Sunday, February 06, 2011

Blue sky with one cloud

Just one cloud rolling past my window and it can keep going. According to the paper, we had 144mm of rain and I think half of that is still in my washing hanging on the line. The lime tree loved it though.

I now have a working cistern. It took him not more than half an hour not including the time he had to go back to Bunnings to buy a flexible hose. Then he comes out, asks if I want the box, no and goes to throw it out with the new toilet seat still in it. Apparently you can't just buy the cistern, the toilet seat comes with it and he was going to toss it because he likes the seat already there. I remind him if that breaks he'll be sitting on cold porcelain so I've stored the new seat and the pipes with it, just in case I ever need a pipe.

Next comes the old cistern. Can he put it in the recycle bin? Jeebus no, Kingston council have a habit of sneak checks on those bins but I figure shoving it in the red bin is fair enough. I just hope there's enough room for the kitty litter and the truck can lift the whole thing.

Well, I'm still on the putting away and clearing mum's things which I've been trying to finish for a year. It's a bit easier now that I can put her clothes in the op-shop bag. It takes thinking about, all this putting in place. I haven't finished the crocheted rug for the BrickOutHouse and those bundles of squares take up room but not if you put them in one of those bags and take out the air with the vac. Then it slides neatly under the lounge. Under both beds are boxes and rolls of material, all neat but removable. And when I say there is not an inch of the study to spare I'm not joking. Six bookcases, one CD tower, one table with record player, speakers underneath on which my electric typewriter sits. Table next to that holds my enormous Atlas and underneath that, magazine holders. Next to me is the sewing machine on it's wheelie table and underneath that are boxes of ribbons and sewing stuff I usually need. Next to that is the lounge chair I had to move from the dining table where I have my jewellery. It was comfortable but I couldn't get out of it, being used to a chair that swung round on wheels. Mother's old tv is on the desk, one half of which is now visible, just don't ask about the other half. Ironing basket is under the desk, it's a very wide desk so the office chair fits in front. Don't look at the magazines and papers on the floor, they're all in order, just waiting to be put away. There's a bookcase in the wardrobe full of craft stuff. There's a cupboard behind the door, phone books, files, paper on one side, vacuum cleaner on the other. Plenty of room for boxes on top of that, books and boxes on top of the bookcases, oil heater beside my computer desk and another bookcase that the CPU and scanner sits on. Chest of drawers to my right full of computer paper and on top is the printer and another office chair that I'm sitting in. I think the room measures 10 feet by 11 feet so you can see why there was a lot thinking before moving.

This has gone on in every room of the house, just to fit another person into what was the sewing room spare bedroom. He's still mystified about where all the things in the bookcase (now holding his clothes) went to, top of the linen cupboard replacing the doona covers which went to my wardrobe. What to do with the mohair rugs though? Folded they take up a lot of space but hang them on hangers in a garment bag, no worries. Now when all this is finally in place, I think I'll clean the house but I won't look in the pantry until next year.

11 comments:

Kath Lockett said...

Crikey - our study measures 2m by 4m and you've thrashed me for gear and storage but let me join in:
Two, bookshelves, both 7 feet high
One piano, circa 1880, inherited
One desk, exactly 2m wide so it touches both walls
A wide piano stool with a fliptop lid designed to hold music
A chair on wheels
A wine rack filled with my paper work, folders and files
A four-drawer filing cabinet

A pedestal fan
A column heater (they're rotated depending on the season)
A rechargeable mini vac (utterly useless at removing dog hair or anything heavier)
A puzzled and in-pain dog on a beanbag.

I need a lie down now......

Jayne said...

You don't need to join a gym you're exercising your grey cells and self into pretzel shapes to organise that lot!

Anonymous said...

Well I know who to ask if I need a pipe.

Elephant's Child said...

Oh wow. Isn't it amazing how THINGS accumulate. And I thought we had too many books (not that I can relinquish any of them) but none of our rooms have six bookcases. Perhaps they should but that is another question. Really, really pleased to hear you have a functioning loo again.

JahTeh said...

Kath, you had me at piano. Did you buy one of those mini vacs for cleaning the keyboard and monitor?
Completely useless. The big desk we bought when the ex's firm went all modern and the only way in and out of this room is through the window. 'Four drawer filing cabinet', yeah, I bet it's filled with chocolate goodies.

Jayne, guess where the orbs like to go when it's raining? Just be careful lifting the lid of the wheelie bin.

Andrew, he says I keep too much rubbish. Him, with his boxes of remote controlled cars and my carport full of big cars, weightlifting gear, motor cycle wheels and men's secret business type things under tarpaulin.

EC, it kills me to give up a book under five years, that's usually when I get around to reading it for the second time, then it's keep or ditch. If you want to read a really good gothic/murder/mythology/mystery
but grown-up (not Twilight) try John Connolly, an Irish writer. You'd have to break my fingers before I'd give away one of his books.

And a big welcome to our part of the blogosphere.

R.H. said...

You don't get a toilet seat with a cistern.
Do you mean a toilet bowl, or the complete set?
Be clear in what you're saying, I don't have time for riddles. And turn your mind for goodness sake to serious contemplation of The Patriarcky. It's what you are (big round and boisterous) today.

-Robert.
Public intellectual.
(Available for Beravements)

River said...

All of that in a 10 x 11 room?
You're a master packer. The gold medallist of packers! And you still have room to get in and out of there? Wow.
I shall immediately stop whinging about my lack of space.

JahTeh said...

Trust the Restoration Aristrocacy to quibble. No you get the cistern with pipes, a panel that slots into the new seat with lid which hides the pipes. I used to want one of those seats and lids that had little plastic fish in them except sitting down on a shark didn't seem like a good idea.

River, it's all in the planning, I've even got mum's huge gilt mirror underneath my bed. That's going to hang in my bathroom one day.

JahTeh said...

"Aristocrasy" or Aristocrazy on his bad days.

JahTeh said...

Or even "Aristocracy" on my good days.

R.H. said...

You don't get a toilet seat with a cistern!

-Lord Rochester!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My little holiday shack in Portsea has eleven fireplaces and fifteen toilets! So who would know better, you or Me!

-Rochester!!!!