Heavenly bamboo

A bit of bonus today as Mirinda worked from home until lunchtime. She parked herself in the extension and loved every minute of it. It helped that it was a lovely day and the garden was alive with birds (mostly sparrows).

It also meant I could go into Farnham first thing and visit Starbucks and pick up a few things from Waitrose that I’d forgotten yesterday.

Once she’d left us, I pottered around the house, doing mainly administrative things and general tidying up duties.

The tile shop never tells me when the tiles have arrived so I called them to check on the whereabouts of the gold leaf splash back. They’d arrived and Dennis the Tile Guy had called Dave the Builder and let him know because my “…number was not to hand.” Clearly, my number is never to hand since he didn’t tell me when the sample had arrived either…or the hand painted tiles. Still, it doesn’t matter. As long as someone knows.

Dave the Builder came around in the afternoon to chat about final things, including the fact that Mark the Tiler will call me when he can come and do the splashback and single row of blue tiles in the bathroom. He reckons it’ll take two quick visits (stick ’em on, then grout ’em up). Good…I’m hoping for a quick turnaround so something will be finished.

I told Dave about the unfinished bee window that Penny pointed out to me on Sunday. He was quite shocked that it hadn’t been done. Clearly it was one of those Pa Kettle jobs that is waiting for someone to get around to but which is simply forgotten. Anyway, he said he’d come round and do it…at some stage.

The same with the aggregate. Speaking of which…Mirinda was fed up with Dave always saying he couldn’t locate the resin so she had a quick search and came up with a place in about ten minutes. I told Dave about the link (I’d already sent it to him) and he said he’d look into it. Mirinda was at the stage where she would be happy with the steps just being concrete (with a strange transfer on it…which sounded more difficult than the aggregate) but we really want the bound aggregate so I’m putting a lot of faith in Dave to do it.

The thing is, once he has the materials and labour, it’ll not take very long at all. It would be finished in less than a day and ready to walk on in two. I realise that he’s now putting a lot of time in on the new job at Froyle but it would be nice for him to finish ours as well.

We also discussed the fact that we’re not that happy with the decorator’s job. They left paint marks on the big door frame at the back of the terrace (which I cleaned off after Dave told me how to do it without damaging the frame) as well as various spatters on tile and wood floors (which is an ongoing job). Also, Mirinda pointed out later, the stairs look a bit sloppy too. I don’t think Dave was very amused.

Besides all that, Dave once more expressed his love of the extension, especially Mirinda’s design and choices. He asked whether we used any other rooms. I said that, apart from the bedroom and beautiful bathroom, we spent most of our time in the extension. He nodded and said that’s exactly what he’d do. He wasn’t surprised that Mirinda loved working at the dining table, looking out into the garden.

I also planted the heavenly bamboo in the middle raised bed, giving it instant interest.

Emma tried to help by jumping in the sizeable hole I’d dug for it. She didn’t like being shovelled out each time, though it didn’t stop her jumping in again…and again. She’s clearly growing given she was unable to get up onto the raised bed a few weeks ago. Actually, she almost managed to reach the lounge tonight. Normally she rests her front paws against the cushion and waits for me to lift her but tonight she actually leapt, almost making it. It won’t be long before she manages it.

What?