the good life

19.3.2012
BUILDING NEWS

Mondays always seem extra hectic. Peter, his son Johno, and a friend arrived to photograph the windows. Stevo continued work on the cupboard and David H came and continued the great job he has taken on oiling the window frames. Edd chopped up angle iron to support the vanity tops he has been making and when I could get near the job I did some more bagging in the robe.

I spent the weekend working on the floors and have now sealed all the bedrooms, the snug and the first section of passage. I have to scour the pavers with a stainless steel pan scourers to get all the mess off and then, after sponging them clean they take about a day to dry before the finish can go on. This makes it a long job and I have had to do these areas at weekends when no one needs to walk over them. Today I just managed to get the seal on the vanity room floor before someone else took over the space.

Edd’s job with the vanity tops takes even longer. They are in a wet area so he is using a marine varnish and it needs 48 hours between coats. There are at least three layers of gloss varnish and then two coats of a satin finish. They are looking pretty good now and Edd has taken care to do all the edges very thoroughly so all the damp is kept out.

Despite all his efforts his work was put to shame when Don arrived with the day bed and bedside chest of drawers. They are absolutely glorious and the elm matches my old rocking chair really well. Some of the elm came from a tree salvaged years ago from the botanic gardens in Melbourne. It was singed but not destroyed by the fire that burnt down Don’s workshop a few years ago but it has come up beautifully. We found some matching elm at the Bowerbird timber-recycling place and Edd is using the same wood for one of the vanity tops.

OTHER NEWS

The weather has been glorious and we have seen a lot of the family. Al and India came over at the weekend and rode the horses for the first time in months. India intends to ride them up some of the national trail as part of her VCE so work with them has to start. I love seeing them being ridden again. I do not dare to get on myself at the moment because a small injury could stop my work on the house and I cannot afford that risk just yet.

Tonight we celebrated Arden’s sixteenth birthday. It was such lovely weather that we had a BBQ in the ruins. Arden brought over is new bow and arrows and terrorised the local rabbit population with several reported near misses. He tells me he has shot and killed his first fox! The small kids played various versions of a game we used to call French and English. India and I joined them and everyone shrieked with laughter as we tried to catch each other and steel the opposition’s flag.

There was music too. Al brought his ukulele and we found two guitars to pass around. It is great to see all the kids learning to play and sing. Edd had brought special candles for the cake that took a lot of lighting but we finally got them all going so Arden could blow them out. Altogether it was one of those lovely occasions that make all the effort put in to life worthwhile. We really are very, very lucky people to have such a wonderful family and such a beautiful place to be together.