Oh, and as an extra special treat, here is a video recording I made up on Monte Baldo so that you can hear the cow bells. It was like being an extra in a 'Heidi' Production! :o)
Yes, I'm back home again after a fabulous holiday with perfect weather, scenery and relaxing time by the pool. The photo above is actually the view from the balcony of my hotel room towards Limone sul Garda. The hotel was built from an old Limonaia (Lemon farm) which sounds very romantic, but the hotel was quite old fashioned (think 60's/70's style decor) but that what's you get for a cheap last minute deal. The other downside was that in order to get these amazing views, you can imagine the steepness of the hill we had to climb to reach the hotel! It was virtually a vertical climb, and you can imagine what that must have felt like in temperatures in the mid 30's! Of course, with all the swimming I was doing as well as the walking, I have lost a bit of weight to go with my light golden tan! :o)
Here's a picture of the hotel taken from a boat trip we took to Riva del Garda, note the still working Limonaia just beneath the hotel, the pillars are used to support Glass panels to protect the Lemon trees from the cold during the Winter :
I took loads more photos which I will post over the next few nights - Verona deserves a posting all of it's own, it was an amazing place. It was like stepping back several hundred years. Just a day there was not enough, so I'd love to book another trip for a weekend to spend more time there. I'll group the photos into places that we visited. First up will be Limone sul Garda which is where we were staying.
Oh, and by the way, my Laser eye surgery was done last Friday and was a tremendous success - it doesn't feel like I've had anything done at all and at my post-operative check the optician said that I have better than 20/20 vision and that I can take up flying jets any time I like - now there's a thought, maybe I should be booking flying lessons....
By the time that you read this, I'll be on my way to Italia. This time it's for pure pleasure rather than anything work related. I'm staying at Limone sul Garda (picture above) which is a town at the top of Lake Garda surrounded by mountains. Whilst I am there, I am also going to try to make sure that I also visit the city of Verona which is fairly close by and which looks beautiful from the pictures that I have seen. It's still full of gorgeous looking, ancient buildings. I could also try getting to Venice too, but I've been there three times already, so I may not try too hard. The weather has been pretty bad in that part of Italy for the last few weeks, but it looks as though it is improving just in time for my trip.
When I return, hopefully more work will have been done to my bathroom as the toilet is being delivered this coming Friday and hopefully a replacement bath won't be far behind it. Oh, and I'm also booked in to have Laser Eye surgery when I get back too. Help!
Well as you can see the floor has now been partially laid but not grouted. That is happening tomorow. It sounds as though I'll be getting the new toilet quite quickly too, however I'm beginning to get suspicious about my Contractor and the damaged Bath. I'd begun to have my doubts at the weekend as I really couldn't understand why anyone would plumb in a damaged bath, even if it was to: 'make sure that I had a bath to use' - OK I get that, but why on earth tile it in too?
Anyway, I spoke to the Bathroom company today and they have requested that I take a photo of the damage to send to them before they will agree to replace it. I had not until now, seen the damage until tonight as my contractor had taped over it to 'stop the bath from leaking' . When I told him this evening that the Bathroom company was insisting on the photograph, he started laying it on thick, talking about poor customer service and that I had to 'stand my ground' - normally this would not have aroused my suspicion, but he kept going on about it and you know what they say about people who labour a point! To add to my suspicion, he'd also asked that I pay him the money that he owed to the Plumber and the Electrician as soon as possible - I'm now convinced that this was in case I decided to withold money to cover the cost of a replacement bath and he didn't want to wreck his relationship with his sub-contractors.
Anyway, I took off the tape to take the photo's tonight and it's absolutely clear to me that the damage was caused by a tile being dropped on the bath after it was plumbed in, the hole even has the red dust from the back of the tiles in it! Why on earth would someone tile round a bath like this if the damage was already there and clearly visible? It makes no sense!!!
I'll keep you posted on developments - I've left my contractor a note for the morning to say that I think the only way I can photograph the bath and make it look convincing is if it's removed, cleaned up to the point where it' looks like it was never plumbed in, and then photograph it somewhere like in the garden or in my living room. There's no way I'm paying for another bath when I did not damage it, and so if the Photo doesn't get accepted, then I will be witholding the cost of the bath from the final payment to the Contractor.
Well, as you can see, I'm now back in Scotland and this was the sight that greeted me on my return - a half finished bathroom. The Bath is not yet fully installed because it has to be returned to the Manufacturers as it is damaged and the plumber has had to re-plumb in my old toilet because the new one leaks. So this is the chaos that I am going to have to live with for a while.
The floor is covered in cardboard to protect the underfloor heating cables which have been laid. However, this should improve tomorrow as my contractor is coming back to start laying the floor tiles up to just in front of the toilet. He can't lay them any further until the new toilet is installed. In fact, this is the last job that he can do until the replacement bath and toilet arrive. What is a success however, are the tiles and the new inset Power Shower. They look great! Just what I was looking for as the tiles have the look of Travertine without the huge cost, the contractor likes them so much that he's decided to get them for his own bathroom! Having the shower inset into the wall also looks very luxurious, just like the hotels I have got used to living in during my many work travels! The shower is pretty powerful, which is just what I was wanting, the only downside is the pump, which they have had to install under the bath (see picture below) . It is very noisy at the moment, but hopefully when the bath is boxed in the noise level will be reduced - at least I hope it will!
The new sink unit is a complete success too. I ordered one which was fractionally narrower than the old one which means we don't have to cut it into the bath like the old one had been! It's always hard to visualise something when you are ordering it from a brochure, but this definitely turned out better than expected!
The bathroom walls will be painted white to make it as bright as possible. When I got home Saturday the first thing I thought was that the old light fitting (which is actually quite new) lets the new bathroom down and that really inset halogen spotlights would be a much better solution. My contractor laughed when I told him this today because aparantly both the plumber and the electrician both said the exact same thing! So he's getting the electrician to quote me for that too. I think it will make a big difference so I'm willing to pay the extra. Can't wait until the bathroom is fully complete!
Just a short post to share a few photos that I took on Memorial Day in Austin. I'm here in Texas on a work assignment. The city was very quiet as it was a Public Holiday but I took a walk around the city which included a walk around the State Capitol and the surrounding area.
There were lots of squirrels in the grounds of the State Capitol, but this little fella was a real little poser. He and I had a great conversation and definitely made a connection. He therefore let me photograph him and get very close to him. At one point he almost ran up to me when I was kneeling down taking photographs, but then he suddenly thought better of it, and turned tail and ran back. I seem to have this effect on small, furry animals: - cats, otters, koalas, baby kangaroos and now squirrels it seems, all seem to sense that I mean no harm and will approach me without fear.
Will share more photos when I have time.....
Not very pretty is it....this is a picture of my bathroom the day before it starts to be ripped out and replaced. As you can see, I've already started pulling up the floor, I've also attempted to start taking off some of the tiles, however, it took me 15 minutes just to get one tile off and it ripped out a chunk of the wall, so I'm leaving that to the experts. Anyway, hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be posting a picture of a finished bathroom, complete with new white suite (instead of peach) power shower, underfloor heating and beautiful new tiles!
Anna Corba: Instant Memories: Travel: Ready-to-Use Scrapbook Pages (Instant Memories)
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Suzanne Simanaitis: Kaleidoscope: Ideas And Projects to Spark Your Creativity
Read my review of this book before you buy! ;o) (*)
Tricia Guild: Tricia Guild Pattern: Using Pattern to Create Sophisticated, Show-stopping Interiors
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Kathryn Bold: True Colors
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