Looking good, Mortimer.

Look what Ben did today. 

Of course the blue film is still on, the bulkheads need painting, not to mention cornices and tiles, the benchtops are still 11 - 15 working days off and the plumbing and appliances aren't connected...oh, and the oven has a dent in it.  Pardon?  The oven has a dent in it?  Well actually, the oven has two dents.  Symmetrical.  Unmissable.  Look.

When I phoned Harvey Norman to advise them, I was told that we should've told them within 3 days of delivery...HA!  That's not working for me.  Anyway, they promised to ring me back with a solution by the end of the day.  Sadly they didn't.  So tomorrow I'll be following up.  


This will be fun.

Pre-settlement and aftermath

I'd be lying if I said: 

• I wasn't a little stressed when the painter called for the third time, still unable to find the house, 15 minutes into the "half hour" inspection.
• I was delighted to meet the vendor. 
• I was thrilled to discover that the parquetry floor in my bedroom is VINYL (as are the "tiles" on the bathroom floor)
• With just a little tweaking the chook shed will be habitable (by chooks)
• The kitchen isn't dingy.
• All the garden needs is for the lawn to be mowed.

Honest to goodness, though:

• the house will, by Thursday at 2pm, be purged of the box upon box currently choking it (I didn't take pictures today because it felt like documenting someone else's trainwreck).
• The painter DID eventually make it, and was a very nice Iranian man with an Arabic name and impressive Persian handwriting (leading me to expect he might be handy with a paint brush - which is what you want in a painter). 
• I am shocked by my compulsion to pull down some of the nastier curtains and blinds (don't know why I'm so fixated on window treatments). 
• All are in agreement that the floor, the built-in desk and the chandelier in my bedroom have to go.
• We did confirm that the pool is solar heated and salt water chlorinated and apart from the odd busted tile is in pretty good condition
• We identified more trees to cull.
• We resolved (to a degree) the window treatment issue in Mum's Pine Box
• I bought a new bed.



Just the bed, not the side tables and not the bedding.  

Clean lines no fuss, nice proportions, a 1960s feel.

and not a million dollars.

• We bought new appliances:  rangehood, cooktop and oven.

Omega Double Wall Oven OO887XN

Omega 90cm Gas Cooktop OG91XA

Omega Rangehood OR920CXA

Mum and I have absolutely no problem spending money.  We almost bought two new televisions while we had our wallets out. But the spectre of as yet undefined (appliance and catflap) installation and (household) moving costs cast a pall over proceedings.  So we exercised restraint.  


No fun (but lots of fun all the same).

Forehand. Backhand. Rangehood. Lob.

I'm watching the Australian Open and all the while, thinking about appliances.


Today Ma, Milo and I went to Camberwell Electrics and picked the brains of the staff there about induction cooktops with a gas "domino" on the side, electric wall ovens and canopy rangehoods.  


And I was reminded of my desire for an unconventional sink while we were there. 

www.belfastsinks.com.au

This beauty is being advertised online as being $500 off this month.  So I'm a little afraid to ask how much it might retail for usually.  

It's sourced from a Queensland company – which gladly, is nowhere near as far away as Ireland. 

Anyway, I'm daring to dream.


Update 20 January 2011
Just had a call from Belfast Sinks. $2,000 for this one. $1,500 on sale.  Hmmm.