with a grand flourish and a photo or six. Two different people have mentioned in passing to me this week that 'you can't paint when it's less than 10 degrees' or the paint either doesn't a) stick, or b) dry properly underneath, and therefore has a shorter life. My, that was a jaw-dropper... Phil and Sam have been going hard with the brushes for more than a week now and I can't recall many of those days peaking above 10 degrees even in the middle of the day – gulp. I swung the theory by Warwick who grinned and spoke reassuring words that we'd know by now if it wasn't going to stick. All a bit late anyway, I guess, and I have to admit it all looks and feels great to me, but I ain't no paint expert. It's all here in writing if it peels off in two years...

Our bedroom, half-finished

Trent's still kicking on with the internal walls, though Warwick whisked him away for a couple of days to do the foundation base courses of the next job he'll be moving on to, building the new medical centre in town. Apparently he was whacking 'em up at the speed of light over there and now he's come back to Bell Street this afternoon – must have missed us (or he just wanted to work inside again). Trent has bought some land in Leura, apparently, and was telling Mat that he's thinking he might just nick our house and build something like it, so impressed is he (I'm sure he doesn't mean that in a literal way, Charlie...tho' I'll keep an eye on it!!). Ivan also mentioned that he's noticing an awful lot of slow-down-and-have-a-good-look drive-bys at the moment – it is suddenly looking like a gorgeous, nearing-completion beast, with finished roof, painted surfaces and pergolas up...

We met with Richie on the weekend, a local cabinetmaker/chiropractor-in-training who will hopefully be building our kitchen and laundry cabinetry for us when he's on uni holidays (if his quote fits the bill). He's sourcing samples of plywood for the cupboards and a timber for one benchtop for us to have a geezer at – I'm looking forward to the kitchen palaver a bit more now that we've roughed out a plan (that bit was a tad overwhelming for a while).

Before reveals...

Toby and Ivan started on the wide internal window reveals today too – the initial idea was to do these big, wide babies in cedar like the windows, but the timber quote put a bit of a brake on that. Charlie suggested our new favourite product, plywood, instead, and I think they look pretty great too. Mat is utterly in love with them – he feels like we've moved into Zac's House territory now (see much earlier post on our fancy-house inspirations) – and disappeared for about an hour this afternoon to just stand and admire them. This weekend's job is sanding and sealing them before Trent starts bricking up to them on Monday, because I really don't have enough to do. Actually, it'll be kinda nice to get in there and do something physical rather than watching everyone else have all the fun!

...after reveals

 Also got a quote on our internal and external lights this week from makers of fine lighting Tovo on the northern beaches – and nearly fell off our collective chair. Clearly lighting is something we had given VERY little thought to, and our understanding of what it all might cost was even more woeful... Thank god for Charlie, who came to the rescue again with an idea for some homemade wall lights of his own clever design using – you guessed it – plywood (this time the paper-thin stuff). It is tres clever, and also means we do not have to either take out a second mortgage or live with hideous lights from Stinky Norman. Yay Charlie.

Happy Queenie day, y'all – god bless Bess!

Our liquidamber seems to be the last one in town holding onto its leaves. I wonder why?

Mysterious body-sized hole in the backyard has now been filled in – but what/who is inside?