It's been an interesting few days chez Kemshall. I hate to bore anyone with something so trivial but we are having the central heating boiler replaced for a newer more efficient and environmentally friendly system. Two days work would start last Wednesday. Men arrived Thursday - only a day late, could be worse. More men arrived Friday and all was going swimmingly until someone who shall be nameless drilled through the hot water pipe in the bathroom. I have no idea how much water a hot water tank holds but it certainly looks like a lot when it's cascading through your kitchen ceiling! No one works weekends apparently so we had a less than cosy weekend with no heating, no washing machine, no shower and most of the house in total disarray. Today more men arrived. They must have drawn lots to see who would break the news to us that the wrong boiler had been fitted on Friday. It would have to be replaced today oh, and by the way, that means the pipes are all in the wrong place too! I'm trying hard not to cry or scream.
Luckily the postman just delivered my new gouache paints and indian ink so it's not all bad news!
The flock on the studio wall is growing and now I have the paints there will be more!
The only way to keep sane at the moment is to be busy. I am embroidering the little pot that holds the applique tulips using Madeira Lana, a wool and acrylic blended thread that I love.
And stippling the background fabric to create ripples of texture with a Kantha like stitch. I shall machine quilt the flowers to follow the marks in the hand dyed fabric and the pencil drawing.
Laura's had to dye more of these gorgeous fabrics to put in the
store since people saw me use them on DMTV!
They tell me it will all be sorted one day, they just won't say when that might be! In the meantime I shall bury myself in my work and pretend it isn't happening! At least the kitchen floor is cleaner than it's been for quite some time!
Thanks for reading this far down the page! Talk again soon.
I feel your pain. Four years ago I had half my house torn down (to the ground) and rebuilt with a basement. I slept in the barn until mid-October which is very nippy here in Maine. Yes, this too shall pass - just like a kidney stone!
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations but glad to see you're putting your usual positive spin on things.
ReplyDeleteHi Beth - thanks for your empathy! We went through similar when we first bought this house. It's really old, dates back to the early 1700s and we had to do a lot of work in the first year. Thought all that was over - this was meant to be a quick fix. Little did we know!
ReplyDeleteThanks Angie. I know this is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure we'll laugh about it next week!
ReplyDeleteLooks like Sod and Murphy visited you this weekend too. Why do these things always happen when a weekend is about to start and no one has the common decency to solve the problem they caused? Hope everything is back and sorted as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteI love the stitching you are putting on the tulips. So beautiful. We learned through our house remodel that there is no "easy" project, said project will always take twice as long and perhaps twice the $$$, and I do not have a lot of patience with inept workers. Our hot water tank (in the US) holds 52 gallons. You don't realize how much water that is, until you have to clean it up - ours failed this fall. Wishing you a good glass of wine, paintings that seem to paint themselves, and a warm home, soon.
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ReplyDeleteLinda (so sorry, muddled you up with Laura on last post which i removed, feeling very foolish!) I promise you that when the new boiler is fitted and runs more efficiently than the old one you will be very pleased. There, the day job crept in again - happening a lot at the moment! I love your flock of crows, by the way. Hilary
ReplyDeleteOh - that is a total bummer about the hot water tank. ugh. After 7+ years of remodeling and renovation on our house I have so much empathy for those things that go wrong - and if only they would've been done right in the first place!! arrghh. I just try to remind myself when that happens that it's just a "thing" that's gone wrong - all the people I love are happy and healthy...it makes the "thing gone wrong" seem to shrink. But still, if you are without heat and water - that's uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteI do hope it's all fixed really quickly and you can get back to normal at your house.
Love the applique! I can see that soon I will have to do some hand-stitching of some sort....have never done much of that. But the look is so different from machine stitching - and both together will be lovely on that piece.
Cleta
Oh Linda - that is just awful ... poor you. I had a flood many years ago just before Christmas and we had to sort of hobble Christmas together around de-humidifiers and workmen - it was actually one of the best Christmases I remember, the sort of Blitz spirit! Lovely new paints help too and I love the combibation of watercolour and gouache. Thoses canvases are looking gorgeous ... are they all comijng to the needle museum?! - Hilary x (realy really hoping I can get this to post!)
ReplyDeleteLinda, boilers, well, say no more. I still feel very strange when I think about the hellish cock up when we had a new boiler fitted. Like yours, the situation was populated by some workmen who seemed particularly unsuited to their chosen career. And it's broken down twice since. The ancient boiler we were advised to have taken out was a much sturdier chap. Love the birds though. Steph x
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the commiserations. I could write a book about the last couple of weeks - I haven't told you the half of it and I promise not to be a boiler bore so you may never know. (Unless I do write the book that is!!). Suffice it to say we expect more men to arrive at 8 in the morning and the saga will continue. It's my turn to feed the tribe this Christmas - I have issued a warning that thermal underwear and gloves may be required.
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