We received an offer for Tanya’s place. It’s only 5 1/2 % lower than the offer we had in April/May, which, given the current real estate slump, is pretty good IMO.
So we need to be out by the end of next month (31st October).
A month and a bit should be enough to finish the kitchen counters and upper cabinetry, a few cupboards, and carpets, no?
As mentioned in the previous post, I found a tiler, Glynn Maree, he advertises on Gumtree. I’m very happy with his work.
The border tiles were cheap, and we quite liked them at the time. But Tanya took one look at this, and said that they didn’t look right. So I quickly removed them before the cement hardened. The problem of course is that we now have a strip the width of this specific border tile (80mm) and we need to find something else that fits.
At the time I built the bath surround, I didn’t know what kind of tiles we’d be using, so the gap I left down the middle of the surround (to be able to connect the plumbing) was determined randomly by the board size. Last week, Glynn tiled to a point, and this morning I cut the hole bigger at the bottom and filled the top in. Glynn will stick two tiles to the loose plank, and I’ll fit magnetic catches to keep it in.
I’ve been building this unit out of my favourite material, shutterboard. Tanya and I carried it from the garage to the house (it’s heavy) and wrestled it into position. So what is it, you ask? Well, it’s part of my one built-in cupboard, the one with drawers and shelves that I’m still designing. It’s also a space to store towels, all neatly rolled up.
This is the view from the living room. A bit of cretestone and paint and it will blend right in.
On a totally unrelated topic. I’m around the house on Saturday morning, and my cell phone rings. It’s Tanya, she’s stuck in the toilet.
Now, there’s a story here. When we got the house, the toilet door had no mechanism, and I don’t know what they did to it to damage the door like they did…
I fitted a mechanism, cut a plank sort-of to size, nailed it into place…
… and liberally applied (automotive) body putty (bondo in the USA).
I still have to drill the hole for the square rod… but this explains why Tanya couldn’t get out. I had to unscrew the handle on the outside and use a pair of pliers to open the lock.
Bloody good thing this didn’t happen to me one morning while working alone at the house. Especially since I don’t generally carry my cellphone with me when working.
And yet another unrelated topic — I’m still looking for a wok, so I went to Taste of Asia in Plumstead. Found a mortar & pestle, and umeboshi. The umeboshi is quite expensive, the package above costs about the same as a flat (24 cans) of beer. Havn’t tried it yet.
I also made Cheezy-Lime White Chili with tofu, mostly for Jessica, but I ended up eating most of it. Gooood. Not that I’d call it a chili, it’s more of a (mild) curry. I’ll make it again.
I bet the car’s a writeoff.
Evidence that it hailed in Fish Hoek this morning. Just a bit, but man oh man was it loud on the tin roof of the garage.
There’s a reason. I haven’t done anything to blog about.
With the kitchen base units in, I could measure and order the postform tops, which I did last week. ETA is Friday or so.
I found a tiler to do the master bathroom. He might be starting today.
I need a hall cupboard/bookshelf, some bookshelves for the living room, and two units for our bedroom. Julian at Lansdowne boards is supposed to quote me on these (procedure is he quotes, I pay, he manufactures, and then I audit and spend a week or three sorting things out :-) but so far no quotes.
And once that is done the carpets can go in.
So on Saturday I took the day off (from house stuff), drove out to Somerset West to help a friend with his PC (upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows 2000, and if this sounds terribly archaic please have a look at the URL for this page). Turns out he had a rather nasty virus (Win32:Virut) and after spending Sunday trying to get rid of the damn thing I copied his data off and reformatted the disk. That worked, of course :-) BTW if you have spare copies of Windows 2000 lying around, I’ll even pay for them.
And there you have it — a lack-of-progress report.
Not only because the cabinets are coming together nicely…
… but also because the cupboards are being filled with all kinds of exotic goodies I’m picking up in anticipation.
I went shopping in the Waterfront the other night, saw that they had juniper berries and star aniseed, and that sort of started it. The star aniseed is for making creme brulee, from the Marie Claire Flavours book. I’ve seen exactly the same recipe online, will find and post a link.
Then came yesterday’s shopping trip. The cover story is that I need a wok. The folks-in-law have a cast iron wok that really works well. I can get something similar from Le Creuset in Cavendish, but it’s rather expensive, as Le Creuset tends to be. So I said that at some stage I’ll go to the Chinese/Japanese/Oriental shops and have a look-see.
The second story comes from a conversation I had with a friend (CH) a few months ago, which went something like this :
<me> I want to make Barbara’s Sichuan Shredded Chicken.
<CH> And you are going to get black vinegar where?
But the real reason I went Chinese shopping yesterday is all Barbara’s fault. In particular, #76, baijiu. I couldn’t believe it’s as horrible as the wiki indicates. To quote, “There are a number of accounts in English which comment unfavorably on the taste of baijiu, comparing it with rubbing alcohol or diesel fuel“.
So I went to Mainland China near Cavendish in Claremont, found 500ml of Er Gou Tou for R18.75 (note : this is less than the cost of a sixpack of beer). I also got the black vinegar, some Tom Yum paste, and an intriguing bottle of “Confucious Family Liquor” which was the most expensive of the lot, R43.80 the bottle (note : R40 is what a relatively decent everyday drinking red sets me back most of the time. Just to put things into context for non-local readers).
So now, I feel that I’m qualified to speak. And I can tell you that baijiu tastes nothing like rubbing alcohol or diesel fuel. No, it’s closer to acetone, although I must admit there’s a slight diesel fuel aroma to it — but on the nose only, not the palate.
After the first few sips (yes, I’m brave) one becomes used to the taste. Maybe because by then, my taste buds had decamped and moved south for the duration. It also has a not-so-nice aftertaste, courtesy no doubt of overly brave taste buds who make the return journey too soon.
I’m sure my Land-Rover will run on it though.
One has to admire the packaging. This is the Confucius Family Liquor, and I have no idea what it is or what it tastes like. Time will tell, I’m sure :-)
OK, back to the kitchen. As you can see from the very first picture, I eventually got the right size panel to close the front of the cabinet that goes up against the wall in the corner.
Julian originally designed the unit with a standard (left-opening) door, but I figured that the cupboard would be more accessible if the door opened the other way, so I picked up two “blind corner” hinges and used that to hang the door. The gas bottle is going into the corner, so I need the access.
With this unit now bolted to the wall, I could measure the exact size of the countertops I need. Aluta Continua.
So I swing past the Lumber City on my way from Lansdowne Boards. Go past the counter, ask “may I browse” (this is a big warehouse place, not your typical hardware store). Guy (Neville) sez “sure”.
Find stuff on the shelves that look like what I need, make mental note of standard sizes. Past the counter again, “dowels?” — “behind you” — “thanks”. Pick up dowel of possibly correct size for fixing toy boat project (don’t ask).
Back to counter, start waving hands “I need 12 x 96 meranti, about 1.2 meters”
N: “Stock size is 1.8 meters”
Yours Truly: “Good, one of those and 12 x 144 pine, same length, and meranti, 10mm thick, about this wide” (show with fingers)
N: “that’s 44mm”
YT: “Lekker“.
YT: “And BTW I saw you have Etimo postform tops, but I need something redder”
N: “Would that be Mahogany?”
YT: “Sounds good”
N: (grabs catalogue) “600 wide, 3.6 meter length will be R949, but we’d have to order”
YT: “Sharp sharp, do you cut to size?”
N: “Certainly”.
Picked up a sample of the mahogany. I can work with these guys.
August went out with a bit of a blow which some people called “the worst in 7 years“.
Sun Valley on Saturday :
Our house doesn’t have storm water gullies, the gutters vent straight down the side of the house. If it rains hard, we have a mini-moat around the house.
Fortunately it’s sand all the way down, so the water drains quickly.
On Sunday the sea was still rough. (For comparison, I took this photo on the rocks on the left hand side of the first picture below, on a nice day (September 13th) in 2004).
In typical Cape Town fashion, it clears up, the sun comes out, and it’s beautiful. With a flippen cold wind, I must say, but beautiful.
As mentioned in an earlier rant, Builders Warehouse doesn’t really want to sell post form tops to me.
Neither does Chipbase almost right next to them in Tokai.
Went there yesterday afternoon, told the chap behind the desk I needed 600mm postform tops in Etimo or something similar. He waves his hand at the shop floor, says “what you see there is what we have”.
Thank you for being so helpful. I will shop somewhere else.
I always get my best ideas in the shower. In this case, the best way to get power to the gate motor.
There’s a plug point in the living room, I drilled a hole through the wall, fitted this box on the outside, and ran a pipe …
… through this Malawian-dug trenchette …
… to this weatherproof box, where I will eventually fit a plugpoint for vacuuming the car …
… and via a flexible conduit you almost can’t see in the above pic, to the gate motor.
A dip in the jacuzzi with a good looking girl and a glass of red wine rounded off the day.
Recap : I bought the whole kitchen in flat format, audited it, found the two wall units were supplied twice, the two units under the window were too small, and four units were not supplied at all. I then managed to get them to fix the two units, and supply three of the four outstanding units.
Well, on Friday I finally got the last unit, the 200mm unit between the corner unit and the large (600mm wide) drawers.
This rack system comes from A&D Distributors (this is their display unit), and is made for a 200mm wide space. (I didn’t know this when I specified the 200mm unit. Serendipity).
This is what you get for R390. Including three baskets, not shown.
I decided to assemble this unit in place, because I realised I won’t be able to screw the sliding assembly into the 200mm wide (168mm on the inside) space, at least not easily.
Used two spare legs to level & square the unit while the glue dried.
With hindsight and perfect measurement, this unit should have been 195mm, not 200. The whole assembly, with a panel on the right hand side, is just proud of the doorway. But then again, the doorway is not yet trimmed. This sort of makes trim necessary, though.
On Saturday we went and bought 22 square meters of VNE20A1 (not named) grey tiles for the bathroom (from Builders Warehouse). R59.99/square. I also returned the brass fittings I didn’t use (because I got the same stuff cheaper at Muizenberg market) — R264.75 credit, w000t.
On a totally different topic — Saturday it rained, hard, so friend Randall came out on Sunday and spent most of his day fitting a gate motor, with very little help from me. I now have the Malawians digging a trench for power — the unit runs off a 12V battery, with a small transformer to keep the battery charged. The benefit of this is (1) it works when Eskom doesn’t and (2) you only need lightweight wiring, which saves a bit of money.
At least, compared to these people, I’m sane.
This post sums up what I’ve learnt as well. I don’t look at the credit card slips any more, I just sign ’em :-)
Moloch’s Whore
Restoring an old house is like worshipping a pagan god in that both require sacrifice. Moloch demanded your first born child, old houses require much more.
Old homes require cash. Huge, filthy, fist-loads of cash.
At first you don’t mind so much. You think that a little sacrifice is necessary. You are still excited by the project, you are lulled by dream-visions of what the end product will be. You can see the fresh paint, the shining, refinished floors, and all that beautiful wood work.
Once you start feeding it money, it becomes easier and easier. It becomes part of your routine. Nails, saw blades, paint, and lumber become part of your normal monthly expenses. But, as the months and years drag by you start to feel the pinch. You put off your dry-cleaning as long as you can; you find yourself eating more pinto beans and peanut butter sandwiches; and, if you find a book or CD that you want, you put it on your amazon.com wish list instead of buying it. Then a day comes when you notice that all your sport coats have shiny, thread-bare elbows, your shoes have cracked soles, and that you haven’t had a haircut in months because you thought it a waste of money.
Things that other people consider major problems become interesting challenges for you. Instead of taking your car to the shop when your car’s second-gear quits working, you master the art of driving without it. Five months later when first-gear also quits, you find yourself taking pride in the fact that you can start from a complete stop on an incline in third-gear.
Late at night as you lay in bed, you can hear this relentless sucking sound. It is a persistent whistling of the atmosphere around you vanishing into a void. You are anxious. You know that your savings are gone, your budget is maxed, and it is only a mater of time before everything around you falls to pieces. When you do sleep it is fitful and tense. You dream of a vast weight bearing down on you, pinning you to the ground. You awake tired and thinking, “Should I work on the bathroom ceiling or back hall this weekend?”
The Devil Queen, the old whore upon the hill, beckons. After so much, who are you to deign her?
Edit : so now I’m reading the Devil Queen blog from the beginning. Difficult thing, reading blogs backwards. But oh so worth it. John can write. And he likes Lovecraft, and Monty Python, and, and, and…