I blame my brother

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A long long time ago, I shared a bedroom with my younger brother Peter. Obviously, like most young siblings, there came a time when my younger brother became my worst enemy instead of my closest friend. At that time, sharing a bedroom with a BOY, much less a younger brother, was something I definitely did NOT enjoy.

During that time my brother also learned how to do things to annoy me.

For one thing he loved raw onions. I hated them. (Still do in fact, probably due to childhood trauma). He used raw onions to his advantage as much as he could, eating them then breathing in my general direction. Yeech.

He also learned to burp. Loud. And long. He could burp the alphabet and say ‘Hello, how are you?’ in a burp.

Charming huh?

He’d burp at the table after mom and dad left us to clean up, resulting in me calling him ‘sewer breath’ among other affectionate nicknames.

Unfortunately, he also learned to combine his two hobbies: eating raw onion and burping, thus making my life totally miserable.

He’d eat a plateful of raw onion with dinner, then he’d go into the bedroom before bedtime and burp over my bed, leaving a lingering aroma of onion burp to settle over my bed.

I was not pleased.

See… Peter, like most men, can burp on cue. I never learned how to do that. I’d drink a coke, swallow air for all I was worth, only to bring it back up in a pitiful little ‘bfp’ instead of his roaring ‘BURRRRRRRRRRRP’.

Then, one day, I have no idea how it happened, but we were sitting there at the table when suddenly I felt an erruption coming. I let it gather momentum, growing like a snowball as it rose from my very depths…and let it fly.

My brother almost fell off his chair. His eyes about popped out of their sockets. Not only was it big and loud with admirable reverb, but it came out of his prissy sister!

Over the next few weeks, and years really, I’ve had the fortune to overhear my brother in conversations with friends – you know, the boys will be at a party or in a pub and one of them will burp and the others will make admiring comments… then Peter will inevitably say ‘Man, that was nothing! You should hear my sister burp! She can rattle the plates in the cabinets!’

I’m so proud.

I’d finally earned my brother’s admiration.

However… I do blame my brother. Cause since then, burping became a kind of secret pleasure of mine. In company I’ve always held back, playing at being ladylike. But in private I’m sure I’ve managed to break a few records. Only my dogs had been witness to my growing talent in that area till recently. They generally take it in their stride, but sometimes “The Burp” will cause one of them to start and fall off a chair.

I’ve always felt I could share who I truly am with Wayne. He, being a man, has never been shy about burping in my presence and admiring the decibels he can achieve. I felt that I had finally found someone who, loving me as I am, would appreciate my full range of talents, so…

I came out of the closet!

I no longer hide my satisfaction of a well formed burp. I share it with Wayne who I can rely on to appreciate it fully.

“Well brought up. Pity you weren’t.”

I’m proud to say that in a contest of who can burp loudest or longest, I’m the hands down winner. However, I still can’t not burp on cue, so I lose points there.

Sometimes I think Wayne wishes I had kept some mystery about me, particularly about that part of me. The other day when I burped in the car he clutched his ear screaming “You busted my eardrum! I’m deaf!”

He wishes.

Still. I blame my brother. He’s the one who planted the seed that burping can be a pleasurable hobby. And pushing it underground for so long only allowed it to gain strength and momentum.

Peter, you’d be proud. (And slightly ashamed).

z

DIY – paint it white

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Since this last week has been flat out work-wise and I don’t have anything new to share, I thought I’d share my kitchen make-over in my house in Fentonbury.

It wasn’t the first house I rennovated, that prize goes to my house in Melbourne. But unless I can find the photos for that rennovation it will forever remain a mystery.

The house in Fentonbury however, was recent enough that I have all the photos on cd so I get to bore you with how I managed to take my kitchen from this

to this

When I bought the house I fell in love with it despite the fact that I hate pine. I loved the space of the kitchen. And I loved the white old country style sink.

Ok… so it didn’t have a drainboard, and, when you don’t have a dishwasher, you kinda need a drainboard. But I solved that problem by buying a plastic drainboard from Howard Storage World. Problem solved.

To be honest, I’d much rather have that sink here, now, instead of the single tub double drainboard sink we have in our current kitchen. I hate that.

Anyway, first thing I did when I moved into Fentonbury was to change the tap in the kitchen. I hate those low taps which you can’t get the kettle or a big pot under unless the sink is empty (who’s sink is always empty? Not mine…)

I put in a nice, high gooseneck tap. I have no memory of how I actually did it so I can do it again here, but I did do it myself.

So… here are some photos of what it looked like when I first moved in. Full of packing boxes to start with…

Then tidier, but oh so dark with all the pine…. From the living room, which was all white back then, the kitchen looked like a gloomy cave even though it had a skylight.

The breakfast bar was really wierd. It was low so that you had to use normal chairs to sit at it, not stools… which meant you were really low compared to the bench.

(The ‘rail’ to the right of the photo isn’t built-in… it was my cot side solution to keeping dogs out of the living room at the time.)

Among other things, there were 3 cupboards that didn’t have doors. On the plus side, my microwave fit perfectly into one of them!

Luckily, the floor was perfect.Polished tassie oak floorboards. I didn’t need to do anything to that.

Another plus – the bench top was gorgeous. Also tassie oak. Beautiful.

I did a few little things to make the room look better till I got the courage to take the plunge and really change things. I removed the little shelves from one side of the sink and moved them to the large blank wall on the breakfast bar side. I added a few more shelves to display my collectables and to hold the coffee and sugar.

I put an Ikea bathroom/towel metal shelf above the corner near the stove to hang pots from. And I put an old bathroom cabinet I’d re-done and repurposed on the wall to hold spices.

The cabinet is solid tassie oak with a king billy pine door that I found at a tip shop for about $5. That’s before they started charging like bulls. I removed the old mirror from the door, sanded back all the old paint to expose the timber. I put a solid tongue and groove back onto it. Added clear glass to the front door and a hand made handle, and voila! Gorgeous spice cabinet!

I’ve always loved the look of painted timber on walls. The only thing which was holding me back from painting the kitchen walls and cabinets was the thought of all that sanding!

Then I thought about ESP (I had used this stuff in Melbourne to paint an old laminated kitchen dresser and I loved the finished product).

So, instead of sanding, I simply wiped on and wiped off the ESP, then painted.

I used Antique White USA for both walls and cabinets. I changed the ugly plastic white handles with some simple black knobs cause they were cheap enough and weren’t brass. I don’t like brass.

I removed the small shelves (relocated them, a couple of them went next to the pantry to hold cook books) and added one large shelf to hold display items. I put another of my bathroom cabinet makeovers (this one with a bird wire door and a metal back) on the large blank wall to hold coffee, tea, sugar etc.

I also raised the breakfast bar. Since the bench overhung on both sides, I couldn’t put the breakfast bar at the same level as the benchtop. I considered leaving it off completely, but then had second thoughts. I just moved up the brackets holding it in place and so there was a small step down to it. I never got around to getting proper matching stools for there…

I made a large frame from old dado rail to hold an old poster I’d bought off ebay many years ago. Below I was testing out how it would look by putting it on a box on the breakfast bar… Very technical.

I added some tin signs over the stove (no rangehood, so many old Australian houses don’t have rangehoods).

Still no doors on those cabinets. The problem was working out how to make doors cause of the position of these cabinets… considering I was making them without professional help. I just didn’t think I could make doors to match the existing ones. No wonder the previous owners had left those cupboards door-less.

I tried curtains but I hated them. Yuck. I lived without doors for a long time till I found the solution.

What I did was make a simple flat door for the microwave cupboard and swing it so it opened toward the oven. I decided flat doors would work fine, flat doors being way better than no doors, right?

I then made sliding doors for the corner cupboard under the stove and the cupboard on the other corner where position made it impossible to hang outwards opening doors. I bought some MDF, cut it to size, got some metal ‘tracks’ and made myself some sliding doors.

Ok… I know I’m not exactly making sense here, but one day while browsing in a hardware store (I do that a lot) I saw these square U shaped metal things. They came in long lengths and looked just the right size to hold a 6mm MDF sheet. I tested them and sure enough, they did. I have no idea what they’re meant for, but I bought a few pieces of the metal, cut them and glued them onto the shelves inside the cupboard.

On the corner cupboard above, where the doors could slide back into the corner I only needed one track top and bottom for each door. On the other side, where the doors had to overlap so you could only open one side at a time, I had to make the tracks double, one for each door so they could slide past eachother.

I painted the new doors the same colour, added the same knob to the flat door but I used sash window openers to the sliding doors.

 

I considered using the fabric I bought on Paros while over there on holiday a couple of years ago to make curtains for the kitchen. But I realised this fabric would be too thick for the amount of light coming in through that window. I’m glad I didn’t use them there now as I have put them in the bedroom here and they’are perfect for there! They add a touch of Greek island to our room and make me smile.

I needed something thinner. A friend gave me some old tab topped organza curtains which I cut and hemmed and they worked perfectly. They let in all the light and blurred the view just enough.

I can’t give you an idea of cost for the kitchen update but it was cheap. I didn’t need to replace appliances or move anything. I just gave it a facelift the only way I could – with paint and imagination.

Lots of fresh white paint, some new doors, new knobs, a new tap, some personal touches and I had a kitchen I loved.

z

a little bit of washing

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Its been a very productive weekend. Although I didn’t manage to cross much off my ever growing To Do list, I feel like I actually accomplished a lot of things.

We started off today with breakfast on the deck – the weather was perfect today. Warm and sunny but not hot or muggy. A bit of a breeze, but not windy. Gorgeous. I made french toast with bacon, banana and maple syrup. Yum.

Its funny, but years ago I was reading a book by Michael Connelly where the main character, a detective named Harry Bosch, went into a truck stop for breakfast and ordered a short stack with bacon and maple syrup.

I’d never had bacon and maple syrup together before. I’d never had bacon with pancakes before for that matter. I thought ‘OMG! Bacon and maple syrup, together! What a wonderful idea!’

I couldn’t wait to try it. A couple of years ago I went to a cafe for breakfast (something I lurve doing but rarely get to do) and guess what they had on the menu? French toast with banana, bacon and maple syrup!

I became addicted. For a while I made it every weekend. In fact I made it so often I got sick of it. Today was the first time in months I’d made it and it was like meeting an old friend.

With such a great start to the day, its not surprising things went well. I put on some washing, removed the glass from the new old front door. Hung out the washing. Put on more washing. Cleaned up the broken glass. Knocked the top off the old table I’m doing up for the kitchen. Hung up washing. Put on more washing. Cleaned up broken bits of plywood. Pulled apart the table frame from the top frame. Hung out more washing. Put on more washing. Sanded the table legs. Straightened the crooked table leg. Glued and nailed the table frame back on. Hung out the washing. Put on another load of washing. Went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for borscht, picked up chaff for the horses. Brought in all the washing and tossed it onto an armchair in the living room. Chopped up the vegies and put them on to boil for the borscht.

You get the picture.

I had a productive day. Among all the washing I managed to make chocolate muffins and borscht (which I’d never made before and only tasted once before in my life) out of the excess beetroots we had.

I would have vacuumed the living room and tidied it up as I did the kitchen and office, but I couldn’t open it to change bags. Its a sign. No more cleaning for today!

I think I deserve a break. An ice cream and some TV is in order.

However, before I go I’ll share these photos of a couple of my old drawings. I found these while looking for something else yesterday.

z

dances with spiders

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Its been a long hard week. There were all kinds of exciting things happening at home:

We got our new gutters. With a bonus new leak over the front door, inside the mudroom-to-be. Now it seems we can pee without getting our feet wet, but we still need an umbrella to get to the toilet.

Hopefully that will be fixed on Tuesday when the roofing men come to finish the flashing.*

We have new ‘austerity measures’ at home now due the tenants moving out of my house in Fentonbury next month. With them gone we will be broke paying off two mortgages, but I can clean up the place and actually be able to present it to potential buyers as a home I’m proud of. I believe the tenants were a major reason we lost the sale the way we did. I will move back in and keep the house clean, neat, tidy and welcoming and I believe I will find someone who loves it as much as I do.

We have a new front door. Or should I say old new front door. I went looking at tip shops this week to find a new door for the mud room. Due to the austerity measures I couldn’t buy a new door cause they’re over $300. Anyway, I wanted a farm door. A door with character.

I found one I was sort of happy with for $25 at one tip shop, but it had a plywood veneer and we hate that stuff. Especially for an external door. I figured I could change that but still… Then I saw another, much bigger and totally solid timber door. This one was $60 and was an 1920s deco door. Yeah. That was nicer, and who doesn’t love solid timber. But again, it wasn’t quite right. Not for $60. I’m becoming a cheapscate.

Then at the last minute I found my door. It was at the South Hobart tip shop.The front is panelled (which I love) and when I put in 2 glass panes, the windows will give me the light I wanted in the mud room. Best of all, I got it for $20!

We’ve put the door on top of the kitchen table I’m meant to be doing up as the door is more important than the table. The plan is to get started on it tomorrow.

I wanted to get started today but we decided to make it a tip day. We went for a trip to the tip to get rid of the unsightly pile of rubbish I’d been collecting near the wood shed. Sad when our fun outing for the day was a trip to the tip. At least the tip in New Norfolk has the best views!

Then we made a trip up to the bush at the back of our property to get some firewood. This involved gettng into Blue, Wayne’s decrepid old 4×4 which backfires more than it drives giving us whiplash, then, pulling my old trailer behind us, drive out onto the road then up the neighbour’s driveway, up an overgrown old track and through a hole in our fence back onto our land and our own overgrown track. (We haven’t been able to afford to fix our original fix on the ford so we can use our own road to the top of our property).

We have plenty of firewood up there. Wayne felled two dead trees yesterday and today I went up to help him chop and load the trailer. Love the great outdoors. Hate the spiders!

I had a huntsman on my shoulder at one stage. I smacked it off, then danced around in the ferns waving my T-shirt over my head screetching like a girl at the top of my lungs. Wayne’s disappointed he missed that.


(In deference to aracnophobe readers, the image of the spider has been removed)

So, having displaced a few huntsmen today, we have a stack of firewood. At least one week’s worth. Now we just have to get another 433 loads to get us through winter.

Sure, we left our run a bit late. But its not like we’ve been sitting on our butts, is it?

This having our own firewood and not needing to buy sure has its downside…  

z

*The porch was a great idea and one inspired by the decision to sell my house in Fentonbury. As things tend to do, this one thing lead to another. (Like my gardening in Melbourne: I trimmed the ivy in the back yard then had to replace the fence when it collapsed once the ivy was removed.) Building has a deck necessitated new gutters. In hindsight, spending money on the deck and enclosing the porch to create a mudroom could have waited till my house was sold… but then I thought I ‘its rented, I’ll sell it, we will manage fine’. Hightsight is a good thing.

memory like a sieve

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Used to be, years ago, I had a reputation as being the only one in our family who always remembered to send birthday cards and maintain contact with friends far away.

That was back when we wrote letters using actual pen and paper!

Now that I have Facebook, email, mobile phones and technology at my fingertips I can’t seem to remember anyone’s birthday. Not Wayne’s, not even my own at times. Its like once technology stepped in, my brain stepped out.

So, when I saw this birthday calendar idea on Pinterest, I thought I must make one!

Birthday calendar

However, I couldn’t just copy that one. I had to make my own. I gave it some thought, decided how I was going to do it, then did something completely different.

Only kidding. My first plan had been to find a nice old frame, buy some pinboard material, then paint it up and use pins to add birthdays.

What I did was based on that but adapted when I found an old framed corkboard at a tip shop a couple of weeks ago.

As usual, I didnt take any photos of the ‘before’… Trust me. It was pretty ordinary. It was a lavender painted frame with corkboard in the middle. Nothing special and with a few flaws in the frame.

And I apologise for the bad photos. I was having a bad photo day.

Step 1: I undercoated the whole thing, cork and frame.

Step 2: I painted the cork a light beige colour I had in a sample pot. Twice.

Step 3: I painted the frame limed white from another sample pot. Twice.

Step 4: After the paint had dried I drew a grid, having divided the width of the corkboard into 12 parts, and then drew lines across as well to create boxes. Not so easy when you’re mathematically challenged, the calculator is in the house and you’re too lazy to go up and get it.

Step 5: I painted each of the squares in a darker colour, leaving a fine line of cream showing through between them. I had to paint them twice as well.

Step 6: I painted every second line a different shade, again, thank you sample pots! Two coats.

I then remembered that I didnt actually need boxes, just stripes. So I painted over the lines.

Step 7: I wasn’t too happy with the shiny look of the paint so I sanded it back a bit. It took the shine off on the corkboard which was good. Then I sanded back the frame a bit too. It allowed some of the lavender to show through, as well as some of the timber. That’s fine as I planned to use other colours on the calender.
 

Step 8: I used my brand new stencil to paint the letters for each month. I used a dry brush and burnt umber artist acrylic to achieve a sort of uneven finish.

Step 9: I sacrificed one of my many paint swatch catalogues, cutting up the colours I liked. Using a black marker and my diary for reference, I started putting a number (for the day) and a name of each swatch. I then used some cool pins I’d bought at Officeworks last week to pin each birthday into the corresponding month.

Step 10: I found a spot to hang it where I might see it and be reminded of upcoming birthdays before I have to apologise for forgetting!

 I’m pretty pleased with myself. Thats one of my ‘Things I want to try when I have the time’ items off my list! Only about 546 to go…

However, I did manage to do a few other things over the weekend despite the miserable weather. It poured. Not as bad as the floods in NSW, but it rained enough to flood our toilet again.

I’m kinda over wading in to go to the loo.

I think the guys managed to fix the problem on the weekend by putting in a new long sheet of corregated roofing iron. I’m glad. I did manage to refrain from asking why this wasn’t done in the first place…

I was polite and thankful.

So, this is what I did: I organised my workshop! Its now neat and clean and organised and I can use it. I hung all my paint brushes and scrapers etc with jute string onto an old rake head.

I screwed two old drawers to the wall as shelves and screwed jars to the top to hold odds and ends. I put a trestle table between the windows as a work bench. This used to be the shearing shed, as you can see the fences are still partly there. We decided to keep them.

I have an old office desk as an extra work bench on the other side and some old kitchen cabinets to hold tools and ‘stuff’.

When there aren’t enough shelves an old coffee table on top of the cabinet creates that extra space! I have old crates under the table (framing tools in one, crafting odds and ends in the other) and a collection of tins and other stuff on top for other projects I might do one day.

You can see the birthday calendar drying too! 🙂 That’s Step 1.

Well… my workshopWAS neat and clean for a day, till I started my next project – concurrent with the birthday calendar only a lot more optimistic. My new kitchen table! But more on that later.

z

the dog compromise

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My dogs live in the house. They are part of the family. In Fentonbury they had their own bedroom but here they sleep in the living room, on the couch or armchairs. But then, they’re poodles and they don’t shed.

Wayne’s dogs shed. Lots.

I hate dog hair. I hate cat hair even more, but since I don’t have cats thats not an issue.

Ever since I’ve had dogs I’ve had containment areas for them in the house. In Fentonbury I had a combination of gates to keep dogs in or out of areas of the house. Nothing as banal as baby gates for this little chickie.

I made my own gates using materials I found or had on hand. Old shed doors, old doors, gates, crib sides. You name it, I’ve probably used it.

Here are some of my dog gates, both in Fentonbury and here at the farm.

First is the old door I brought over from Melbourne. This was the door on the bathroom in my house there. It had a large frosted glass panel in it originally. I replaced the door with a regular one and had this just sitting there. You can see it below on the room which was the dog’s bedroom.

One day I was walking down the street when I saw this old gate tossed on the pile to be collected by the council. I grabbed it of course. What self respecting DIY-er would let something like a wrought iron gate go to the tip?

I got the carpenter who was at my house putting in new door frames and a new floor to board up half the door and insert the gate into the middle of it. I LOVED it. Ok, so I didn’t do the hard work myself, but it was my idea! And I carried the gate, cleaned it and painted the door!

Its the perfect door for an area you want closed off – the dogs can’t get over it, under it or through it. It allows the warmth of the heater or the cool air of the airconditioner (I had one of those in Melbourne!) to circulate between the rooms. The dogs can see out and aren’t isolated if you close the door. Its the ideal door. Needless to say it comes with me from one house to the next.

Next are the old shed door gates. I have two of these which I made while living in Fentonbury. They’re only low which means they’re easy to step over. Yeah, that means that a dog can jump over them, but MY dogs would never do such a rude thing!

These gates were made by cutting down the shed door, sanding it back a bit and adding the big hinges and a gate latch. As you can see, they’re not very high but they do the job. I don’t have to worry about dirty dog pawprints on the sheets. Not that I mind so much… but these are the compromises you make when you live with a man who doesn’t really like dogs in the house. And we all know that ain’t gonna happen! So we compromise.

The next dog gate is one I custom made for my house in Fentonbury. It has an open plan kitchen/dining/living room. That meant that I wanted to be able to restrict the dogs to one or other of the spaces. Sometimes I wanted them out of the kitchen. Other times out of the dining room. Or out of the living room. So I came up with this idea to use some cot sides I’d gotten at an auction.

You know, one of those things I bought thinking ‘One day they’ll come in handy’.

First, I cut down the crib sides so there weren’t any large gaps. I joined them up using small hinges so that they formed a folding 4-panel ‘screen’. Finally I painted it antique white USA like the rest of the woodwork in the house and hinged it to the doorway between the kitchen and dining room.

I know you cant see it well in that photo but I can’t find any other photos. In this photo its folded up against itself out of the way. Cause of the hinges and latches I’d put in it could be moved and latched to either the kitchen bench or the other side of the opening between the kitchen and dining room, thus keeping dogs in or out of the spaces as needed.

Last, here is the last of the crib sides. I put it to use here on the farm as a way to keep Wayne’s dogs (the shedding ones!) from the couches. I did the same thing: cut it down to size, hinged it to the wall and added a gate latch to it. Here you can see Romeo and Montana modelling it for you. This is a higher gate and much harder to step over when you’re getting older…

I added a gate latch so it would close automatically when you pushed it behind you. As you can see, I got lazy. This one hasn’t been painted yet.

However there was a problem. This was the first gate I’d made which actually swung back to a wall. It would bang into the wall as you opened it and leave a mark there. Ugh. Not so good. Till today I piled a couple of cushions on the floor against the wall to stop the destruction of my paint job. Not the best solution.

This morning I got off my butt and did something about it. I took one of those foam holders I get when I buy a certain brand of soft pastel. I’d been eyeing them off for a while now thinking they were just the right size to make a ‘bounce pad’ for the gate latch.

Yep. Perfect fit. So I sliced one up, filled it with silicon glue and popped it onto the gate thingy. Now… if this stays on it’ll be the perfect solution.

Fingers crossed!

z

giving a hoot

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I have been having a bad day since yesterday. Do you want the concise version or the long-winded version? Stuff concise. I don’t do concise.

I’ve had my house in Fentonbury for sale since about the beginning of December last year, as you know. In this economic climate I was prepared that it might take a long time to sell it. I love that house and I didn’t really want to sell it. But things change and we decided to sell so we could have a better quality of life in our new place, less stress, less work. I put so much love and care into that house for 8 years that it pained me to have it rented and see the tenants not looking after it the way I would.

I was thrilled when, after only 2 months on the market, the first couple who saw the house fell in love with it. They gushed. It was their dream home. They made a verbal offer, lower than I’d listed it for, and I accepted it. I liked them. I loved that they loved the house. I could see them being happy there.

I trust too much, make friends easily, and I’m very honest. I told them everything about the house, good and bad. I thought they loved the house, liked me and Wayne, and appreciated my honesty. I thought I’d found buyers and had made two new friends into the bargain. That’s what they said anyway. I was really, really happy.

We had to wait 2 weeks for them to become ‘unencumbered’ for contracts to be drawn up. Meanwhile we were in touch via emails – they were so excited. Couldn’t wait to move in. They became free and the soonest I could see the solicitor to draw up contracts was Monday. I went in, drew them up, on the phone with my ‘buyers’ talking terms and clauses. They were supposed to come in that afternoon to sign the contract. I was bending over backwards with the clauses in the contract. I liked them. I wanted to help them buy the house of their dreams.

They decided to postpone coming in to sign till today. There’d been fires in the area and they had wanted to go up and have one more look at the house (totally normal) and bring a builder friend to look it over (also totally normal).

We were exchanging emails like crazy, setting up the inspection. The morning of the day before the contract I got an email at 8.30am confirming the inspection. At 9.45am that same morning I got a call saying they were pulling the plug.

Like: What the F@@@!

What happened in an hour?

I thought the bushfires might have scared them. In the eight years I lived there fire had never come so close to Fentonbury. A fire is a fire, and scary, but it sounded worse than it was. I drove up to look. There were burned hills, sure, but trees were still green, all that had burned for the most part was undergrowth in a wide front… And the worst fire in Tasmanian recent history burnt out Hobart, not the Central Highlands.

Again, they’d had 3 weeks in which to change their mind. They’d had 4 days since the fires to re-think the house. They could have voiced doubts. They could have slowed the process down. I didn’t need to draw up contracts (and pay for them!) till they’d seen the house again, gotten more sure about it, in fact, being their dream home. They were sure and they had sold their house and needed to be out by May 18, so they want to buy my house asap.

Maybe the sale of their house fell through? I dont know, but I bet that if that was the case it would have been the first thing they’d tell us. Maybe they found somewhere better? Fine. I’d understand that totally.

What I dont understand is a couple who were so thrilled, so certain this was their forever home, that we made such effort to help make their dream come true, suddenly bailing on me like that.

I feel betrayed.

Upset. Depressed.

My fault. I take things too much to heart. I can’t just do business. I have to go feel like I’ve made new friends. I should be more cold and matter of fact – sell a puppy and not make the new owners part of my circle of friends. Sell a house and not give a hoot about the people who buy it.

You live and learn I guess.

Back to the drawing board. The house is still for sale. Its still rented. Nothing changes in our lives, we continue as we were, working the same hours and doing the same stuff. Only a little wiser and maybe a little less trusting.

z

PS. I have a great house for sale. Please spread the word!

turbo chook lives to tell the tale

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I have finally finished the huge pastel of Fergus, a highland stallion, Barbara and their baby. I’ve been working on this since before Christmas. What with visitors, rennovations, work, heat and all the other things going on, work on it has been inconsistent. Then I also had a period of artists block (if there is such a thing. If there isn’t I’ve just invented it). So I’m quite happy that its finally finished. After blogging tonight I’ll be wrapping it in acetate and delivering it after work tomorrow.

That’s one thing crossed off my To Do list. Phew.

The weather has been much cooler, thank goodness. The fires which had burned around Bushy Park and Westerway are out and there’s no more danger of my house in Fentonbury being scorched. I’m much happier with 18 degree C than I was with 39 degrees. Hard to believe the temps could drop that much in a day, but hey, this is Tasmania.

Despite it still being rather warm yesterday the guys (Wayne and Chris) got stuck into enclosing the mud room. They’d only managed to frame in one of the walls last time Chris was here and now both walls are framed in, the window is in place and the outside of the walls is mostly lined. I say mostly cause while I was in the city on errands (mysterious doings I’ll tell you about when the time comes) they ran out of nails for the coil gun and called to ask me to bring some home. Of course, by the time I got here with nails Chris had left so the job wont be finished will next weekend.

However, things are coming along.


Of course, its looking rather ugly right now… and not quite as I’d envisioned it. But hey, we live and learn huh? I’d rather gotten used to that area of the house being open. However, a lick of paint and a front door and we’ll be in business.

The plan is to make that the mudroom, an area where, once you enter the house, you can hang your coat, take off your boots and step inside through the inside door….

Which will take you through the current teensy weensy entrance area which holds coats and the fridge, through to the kitchen and then through the hallway and into the living room.

Yes… this is actually the back door of the house. But the front door is on the OTHER side, which would mean you’d have to park the car, step up onto the porch and walk all the way round to the other side of the house to come inside. Forget that.

So, one day, the teensy entrance area will become a walk in pantry and the kitchen will be rearranged to allow for a door directly to the mud room, cutting out the middle room so to speak. One day.

The timber is green which means it will need to dry before I can paint it, but thats fine. Its not as if I dont have a ton of things to keep me busy meanwhile. I mean I could paint the whole rest of the house, couldn’t I?

Speaking of other things to keep me busy – I went tip shopping today! Actually, after work this afternoon I went to one of my favourite tip shops where I’d seen three old dining chairs for sale for $5.

$5 each! Thats a bargain. Even tip shops are asking a ton of money for broken old chairs these days. I couldn’t pass them up. One is broken at the back, another is missing one rung off its back, but they’re all strong and stable, not rickety like so many I’ve seen. A bit of glue. A bit of luck. And a ton of paint and I’ve got my new kitchen chairs!

Did I mention the kitchen table I got from another tip shop a week ago? Thats still sitting on the porch waiting for me to sand it back and put a new top on it. It’ll go well with the new chairs.

My car is a mobile store room. Its always full of things I am taking to work, bringing home from somewhere or need to drop off somewhere. I have a huge collection of ‘green’ shopping bags I invariably forget to take into the shop. I have extra clothes just in case, and after one memorable day where I was sent on a hiking program wearing dress shoes, a pair of old sneakers and socks. Today I also had 2 of Wayne’s carry bags, his work folder, the nails I’d bought yesterday, a paper making kit I need to take to a program at work on Thursday, some drying racks I found at a tip shop for the same work program, 2 jumpers (it pays to be prepared) and who knows what else.

I added 3 chairs, an old picture frame and 2 old boxes (I have a thing for boxes). Then I went to pick up Wayne and he said ‘”Don’t forget we need to get wheat for the chickens and dry dog food”…

Ooops. “Have you noticed the back of the car?”

I managed to squish it all in somehow. Wheat bags and dog food packed around the chairs in the back. At one stage I hit the brakes at a traffic light and everything shifted. I could just picture the headlines: couple killed in freak accident – decapitated by chairs weighed down and given impetus by bags of wheat.

Thankfully we made it home in one piece. 

On another subject, my kids made me so proud today. I was in the office when I heard a racket out the back of the shed and saw them in that ‘attack and kill’ mode. I ran out of the house thinking they’d gotten one of the ducks again. Our house yard fence is pretty good but sometimes things still manage to get in and we’ve already lost 2 ducks and 3 chickens to the dogs.

When they heard me yell they looked at me, looked back at whatever, looked back at me and they came to me!!! I was SO thrilled. The bird meanwhile, was a native hen. We’ve had a family of them move in lately and this one obviously decided to check out life on the other side of the fence where the grass is greener but deadlier.

Lucky for it, my dogs listened to me! While I lead the dogs inside Wayne went and opened the gate and shooed it out.

These chickens are known as ‘turbo chooks’ around here cause they’re native chickens and they run like Road Runner. I think this one might still be running, after the shock it got.

So thats it for tonight. Hopefully on the weekend I can tackle some projects and post pics. For now all I need to do remember to take everything out of the car!

z
 

musings of a wandering mind

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The other day while pooper scooping in the yard (something I dont do nearly as regularly as I should given we have 4 dogs who can poop BIG) I found myself thinking about the joys and responsibilities of owning dogs rather than having children.

For one thing, as I scooped the poop I couldn’t help but notice that I keep an eye on the dogs’ health / bowel movements by doing so. “Ooh, thats a nice firm one”… “Hmmm… a bit soft and dark, wonder who’s got an upset tummy” … “Ah, nice. White and crumbly. Just the way I remember dog poop from my childhood” etc.

I belong to a poodle discussion group (one of many I’ve been on through the years) and on there discussions about such things as dog stool consistency, shape and colour is a regular occurence. Disgusting, I know. But no more disgusting than, I’m sure, a mommy group discussing diaper contents. Which I’m sure they do.

See, owning a dog isn’t that different from having children. Dog mothers and baby mothers talk about the same things – poop, eating habits, cute things their baby (furry or otherwise) does. They brag, they carry photos to show off to everyone they meet. They talk about their babies incessantly.

See? No difference.

The difference is that eventually the child grows up, the amount of care needed doesn’t so much reduce, it changes. You may no longer need to feed and change diapers but you worry about them learning to drive, date, smoking, drugs, etc.

I dont have children, thus I’m an expert at how to raise them. 🙂

With dogs, they never grow up to independence. With them you have to pooper scoop for the entire length of their life. You’re responsible for feeding them, caring for them if they’re sick, ensuring they eat well and exercise etc. In other words, dog owners are stuck in that ‘young child’ phase for the 10+ years of an average dog lifespan.

At least with dogs you dont have to worry about them hating you when they’re teenagers, crashing the car or taking drugs. And you dont have to lose your figure to acquire them!

The biggest differences, however, surround the fact that as dog owners we can control our babies’ sex lives. We can legally, and without repercussions, get them neutered. If we breed them we get to pick their mate. On the other hand, I have never, so far in my life, heard of a mother having to pay a stud fee to some young buck’s parents in order to impregnate her daughter.

Or, which is way worse, having to ‘take matters into your own hands’ (literally) and act as stud master to your inexperienced son first time he mates, to help him find ‘it’.

Ewww.

I guess there are benefits to both types of children… I could do without the pooperscooping though. I’m  tempted to train them all to squat on the toilet…

Anyway, enough on that slightly disturbing topic. On to more fun stuff.

A few months ago I found this image in an old magazine. I did what any self respecting DIY-er would do. I ripped it out and put it in a folder of things I would love to try when I found the time.

I kept thinking I needed to find the right box. I started looking. And guess what? We had one in the casita! It was just the right size but it was filthy. It was full of straw and I think a cat had been using it as a bed. It was a home made crate, made with chipboard and with an old real estate sign from Canberra. Who knows how that got here!

First I cleaned it out. Scraped it out, disinfected it. Then I sanded down the edges where it was rough and uneven (someone had been gnawing on it) and I painted it. I dont have any ‘in progress’ photos as I didn’t think of it. I mixed up a colour using white house paint and acrylic paints. I mixed some yellow ochre into the white as I wanted it to be more cream than white, whiter than the cream on the sign, but closer to it than white would be. When the cream paint dried I rubbed in some burnt umber around the edges so it soaked into the dints and scratches.

I didnt have the same kind of magazine/newspaper to line the inside with, but I had tons of old poodle magazines dating back to the late 70s. So I used them. I used PVA glue to stick them down and painted them over with more PVA once they were dry to seal them. The old fashioned show poodle haircuts added the poodle touch and a bit of age to the box. As if it didnt look old enough as it was.

Then I bought some wheels off Ebay and screwed them onto the bottom. And voila! Coffee table/side table/rolling library!

I have a real thing for boxes. This is an old box I found at a tip shop somewhere which was missing one bottom slat. I asked Wayne to add another slat to it for me and he made me a lid for it too! He used weathered timber we had planned to burn when cleaning up around here, but wont ever burn since we use it for projects all the time. He hinged the lid with a couple of leather straps and made a wire latch for it too. I now keep some tools in it to keep them handy in the kitchen.

And then there’s the brilliant red box. This was another tip shop find. It was already red when I found it but missing a latch and handle. I dont have any before photos. I did take some but I cant find them.

Does anyone remember the box I made for Scooter’s ashes? I wanted something special for his ashes so I went and bought one of those little pine craft boxes from the hardware store. I primed it then gave it two coats of red. The red I bought was true red which was way too bright so I added black till I got the right colour.

Once the paint was dry I painted it with crackle medium, let that dry and painted the final red coat. Since I had red on red, you couldnt really see the cracks but I had a plan! Instead of letting an under layer of paint show through the cracks, I rubbed burnt umber into them. (Does that sound familiar? I do that a lot). I rubbed and then had to damped the cloth and remove the excess, cause trust me, there was a lot of it. It gave the box an old kind of grimy appearance. I loved it. It now sits in the bedroom on the dresser next to my old window/mirror.

Now back to the other red box. I loved the finish on the Scooter box so much that I wanted to do it again. Also, I spent $550 on an antique chinese dresser when we first moved here which is a similar deep dark red colour with aged cracks and I wanted to kind of match that.

Since the red box was already red I didnt need to undercoat or do much to it. I wanted the dints and scratches so I didnt sand either. I just painted it with the same red I’d used on Scooter’s box, mixing up a new batch so its a bit brighter. When the reds were dry I skipped the crackle stage and went straight to the burnt umber rubbing stage.

I decided not to put a closing latch on it its very heavy and there’s no way you’d lift it. I bought some small red wheels on Ebay, I think they’re a bit too small and too red but they seemed like a good idea at the time.

I asked Wayne to make a handle for it out of an old spoon and this is what he made. Excellent isnt i?

I am thinking rope handles on either side for pulling would be a nice addition…

I keep electrical bits in it, you know, all the extension cords, double adapters, timer switches etc that you always have lying around. I’ve used it as a temporary bedside table, but basically it just looks good with the bonus of being handy storage for those odds and ends I dont have a drawer for and dont want to go running to shed everytime I need something.

I’m currently working on a few other projects but really, its been so hot here that I’m too drained to do much at all other than lie on the couch and groan. They predicted 34 degrees C yesterday but it got up to 39-40C. Thats 104F! Same today. The house is a mess screaming out for a tidy. The To Do list sits here glaring at me accusingly and I sit and blog, thumbing my nose at the dirty dishes and washing to be sorted.

There’s a haze of smoke outside cause the wind and heat yesterday caused a few bushfires further up the valley. The plants are suffering and the poor roosters ran out of water halfway through the day. Lucky I checked and topped it up. I spent 1.5 hrs watering the garden and vegie patch yesterday evening.

I kept the dogs inside most of the day to keep them out of the heat. I did have 3 dogs to groom including 2 standard poodles (one being Little Zefi Munchkin from Pagan’s second litter). That coupled with the heat ensured I did nothing yesterday afternoon. I didnt even log on and thats saying something! I have an obessive attachment to my computer under normal circumstances.

I better go hang to washing out to dry (and get smoked) before it gets any hotter.

z

desperate measures

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The weekend has come and gone and there have been no calls from the chicken man about the roosters. Maybe he just lost our number. Yeah. That must be it. I’ll make excuses for him just like every girl who ever waited for a phone call that never came. Maybe I’ll call him. Is it cool to call him when he said he’d call us? Will he think I’m too forward?

Meanwhile, I’ve resorted to desperate measures. So far its not working. We still have five roosters. On the other hand, no one visits any more. Which could be considered an upside since I’m too busy to entertain.

I’m exhausted tonight. I had two dogs to groom, then I groomed Montana and Romeo. One of the customer dogs was a regular little girl who is impossible when it comes to doing her feet. I really must get my database going so I can make notes like ‘Do not attempt to do her nails no matter how long they look’ next to dog’s names. And what I charge them. Have I mentioned how hopeless I am as a business person?

The other dog was a new boy, a schnauzer who wasn’t in a proper trim as his previous groomer didn’t know how to do it. Her failing is my gain. I love doing specialty trims.

I really love it.

Of course I do. Why else would I have spent over 10 hours a weekend grooming a standard poodle for the ring? Only someone who loves grooming, scissoring, brushing, the smell of hairspray and creating hair scultpures would do that.

When I work on the computer I sit in my little office and the poodles usually lie around at my feet and behind me. Sometimes one of them will come and sit beside me and I’ll reach out my hand and run my fingers through their topknot, as much to show them love and affection as to comfort me. I adore the feel of poodle hair under my hands.

Anyway, last night as I sat here blogging I reached out and this is what I felt:

The crunch of crusty muddy bits on a grimy topknot. I’d have said I have no idea what she was doing, but unfortunately I know. She was out there trying to burrow under the casita to get the damn critters that’re living under there. I’ve piled bits of timber and rocks on the spot but she manages to keep going.

So today, after I’d groomed the two customer dogs, I tossed Montana and Romeo into the bath and gave them a clip and scissor. Took me hours! My own fault. I’d let them run feral for ages and last time I groomed them I hadn’t brushed their legs. That means that this time, since I didnt want skinny shaved legs (poodles don’t look their best with their long legs clipped short – thats the long and short of it. Ha ha.) I had to spend a long time dematting and brushing out, then drying out those legs.

I am so glad I’m no longer showing a poodle. My wrist and arm were aching after brushing out 8 legs.

But the kids are looking great tonight, and feeling and smelling way better than last night! Really, there’s just about nothing else in this world as good as a freshly washed poodle (after its dried and the wet wool jumper smell is gone). A freshly washed poodle in show coat is number one, that long luxurious coat and the smooth shaved butt… but a soft, clean poodle in a pet trim is the next best thing. I get a kind of emotional recharge just by hugging my poodles.

Once I was talking to someone who had a realdoll for emotional bolstering. I think I’ll stick to poodles.       

Before anyone goes and calls the men in white coats, I’ll move onto more ‘normal’ things. I already mentioned my new addiction to Pinterest. Well, one of the simple crafty things I saw in there which I thought I’d try was a way to make beach glass as inspired by this site. You know, that cloudy blue colour of glass which has been dulled by the ocean.

So, the other day I got out some PVA glue, some blue food colouring and some of the many bottles we seem to have been collecting since Christmas. I had to find some use for them!

First I washed them and peeled off the labels. I couldn’t get the label glue off entirely in places and I’ve run out of eucalyptus oil which is meant to work really well. I did the best I could. Then I used a 60s fruit bowl thing I had to hold the bottles upside down thinking that they’d dry better that way. Nope. The glue just collected on the underside and dripped, leaving a small round blob.

The mix I’d made was very watery, you can see in the photo that the bottles are very pale blue. When I did the next coat I painted the mix on by sticking a finger in the bottle, holding it upside down, then standing it on paper. I almost got a finger stuck in the bottle but managed to get it off without any damage to my finger or the bottle.

When they dried I was really pleased with how they came up. They feel nice and look great. I cant even see where the label glue didn’t come off properly. I’m using them as a way to keep/display my bracelets.

They sit on the little cabinet above, which I found in a second hand store a few years ago. It was a bit battered and broken down the bottom as you can see, but I painted it, keeping the original latch, and its been a much loved piece of furniture since. Its been used as a bathroom cabinet, a bedside table and is now a handy little spot to store my fabric bits and pieces.

z