Category Archives: 2017 Entries
Glenbrook House 17 – progress inside
Recently, progress inside has in some ways been more exciting.
The main room floor has now been laid, although it won’t be polished for some time yet.
The kitchen has had all the black “Galaxy” grant bench tops installed.
This is the view from the kitchen into the main room.
The builder has also arranged installation of our fitted cupboards and the work-areas in Nick’s and Andrew’s bedrooms.
In some respects, though, this is the most important sight – the battery which will hold enough energy to power the house for a day, and the “inverter” which acts as an intermediary between the solar tiles and the battery, and works as a generator of alternating current.
Glenbrook House 16 – progress outside
In the initial stages of the building process, progress is easy to show in pictures.
The outside is pretty much complete apart from the details now: the stonework is largely done, even the patio tiles are laid, and those on the front step – here’s another view of out grand entrance in construction.
The outside is far from done, though: the “retaining walls” had to be put in place. I think that this is a council regulation with any building where the land is sloping, as ours does very slightly.
So as the outside of the building gets finished off, the builder has been digging trenches around the sides of the site, then pouring concrete into the holes.
The builder has also been laying the foundations (!) for our garden hut, which is to be made to match the house – in sandstone!! We could, of course, had a wooden one, of a prefabricated one made from aluminium panels (Colourbond™), but we decided on the usual no-compromise approach, so out garden shed is to be 4x3m and made of sandstone, with a gabled roof!
Here it is, without the roof as yet.
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Glenbrook House 15 – Internal fittings start
I haven’t put much material up about our house recently. Quite a lot has happened, inside only.
This is a view of the floor being laid in the main living area. As you can see, there are battens put on the concrete, with the “ironbark” strips laid over the battens (with some insulation between the ironbark and the concrete).
Why is it called “ironbark”?
Well, when we were choosing wood for the floors in our current house, we said to Michael Edwards, our builder, that it was likely that sooner of later our two boys (then 8 and 10) would roller-skate across the room, and we wanted the floor not to scratch too easily ….
To be fair, I don’t think Nick and Andrew ever did test its resilience that way, but ironbark proved to be extremely hard-wearing and very good looking floor material. So there was no question what we wanted in the new house. It was one of the few very easy decisions.
This view looks back towards the front door.
The space where the kitchen will be is off to the right.
Those views were taken a couple of weeks ago. Now the fittings are beginning to go in, and what was the “space where the kitchen will be” is being filled in, and the kitchen beginning to take shape.
In the foreground is the bench which separates the kitchen from the living/dining room. All the horizontal flat surfaces will have “galaxy” black granite on them, and on the far side the induction cooktop is waiting in its box to be put in place.
This is a view of the laundry, with the side door at the far end on the right.
This is a view from the front bedroom out over the roof of the front wing (where the garage is).
It looks over towards Glenbrook Park.
Finally, the utility room above the garage. I am really pleased with this room. The round window at the front, the two skylights, the whole ambience seems just right.
Britain leaving the European Union
It is nearly a year since I wrote an entry on “Brexit”, and I am going to indulge myself in a new ‘blog on the subject.
“Sad”, “Foolish” and “Childlike” are the adjectives which come to my mind.
In reverse order, “Childlike” because I believe that it is the petulant reaction of the poorer people in the UK to seeing a few of the richer echelons do very well out of global trade whilst they see their standard of living falling as a result of the “meltdown” in global banking and finance, and resent the bailouts provided by central governments.
Even in Australia there are groups within our society whose simplistic view (fostered by the radical rightwing parties for their own aggrandisement) is that isolationism is the way to protect ourselves from the “winds of change” blowing through the world economy as the result of globalisation. Globalisation can no more be stopped than you can hold back the tide of the sea: yes you can build a tidal barrage, but the cost is huge and the environmental and other impacts unpredictable. It is unlikely to end well.
Part of the childlike attitude is what I see as the polarisation into groups who simply will no longer listen to reasoned argument. I am probably guilty of this myself (even as a semi-detached observer!) – I read the Guardian online (and Weekly Guardian), and cannot bring myself to read the opposite views trumpeted (I understand) by the Murdoch press [I don’t want either to waste my time on the Daily Mail website, or put my blood pressure up by reading what I think I will find there]. So from the views portrayed as reasonable by people with views like mine, I deduce that all reasonable-minded people think the same way! It is very clear from all I hear or read (not just from the Grauniad) that the two sides are now just shouting at each others across a gulf of incomprehension. Or is it a gulf of simple visceral hostility? This is hopeless – unless that gulf is somehow “filled in”, or “crossed”, nothing will change. Of course this is exactly what self-serving politicians like Boris Johnson want.
“Foolish” only in the view of the people whose views coincide with my own, of course. I find myself in the somewhat unusual situation of hoping that I am completely wrong in my assessment of the situation. No-one I know wishes the UK and the EU to be diminished by this process, and yet I cannot see how any other outcome can seriously be put forward. One of the most powerful arguments against “Brexit” is surely that President Putin of Russia wants it to happen – surely even the likes of Boris J must have some misgivings over that?
For the sake of my friends and family in the UK, I hope that Boris-and-the-Borers are right: that the short-term damage [and no-one can seriously doubt that there will be short-term damage] will be worth a long-term gain. “Foolish” because I cannot belief that the poorer elements of UK society really were willing to see serious short-term financial disadvantage as being worthwhile for a possible advantage that will be at least a decade away. Even I wouldn’t vote for that. I believe the voters see the short-term damage, and somehow believe that short-term damage to the financial sector will be so gratifying that it will assuage their own pain. I suspect, sadly, that they underestimate the pain that they will suffer.
That is part of the “Sad” part. Great Britain has not really been “great” for many years, but that was never the point of that nomenclature – it was “great” as opposed to small. It included Wales, Ireland and Scotland. However even if Scotland does not break away (I don’t think they can or should), and Welsh Independence is a sad joke, then Ireland is in for a very uncertain future, which I predict can only end in a botched unification.
“Sad” also because both the UK and the EU will be diminished by this piece of Conservative party politics gone feral – Cameron has a lot to answer for – and the world cannot afford this.
I am sad, very sad. My only comfort is that I am an Australian.
General update
I haven’t posted for a while, but have been a avid reader of Mark’s ‘blogs. His description of the train journey raises so many images, as well as questions. I can understand his hesitation to involve himself in others’ affairs, the English way. On the other hand, Australians seem to have a different attitude, although still not intrusive on others, I think.
As you walk down the street, in Australia it is common for complete strangers to greet each other, in passing. Of course it doesn’t happen in crowds, and less even in the more-densely-populated areas in cities, but out here in suburbia as I cycle to work, passing complete strangers in the morning is accompanied by brief greeting from both of us. I remember one of our friends, another expatriate Englishman, telling a story about how he went back to Hull, greeted someone in a cafe as though he was in Australia – a complete stranger – and was met with complete incomprehension and misunderstanding!
I also like reading the descriptions of the plays. Ones I will never see, of course. Nevertheless the critical appraisals are interesting in their own right. Both Dido and Coriolanus seem worth the trip to see, if you can.
Finally, for this part, the description of Grange seems to me to be spot on, from what I have seen on my visits. Long may it be neglected by the supermarket chains. It seems just like the country towns from when I was a child. I wouldn’t want to live there, though, just visit and be nostalgic.
…………
We are downsizing, so I am told, and so we are taking the opportunity to pass on items we no longer use, or if all else fails, we will throw them away. Some are throwbacks to my/our time in England, and in some ways it is sad to see them go. My canoe, a sixteenth birthday present, has gone to a new home – someone who may actually use it: I have not done so for a decade. My sailboard has gone the same way. The two boys beds no-one wanted, although some other furniture has gone. My old car-maintenance equipment has been sold – it goes back to when I owned an Austin A40, my first car.
Tonight our collection of “compact cassettes” has gone. That was an interesting exercise: in making the decision to give them away, I went through and listened to many of them again – and came to the conclusions that the cassette was a truly awful way of recording high-quality music. Even with our old Bang and Olufsen 8004 player, which was state-of-the-art in its day, they sounded terrible in comparison to my vinyl LPs of the same vintage, let alone our Compact Discs. So a select few – specific interesting or rare recordings – were made into digital recordings, and the rest were sold, going with my old JVC 720 recorder, tonight. If you like that sort of thing, the JVC with 200+ cassettes was a bargain, as was the B&O – they both went for $50 each. The former to a local enthusiast and the latter to a B&O collector who arranged for it to be shipped to himself in Perth (WA) ! I was just glad to see them go to good homes. I have kept three recordings which I thought Mark and John would like (they still have a player in Cark) – a full BBC recorded set of the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy radio series, and two spoken word recordings of Alan Garner’s “Weirdstone of Brisingamen” and “Moon of Gomrath”.
Incidentally, e-Bay is useless, in my experience. Costs money, no replies. Better to go local, and I had success with “Gumtree”. I wonder what the equivalent is in England – Oaktree ?
Next are the VHS cassettes, which I have just started. I might just as well junk all the recordings of “Have I Got News For You” right away, but what about the recordings of BBC/ITV/C4 Shakespeare productions? What about those recordings of Inspector Morse, or Absolutely Fabulous? Actually, Sue has a good point – the VHS recordings are really awful, noisy and fuzzy, and if I really want something, better buy the programs on DVD. Anyone want a VHS recorder and a pile of home recordings? I thought not – even worse than music cassettes.
What, no pictures this entry? No, got rid of them on Gumtree …..
Glenbrook House 14 – Doors
The front door has arrived, and very good it looks, too.
It has been hand-made out of Jarrah, by a local craftsman found by our builder.
Yes it’s wide (1½m), but a little door would look wrong.
Here is the door as part of the front of the house.
As you can see, the garage door has been put up also, it a single door wide enough for both cars, which should help us reduce the amount of scratches on the edges of the cars ….
The side door is also in place, so the house can be locked up now. I’m not sure why we need to at the moment, because it’s pretty bare inside.
Inside the “gyprock” has mostly been installed.
Gyprock is what most Australians call plasterboard.
Glenbrook House 13 – the trees are gone!
Whilst I was away in Europe quite a lot happened around and in our new house.
I say around our house, because the neighbours wanted to get rid of some of their trees, and Michael Edwards, our builder, also wanted to chop them down to allow better acess.
So, they are gone.
This leaves a much better view of the house, but in some respects this is too much. It looks monstrous!
Seen from afar, the house looks a really huge building, and brings home to us just what an undertaking this was.
This is comparable to views that I have previously posted, and doesn’t it look bare? We will be planting plenty of new trees, though, which will look considerably better.
Barcelona
I (David) have just returned from time spent in England and Barcelona, Unfortunately i have been unwell since I returned (shingles and jet-lag combined), and so my brothers have beaten me to the ‘blog. I have been preblogged perhaps – now that’s a good neologism.
I was in Barcelona for the European Cardiac Society meeting, which was excellent. However, as has been the case before, Mark and John came to stay in the apartment I rented.
Here they are at the Miro gallery. Can you tell which is the sculpture?
Barcelona is my favourite destination for the ECS conferences.
David and Amaryllis came to stay in the apartment for a few days also, and arranged for us to go to see a concert in the Palau de la Musica, which is in itself a fantastic building. look at this picture (click to enlarge) and see the plaster horse jumping out over the stage ….
Barcelona is perhaps better known for the Gaudi buildings, and they really are extraordinary.
This one is La Pedreda (“the Quarry”!) and amongst other features has a roof covered in the most amazing chimneys and towers to accommodate lift mechanisms and staircases.
In the centre there are the chimneys covered in broken Champagne bottles – now that is classy ….
I have to say that my contributions to the Coulshed blogosphere have been much less thoughtful and erudite than my brothers, but then I was the one working during our time in Spain.
Glenbrook House 12 – The roof goes on
The roof is going on.
This is a picture of the roofing men taking the tiles up to the roof.
This is what the house looked like before the tiles went on:
This is what it looks like now:
The inside is still just frames, but the outside is looking better and better.