Tahi Time

Well, time with his maman and petit frere too, but my week seemed to feature the 3 year old...

We collected snails and caterpillars,

washed dishes

visited friends... Jude had a great marble run!

went for a long walk to Wairere Falls

were kings of the castle with Quignon, on the way

and boys did what boys do when we found the water!

We also shelled walnuts

and read/discussed numerous dinosaur books - in English, although Tahi can do just as well in French. Tahi knows a lot about dinosaurs I didn't know!

We had a lovely time.
:)

Came a hot Sunday

Waiheke's Sculpture on the Headland. Two plus hours in 99% humidity, too much humanity and very little shade. But the views!

Mowah.

 Peter Lange's "Comfort Stop". Bit of a misnomer, I thought, but the chairs were certainly comfy!

French Knitting. My second favourite work. I remember doing this with cotton spools as a kid...Coiling a coiling pohutukawa. Love it.

Stacked firewood in the shape of a huge armchair, facing a perfect view. Along the length of the other side, in about a metre at most of shade, reclined a whole line of people enjoying the vista and staving off heat stroke!! Probably in the reverse order. Third favourite.

Thought I was over corrugated iron works, but Jeff Thomson's still way ahead of his imitators!
Superbly perfect in this place, and the photo doesn't do justice to the organic feel. Looked as though it was always part of this low-lying ground. No question: first prize from me.

Architectural piece... nooo... open-air cafe frequented by nearly everybody desperate for fluids. Megan and I crawled around the side, through some manuka, for the shade. Note the beautiful copper water tank!

Lifebuoys; easy, but effective! There was another very cool floating piece which I seem to have missed photographing. Imagine a large rusty milkchurn shape out in a bay, with a big yellow tube protruding... extending... retracting... Powered by some kind of pneumatic pump; definitely reminiscent of.... tentacles? Clever anyway, and mesmerising. And then there was the rusty iron whale, shingle-beached, that reminded me of Capt Nemo's submarine.

A good day :)

Oil and water

Starting with the water... Remember, this was all going to happen before Christmas? Well, on the 21st Dec our plumber was rushed to hospital with appendicitis - it wasn't good; he was there a whole week. So we've been waiting patiently until he recovered, and he returned last week with a mate to help with the heavy work. Operational at last!

Viv and I celebrated with a bubble bath each; aaah bliss! The shower's good too; you wouldn't know we have low mains pressure (cos of the wetback).
My Dad and Viv spent a couple of hours yesterday adding towel fittings etc. There was much measurement and companionable consultation!
Not quite signed off though - the floor tiles are being oiled by moi this weekend, with a blended oil mix from Motueka: 'Java oil' from Ecohouseco. Website's mostly about timber, but slate is mentioned, and Middle Earth highly recommend the oil. Very easy to apply, and it's enriching the colour beautifully. One more coat now and we're done :)

That's it, Bathroom Blog concludes... been fun!

So what's next, I wonder?? e.

Tiles!!

I'm thrilled! Tom's done a terrific job, and the effect is everything I wanted. Turns out he learned this style and technique from, and still works with, the Kiwi guy who tiled for Hundertwasser... think Kawakawa loos! So,  handmade local tiles with lots of variation in the finish, and the influence of a maestro - well ok, third hand ;) Anyway, it's a little bit different. Here they are!

The lack of symmetry is very Hundertwasser, as is the grouting rounded to the walls... Didn't actually set out to emulate any of his principles, and there's only a hint really. I was just thoroughly bored with whites, creams and faux marble or granite in most of the tile shops, and Middle Earth was a breath of fresh air! The colour combination was an interesting outcome from Viv and my design collaboration - I wanted brights, she wanted blues, and we ended up here! The bronze wall tiles throw all kinds of interesting tones and a bit of texture when they catch the light. See the one in the middle at the top of the lowest photo. Doing the skirting was an afterthought, but it's worked really well, and I'd have had to introduce another element otherwise.

I'm very happy... We just need water now - but that's another story!

Hiatus

The painter's finished and we're waiting for Tom the Tiler - who is in the middle of doing a swimming pool... Still promising pre-Christmas, and will definitely turn up if it rains! In the meantime, the plumber and electrician are doing little bits and pieces - so we have the bath door and light switches, which go only a small way towards satisfying Viv's impatience. Having built a house from scratch, I knew to expect downtime from the trades, and am very relaxed about it! The tiles are going to be fabulous and I'm savouring the anticipation :) e.g. they'll be up the end wall of the bath to the height of the white liner.