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| Wednesday, November 29, 2006 |
| What Have I Done. |
| Have you ever done something, and then wondered if it was really a good idea after all, but you still want to do it enough to go through with doing it, and not attempt to undo it? And if you have - which I'm sure we all have - would you tell people about it? |
posted by Ata @ 4:33 pm  |
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| Titles AGAIN |
| I worked out the problem with my titles - my computer seems to have misplaced the two fonts I was using for titles - and for some reason, it didn't default to the next one. Hm. Obviously I have not mastered the use of font families. Nevermind. |
| posted by Ata @ 9:23 am |
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| Tuesday, November 28, 2006 |
| Titles |
| What has happened to my titles? |
| posted by Ata @ 10:01 am |
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| Ata Lives |
Just in case you were wondering.
Mr Ata went back to work yesterday. On arrival, it became apparent that they had forgotten he was starting, and hadn't decided what they wanted him to do. So, he chose a dog-box - unwittingly selecting the one that a woman from interstate uses when she spends her one week out of six in Adelaide, thus relegating her to a smaller cubicle - and acquired a laptop - apparently the one that another woman was planning to swap for her existing laptop as her fan is noisy. So, having annoyed two new workmates in one day, and frustrated his old workmate by using his old access to log in to the system to start some documentation, he felt like his first day was successful.
Ata was expecting to work today, but then they didn't need her so she has an unexpected day off. Just as well, as there is a long list of Things to Do.
The home cinema project is almost complete - the electrician arrives Thursday to change the lights and install a dimmer switch, the airconditioner installer is also due Thursday, there is foam to stick to the windows, and - most importantly - the screen to be hung.
Now, we had thought the screen-hanging would be the least of our worries. After all, we built a riser platform - surely we can hang a screen! Mr Ata spent a good deal of time and research planning a pulley system, and two days in the roofspace carefully installing it.
Looking back, our first indication that this would not be easy should have been when the AV shop, the home theatre installer, and the screen manufacturing company all said that what we wanted had never been done before. Well, the screen people said that they had done one for a commercial installation, but never for home. Perhaps some explanation is warranted here.
We want to use the TV for TV, and the projector for movies & sport. So we need a screen that can be brought down over the TV, and raised again. Hang on, I hear you say, why not use a rolled-up pull-down screen? Well, my uninitiated friend, projector screens are fairly fragile. When repeatedly rolled up-and-down, they develop ripples. Motorised screens are just as bad as manually operated ones - in fact, the installer related a story where he once saw a screen ruined because a fly got rolled up in it. The fly-corpse caused a bump in the screen, which was repeated with each turn of the mechanism. So the screen, instead of being flat, had a series of little fly-shaped bumps in it the whole way down. Now, admittedly, most people may not be bothered by less-than-perfectly-flat screens. But motorised rolling-up screens cost in the vicinity of $2000 (compared to $600 for a framed wall-mounted screen), and the thought of having deceased insects ruin the perfect flatness of the screen does not sit well with Mr Ata - and lets not forget the inevitable ripples. So, we want a framed flat screen. Mr Ata's pulley system will hoist & lower the screen as required. It's only about a foot that it needs to go up & down. We were surprised when everyone told us that no-one installs them like that.
Back to the installing of the screen. The pulley system took a lot of fiddling, all done (much to Ata's relief) by Mr Ata. Now, it seems that the only task remaining is to hang the screen. Easy, right? The manufacturers supplied it with eyebolts in the top for us to hang it from. So, all we have to do is (a) fasten the hanging ropes to the eyebolts; (b) attach clips to the control-rope at the right lengths for raising & lowering; and (c) watch movies until our eyes bleed. Easy. Simple. Child's play.
We started doing this on Saturday. We continued on it Sunday and Monday evening. It is now Tuesday, and the frame still leans against the TV cabinet with ropes dangling forlornly from the ceiling. The screen is rolled up in it's box, destined to remain there until we can securely hang the frame. I did mention that screens are a bit fragile, right?
Part of the problem is that neither Ata nor Mr Ata can tie knots. I mean, sure, we can do up shoelaces and tie shopping bags shut. But Ata's most exotic knot is the reef knot, while Mr Ata ties something that he CALLS a reef knot, but doesn't really look like anything Ata's ever seen before. It was last night at about 9:00 that Ata said, look, I think we need to learn about knots. Hooray for Wikipedia! We used a sheet bend to secure the cord from the control pulley to a thicker rope more comfortable to pull on, and a buntline hitch to tie the clips to the control rope. Great. Making progress. A taut-line hitch was the knot Ata selected to tie the hanging-clips that will fasten to the eyebolts to the hanging cords. The premise here being that, once fastened, the taut-line hitch could be used to make small adjustments to the length of the hanging cords, thus allowing the frame to be perfectly levelled.
First problem: taut-line hitches are harder to tie than they look. Particularly when the printed pictures are not entirely clear.
Second problem: once tied, the taut-line hitch slides along the standing rope. That is, the knot slides up and down the main hanging cord to lengthen or shorten the overall length of the cord. While this SOUNDS like what we needed, we had forgotten to take into account the fact that if the knot is more than about an inch from the clip, it will foul in the pulley in the roof. Bugger. What we needed was a knot that would let us slide the CLIP up the rope, rather than the knot. Does such a thing even exist? Who knows. Back to the drawing board.
Tonight we will try again. This time, we will make the frame hang level at it's lowest point first, then tie the clips to the control cable at the heights required to get it up to the right place. Ata realises this sounds like the approach she should have taken the first time - and it is, in fact, the approach we attempted first. However, at that time we were tying the hanging cords directly to the eyebolts, and found it enormously difficult to adjust the length of these cords to get the frame to hang straight - hence we bought clips to tie to the cords which will then clip to the eyebolts. And tried for a sliding knot.
Oh well. Wish us luck. |
| posted by Ata @ 9:15 am |
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| Tuesday, November 21, 2006 |
| Paving |
I made some paving photos into a loop, but it occurs to me that not everyone might be able to view it. Hmm. Well, we'll see how this comes out. |
| posted by Ata @ 12:02 pm |
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| Sunday, November 19, 2006 |
| To correct Myo's misconception |
I am not reclining on the new couch.
When it got to Friday, we rang the Couch Place.
They said they were waiting on a reclining mechanism for the 3-seater, and it wouldn't be finished until the 27th. Bastards!
And now I have almost made myself late for this morning's engagement by deciding to transition my blog to beta. Why do I decide to do these things immediately before I have to go somewhere? |
| posted by Ata @ 9:41 am |
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| Tuesday, November 14, 2006 |
| The Paving |
Or, Things I Hate
1. Water pipes laid 5cm below the surface
2. Water pipes laid 5cm below the surface AND embedded in concrete at one end
3. Stormwater drains distorted from years of lying under heavy dirt & concrete, so they do not fit into the connectors
4. Stormwater pipes that, once made to fit through careful filing and levering, do not quite go all the way in to the connector before the glue sets
5. Insufficient staff at Mitre 10, so it takes 1.5 hours to purchase 6 pieces of timber
6. Brothers-in-law who promise to come over in 1 hour with the car that has a towbar so we can use it to collect the timber from Mitre 10 using the free loan trailer, but actually arrive 2 hours later
7. Levelling gravel to lay drainage
8. Laying drainage and discovering the gravel is not level
9. Re-levelling gravel
10. Repeat from 7.
11. Finally laying the drainage only to discover that the carefully cut holes in the guttering do not line up with the painstakingly installed stormwater pipe connector. Despite having been extremely cautious.
12. Applying brute force to make the drainage connect, and, once successful, accidentally dislodging it whilst trying to make it perfect
13. Paint "experts" who tell you that two small tins will be plenty to do 2 coats over 6 square metres, when it actually does about 3/4 of the area. Once.
And Finally:
14. Finishing Day Two on a project that was originally estimated to require a day-and-a-half, but still being only half-way through the work.
Oh, and yes - I have pictures. I did mean to post them as we went, but I haven't. |
| posted by Ata @ 7:21 pm |
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| Saturday, November 11, 2006 |
| The light... I see the light... |
The light at the end of the tunnel, that is.
We would probably be finished, now (except for painting), if I had not taken three hours off to assist someone else with a project of their own.
I left, this morning at 11:00, with the instruction that Mr Ata should drill the countersinking on all the pilot holes whilst I was gone. When I came back, at 2pm, the boards were pretty much as I had left them.
"What did you do?" queries Ata, trying not to sound like a prison warden but seeing this project going on and on into the foggy mists of the future.
"Well," said Mr Ata, "After you left I had a practice run at countersinking. Then I went and researched countersinking on the net. Did you know you can get drill bits that are made to do the countersinking at the same time as the pilot holes? I think we should get one of them, rather than doing all these seperately*. Anyway, then I went to get my hair cut. Then on the way back, I went to Bunnings and looked at pulleys. Then I bought juice. Then I came home and researched pulleys on the net."
Ata, with an exasperated expression, says, "You know I'm going to put this on my blog, don't you?"
Anywise, the thing is coming together well. It's mostly there. We just have to put the support posts in the corners, the doors and panels on the side, and the MDF sheets on top. The internal frame is all done. Only minor stresses about boards not lining up with pilot holes, and only a couple of issues with driving the screws in on an angle so they come out the side. All the wonky boards have been pulled straight by the screws. And aside from the odd bruise and a blister from where my thumb joint rubs on the drill, no injuries! Hooray! It will definately be done tomorrow. AND Monday looks like it will be overcast, so it will not be too miserable doing the paving, and THEN hopefully the lounge suite will arrive Tuesday, when all the work is done, so we can spend most of next week watching movies in supreme comfort.
*Disregarding the fact that we had already drilled all the pilot holes, mind you |
| posted by Ata @ 8:18 pm |
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| Friday, November 10, 2006 |
| Is this the half way mark? |
I dearly, dearly hope so.
Today we re-cut yesterday's pieces, painstakingly checking saw blade alignment, measuring carefully, and cutting even more carefully.
After doing all the long boards (making the centimetres vs. millimetres error only once) and beginning the shorter pieces, we discovered two things:
(a) the 290mm boards are not exactly 290mm all the way along
and
(b) the set square should be more accurately called a set not-quite-square.
There was snapping and short tempers and bad words spoken, mostly directed at the tools. If a bad workman blames his tools, I will gladly admit to being a terrible workman. I blamed my tools for an assortment of things all day, although I stopped short of accusing them of instigating the Twin Towers attack.
It was decided that as all the long boards were only un-square by a millimetre or less along the width of the boards, we would persist and not worry about them. However, we did take the precaution of developing a new measuring technique centered around the use of the large roofing set square rather than the little set not-quite-square.
We also managed to break the compound saw.
Okay, not all of the saw. Just the housing that the post of the vice used to clamp wood to the worktable of the saw fits into. It's made of cast aluminium, I think, and I turned the screw to hold the clamp steady, and it snapped off. Bugger. Fortunately there is enough left to brace the post, if one holds one's little finger in just the right position, so the clamp can still be operated. Next week we will see about returns or repairs.
We eventually got into a little routine, with Mr Ata relegated to measuring (because he is better at that than me), and me cutting. Cautiously. We were interrupted by the arrival of the pavers (Hooray!), a visit from the Home Theatre Installation Guru to give advice on the hanging of screens and speakers, and someone selling energy. But we eventually got all the pieces cut, with JUST enough lengths of wood. More little scrap pieces than we intended, but that's okay. At least we didn't have to go back to Mitre 10.
Having laid out all the pieces on the floor, Ata left Mr Ata to measure & mark up for drilling pilot holes. I went to the kitchen to cut out housing for some reinforcing sections. I couldn't use the compound saw as I was cutting long-ways, not across ways, and the timber was too long to safely mount on the saw. I couldn't use my jigsaw (purchased a few years back second-hand) because I couldn't find it. So I was forced to use the tenon saw, and then the rasp to neaten off. Now my hand and arm aaaaaache. I was shortly interrupted by Mr Ata insisting that we weren't going to be able to do what we wanted to do. He helped me finish the last housing instead, then we went to look at his practice-run of drilling and fastening pieces, using some scraps. He insisted they couldn't be held straight and square. He challenged Ata to demonstrate, if she was so sure. By the time he came back from a stop in the little boy's room, Ata had drilled three neat holes and asked him to hold the board steady while she screwed the two pieces together. I do not know what he was trying to do, really. I think he might have been trying to do something a little trickier than necessary, and the two scrap pieces - being smaller than what we would really be using - were little and light and difficult to handle. We also discovered that he had misread the screw packet, and was using a 2.5mm drill bit to drill pilot holes, when it should have been a 3mm bit.
The cats spent the entire day locked in the laundry, tucked up cosily in their box-beds where they were not too bothered by the noise of the saw. Not even Ata is game enough to have felines wandering about while a power saw is in operation.
So that leaves us now both tired, with holes in one long board, the reinforcing for the storage areas cut to fit and drilled, and another board marked. Mr Ata, during the marking stage, decided to deviate from his plan. As long as everything fits together, I don't care. It just has to be finished by Monday - that is the Paving Day. More excitement to come. Stay tuned. |
| posted by Ata @ 8:50 pm |
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| Thursday, November 09, 2006 |
| Maybe Scott Cam was right! |
Perhaps furniture-building IS easy!
Or then again, maybe not.
Yesterday, while returning the car we had borrowed to tow the free loan trailer to Mr Ata's parents, we discovered that Ata's FIL has a power circular saw. Never used, it was gifted by his father in law.
Today, therefore, Ata returned our $90 circular saw. We also needed a few longer screws, and a latch to stop Bosco getting through the sliding door, and some latches for the planned under-platform storage doors. After doing this (and running a few other errands), we hauled the giant MDF sheets inside and discovered that their sides were not square. Buggrit. This meant, in turn, doing more cuts than we had intended. You know the saying, "measure twice, cut once"? In our house, the procedure goes like this:
Measure twice.
Measure again.
Argue about where to measure from.
Measure again.
Go to Bunnings (closer than Mitre 10), and buy a larger set square, and a great big metre and a bit long metal ruler.
Measure again.
Debate where we measured from the first time.
Agree on measurements.
Measure for real.
Check angles.
Align guide rail for circular saw.
Attempt a practice cut.
Discover that saw does not work. Go to Bunnings and ask if we are using it correctly. Buy new circular saw.
Fiddle with guide rails some more.
Decide to cut both MDF sheets at once.
Debate going to Bunnings for more clamps, but decide (at Ata's insistence that it will be fine and can we PLEASE just cut SOMETHING now) not to.
Clamp sheets together (have you ever tried to manouevre a 2400x1200 sheet of 18mm MDF in a small dining room?).
Make practice cut. Both have to make a practice cut, so we know what we're doing.
Decide we know what we're doing.
Align guide rail to make the real cut. This involves more measuring, and frequent use of the set square.
FINALLY - cut. Then repeat procedure from after "Buy new circular saw" for two more cuts.
Ata is very glad she talked Mr Ata into cutting the two sheets at once. Otherwise we'd still be doing just those.
After the MDF sheets, we vacuumed and put away the circular saw. Then it was out with the compound mitre saw. This required minor assembly - nothing dangerous, just attaching support arms and dust bag and the like. It does involve a certain amount of interpretation and head-scratching over the instruction manual. When the thing is finally set up and clamped to the table (Ata: "And Craig was sure about clamping it?" Mr Ata: "....I think so..." Ata: "Well, did he say we could just clamp it? He would know. Did he say we could clamp it?" Mr Ata: "I think so..." Ata: "What do you mean you think so? Was clamping it your idea?" Mr Ata: "No, he suggested using clamps." Ata: "So, he did say we could clamp it." Mr Ata: "Yeah, I think so..."), there is more measuring. Then there is the discovery that our pine boards aren't as straight as we thought they were. Ata insists it will be fine - after all, Mike the Timber Guy looked at our plan and said it would be okay if the boards weren't perfectly straight, as the multiple screw points would pull them into line. We cut. We measure some more. We cut again at the other end to get straight ends.
Then we haul the boards into the cinema room, where the platform edges are marked out with tape.
And they are too big.
This is when we realise that Ata has confused 2050mm with 2m 50cm. Back to the cutting.
Then the next set of boards. Mr Ata measures these ones, and the cutting goes a little more smoothly. We measure before removing them from the cutting room. This is when we realise that Mr Ata has confused 2015mm with 2m 15cm. More cutting.
Now we have four boards cut to the right lengths. This is when we discover that the saw blade is not on a perfectly 90 degree angle. Our cut boards off square by 2mm. We call a halt to the cutting - it is now 7pm - and spend some time fiddling with the saw to make it perfectly square. Ata thinks the cut boards will be all right - the small unsquareness will be okay because those particular boards do not need to sit perfectly flush with anything. Mr Ata wants to use the wonky ones to make some of the smaller internal supports instead, and re-cut the long boards. We have just enough 3m lengths left to do this, and we bought a little more than we needed so it will probably work out okay even with the unexpected wastage.
Sigh. Ata had hoped to have all the cutting done today. On the upside, operating the saws has not turned out to be as terrifying as she feared. She feels better operating the saws herself than watching Mr Ata do it - particularly after that one horrifying moment when, using the compound saw, he crossed one hand under the other to steady the board. Ata had a minor panic attack and slapped his arm until he removed it. It would probably have been okay - he'd put his arm behind the blade where the retracting blade guard protects careless fingers from accidental dismemberment - but Ata has great respect for the idea of keeping limbs well outside the no-fingers zone. Operating the saw herself, Ata knows exactly where all limbs, blades, and cables are. This means she is not panicking about accidentally cutting through a cable or slipping with the blade or failing to move a hand. All of which she worries about when Mr Ata is using it - even, bizarrely, she fears somehow getting her own limbs in the way of the spinning blade (logically, she can't honestly think of a way this would happen - but no-one said fear was logical). So we take it in turns to operate the machinery.
Ata is now waiting for Mr Ata to return with pizza. Cutting will resume tomorrow. Hopefully we will be assembling tomorrow evening.
Oh, and Ata is enrolled in the "Jill of All Trades" evening at Mitre 10, where she will learn to install a vanity and use a mouse sander & router and lay ceramic tiles. There are drinks and nibbles and door prizes. And, after today's trip to Mitre 10 - where she was served by the same girl who served her twice yesterday - she has been promised a discount card. |
| posted by Ata @ 7:51 pm |
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| Wednesday, November 08, 2006 |
| Domestic Chaos |
Seeing as we were unable to pave, we decided to get a start on the building of the riser for the back row of seating in our mini-cinema.
It took Mr Ata all day yesterday to decide on the structure and plan the platform. Ata thought this much deliberation a bit unnecessary given that he'd been looking at web pages on the construction of platforms on and off for over a week. But anyway. Late in the day, we spoke to assistants at Mitre 10 and Bunnings about our plans, and at night called AF (who is a handyman extraodinaire) to discuss timber thicknesses and reinforcing.
Today we went to Mitre 10. According to their website, we could bring in our plans and they would cut our timber to the required lengths so that we could then just assemble it at home. Easy, isn't it? And they have a free loan trailer service, so we could even get it all home with no trouble.
Apparently, what the website actually MEANT to say was, we will roughly cut it to about the right size so you can get it home and cut it to exactly the right size before assembling. If it's not too much trouble for us. And we needed a LOT of cuts.
So, after umm-ing and ahh-ing and some discussion with Craig the Power Tools Guy, we bought a sliding compound mitre saw. A quick phone call to an equipment hire place had revealed that hiring a similar item of equipment was going to be $70 a day, and the saws available for hire could not cut the width of timber we need to cut anyway. So I figure, well, we only need to use this one on four seperate occasions to make the purchase worthwhile. I gave in. Bye-bye, $280.
We also need two large sheets of MDF to make the top of the platform. Easy, we thought. That's only four cuts to trim the available sheets of MDF down to size, and they can do that for us. Not so. The machine at Mitre 10 is so inaccurate that a cut across 50cm winds up being out by 5mm - so cutting a 2m long piece is likely to be very very wonky. I could have a little rant, here, about the pointlessness of advertising a service you're unable to provide, but I'll let you all fill that in on your own. Suffice to say that I suspect it is really a sophisticated sales ploy. We spoke to Craig the Power Tools Guy again and bought another power saw - a freehand one to do the big cuts with. I was somewhat pleased to see that, when we explained why we were looking at another saw, Craig made the exact same face that I did when it was explained to me that they couldn't cut the MDF for us.
Then there was the timber, which cost roughly what we expected it to. Add in the screws, bolts, hinges, washers, paint and paint roller, and the whole project has cost us close on three times what we budgeted. Ata also needed some more drip irrigation pieces (sprinklers will be banned completely here from January), and a few other bits and pieces. I don't want to think about how much we spent at Mitre 10 today.
Anyway. The recent purchase means that Ata has to come face to face with one of her secret fears - power saws. While Ata is more than happy to operate pretty much any other power tool or item of machinery, power saws are a whole other kettle of fish. Power saws and sledgehammers would have to be the two items Ata has serious issues with - she can't see either one being used without envisioning bleeding stumps and smashed skulls. She was terribly proud of herself for swinging the sledgehammer up and over several times during the backyard demolition, although she mostly stuck to swinging it underhand (to smash the planter box) or using the crow bar (to break the concrete). Now she must face the Power Saw - a piece of equipment she has stayed well away from since high school woodworking classes. Truth be told, she was not entirely happy about using it then, either, but now she is even more fearful. The fact that Craig the Power Tools Guy still had all his limbs and digits helped somewhat. And the tools are well equipped with safety guards and cutout switches. Craig is blithely cheerful that we can simply clamp the mitre saw to the kitchen table to cut up our timber, but Ata is not so blase.
Well. A fear faced is a fear conquered, true? Ata shall take a cabinetry class next year, perhaps, to see that we get a little more use out of these purpose-bought power tools. |
| posted by Ata @ 5:46 pm |
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| Tuesday, November 07, 2006 |
| When you've had enough of Nano |
Here's a little bit more.
http://summonbyata.blogspot.com/
I have been terribly, pathetically lazy, and am about 5000 words behind. Bugger. |
| posted by Ata @ 2:29 pm |
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| Monday, November 06, 2006 |
| Pave me purple, pave me blue |
Yesterday we bought rocks.
Today the skip was delivered.
Today, also, the pavers should have arrived.
Note: I said "should".
The delivery was arranged for Monday Morning. Don't you love how specific that arrangement is? Monday Morning, as in, Monday before noon. It was a little after three when Ata called to see where her pavers were.
After leaving a message to be passed on to the sales team, someone called back. The pavers, apparently, will not be available until Friday.
Ata did a certain amount of what amounts to verbal arm-waving and finger-pointing. She made reference to the fact that, when ordering the pavers a week ago, they had specified Monday as the safe date for delivery. She also cited the disappointing inaccuracy of the original quotation she had received (the first guy apparently forgot to include the cost of delivery - $66) as reason for being extra annoyed about the lack of pavers. Matt the Paver Guy offered to see what he could do and call back. On calling back, of course, there was nothing he could do. Ata gave in, and asked that he reschedule the delivery of the bedding sand and gravel for next week. She also asked that he reschedule the delivery of the hired equipment (Dingo and thumper) to next week (the pavers/sand/gravel/equipment hire is in one convenient large complex with reasonable pricing), figuring that HE could explain to Elio the Hire Guy why we were, at the last minute, rescheduling the hire of a piece of equipment which is usually in high demand. Half an hour later, Mr Ata called the equipment hire people to check that the reschedule had occurred. It had not. So he rescheduled, and then spoke to the sand and gravel people to ensure that delivery had been rescheduled (not fancying the idea of spending a week with a driveway full of sand and gravel).
So, all deliveries rescheduled (and promising Bad Things to Matt the Paver Guy should the pavers not turn up on Friday), we now have Tuesday free. Instead, we shall be visiting Mr Ata's favourite hi-fi shop to inspect a projector and listen to speakers. |
| posted by Ata @ 6:29 pm |
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| Wednesday, November 01, 2006 |
| Buyer's Anxiety |
Yesterday we bought a sofa.
Well, it is more accurate to say that yesterday we ordered a lounge suite. Three-seater with two inbuilt recliners, and two seperate recliners. Button mechanism on the left hand side (if possible). They are very comfortable, and meet our stringent criteria (chairs less than 1m wide, couch less than 2m wide, high backs, available with inbuilt recliner mechanisms) AND, as an added bonus, will be available in two weeks. Did you know that Adelaide has the highest number of furniture shops per capita of any Australian city? It seems like we have sat on every available recliner suite in Adelaide. And that's a LOT of recliners. And, of course, we settled on one from the first shop we looked at, located just two minutes down the road from our house. In our defense, we only dropped in there for a couple of minutes a week ago, and didn't have time to examine their entire range. So we didn't see the one we bought until we made a return visit yesterday. Of course, Mr Ata would have wanted to visit every shop in town ANYWAY, because he is like that. Ata herself was ready to buy the almost-perfect one we sat in at that same shop a week ago, but Mr Ata did not like the padding at the ends of the couch. The shop makes their own suites, according to the salesman, which is why they can have it made slightly narrower than the demo model and put the buttons for the recliners on the left hand side.
Having just purchased her first lounge suite (all our current furniture is hand-me-downs from decased family members, and my parents), Ata feels very grown up. There is only one thing that is making her nervous.
The colour.
Ata is, shall we say.... messy. Slightly tidier than the average three year old, Ata has the remarkable ability to really leave her mark. Like the time a few months ago, visiting FAC, when Ata dropped a box of Maltesers in her lap. Now, you would think that was easily cleaned up - and it was. Or so we thought. It wasn't until AFTER the movie had finished and Ata stood up to discover that one of the Maltesers had escaped recapture, and managed to slide under Ata as she repositioned during movie viewing. Do you know how much mess a single Malteser makes when you have sat on it for an hour and a half? Well, I do.
But back to the New Lounge. We wanted blue. We like blue. We have blue carpets. Blue was the perfect colour. Now, if they'd had a nice grey-blue, we would have gone with that - but in the blue shades, there was spa blue or blueberry blue. While both were nice, spa blue was gorgeous. Icy pale blue. So we picked that one. The salesman gave us free scatter cushions in blueberry blue to contrast with the icy spa blue couch.
And now I am anxious. They assured us the fabric is easy to clean. That even cat fur just brushes off. That liquids bead up and can be wiped away. But Ata fears that her mess-creating talent will be too much for even the heavy-duty super-duper magic fabric. She has even spent some time spilling stuff on the free scatter cushions to test how easily cleaned they are. And the light blue was so nice, so nice! Surely one mustn't ALWAYS be entirely practical, must one?
Sigh. {frets} |
| posted by Ata @ 3:19 pm |
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