environment, yippee! Make the most of it while it lasts we say. Finally our
list is all ticked off, sort of. All the window sills are done, except the
kitchen, special order on that one! The Rayburn now has a nice flue in place
and h-cowl on the roof. The flush unit in the WC and the leaking basin all
sorted. Last but not least, the glass in all the sunroom doors replaced. Our
venetian and roman blinds for the bathroom and kitchen respectively are
fitted. Done and dusted.
Well, nothing is as simple as it seems, not with us anyway. Yes we had the
door people here for a whole day, taking glass out, replacing scratched
portions of the folding doors, refitting new glass in the doors. Marvellous.
No, wait, what's that? Yep, scratches in the new glass. Why bother. Yes they
may not be as bad as the last lot, but it seems that when the glass was
fitted and they banged the rubbers back in they managed to scratch the glass
surface in places around the edge. Now, the thing is, they have this rule.
If you can't see it from 2m away, then 'no scratch'. Ok, this works to cover
silly manufacturing problems, but when you get 'user error' on fitting? We
are still waiting to hear from the owner of the company. Even a courtesy
call to tell us to bugger off would be nice. Sigh.
At least the window sills look good. Well they did. The wood was not great
when we first saw them in the raw, but after plenty of manual sanding they
looked much improved, well until them getting soaked in a downpour as they
were working on them outdoors. Finally they were painted, sanded, painted,
sanded, painted and sanded some more, then fitted. With the final painting
sanding etc. after fitting they looked fine. However, as with everything
else, the after build drying out period is in full swing. They will need a
bit of finishing off once again when all has acclimatised to our indoor
conditions, as will the joints between walls cornicing and ceiling.
Hopefully when the kitchen sill arrives and is sanded, painted, etc. the
drying out cracks will get sorted too. All a bit frustrating, but to be
expected I guess.
On the plus side, FIRE! All safely contained within the heart of the
Rayburn. Yes we have had the beast fired up. The learning curve on using it
and getting the most from it may prove a long journey, but when we get it
right it gets mighty hot in here. Burning mucky anthracite is ok, but I
think for instant heat wood will be better. Would be nice to be getting hot
water too! We have boiled the kettle, cooked in the oven, enjoyed its warmth
on a cold damp autumn evening. So far with the temps dropping to 4c at night
we have kept warm and snug at over 20c in here with a fire going, over 23c
one evening. As to when it is sub-zero mid-winter, we shall see. Hopeful
though that we will be warm enough and not need another wood burner. I think
the main problem with heat will be in the main bedroom when it is built as
it will not radiate that far. I think the guest room will be our winter
bedroom so we can enjoy the warmth of the stove!
Our last fight at the moment is with Telkom, the phone people. Our initial
order for a phone line was cancelled, we didn't pay the R700 deposit
required. A bit harsh considering that nobody bothered to tell us about it.
Not even the 3 or 4 times we spoke to the sales people to find out what was
happening with our order, or the time we went into a Telkom shop to enquire
about our order. Thankfully we actually found someone helpful and things are
progressing. An engineer actually called on Thursday to do a site survey.
Sadly that was it. We need a phone pole put up in our garden to run cable to
as the run is too long to us from the top of the drive where the lines are.
Crazy really as we already have a pole in the garden taking lines next door
but apparently there is no space on the junction that they come from. So, we
might get some action this week, or we might not. Until the post is up and
cable run nothing else can happen. The crazy thing is that I will have to go
up in the roof to assist with the installation as the Telkom people are not
allowed to do that anymore due to previous problems. Not sure if I will get
any commission. The other silly thing is that we will have to move the line
when the garage gets built and re-run it, my job again no doubt!
We are now getting to the time of year that brought us to Underberg
initially. Autumn. The trees are turning, the days are finally getting sunny
and dry, the blossoms are coming out. Yep, some of the trees in our garden
have been coming into bloom again. Weird. Must be something in the air. I
think they will get a nasty shock soon when the first frost comes! Finally
though the grass around the garden is looking green where it wasn't. The
areas that were two foot high and hacked back are recovering, just in time
for it all to die and go brown over winter, nice. Oh and before I forget,
snow. Yep, the first of the year on the mountains. Gone already though.
Shape of things to come so we hear as they are expecting a cold winter this
year. Stock up an emergency cupboard we have been told! Should be
interesting, if nothing else a large pile of wood and anthracite might be a
good idea!
So, on with village life. We actually managed to get to a meeting of the
Garden Club. Our first guests have come and gone. We went for dinner next
door, and fed and watered their dogs for a night while they were away. Yep,
no stopping us now!
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