I'm sitting here watching paint dry!!!!

Oh, this has been for YEARS, Msolga....stuff like pushing furniture doesn't make it worse.

Lifting, working, reading...all that stuff does, though.

Are you certain that pushing & dragging heavy weights can't make it worse?

Sorry to hear about this, Deb.

The end is heaving in sight!!!


Did almost all (as much as I can do until the Big Chest, which is on lay-by, arrives...the Big Chest will be a major storage centre...all the goddam odds and ends will go in there) the final clearing and arranging.

I have 4 big rubbish bags full of rubbish to go downstairs!

Then a final trolley full of books to go.

Then the painting begins again!!

I had the room to begin a proper clean at last!!! Fwee at last!!! (Almost.)


Next...the balcony.

(Shudders)

Glory halleluiah!

Progress!

It has been made!

Just began The Balcony.

Just cleaning at this point...but It Has Begun!!!

So what's the plan for The Balcony, Deb?

Restful Asian-inspired haven, Msolga.

That's always nice to have an oasis to undwind. Something like this?


There is an entire apartmenttherapy.com - nice!

If only!!!


I have the balcony from hell.


It is situated in a crevice between my building and its rear fire stairs.

So....it has walls on 3 sides.....the outlook is on the 4th, very narrow, side.

It faces west.....this means it gets only indirect light until mid-afternoon, when it gets blasted. The west is also where the wind comes from. It is also noisy, as I live on a main road.

One of the longer sides is all windows and doors...leading from what was my bedroom, and is now my study/library/second sitting room.

Its ceiling is composed of the floor of the one above, (of course) with all the pipes and girders etc.

So far, all that has survived this toxic position, are my two nice Baby Ben Ficus Benjaminas (in really big pots, so they can get pretty big.) Even they are subject to a lot of pest attack.

At the very front I have coaxed a geranium to survive.

It is all painted a very light grey, with metal balcony rail.

The outlook is very pretty.

So...it is likely to be more a restful outlook than in a lot of use...except when I have guests...especially when they smoke.

So far......I have my lovely old ornate teak carved doors (Indian or Indonesian, I think). These currently rest against the long wall opposite the windows...but I am moving them to the rear, short wall...where they will be more commanding.

On layby I have a similarly ornate old teak bench, still with some of the bright paint these things are covered with where they come from adhering to its legs and back.

This will go against the long wall opposite the windows, and I have a pair of gold Buddha wall hangings (now weathering nicely) and one of a Hindu woman copied from a temple, mimicking the old temple stone to hang above it.

A couple of water features will go under the windows....and I have a few little carvings to scatter around.

I have a couple of pots at the front...one will be used to see if I can grow herbs, the other is the brave white geranium.

I also hope to paint the "ceiling" some dark very matte colour, so the pipes etc disappear to some extent (though it is a high celing so it's not too awful) and the walls an exterior lime wash...likely in rather ethereal blue and perhaps green? I need light colours to reflect the light.

I also want to put up some kind of blind to shield it from the worst of the summer sun.

The piece de resistance is always the goddam cat litter tray, which the goddam cat prefers to her indoors one, and which I remove when I have visitors.

I have tried various ruses to hide this behind, along with the outdoor broom and the gardening tools, but all have looked like crap.

I like those wooden tile things, but the other lovely thing about my balcony is that it gets scads of dust...which is peculiarly black and sticky from the highway, so all hell would build up beneath them, and they would be very hard to clean.

My doors (which may be Balinese) look a bit like this:




Only they are older, more weathered, and have more carvings on the doors themselves.

Be sure to take some before and after photos so you can show off all your talented redecorating.

got room outside for one of these?

No way!!!

Do you have one?

Well - you could hang it across the road in the park!?

For anyone still interested in the longest very small renovation/rearrangement in history........I just paid off the Huge Chest.....the one in which all the things I don't have anywhere else to put them will go.

It just remains to get it delivered and then there's a small problem.....I don't think with my back the way it is I can

a. Lift the Huge Lid of the Huge Chest

b. Move the Smaller Chest to its new home

c. Bend and lift and carry and put in the chest all the things that there isn't anywhere else to store them.


So...some patience is required.


Now...my friends say "we'll help you!!!!" and they WOULD...but I just HATE asking for help. My friends say this is to a bit of a pathological extent.....and I love doing stuff FOR friends when they need it...but there it is.

I was just on the phone to a friend also With a Back....and she made a great suggestion...said to ring my local council, and she just bets they will have a register of folk who one can hire to help out when one has a permanent or temporary disability, for a lot less than the big services that advertise to do that.

So...come next pay, that is exactly what I may do.



The old teak bench for the balcony is now one lay-by payment away from being mine. It needs some repairs, so I will have to wait for the seller to do that....and that is fine....because, once again, I have put myself in the hands of friends who want a couple of things from the balcony that will have to be moved before the teak bench can go in.

This previously led to months of frustration when waiting for friends to come and get stuff meant I was living in a junk shop....but this time I have a Cunning Plan.


I have to get a delivery person to bring the chest.....I will simply also pay him to pick up and deliver the stuff my friends want.

This friend is generosity incarnate, and paying for a delivery for her might possibly defray .01% of all that I owe her in the great balance book of life over a 34 year friendship.


So...things are getting closer...a bit Tantalus-like still, but getting there.

Sadly, I cannot paint at present, or I would be getting some more of that done while I wait for other stuff to fall into place.


BUT.....I am greatly enjoying the Bedroom that Became a Study.

a. Because it was where I had to sleep for 7 weeks, on the hard sofa.......but it had the computer, even though I could only sit for a few minutes every few hours too look at it for ages.

b. It is a small room to heat, I can now lie down on the sofa when relaxing, use the computer, listen to radio and music, watch DVDs on the computer, it has maybe 50% of my books, and soon it will have a LOVELY outlook...when I finish the whole balcony thing.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Mumpad who works in community services at the local council said home help might be available for your particular circumstance. So call the council.

That was kind of you to discuss.

I am sure I am not at any FREE home help point, but the council likely has lists of local people who do various sorts of jobs.

I was amazed at all the things people did for me when I couldn't walk. I didn't like to ask, either, but sometimes you just have to make your needs known.

I can walk!!!

Isn't that paint dry, yet?