On Monday I was scrolling through some Brussels For Sale items on Facebook and just about jumped out of my skin when I saw a large buffet from around 1920 that had a marble top made from pretty clearly the exact same marble as our fireplace... marble which I was assured at the supplier was no longer being quarried, and so was no longer available. The two other pieces that we already purchased on speculation could be renovated or used as is, but when I saw this one, whose marble top was 5cm wider than the one we had settled on, and 5cm deeper - which means a more protected floor when the woodstove was open - I pounced.
Maggie is really very much pleased, and so am I. Unfortunately the scheduled installation of the woodstove will be delayed a bit. I've often said, "Soon is a long time in Belgium" and in my experience nothing ever gets done here on schedule. If I was a project manager here I am sure that I would have a stroke from the frustration level I would experience, as it is almost impossible to plan anything with any degree of accuracy. For example, in the home renovation or repair field it is almost impossible to get workers to call you back. It's like they don't want your money or something!
Maggie is really very much pleased, and so am I. Unfortunately the scheduled installation of the woodstove will be delayed a bit. I've often said, "Soon is a long time in Belgium" and in my experience nothing ever gets done here on schedule. If I was a project manager here I am sure that I would have a stroke from the frustration level I would experience, as it is almost impossible to plan anything with any degree of accuracy. For example, in the home renovation or repair field it is almost impossible to get workers to call you back. It's like they don't want your money or something!
It turns out that the woodstove installer wants to wait for the chimney liner guy, and the chimney liner guy felt that the roof tiles were really fragile, and - kudos to him - didn't want to damage them while doing his work, especially in wet weather, so when he heard that the roof was getting replaced, he wanted to coördinate his chimney repair with the roofer, so I had to have a big conversation (of course they all only speak french) on the telephone to arrange that. It would seem therefore that the stove installation, and the roofing replacement and insulation and chimney repair has been pushed back by at least a week, to the second week of November.
This is actually not a bad thing as it means that I can spend the week of Toussaint with Malcolm here, while Duncan and Maggie are away, demolishing everything that is presently in the attic. We have the time to break it all out and really take stock of how it should all be rebuilt. Perhaps I have the time as well to do some carpentry work up there to build the false ceiling that I am planning, at around the 3m height. In the event that we can track down a furnace/boiler/plumbing installer (we've been trying for a while) there is the chance that we will install a high efficiency condensation boiler to handle the water for the radiators as well as the water for washing, and those are most effectively installed in the attic. More on that later...
This is actually not a bad thing as it means that I can spend the week of Toussaint with Malcolm here, while Duncan and Maggie are away, demolishing everything that is presently in the attic. We have the time to break it all out and really take stock of how it should all be rebuilt. Perhaps I have the time as well to do some carpentry work up there to build the false ceiling that I am planning, at around the 3m height. In the event that we can track down a furnace/boiler/plumbing installer (we've been trying for a while) there is the chance that we will install a high efficiency condensation boiler to handle the water for the radiators as well as the water for washing, and those are most effectively installed in the attic. More on that later...
Some more deco updates: we realised that the sconce lights that are in the house now were most likely part of a Brico come-on, dating from around the year 1995 or so. They house those long thin halogen tubes, and while they are very bright, they don't to our mind match the age of the house. So I've been doing a little ebay shopping, and for much less than new light fixtures have managed to find a few fixtures that I'll be installing over the next little while. Here are some photos:
I have one other item arriving as well, but I am thinking that these will do very nicely. We have three sconce sockets in the living room, plus two or three in the front hall, two in the stairwell, and two on the archway into the dining room. It's going to be fun searching for the right fixtures for each spot.
Malcolm was home on the weekend and so we were lucky to have his help loading and unloading firewood. We had a lot to stack: I found someone about 90 km away from us who was interested in selling 30 cubic metres of dry split firewood, for the ridiculous price of 40 EUR per cubic metre. That compares to between 68 EUR per cubic metre (our best-ever price) and 120 EUR at the Brico, so we contacted them immediately. They even threw in three cubic metres of wood for free if we agreed to take the lot; apparently the family switched to a pellet stove and want it gone, which is good news for us. We have only the one woodstove (coming soon!) and our outdoor fire pit, but the Hammers are planning on doing most of their heating with wood, so it's clear that a cheap supply is an asset.
However we had the problem of transport to consider. I reserved a dumping trailer but when we went to get it, they told us that we needed a special licence, something which they had neither made clear on their website nor on the telephone. So instead we made do with Bryan's trailer, improvising some side rails with pallets. In the end we managed to move around 3.5 cubic metres of dry firewood. We've found someone local who can drop off a container for the rest, at a cost that still leaves us with a considerably lower price than any other we've found; the vendors will load it up with the neighbour's tractor and then it can be dumped out at Bryan and Kiana's for us to stack up at leisure. We can probably accommodate about five cubic metres here, and Bryan and Kiana are ok with us taking more as we need it.
Sunday we pretty much kept to ourselves. Maggie wanted to show me the running route she discovered very close to our house, so we walked up the hill to the cimetière de Wavre on our way, and stopped in to see the Commonwealth graves.
Sunday we pretty much kept to ourselves. Maggie wanted to show me the running route she discovered very close to our house, so we walked up the hill to the cimetière de Wavre on our way, and stopped in to see the Commonwealth graves.
Anywhere you go in our part of Belgium you will see these little green signs indicating that one or more commonwealth soldiers died here, a century ago. In our case, the cemetary holds seven gravestones, three of them Canadians; two from the UK, and two graves for people who could not be identified. They are at the back wall of the cemetary, perhaps 500 metres from our house. I am sure that it would have been well out of the limits of the town, back in 1917 when they were buried.
The First World War is all around us at all times here in Belgium, as is the second to a slightly lesser degree. That's one reason that I'm really excited about some news I just received from the Canadian Embassy...
As I have written before, I've been honoured to sing the Belgian, Canadian, and recently the Luxembourgish national anthems at Canadian functions here in Belgium. During the Luxembourg celebration of Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation I mentioned to a consular staff member that I would be honoured to contribute something to the commemorations of the battle of Passchendaele. The Canadian contribution to that protracted and horrific engagement ended on November 10th, 1917, with a victory, and a horrible cost.
The Embassy has asked if I will sing "Danny Boy" and "I'm Dreaming of Home", two songs which were well known to Canadian Corps soldiers, and allegedly sung by them often in the trenches. As well there is a concert in the church of Passchendaele that is still being planned but I have signalled my willingness to participate as well. More on this later...
The Embassy has asked if I will sing "Danny Boy" and "I'm Dreaming of Home", two songs which were well known to Canadian Corps soldiers, and allegedly sung by them often in the trenches. As well there is a concert in the church of Passchendaele that is still being planned but I have signalled my willingness to participate as well. More on this later...
But back to the Belgium of today, and the concerns of the household: we realised last weekend that as Duncan leaves for Montreal and then Orlando on Thursday, and Maggie leaves for Skootamatta on Saturday, and Malcolm will be at school all week, there would be little chance to have dinner together after Sunday. So we made a heroic indian meal, with my grandmother's chicken curry, mustard garlic chili beans, spinach and chickpeas, basmati rice and pappadums to set everyone up for the week. Malcolm even contributed a mixed berry pie, with his own short crust lattice top. A real craftsman...
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