4th March

I did not get time to write last night because we went to see Billy Connolly. How hilarious was that!!!? Three and a half hours of rambling anecdotes, none with necessarily stunning punchlines, but all with gems of  human threads; a comment, e.g.  "I'm the corpse's brother" or an image of his Granny doing the "messages", or enacted porn movies run backwards. Three and a half hours were exhausting to watch. Billy's performance is an achievement in fortitude.

Yesterday, too, the first glitch in the entire build occurred. I was delighted that the painters had arrived on site and at the end of the day I raced upstairs to have a look, only to be  stunned by the sight of two enormous  cans of Dulux paint in the middle of the room. Lyndal and I have spent hours over the past weeks working on colour schemes for Porters Paints, which we have documented clearly. It seems that builders prefer their own brands, so for some reason, (doubtless economic), the painter decided to do what he wanted. Professional painters apparently dislike using Porters for various reasons which I won't go into here but I had to stick to my guns and insist on my choice.

This rattled me at first but I needn't have worried as Steve  "straightened out" the painter who spent today  gathering  the correct brand of paint which will be applied tomorrow, (Saturday). I was feeling anxious about what was going to happen while I was away on hols but Steve and Greg went through the specifications, in detail and they will ensure that all follows the plan. I am not anticipating further problems.

The reason I like Porters Paints is that, apart from being a "green" company, they are rich and have depth in their colours- i.e. they are not so much concerned with brilliance but with intensity. They have limewash, distemper, stone and rust finishes, all of which are fascinating in adding dimensions to walls. They have a good website.The four basic chosen colours are Bellbottoms, Phantom, Cobblestone and Haloumi. The garden  is Isis, Passionfruit, a yellow and an aqua  (their names escape me), with cobblestone surrounds. Also featuring is Green Liquid, Patina. I am the first to admit that, if I was put to the test, I might not be able to pick the difference between a Porters colour and a Dulux colour-match. I just got thingy about integrity of the job.  

Today I travelled the nursery spots with Steve looking for trees. I learnt today that one buys trees by the litre. We were seeking a dragon tree and a native frangipanni, each weighing 100 litres. No luck. It seems we will have to order them from Sydney. Native frangipannis interest me because they are natives and they are evergreen with a sweet smelling yellow flower. It is, unfortunately, a rainforest tree which may not be conducive to these surroundings.

Parking out the front in Hunter St remains an issue mainly because people park in the construction zones which we have paid for and out tradies are left in timed zones. One of the old tradies got booked the other day. He pleaded with the young,female, traffic cop, to no avail. Then in all seriousness he said to her; "Don't you have a grandfather?"
She replied that, yes, she did, in fact, have a grandfather.
 Our tradie retorted with, "Well I hope you treat him better than you treat me!"

The two old renderers taking a breather. They don't work frantically but slowly and loving.

Roof garden showing water feature.




Come on boys. If you finish that bucket, you can go home!

 

Water feature and pond.



Rendered garden beds



Finishing off the bookshelves. These are going to be spray painted in the wall colour.

Detail of balcony window - showing traces of green paint - original colours?

More detail of green paint.

More roof garden

Detail of stair finishes

At 1 pm I met up with the man from Howards Storage World who measured up wine racksand an Elfa desk for me. Meanwhile Chris, Richo and Greg worked away on detailing stairs, shelves and cornices. Bits that didn't make dramatic differences but definitely add to the finish. The front windows were excavated more to reveal early paintwork which was green. The original iron fittings in the  tops of the windows are very firm. Greg says you could swing off them. This is funny because we feared they would drop out when the  aluminium reproduction beneath them were removed.

The removalists brought over boxes to Stocko  for us to use for packing over the weekend. Sally had a sleep-over at Doggie Daycare. (I am nowcalling it Bootcamp as the state of blissful exhaustion she comes home in indicates that Playschool is not really an appropriate name. It's tough in the paddock with thirty other woofers.)

Tomorrow John is coming to finish the lights and electrical bits. Lester and I have to pack up Stockton as well as check ut a few things for the garden,  like a giant umbrella. We heard from out landlords who will be up just as soon as we leave. They are looking for tenants for the house - anyone interested??? We had a lovely dinner with our Stockton friends' deck last night. This is the feature of Stockton that I will miss most.

Heard from my friend "Mack Truck" today. She is following the blog from Gateshead, England. Rowan has arrived in New Delhi. Liam's horse is running this weekend and my lovely sister and brother-in-law are coming over with their very large trailer to  help us take stuff to the dump. Big weekend.