So, near to us is Bristols Wood Recycling Project from where we endeavour to obtain lots of wood. It’s not really a hardship as it is, for the most part, incredibly cheap. And we like using reclaimed timber. They have some lovely cupboard doors in at the moment, from a science lab. Sadly not enough to make a kitchen.
They also will cut and plane wood for you, although they don’t make any furniture…yet. Although that’s apparently something they’re working on. Anyhow, we wanted a bench for the kitchen, as I might have mentioned. I incorrectly referred to it as glulam, it’s actually laminated strand board. Now, we have, sort-of got the facilities to cut this. Namely, we have a saw. However a big chunk of timber like this, well, it’s going to take a while to cut and cutting it straight would tax my feeble timber skills. Especially given the absence of a workbench, or anything like that.
Anyhow, they cut it down for us. We, however, get the joy of sanding it so I suspect what we’ve saved in buying it as reclaimed timber may well get used as sand-paper purchase funds.
But, having lugged it out of the minor, I couldn’t wait to get a feel for how it’ll look. It’ll be going in the alcove where the kitchen currently is… but the fridge is there at the moment, and also, we’ll be having lots of work done in there. So instead, I stuck it against one of the few completely finished walls (apart from the bonding/filling) in the lounge:
While I like the finish you get on the top:
It’s the edges I really get quite excited about:
Also, the end grain. But we’ve not got any bits that are end-grain-y yet. We’d like to make it U shaped, and may well go and buy a bit extra to do so. But we were a bit…well..a bit too nervous to go ahead and buy that much in one go.
I’m given to understand that it will suck up whatever we use to finish it (I’m guessing varnish, so as to quietly fill in the gaps a bit). But ooooh. I’m quite excited to see it now :)
Also, I got my hair cropped. For the first time I tried the clippers – in a unisex barber. It’s weird going to a barber. I’m so used to being gently mollycoddled and my little Indian head massages. Today I got my hair cut, and for the first time in my life someone used a straight razor on me. I’ve never been so still in all my life. A little bit of my brain was screaming: “It’s a knife. On my skin!”. The advantage of this was it only cost a tenner, and my hair looks largely the same as it did after the (half price at) 20 quid hair cut I got last time. And it makes me think, hey, I could use the clippers that we bought, when we uncover them from the storage unit. I mean, I thought we could, but we actually *could*.
Also, I found an espresso machine in Bedminster’s BHF Charity shop… for a fiver. Discounted from ten quid. My mum’s been wanting one for a while, and I’ve wanted one too. I’m going to ‘test’ it until we can take it down to my mums. Yes, it’s probably 2 bar or somesuch. It’s a Russell Hobbs 3335′ thing from the late…80s? It’s got that white plastic and colours thing going…and I remember my parents having one very similar in the early 90s.
While it’s got a couple of bits of dirt on it from age, it actually looks essentially unused. The filter basket looks brand new and peering into the water tank it looks nice and clean. Optimistically, then, I paid a fiver and hopefully will be running it down to my mum’s in a while.
I’m looking forward to buying a nice tamping gidget and a stainless steel pitcher (and thermometer, since I’ve not done this before) when I get my coffee tomorrow.
