Friday 14 January 2011

The Roman Pavement

Thanks for all good wishes everyone.

Julie - having your bathroom in bits does increase the need to pee - one of Newton's laws, I think. We do have a shower room, so are not too deprived.
So glad you have sold your house, Diane. The floods are awful in Queensland. Liz, who designs our d4d books, lives near Brisbane. Luckily she's on a hill and not directly affected but she says that, even where they are, the mud is terrible. Such awful scenes of flooding all around the world.

The work continues

Smudge is being a great trial to Martin Plumber and Sparky Gordon. At first they were charmed by his dog-like qualities - he runs up to greet them and wants to talk to them all the time. Now it has rubbed off a little as, however hard I try to keep him out, he is always under their feet. He's been a pain from the start - this is me trying to empty a bathroom cupboard that is full of cat.
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Wanted to take a couple of photos of the 'before' but Martin had whipped out the huge, ugly corner bath that took up so much room.
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There were three layers of tiles, the last layer stuck firmly into a sand and cement mix. Good thing we booked a plasterer. Interesting patterns emerged, including this Roman pavement. It was like an archeological dig.
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And here's the throne! I wonder what it looked like with the geometric tiles on both wall and floor. Migraine material.
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In view of the state of the walls, I think it will be at least a couple of weeks before we get to the 'after' pics.
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Never mind - here's a sign of spring, below. I have a new pocket camera - a Canon Ixus and I'm delighted with it.
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Look at this macro shot - I hate photographing beads. This one is from an article on beaded beads by Heather Kingsley-Heath which will be in the next issue of WoW.
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And that's without any practice, straight out of the box.

I am actually doing some work for the classes. Shutting myself away is the best way to cope, I think. It's wonderful to have lots of electric sockets at worktop level. More news soon from the home front. Keep the comments coming - I need the support!

10 comments:

Heather said...

Hang on in there Maggie - just keep thinking how lovely it will be when all the work is done. We nearly lost a cat under the floorboards once - luckily the electrician was on the ball. Smudge looks very content in his cupboard. Great pics with your new camera.

Robin Mac said...

Maggie, I think you are very brave living in a house while you are having the bthroom replaced. that is even worse than having the kitchen replaced and I have lived through that! Glad to hear you can escape to the workroom though. Cheers, Robin

Su said...

Those photos bring back memories of when I had my bathroom done a couple of years ago. I got very used to going to the loo before I left any other building (shops, schools, etc) and was also know to hammer frantically on a friend's door before dashing into their cloakroom! I had layers of tiles too, but also had old victorian plaster which all fell off the wall (unintentionally!) so I could see daylight through the brickwork's pointing at one point! Happy days! Was worth it in the end though. Keep thinking about the end result!

Gill H said...

We've been though 'doing the bathroom' twice in two different houses. Some old tiles and colours are unbelievale. Nightmare. You have my sympathy! Getting into a bubble is the only way to survive. I am looking forward to the on-line classes - they make you get on with it instead of just reading the book - as enjoyable as reading and browsing are they don't always reap results. I hope the bathroom all happens quickly, Maggie.

Julie said...

Did you ever see the film 'The Plank' where they think they've trapped a kitten under the floorboards? Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper are the main protagonists, almost a silent film but very amusing and lots of cameo performances. I hope you continue to survive the upheaval, and the very loud tiles!

kim said...

We are replacing our bath too, so you have my sympathy. Luckily we have another very small bath to use, because this one has been gutted down to the studs since October.You could walk in there and see the earth under the house. My weather is about like yours, so you can imagine how cold that was a few weeks ago. We have walls now, and should begin tiling next week. Fingers crossed.

Aussie Jo said...

Renovating is horrendous but it makes you appreciate the final result so much more. We are needing to update our 1960 bathroom but I have to say our grey tiles are a little less obvious than those you have unearthed!!!

vintagerockchick said...

Hiya Maggie - gosh, three layers of tiles - all that dust! On the plus side, your bathroom will be considerably bigger than you thought when you get them all off.

gilby said...

Hang in there Maggie it will have been worth it when it is finally finished.

Ann said...

Just to let you know, I received the beautiful bird card today. Many thanks to you and Maggie for the great prize. I will cherish it and hope to be inspired from it. Good luck with the renovation, I have been there a couple of times myself.