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Post by OnlyMark on Aug 26, 2015 20:10:46 GMT 2
Thanks Welle. We plan to start using it more an more when the weather cools down somewhat. You can just see a table and chairs under the tree at the moment anyway.
Annie, that's a good point. I would like some but initially they take a lot of work to get established - and we won't be here to pamper them. It's a future project for sure.
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Post by Voy on Aug 28, 2015 15:51:41 GMT 2
yayyy - more projects and pics thereof! and i'm hoping for vines too - and then maybe we will have a wine making project?
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 28, 2015 16:14:28 GMT 2
Alas, Mark doesn't drink wine. We would have to go and take charge of the project and drink the results.
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Post by OnlyMark on Aug 28, 2015 16:38:57 GMT 2
Correct. Though it would be a bit far for you to come to water it every time.
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Post by Voy on Aug 29, 2015 1:45:55 GMT 2
and I forgot to mention I LOVE the cushions on the very very elegant lounge!
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Post by OnlyMark on Sept 3, 2015 22:20:53 GMT 2
Thanks Voy.
By the way. I got bored today so made a side table for a room downstairs and a small set of shelves for the landing.
In a few weeks we have a series of friends of Mrs M's coming to stay plus some of her relatives. From the last week in September to the end of the first week in November. Several sets are even overlapping and there is no single day, apart from one night, when we haven't got at least one room occupied. This is just the reason Mrs M decided we'd have four spare rooms apparently. So, I'm going to wrack my brains for projects I can build so I can always excuse myself, saying I have something I have to do. Mrs M's wardrobe is the first thing.
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Post by OnlyMark on Sept 4, 2015 16:05:22 GMT 2
Just to round a couple of things off....... ...a bit of a shelf cum bookcase thing to fill an awkward gap at the top of the stairs. My job is done. Mrs M now has to come up with things to fill it - In the 'patio sucio', the dirty yard, we fitted the old style sink mentioned previously. This is where we hang all the washing and where dirty things are washed, plants re-potted and so on. It's already had plenty of use - And this is just, as mentioned also before, a boredom reliever in that we don't really need it but it was something to keep me occupied for an hour or so. It'll be put in one of the downstairs rooms just by the door to drop your bag and/or keys on - We have a fireplace by the entrance and one thing we completely forgot until recently is that it needs a surround and a mantelpiece. Looks like that might be next, but, after I come back from Cadiz. Mrs M decided we'd all have a week there going to a language school. I told her my English is fine enough and quite workable. It seems I'll be learning Spanish though.
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Post by Baz Faz on Sept 4, 2015 18:38:52 GMT 2
Good photo opportunities in Cadiz.
And once you have mastered Spanish you can take a ferry from Tarifa and spend a couple of days in Tangiers.
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Post by OnlyMark on Sept 4, 2015 21:15:23 GMT 2
I have been Baz, but it'd be nice to go again without leading a group round.
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Post by OnlyMark on Sept 5, 2015 13:36:04 GMT 2
Things are getting desperate. What do you occupy yourself when you've nothing to do, the weather has closed in and it's cold and rainy? Read a book? Cook something? Watch a DVD? I have an impulse to make something. Even if all I do is get out the big box of Lego from when the kids were small, sort out the colours and then, with the help of the girls, make something to fill the bookcase/shelf from yesterday. Flags of the world (some of them anyway) -
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Post by ninchursanga on Sept 5, 2015 14:55:43 GMT 2
I really like the built in book shelves. Woodwork is something I'd like to get into more. In Nevada I made a good start, but unfortunately here in Switzerland there are no woodwork classes and I don't have access to a good toolshop.
Some creative flags there, btw.
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Post by OnlyMark on Sept 5, 2015 17:00:38 GMT 2
I never took classes and when I lived in Germany the only room I had was the boiler room which was about 3mx2m, so I only made small things like wooden toys. I soon got over making too many mistakes through lack of knowledge.
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Post by Baz Faz on Sept 5, 2015 17:24:36 GMT 2
Bored? Nothing to do? Have you got any land suitable for creating a Mediterranean garden?
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Post by OnlyMark on Sept 5, 2015 17:55:35 GMT 2
Gardening is unfortunately of little interest to me. I do water the plants but that's about it. Mrs M is the driving force in anything plant related though I do provide the heavy lift facility when required.
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Post by Scrubb on Sept 5, 2015 20:28:36 GMT 2
No Canadian flag - humph.
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Post by OnlyMark on Sept 5, 2015 21:00:10 GMT 2
Yeah. Making a maple leaf is really easy......
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Post by Scrubb on Sept 6, 2015 4:17:17 GMT 2
Yeah, well, making your entire project wasn't easy, but you did it!
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Post by Baz Faz on Sept 6, 2015 10:32:40 GMT 2
Yeah. Making a maple leaf is really easy...... Have you seen the projected new flags for NZ? Those ferns will be a challenge.
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Post by auntieannie on Sept 6, 2015 11:00:37 GMT 2
you didn't even attempt the easiest of flags.
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Post by OnlyMark on Sept 6, 2015 16:40:47 GMT 2
Do you have one in mind Annie?
Baz, you're just being difficult. Mind you, I dd start to look how I could do the UK flag.
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Post by missalaska on Sept 9, 2015 19:57:26 GMT 2
Good photo opportunities in Cadiz. And once you have mastered Spanish you can take a ferry from Tarifa and spend a couple of days in Tangiers. And once you've mastered geography you'll be calling it Tangier!
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Post by missalaska on Sept 9, 2015 19:58:50 GMT 2
No Y-fronts either Mark
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Post by auntieannie on Sept 9, 2015 20:19:21 GMT 2
Yes, the one I have in mind is the swiss flag. it is square with a cross in the middle.
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Post by Baz Faz on Sept 9, 2015 23:23:33 GMT 2
Good photo opportunities in Cadiz. And once you have mastered Spanish you can take a ferry from Tarifa and spend a couple of days in Tangiers. And once you've mastered geography you'll be calling it Tangier! Or, if you want to be Francophone (and French is the second language there), Tanger.
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Post by OnlyMark on Nov 14, 2015 16:55:41 GMT 2
Some time ago I posted a photo of the workshop that was under construction. I don't think I said much more about it. This is how it was - There have been a few smaller things happening recently but not much due to having an influx of guests. I've now started to catch up on stuff. Unfortunately I decided to slice off the top of my knuckle a few days ago and have had to restrict what I'm doing otherwise I get blood all over the place. We are having the builders back on Monday, I'll come to that in a minute, so I thought I'd write a little update. Here is the front of the workshop now with some wardrobe doors I've made and had to paint - It is fitted out inside and having had a hard usage. One day, when I've got nothing to do, I might even tidy it up. The bench on the left was actually the first thing I made several years ago and I'm now fitting some old kitchen worktops on to it as the old top is mostly wrecked with holes, paint and gouges in it. Normally I pull it away from the wall when I'm working on it - It is 'L' shaped and behind the green door to the right is the paint and nuts and bolts and stuff - On the wall to the left are the only motorbikes I am now allowed to own, so says Mrs M - I made a thing we call a step drawer. It's fine and was needed to just store yet more things we seem to accumulate - The mantelpiece/fire surround was a fairly easy thing to make. Painting it took longer than making it - We decided that we'd have a low wall built at the back of the house, that's why the men are coming on Monday. The idea is to tidy up the bank of earth and with a view to planting some bushes, flowers or whatever just there. It'll extend about 15 metres from the wall we now have but won't be as high. The hose pipe you can just about see is actually our mains water supply that comes all the way from the village across the fields, a good kilometer or so away. I'll try at last to get that buried as well. A machine will come that will do some digging out for the foundations and I hope he doesn't decide to cut through the pipe as he does so. I'll probably watch him closely - We also may have a bit more drainage done closer to the pool arches as there are a few small cracks appearing as the ground settles over time and probably because rain water runs down to it from the hill and undermines the foundations to a certain extent. I'll see what happens on Monday.
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Post by Baz Faz on Nov 14, 2015 17:51:56 GMT 2
I'm most impressed by everything you have done (and also by the blue sky and sun).
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Post by OnlyMark on Nov 14, 2015 18:46:22 GMT 2
Hovering around the low twenties every day Baz. Rain is expected though. The pool is covered for the winter but we still can eat out on the patio every day in shirtsleeves. It's a rough life.
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Post by kuskiwi on Nov 14, 2015 20:16:45 GMT 2
It's looking fabulous and your joinery skills are really good.
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Post by Voy on Nov 14, 2015 21:52:55 GMT 2
yayyy - more project updates! lookin' good
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Post by OnlyMark on Nov 14, 2015 22:30:45 GMT 2
Thanks both of you. I'm hoping next week sometime to go and get some wood to make a breakfast bar in the kitchen. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to as I need to monitor the builders for the wall as well. Then it's a wardrobe for Mrs M and well, that's about it.
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