tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21754855215054668482012-01-10T23:12:48.710ZFollow the progress of the design and remodelling of our house in East Londonkaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.comBlogger245125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-1587237985220263562012-01-10T23:12:00.000Z2012-01-10T23:12:48.723Z2012-01-10T23:12:48.723Z

The London winter hasn't really eventuated, so maybe we were being a little pessimistic booking a week in Lanzarote. At the time we were motivated by my friend's recent visit which involved tracking down a Famara beach house bungalow, as seen in Broken Embraces, but we'd left it too late as all the good ones were booked out. Plan B was an all inclusive resort, the Costa Colero, which turned out

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-35664978377034463472011-12-22T22:11:00.000Z2011-12-22T22:17:47.821Z2011-12-22T22:17:47.821Z

(Wow that photo is a bit dark - it's taken from upstairs looking into the extension, to show the Christmas lights) This time last year a burglar was settling in for the night somewhere in East London. It's a busy time of year for burglars, with lots of booty up for grabs and merry revellers not being as cautious as they should be. This week we heard of a local policewoman who had her door

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-38624909754010138482011-12-14T22:05:00.001Z2011-12-15T10:29:49.837Z2011-12-15T10:29:49.837Z

Yowser, it's the middle of December yet I still feel in denial about the impending festive season. I blame the weather - this weekend kicked off with slight chill and a massive full moon rising (pictured top) which was visible through the night via our glass roof (yay), or rather it would have been if we were at home instead of raising all kinds of hell at a terrific party (cheers Tubbs! Happy

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-89047425399857626932011-11-30T21:51:00.001Z2011-12-01T10:59:39.615Z2011-12-01T10:59:39.615Z

Procrastinators unite! We finally got the builders round this week to check out our plans with a view to getting a quote. A previous post referred to putting the bathroom into the existing garage, and creating a utility room in the current cloakroom. The builders saw the waste pipe two feet off the ground and said that it was all possible (good) but that there would be cost implications (bad

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-78477174180364917822011-11-15T21:53:00.001Z2011-11-15T22:17:06.452Z2011-11-15T22:17:06.452Z

OK it's not as bad as I thought. For some reason I'd convinced myself we'd been here for four years and I'd put up with the old bathrooms and very limited wardrobe space for a ridiculous length of time. On closer inspection, it's coming up to three years. I had a three-year gap between kids as that was about the right amount of time to forget the horror of popping out a newborn. Renovating is

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-33330279925472323472011-10-25T22:23:00.000+01:002011-11-03T10:05:17.000Z2011-11-03T10:05:17.000Z

Well not really a mecca but I was referring to my last post title. Anyway, in a few days what used to be The Ocean music venue on Mare Street (10 minutes walk from here) is going to open as the brand spanking new Hackney Picturehouse. This is exciting as despite having two large TVs I still enjoy seeing cinematic films at a cinema. 99% sure I'll become a member too as it seems really good

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-60867762949659345442011-10-17T21:35:00.000+01:002011-10-25T22:26:50.937+01:002011-10-25T22:26:50.937+01:00

The most exciting (?) thing to happen in our neck of the woods lately was the opening of Westfield Stratford City. I'm told it's the largest shopping mall in Europe. It's two tube stops from our house and I was a little hesitant as I'm a fan of shopping locally to support independent businesses. Having made a few trips to Westfield for various reasons I'm pleased to say I've spent a similar

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-25164373127078812322011-09-14T13:06:00.003+01:002011-09-14T13:17:24.367+01:002011-09-14T13:17:24.367+01:00

Our downstairs configuration has been a topic of conversation lately. It turns out the current cloakroom isn't big enough for the Roca toilet and sink combo. Rob then had the genius idea of swapping everything around - moving the shower/loo/sink into what was going to be our utility room, and moving the washer and dryer into our current cloakroom (NB cloakroom is what the British call a small

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-39000198015669842062011-09-03T15:01:00.000+01:002011-09-03T15:18:47.132+01:002011-09-03T15:18:47.132+01:00

Ah surfaces - how I love thee. In addition to de-junking the spare room last month, I also made us of the extra storage provided by our new sideboard to clear away the various piles of stuff. Amazing how many unread bits of mail, magazines and debris just accumulate and if you leave them long enough, they turn out to be irrelevant and can be chucked. The trick is to biff the kid's creations

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-56194341669842565342011-08-22T18:55:00.001+01:002011-08-23T11:29:22.749+01:002011-08-23T11:29:22.749+01:00

The mid-century fixation continues as we're enjoying more space. Our wider than normal hall which leads to the spare room now houses the retro bar (pictured top). And we finally hung the teak mirror I bought 18 months ago on eBay (pictured below). The middle floor now feels like a shrine to G-Plan with the mirror, sideboard, bar and coffee table. Having this stuff in place makes the room feel

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-28689734033780317922011-08-15T21:43:00.004+01:002011-08-15T21:52:01.555+01:002011-08-15T21:52:01.555+01:00

It's the imminent arrival of certain guests that suddenly propel action in our house. For nearly three years we've ignored the piles of boxes in the spare room. Each one labelled 'office' or 'books' so hardly exciting enough to warrant invesigation. Rob's parents are arriving this week - at the time of writing they were delayed due to the freak snow storm in Wellington and hadn't made it onto

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-50214115596527780412011-08-11T19:52:00.000+01:002011-08-11T19:56:55.254+01:002011-08-11T19:56:55.254+01:00

The civil unrest and looting in Hackney had a lot of New Zealand friends and family texting and emailing the last couple of days. They had a vision of the whole of East London burning to the ground. Well, these are friends etc who weren't on social media, so I guess it proves that traditional media over there is reporting way behind 'real time' events. As a rampant user of Twitter I felt as

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-83041228594567505932011-07-26T21:33:00.003+01:002011-07-26T21:39:36.404+01:002011-07-26T21:39:36.404+01:00

I have this afflication now where I can't handle having my nails au naturale - it's been 2.5 years of regular mani/pedis and a lot of experimentation with new products to get the maximum wear for minimum stress/committment. The latest discovery was a gel nail product called Gellac - unfortunately it didn't last beyond a week so I'll be back to Bio-Gels (which last for up to 3 weeks and take 75

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-9887742671170571872011-07-13T17:32:00.001+01:002011-07-13T17:33:57.470+01:002011-07-13T17:33:57.470+01:00

The Polish builders were doing some work next door and popped over to look at our downstairs configuration. We showed them the garage and explained how we'd like to turn it into a store room and separate utility room, and then tart up the downstairs loo. We haven't gotten a proper quote back as we don't know exactly what we want but now that the ball is rolling I feel a second wind coming on. The

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-7943276187631263462011-06-25T21:32:00.005+01:002011-07-13T17:36:25.826+01:002011-07-13T17:36:25.826+01:00

A friend came over with a Lomo camera recently and took some great shots, including this one of the kids baking a cake. I've been dabbling on Instagram using my iPod Touch and it's ignited a habit of documenting my days with banal photos. For years we've used a Canon Ixus digital camera to take snaps of the kids and holidays but lately it's become sluggish and unresponsive and the photos just

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-23428335866664967032011-06-20T14:50:00.006+01:002011-06-20T15:10:24.781+01:002011-06-20T15:10:24.781+01:00

I had some great feedback about owning a dog on my Facebook page, mostly from friends who are dog owners. It has definitely put me off: Everything from the cost of replacing damaged furniture to hiring dog walkers and finding time to take it to the vet, through to some of the more colourful medical conditions they get (swollen anal glands, anyone?)I bought Marlo a life-size Dalmation for her

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-49397232268114960182011-05-26T16:23:00.003+01:002011-05-26T16:34:08.663+01:002011-05-26T16:34:08.663+01:00

We got the official letter from MoreThan rejecting our insurance claim. No idea why it takes so long to get correspondence sorted but considering we were burgled almost five months ago it does seem extraordinarily drawn out. Anyway, their explanation was that they considered the burglary a "walk in". I wrote back explaining that coming down a private road to the last house, scaling a high (locked

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-84906896486441370172011-05-06T22:57:00.003+01:002011-05-06T23:14:53.354+01:002011-05-06T23:14:53.354+01:00

Thanks to the unseasonably warm weather we've been enjoying in the UK lately, we've been running a fan in our bedroom at night to circulate the air. It's kind of noisy, even when on low and after seeing a Dyson Air Multiplyer in action a few months ago we'd been fixated on getting one. The Dyson was shortlisted for a People's Choice Award as part of Wallpaper's annual Design Awards last year

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-31140182558258435072011-04-26T17:17:00.004+01:002011-04-26T17:29:52.019+01:002011-04-26T17:29:52.019+01:00

April in Southern England usually doesn't get warmer than the high teens (that's celcius kids) so you can imagine how delicious it's been the last two sun-saturated weekends with the temperature going as high as 27 degrees. It's like June, in Spain. The Bluebells were out two weeks early in the Ashdown Forest in Sussex (Winnie the Pooh territory FYI) and back in London the view in all directions

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-23947874730623807742011-04-09T19:05:00.000+01:002011-04-11T14:17:50.557+01:002011-04-11T14:17:50.557+01:00

Many years ago I worked in radio doing studio work and occasionally outside broadcasts, as well as the live sound for bands. I could work a mixing desk, EQ a room and know how to mic up an orchestra. You'd think I'd be more militant about audio quality. Alas, it took a visit from a friend who records bands for a living to point out how bad it was that one of my speakers resides on the floor. I

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-6505846016384872532011-03-28T19:56:00.004+01:002011-03-28T20:07:35.248+01:002011-03-28T20:07:35.248+01:00

Not much to report on the house at the moment, hence the lack of updates. The insurance company is waiting for the Hackney Police to supply the files on our break in so they can make a decision. In the meantime we've gone a bit OCD checking that the doors are locked before going to sleep.Last month we went to stay with our next door neighbours in Singapore. They moved over there a year ago with a

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-927989301260269452011-03-07T21:00:00.003Z2011-03-07T21:23:32.733Z2011-03-07T21:23:32.733Z

It's been nearly three months since we got burgled and two months since the assessor started his investigation. A few weeks ago he asked for permission to access our file with the Police. I rang the detective who came round the day of the burglary to see what our file actually said. He read through it while I was on the phone, and told me that he personally could pick a five-pin tumbler lock in

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-42690937498931263172011-02-17T00:24:00.000Z2011-02-17T00:24:53.719Z2011-02-17T00:24:53.719Z

My friend Colleen is a cracking DJ, producer, musician, re-mixer who goes by the name DJ Cosmo. She's especially awesome because she lives in East London and is a mum, too. The reason I mention her is that she's campaigning to make people listen to music properly - ie: a full album from beginning to end, on vinyl, with no distractions at a monthly session called Classic Album Sundays. I must

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-1551442623352268712011-02-08T18:44:00.007Z2011-02-11T16:52:58.063Z2011-02-11T16:52:58.063Z

This story is rather boring but if it stops one person from being ripped off, I'll feel vindicated in sharing my woe. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that we'd paid 8-9 years worth of insurance premiums on an Indesit washer dryer that resides in our rental property. Two months ago it broke down and after numerous visits, piles of parts and I estimate something in the region of 4-5 hours wasted

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2175485521505466848.post-32951753387562700482011-02-01T22:20:00.000Z2011-02-01T22:21:36.641Z2011-02-01T22:21:36.641Z

A couple of months ago I went the Vintage Furniture Flea fair at York Hall, just down the road from where we live. I didn't buy any furniture, despite finding a coffee table which looked similar - if not almost exactly the same - as the one pictured. It was £75 and I thought that it was a silly purchase given that we had a perfectly functioning coffee table. I regretted it though as the perspex

kaybar007http://www.blogger.com/profile/12943206087089837894noreply@blogger.com5