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I chatted to our next door neighbour in the art gallery the other day, nice chap called Ian. He basically has a different showing every month, so last month photography, this month contemporary art, and so on. Nice range this month, some struck me as very amateurish, others were very subtle and clever. My favourite was a wall-sized piece that looks rather complex and messy, until you really look at it and realise it's actually subtle and simple.
He's one of Cooma's three art galleries. The others are on the other side of town and are more traditional in nature, whereas Ian likes to have some variety. I like living next door to an art gallery again (used to live next door to one way back when I lived in Armadale).
I spent a chunk of my birthday at the house doing bits of work, and got a phone call from Nick, wishing me a happy "Genesis of the Dalekboy." Also chatted to my old mate Glen, and his awesome wife Carol, and got a call from Tiki as I drove back to Canberra - hooray for hands free!
Been trying to varnish the skirting boards and door frames, but there are issues. The previous owners did a quick and dirty paintjob to make the house look nicer. But they didn't take as much care as they should have and managed to get paint drips and splatters all over the wood. Now we had originally thought of using a rich jarrah varnish straight over the old one, it would match the look of our bookcases, and help hide where I scraped or sanded wood to remove the old paint. So did the kitchen window frame like that.
Problem is it's nice in theory. In practice, the rich darkness of the skirting boards, windows frames, and so on would combine with our dark furniture and there would be too much dark. Sanding back the kitchen window frame is a job that can wait. In the meantime, I got to experiment with a semi-clear varnish on another window - nope, the clean-up I've had to do still shows through. Bugger.
I really wanted to avoid sanding back every piece of wood in the whole bloody house because, well, there is a lot of wood, and I have limited time and energy reserves. So, there will be one last attempt with a red/gold stain, very close to the stain that was originally used 14 years ago, and hopefully that will work. If not, I'll just go ahead with the clear, 'cause the whole sanding thing? It ain't gunna happen.
New area gets lots of spiders. I like this, as the few I've seen have all been breeds I know as reasonably safe. Oh, and our shed had one of the biggest huntsman spiders I have ever seen - not just long legged, but an abdomen easily the size of a ten-cent piece.
There also seems to be a rosella that is a regular visitor to our backyard. Yay!
There are small children, within a year or two of Lex's age, directly and diagonally over the road, and we think there's one in the house next to us. So, pros are playmates for Lex, cons are birthday parties and having to buy presents, and have presents bought for our kids. We are so over presents right now. Though the animatronic Elmo is kinda cool, in a don't-get-five-of-them-together-or-they-will-plot-to-take-over-the-world kind of way. I think even my voice controlled dalek is a bit scared of Elmo.
If I'm lucky, I'll get all the local kids into Doctor Who, and save myself a fortune.
I wonder how long it will be before I end up Santa-ing for the local kids? Will it be this year or next? Actually it could be fun to do a round of the neighbourhood this Christmas eve. Hmmmm... The hard part will be getting back to my house unseen!
I've moved a chunk of expendable stuff over and put it in the shed. And 23 boxes of books have been unloaded into the wardrobe in our room. I suspect there will be at least another 4 boxes of books, but who knows, I may well crack the 30 mark!
Oh, and because the mobile reception is utter shite, we've got the phoneline connected. If you look in the whitepages online, I'm under the *ahem* usual listing.
He's one of Cooma's three art galleries. The others are on the other side of town and are more traditional in nature, whereas Ian likes to have some variety. I like living next door to an art gallery again (used to live next door to one way back when I lived in Armadale).
I spent a chunk of my birthday at the house doing bits of work, and got a phone call from Nick, wishing me a happy "Genesis of the Dalekboy." Also chatted to my old mate Glen, and his awesome wife Carol, and got a call from Tiki as I drove back to Canberra - hooray for hands free!
Been trying to varnish the skirting boards and door frames, but there are issues. The previous owners did a quick and dirty paintjob to make the house look nicer. But they didn't take as much care as they should have and managed to get paint drips and splatters all over the wood. Now we had originally thought of using a rich jarrah varnish straight over the old one, it would match the look of our bookcases, and help hide where I scraped or sanded wood to remove the old paint. So did the kitchen window frame like that.
Problem is it's nice in theory. In practice, the rich darkness of the skirting boards, windows frames, and so on would combine with our dark furniture and there would be too much dark. Sanding back the kitchen window frame is a job that can wait. In the meantime, I got to experiment with a semi-clear varnish on another window - nope, the clean-up I've had to do still shows through. Bugger.
I really wanted to avoid sanding back every piece of wood in the whole bloody house because, well, there is a lot of wood, and I have limited time and energy reserves. So, there will be one last attempt with a red/gold stain, very close to the stain that was originally used 14 years ago, and hopefully that will work. If not, I'll just go ahead with the clear, 'cause the whole sanding thing? It ain't gunna happen.
New area gets lots of spiders. I like this, as the few I've seen have all been breeds I know as reasonably safe. Oh, and our shed had one of the biggest huntsman spiders I have ever seen - not just long legged, but an abdomen easily the size of a ten-cent piece.
There also seems to be a rosella that is a regular visitor to our backyard. Yay!
There are small children, within a year or two of Lex's age, directly and diagonally over the road, and we think there's one in the house next to us. So, pros are playmates for Lex, cons are birthday parties and having to buy presents, and have presents bought for our kids. We are so over presents right now. Though the animatronic Elmo is kinda cool, in a don't-get-five-of-them-together-or-they-will-plot-to-take-over-the-world kind of way. I think even my voice controlled dalek is a bit scared of Elmo.
If I'm lucky, I'll get all the local kids into Doctor Who, and save myself a fortune.
I wonder how long it will be before I end up Santa-ing for the local kids? Will it be this year or next? Actually it could be fun to do a round of the neighbourhood this Christmas eve. Hmmmm... The hard part will be getting back to my house unseen!
I've moved a chunk of expendable stuff over and put it in the shed. And 23 boxes of books have been unloaded into the wardrobe in our room. I suspect there will be at least another 4 boxes of books, but who knows, I may well crack the 30 mark!
Oh, and because the mobile reception is utter shite, we've got the phoneline connected. If you look in the whitepages online, I'm under the *ahem* usual listing.
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When my son moves over, the amount of Star Wars and Doctor Who stuff we'll have combined will be huge.
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I take it the bookcases are still to follow.
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And with a fresh layer of varnish, it probably would have been easier to remove the paint splatters.
Oh well, I know I'll do a fair job, if only because I'm so anal :)
The rest of the house is very good, however.