Major constituent of all living matter

For my niece Dana taps are the packaging of water. Like milk comes in a carton and lemonade in a bottle. So when she recently asked me for a glass of water I decided to follow the same line of reasoning and I told her the water had finished. I mean, apple juice can finish and we might occasionally run out of milk and oops, did we forget to get some new tea bags? Irrefutable logic for a five year old in my opinion, so I wanted to see her reaction. Well, there was no way that she would entertain the thought and not even for a split second did she consider taking me seriously. Instead I was just greeted with bouts of laughter by her and her friends, oh dear, how silly my aunt is, just open the tap. Which I of course did.... A birthday party is really not the place to discuss water shortage.



We have finally decided on the taps for our new house. Both the bathroom and toilets will feature the Tara range, since we are after some unity in certain items throughout the house. This is why we have declined the reconditioned taps for the kitchen, although the idea was very tempting. It was between these and the famous Arne Jacobsen taps from Vola, but in the end the difference in price dictated our choice. Still very much against the will of the building contractor since he reckoned any DIY taps would do the job equally well. Which is probably true, but packaging matters! So we are hoping that our water will taste better for it and that showers will be even more pleasant. When he realised there was nothing he could say that would change our minds, he insisted to at least change the taps if we come to sell the house so we can take these with us. Duly noted.

Boris and Boika are friends again

 
After a couple of days of continued hissing from Boris towards Boika and of Boris sulking under the duvet all day, he's finally made friends again with Boika. This was verified when Flo saw them drinking at the tap together earlier today.

ahhh... isn't that sweet! 

Update on house

I promised I'd post an update with some pictures taken from this weekend. So here it is.


As you can see from the picture above, they've started to install the ceiling in the front of the house now. They've also started to build the half height wall that will enclose the kitchen area.


From the pictures above, you can see that they're squaring off the reclaimed section of wall in the kitchen and that they've installed a number of ventilation ducts up a ventilation shaft they discovered that runs to the top of the house. It's up this shaft that the dirty air from the kitchen and toilet will be vented up the ducts. Beneath this shaft is the doorway to the small utility cupboard, where the washing machine is going to be located along with all the cleaning and ironing equipment.


The picture above shows that they've now finished bricking up the wall to form the toilet and enclose the back of the kitchen area. They've also installed the doorway on the kitchen side of the cupboard that houses the stairway down to the cellar. This cupboard will be used as a pantry, with a trap door installed over the stairway so that it's possible to walk into the cupboard. On the left you can see the reclamed archway that provides access to the toilet and the doorway on the other side of the pantry, for access to the stairway down to the cellar.


In the picture above, you're looking towards the front of the house from the dining area and can see that they've started building the half height dividing wall. Flo's just spoken with the builder and he's asked us to come and have a look at the wall now that they've built a bit more of it, since he seems to think it's a bit imposing... so will have to see! But the kitchen area does indeed feel larger than I anticipated.


For those who are a bit squeemish I'd avoid looking at the picture above. Not the one of the toilet, where you can see that the flushing tank and mechanism have been fitted behind the wall, but the picture of the ceiling. We agreed that it would be too expensive to try and restore the original ceiling (and also not up to the council's building standards, since we have to install an insulated ceiling now that we're converting the house from an office), but the builders have been a bit brutal in installing the frame for the new ceiling, screwing right on top of the old ceiling rose.


Now into the lounge and you can see that the frame for the ceiling and the ceiling insulation has all been installed. Also, the windows have been unjarred and now open and we intend to get these reconditioned and double glazed.


Looking back from the lounge to the dining area, you can see that there's now a small step in floor levels with the under-floor heating and cemented floor installed. This will ultimately become flush once the floor in the lounge is leveled with a cement layer and the wooden floor is installed. The plastic drain pipe sticking out of the floor runs down into the cellar and will be cut flush with the finished floor to provide a conduit for running electrical cables between the cellar and the lounge. This means that all the electronic equipment (like DVD player etc) can be homed out of the way and out of sight in the cellar, with the TV being the only electronic apparatus on view in the lounge.


The back of the house hasn't really changed much, so there's no point posting any new pictures from there. However, I realised that I've never taken any pictures of the complete front of the house. So, in spite of the rain, I ventured outside with the camera and took the picture above which shows a view of our neighbours appartments upstairs. Notice that the builders have stuck newspaper in the window to prevent people from looking inside... I think this is more to prevent people seeing what they're getting up to than the work that's being done.

That's it for now... I'll take some more pictures as soon as there's something new, which will probably be the finished kitchen wall and the closed in ceilings.

Boika feeling effects of anesthetic

 
After visiting the vet yesterday, we were informed that they would have to put Boika to sleep under a general anesthetic in order to perform a visual inspection of her throat. Neither of use were too happy with this, since given Flo's recent experience we're well aware of the fact that being under general anesthetic is by no means fun. However, given that Boika was unable to eat, we both felt it was the only option.

So we left Boika with the vet for the afternoon while we continued with our weekend chores. Around 3pm we got a call from the vet saying that everything had gone to plan and that we could pick Boika up around 5pm.

When we went to pick her up, the vet showed us the thin blade of grass that had been removed from Boika's soft pallette. There's was a little bit of soft, bloody tissue on it suggesting that it was anchored in place pretty securely, so probably would not have come free for some time... indicating that we'd probably taken the right course of action taking her to the vet. He also told us that they almost missed spotting it. The vet who performed the procedure couldn't find anything, but then the vet we spoke to said that he had a look, determined that something was there given our conviction and description of Boika's behaviour. Eventually, he spotted the piece of grass "round the corner of her throat" and apparently it was very tricky to spot amongst the mucus.

Boika was still extrememly out of it when we saw her; she couldn't stand, although was trying repeatedly, but falling over at every attempt. Very unlike her, she didn't make a noise when she was placed in her transporter box.

We gave her lots of attention when we got home, but unfortunately we had to seperate Boris from her while she recovered. When he saw her still under the effects of the anesthetic he reacted very strongly and started hissing and moaning at her. We were a bit concerned that he might start being aggressive to her, so we kept them seperated for the rest of the night.

This morning Boika was looking and acting much more like her old self, which was a huge relief; it's not nice seeing your beloved pets go through so much stress and anguish. She was still acting a bit timid, but was walking around exploring and wanting her food.

The next step was to introduce her and Boris back together. This didn't go so well, since Boris was still doing the hissing and moaning routine. The difference now was that Boika was holding her ground and in fact seemed quite relaxed about it all, if a little bit upset and being treated so coldly by her brother. What I did notice however was that it appears to be Boris who is the one that is scared of Boika; as I mentioned, Boika doesn't seem scared of Boris' behaviour in the slightest. So I think things will return to normal... it might just take a couple of days. 

Boika's not very well

 
Boika's been coughing alot yesterday and this morning and, very unlike her, she's not been eating. Seems that she has an obstruction in her throat, probably from eating the plants that Flo received as a get well gesture from her colleagues at work (a bit ironic really).

So, we're taking her to the vet in a bit to see if we can get the obstruction removed. Unfortunately it's the weekend, which means having to drive a bit to visit a vet that is open today. But she's worth it!