Monday, August 06, 2007
Refurbishment of the second kind
An important bit of the bit of the kitchen which holds the sink up - having been rather wobbly for some time - finally gave up the other day. Maybe 12 years after it was put in by the subbies from Peter Jones. Somewhat shocked on closer inspection to find how weak the basic construction was - with the main vertical slabs holding the thing up each being in two peices with a horizontal join at about plinth level - and with the weight and positioning of the doors (being rather heavy slabs of chipboard) being just right to push said joins apart. One vertical slab now replaced with the floor from the sea chest from Gosport which was ripped up a few months ago: soft and old pine but there is a lot of it and it should outlast the rest of the unit. Pine fixed to the worksurface with a cunningly shaped peice of oak taken from some pre-historic bedstead - maybe even of Cambridge vintage. I knew there was a reason why it has kicked around the garage for all these years. Whole job took a suprisingly long time - rehanging the false door without the natty fittings that the thing came with was particularly fiddly - a good reminder why builders always go for replace rather than patch (apart from the commission they get on the purchase of replacement).
Have also repaired a rather older bread board - a wedding present from the West country - having decided that the rather smaller chopping board being used in its place did not really cut the mustard. More to the point, the handy trough intended in the wedding bread board to hold the bread knife, also served as a repository for bread crumbs. This the chopping board could not manage so repair it was. We will see how an exterior unibond rub joint fares; I couldn't be bothered to slot screw the thing - despite the age of the crack meaning that the join was not all it might have been. And didn't trust myself to plane a new join - would probably made a fair join worse.
Some other heirlooms of the same era did not fare so well today, finding their way to the tip. This included, for example, the two butchers trays which held the clothes drying racks in our nuptial bedsit. A shame to let them go but they have been in the roof, unused, for maybe twenty years.
This being the tenth anniversary of something, we visited the Princess DoW memorial paddling pool in Hyde Park today. Rather to my surprise, the thing (a roughly circular but undulating waterway set in granite) looked remarkably well in the afternoon sun, decorated with plenty of children. However, given that we presumably chucked the best that money could buy at it, I would not give it full marks. A good (if expensive) idea, but the design was not properly worked through. For example, the thing has not been planted in the ground quite as it should. It does not sit well. More thought should have been given to blending the lie of the land with the lie of the waterway. The path around the outside is a little tatty. The little bridges across the waterway have not been planted quite as they should; perhaps they were an afterthought. And while the idea of varying the texture of the bed of the waterway is good, there is perhaps a little too much variation.
Last but not least, I believe there would have been more satisfaction from a waterway in which the water only flowed in one direction. This would not have needed much more jiggery-pokery than has been employed as the thing is now.
Sit back and wait for rumblings from those who keep elaborate shrines to DoW in their back bedrooms - such people do exist for I have met one. And he was not a thirteen year old female either.
Have also repaired a rather older bread board - a wedding present from the West country - having decided that the rather smaller chopping board being used in its place did not really cut the mustard. More to the point, the handy trough intended in the wedding bread board to hold the bread knife, also served as a repository for bread crumbs. This the chopping board could not manage so repair it was. We will see how an exterior unibond rub joint fares; I couldn't be bothered to slot screw the thing - despite the age of the crack meaning that the join was not all it might have been. And didn't trust myself to plane a new join - would probably made a fair join worse.
Some other heirlooms of the same era did not fare so well today, finding their way to the tip. This included, for example, the two butchers trays which held the clothes drying racks in our nuptial bedsit. A shame to let them go but they have been in the roof, unused, for maybe twenty years.
This being the tenth anniversary of something, we visited the Princess DoW memorial paddling pool in Hyde Park today. Rather to my surprise, the thing (a roughly circular but undulating waterway set in granite) looked remarkably well in the afternoon sun, decorated with plenty of children. However, given that we presumably chucked the best that money could buy at it, I would not give it full marks. A good (if expensive) idea, but the design was not properly worked through. For example, the thing has not been planted in the ground quite as it should. It does not sit well. More thought should have been given to blending the lie of the land with the lie of the waterway. The path around the outside is a little tatty. The little bridges across the waterway have not been planted quite as they should; perhaps they were an afterthought. And while the idea of varying the texture of the bed of the waterway is good, there is perhaps a little too much variation.
Last but not least, I believe there would have been more satisfaction from a waterway in which the water only flowed in one direction. This would not have needed much more jiggery-pokery than has been employed as the thing is now.
Sit back and wait for rumblings from those who keep elaborate shrines to DoW in their back bedrooms - such people do exist for I have met one. And he was not a thirteen year old female either.
# posted by Jim @ 10:34 AM 
