Week 29

Week 29

Really not much this week. The weather is very variable - we hit 30 on Saturday but expecting rain again - we're always expecting rain, as it turns out :-). Janny and I both hopped on the mowers at the end of a dry day on Tuesday - trying to get it done before the next rain comes - it does seem different this year.

I heard a term "Renovation Tetris" referring to moving stuff from one place to another just to get things done before moving on to the next thing. Over the years, I've always called it the merry-go-round - making room for stuff by moving other stuff - the step that was always missing was the load to the tip to try to break the cycle.

We're not far away from moving in to the house again - the shower basin and at least one toilet have to be placed - and a circuit breaker for the new ovens...

A new young woman has moved into the smallest apartment - when we move out of ours (it still has to be painted) - the people in #3 will move into it - much larger and easier to fit 4 people in - then the newcomer will also move up - again a Tetris operation, but fun to organise - we'll have everyone doing a bit of painting, I hope.

On Monday, Tjeerd and I hung a new holland blind - a rolgordijn (literally roll curtain) - again having to drill holes in the new plasterwork

...and then new cupboards in the bedroom and hallway...to have a surround so that they look "built-in".

Janny had an idea of "scaffolding pipes" to hang clothes in another walk-in wardrobe space - it's just up to Tjeerd and I to implement this and other ideas...

This one was easier said than done - it looks simple enough - but every time we put it in, it seemed to develop a different "shape" - the spirit level was working overtime to try to get it just right - at the end of Tuesday we just laughed as we realised we had lost almost a whole day trying to get it into position...

At the end I said to Tjeerd - " the old me would have put a plank up first so that we don't have to drill 24 holes" (again in the new plasterwork). We both said yeah that will work - much better - and we had a nice piece of oak left over - in keeping with the other oak beams and window sills.

So, that was my job on Wednesday, without Tjeerd...

On Friday, a friend had his 60th birthday

(I've often thought of trying a pig on a spit - but never knew where or how to get the stuff)

...but our local restaurant owner organised it - all too easily as it turned out :-)

On Saurday, I finished the stairway landing floor and then we headed off to IKEA (again)

For the cupboard doors and some extras for another of Janny's ideas - a "couch plank"

It was looking good and we just had time to go to buy the two extra oak planks needed to finish it off. I had to raise it off the floor a bit with some leftover timber - I next have to join the planks and figure out how to put powerpoints and USB connections within arms reach in the plank - and cut it all to size, of course.

Getting there....slowly