Through exhaustive research (…watching a lot of episodes of Restoration Man is exhausting, really!), we discovered that there is an ancient tradition of hiding shoes in the walls of buildings. In fact, if you find them during a renovation of your old property, you can be listed on the Registry of Concealed Shoes. Ha. Concealed shoes sounds like something the TSA thoroughly screens for in airports these days, yes? Or the police…”Ma’m, are you carrying any concealed weapons or loafers?” “Ahhhh I can explain….I have a permit for those Manolo Blahniks!”
I tried to find an image of a concealed shoe. None of them were safe for work. So here’s a dog that ate a rubber ducky instead.
But apparently this is a thing.
It’s thought to have begun as a slightly less creepy/insane alternative to the even older tradition of placing a HUMAN SACRIFICE in the foundations of a building and is meant to mean less of the bad voodoo, and more of the happy happy joy joys. And….oh crap, I’ve just read further into Wiki, and apparently it’s also linked with fertility. Feck.
(Although, I am so excited to think now that someone might find this blog by googling “human sacrifice”.)
ANYWAY.
I happened to mention the ghostly completely-rational-explanation-for-them-I’m-sure footprints to my mother. “Oooh, ooh!” exclaims she. “I was watching ‘Restoration Man’, ooh ain’t that George Clarke loverly, ” (I am not sure why my mother has become an elderly Cockney woman in this retelling), “and blah blah blah CONCEALMENT SHOES. Maybe you have a little barefoot girly ghosty who wants a pair of shoes?”
What Alice wants, Alice gets.
Yup, a pair of Pugsley’s old shoes have been builtinto the wall behind the fireplace. You can thank me later, person who renovates the cinema again in another 50 years and gets to make it onto the Registry of Concealed Shoes.
And the thing that allowed all this to happen?
Why, it’s the Escea Dx1500!
That’d be the new fire. Which is even more super exciting and picturesque from the rear side….
Yup, it has shiny space tubes.
After much consultation with Jason from the Wellington Fireplace Company (ahem, discount for mentioning you on the blog? Read by …um… at least 10 people every year!), we went with this gas-powered baby. I’d originally wanted this closed woodburner, given how I like the smell and atmosphere and general, oh, REALITY! of a real wood fire –
Stovax Riva Studio 3
But although it passed the Wellington City Council approval, for some reason the regional council wouldn’t approve it (despite it being super clean air rated overseas. Because, what do countries like Sweden and Denmark know about environmental consciousness, pah.)
So the Escea it was, partly because those super shiny space tubes actually lead to a central heating system, so the fire warms other rooms too. Mor Heating for the win! Also because it has the ability to duct horizontally out of the side of the building. Which means our DJ booth above the fire remains intact!
DJ booth on the left. Oh yeah. Can you hear the “oonst oonst” .
And according to the interweb, it should look really smashing one day.
Just like this. Except – without the lake. Or the mountains. Or the Eames recliner. But otherwise, JUST LIKE THIS.
Things are happening so quickly on-site now, it’s really more than I and my pathetic pace of blog writing/brace o’sick children can keep up with. But what else is the haps?
Not sure if you recall our mess of a ceiling?
Ignore the man holding the light. Concentrate instead on the holes, patches, and general horror that is the ceiling.
This ceiling has driven Midge mad, and he eventually talked Dom and me into letting Andrew the Wonder Plasterer have his wicked way with it.
Which first involved Dom placing 5000 (yes, literally 5000) screws, to hold all of the individual tiles firmly in place.
The elusive Dom is easier to photograph when trapped on a scaffold tower
Someone has however now got the idea that they too can climb up tall towers. That cat is going to get one hell of a shock if she has a screwdriver.
And now plastering is proceeding, and I have to admit, it is going to look amazing.
Right side, same old grottiness. Left side is plaster as smooth as a baby’s bottom. Trust me, I have compared it to one.
And speaking of plastering – and babies – Newbie’s room is officially the first room plastered, windows fitted, electricals a-go-go, and ready to paint.
That deserves a smily face.