Saturday, December 27, 2008

Sixth of the Sixth

I hope you're still enjoying the aftermath of the holidays. We've been eating bad food at irregular intervals and not exercising much, and watching endless Christmas specials and DVDs but we're having a really good holiday this year. This is the only time Ben gets a build of time off of work. I love my family when they visit, and they 're never hear too long, but it's so bloody wonderful not to have anyone at this time of the year, or a visit pending for a change.

This year we're trying to clean the house and the garden because come January builders will come to knock out a wall, remove an no-longer-permitted old wood burner and a concrete chimney, and build a pantry in its place. Then the wood burner guys will follow and install a deceptively-quaint-looking (we call it "twee", I think, in New Zealand) but eco-friendly monster with a souped up chimney. Don't ask; I just read the brochures. The mood in our living room is going to be decidedly hand-made doilies and ruffled skirts for the furniture, but that was the only one that fit out specs.

So it's ironic that the Six photo in the Six folder in My Pictures is of a window in the kitchen. (Tagged by Susan B!) We had all of our windows changed from beautifully-stained-by-Ben-wood-frame-with-brass-fittings-single-glaze windows to aluminum-framed-double-tinted-glaze in 2003 to save on heat and shut out noise. Long story short, the company was a fraud and the manager up and left the country, (turns out it was his second time), after having had a baby with his receptionist. Luckily we had done something we never do, arranged a finance plan, so the finance company had to put in the windows come hail or high water. A former employees of Vision Aluminum, Wayne, where our windows were, so thirteen months after we signed up, Wayne and the hubby of the finance company lady, (he happened to be a glazier in Christchurch) installed the last two windows. Lordy...

Anyhoo, it reminds me, we'd better get started on this cleaning the kitchen thing. We got a microwave oven yesterday, something Ben's wanted for a few years. But I've always felt uneasy about idea of nuking our food, plus we have a tiny pantry and almost no counter space. But with the cost of electricity, and time, and the forthcoming BIG(-ish) pantry, we decided to go for it. The food is all over the place now and the microwave is sitting pretty in the tiny pantry.

4 comments:

  1. on towards life as usual huh?

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  2. Yes and no, I guess, Dana. Doing things slowly (as usual) and with lots of distractions. I made 1/2 of a warp today.

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  3. A microwave for nuking food? We don't have a microwave because of not agreeing over whether it's primary use would be for dyeing or for sterilizing potting compost! ;)

    I like the idea of a biggish pantry, they are right of fashion in the UK but I grew up in a house with old fashioned things like a pantry and an air cupboard and feel continually inconvenienced not having them.

    Best wishes for 2009 and the success of your planned building works.

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  4. After coming home with the one, I did think it's not THAT expensive, and I could get one for dyeing, but I have so limited space I reconsidered... Good move, since I can hardly move in the studio just now.

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