Finally Coming Home
Jun. 12th, 2005 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_clangerAt last, I'm actually living at home. In the house that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bugshaw and I bought more than eighteen months ago, but which until now I only really saw at weekends. On Friday though, I finished handing over my job down at Bordon, packed the last of my stuff into the car and drove back to Cambridge happy in the knowledge that this time I wouldn't be heading back again come Sunday.
Now of course I'm faced with a pile of boxes and bags to unpack, to add to the existing boxes that have been shunted around the house but not actually delved into since we got here. But, now that I'm moved back in, it's time to get started with actually sorting the place out. In part we've delayed this because it seemed better to wait until we had all out stuff in one place, but for the most part it's been because I've been wanting to use my time at home to have fun with B rather than just paint, or put up shelves, or remodel the garden... No excuse now, however, so on we go with the project to make the house look like we moved in more than six weeks ago.
As part of the kick-off process for this we thought we could do with some external inspiration for our house ideas, so headed off yesterday to the Grand Designs exhibition at London Excel. (This involved a trip on the DLR, which for me is pretty much sufficient motivation in its own right). After a nice tapas lunch in an on-site restaurant it was off down a rather terrifying long pink corridor into a central foyer illuminated by a vast chandelier of... translucent yellow screwdrivers! Centred on the foyer were four exhibition halls: interiors, kitchen and bathroom, garden and self-build. We didn't bother with the latter (bit late for us) but spent much of the afternoon touring the others. Our main interest was the interiors hall, but we did have a wander around the gardens area as we do want to make ours look a bit more interesting than the current flat rectangle of rather mangy grass. As for kitchens and bathrooms, well, we're not planning any immediate changes in those departments, but who can resist appliance porn?
A few highlights from our browse:
- The Colourscape exhibition, a series of linked fabric pods creating a mesh of colour-suffused spaces to walk through or sit in. Unusual and a bit more dramatic than you'd go for in terms of interior design, but it does give you a quick and intense dose of how colours affect your mood. The deep sky blue pod in particular I found quite an experience; intense yet at the same time oddly calming. By playing around with the night-mode setting on the digicam I managed a few pictures that caught some of the atmosphere.
- The Omlet Eglu. It's an early-model iMac for chickens! Also available for bunnies. Asbugshaw noted, this is a triumph of marketing: it is aimed not at people who already have or want chickens, but rather at those who've never imagined keeping them but look at the Eglu and think "that's so cool..."
- Various artists or arts groups, including glasswork (and more), custom carpets, textile art, wood panelling, custom prints, cool signs and metal sculpture. The last in particular very tickled our fancy, especially the steel cheese plants on display.
Before too long our heads were bulging with ideas, and more to the point my leg was getting rather too painful to walk on much longer. I managed to kick a wardrobe corner a couple of days ago and whilst it now seems I didn't break any toes or foot-bones, I ended up walking awkwardly enough that I've now developed a painful shin strain in addition to a quite impressive contusion. Nonetheless we made it home OK, albeit weighed down by a small mountain of interior design blurb.
Onward to neat-looking house! But first, time to tidy up a bit...
MC
bugshaw and I bought more than eighteen months ago, but which until now I only really saw at weekends. On Friday though, I finished handing over my job down at Bordon, packed the last of my stuff into the car and drove back to Cambridge happy in the knowledge that this time I wouldn't be heading back again come Sunday.Now of course I'm faced with a pile of boxes and bags to unpack, to add to the existing boxes that have been shunted around the house but not actually delved into since we got here. But, now that I'm moved back in, it's time to get started with actually sorting the place out. In part we've delayed this because it seemed better to wait until we had all out stuff in one place, but for the most part it's been because I've been wanting to use my time at home to have fun with B rather than just paint, or put up shelves, or remodel the garden... No excuse now, however, so on we go with the project to make the house look like we moved in more than six weeks ago.
As part of the kick-off process for this we thought we could do with some external inspiration for our house ideas, so headed off yesterday to the Grand Designs exhibition at London Excel. (This involved a trip on the DLR, which for me is pretty much sufficient motivation in its own right). After a nice tapas lunch in an on-site restaurant it was off down a rather terrifying long pink corridor into a central foyer illuminated by a vast chandelier of... translucent yellow screwdrivers! Centred on the foyer were four exhibition halls: interiors, kitchen and bathroom, garden and self-build. We didn't bother with the latter (bit late for us) but spent much of the afternoon touring the others. Our main interest was the interiors hall, but we did have a wander around the gardens area as we do want to make ours look a bit more interesting than the current flat rectangle of rather mangy grass. As for kitchens and bathrooms, well, we're not planning any immediate changes in those departments, but who can resist appliance porn?
A few highlights from our browse:
- The Colourscape exhibition, a series of linked fabric pods creating a mesh of colour-suffused spaces to walk through or sit in. Unusual and a bit more dramatic than you'd go for in terms of interior design, but it does give you a quick and intense dose of how colours affect your mood. The deep sky blue pod in particular I found quite an experience; intense yet at the same time oddly calming. By playing around with the night-mode setting on the digicam I managed a few pictures that caught some of the atmosphere.
- The Omlet Eglu. It's an early-model iMac for chickens! Also available for bunnies. As
bugshaw noted, this is a triumph of marketing: it is aimed not at people who already have or want chickens, but rather at those who've never imagined keeping them but look at the Eglu and think "that's so cool..."- Various artists or arts groups, including glasswork (and more), custom carpets, textile art, wood panelling, custom prints, cool signs and metal sculpture. The last in particular very tickled our fancy, especially the steel cheese plants on display.
Before too long our heads were bulging with ideas, and more to the point my leg was getting rather too painful to walk on much longer. I managed to kick a wardrobe corner a couple of days ago and whilst it now seems I didn't break any toes or foot-bones, I ended up walking awkwardly enough that I've now developed a painful shin strain in addition to a quite impressive contusion. Nonetheless we made it home OK, albeit weighed down by a small mountain of interior design blurb.
Onward to neat-looking house! But first, time to tidy up a bit...
MC
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Date: 2005-06-12 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-12 08:29 pm (UTC)Welcome to the world of "non-commuting". I'm still trying to get used to it. Today