You’ll be familiar with a special kind of obsession mentioned here before, that of making stuff: the intoxicating possibilities inherent in new tools and the unintended consequences of embarking willy-nilly on projects without adequate forward planning. For this amateur craftsperson, it’s is a long-term thing: from the early days at Hillside Nursery School, Bulawayo, where …
No need for improvisation on the latest Corner Cottage project. Creative juices not required to flow. It’s a pretty bog-standard sand-and-paint, and yet it’s all in service of an upgrade in quality of life as summer leans in on us more and more, bright and hot.Just to rewind a little, let’s think about the kinds …
As your faithful narrator has probably mentioned, the urge to tinker with stuff and maybe dismantle it is a lifetime one, especially when stuff doesn’t work (and dismantling stuff usually guarantees it will never work again). As youths, my group of mates were always building, making, destroying, repurposing and generally getting in where we shouldn’t …
Back into the bathroom this weekend for some DIY, this time the shower in the shed – or ‘studio’ – where I have my office. We noted months ago that the silicone sealant around the junction between wall and floor was mottling with mould, and it seemed like the kind of simple job that’s within …
Isambard Kingdom Brunel -- what an engineer. This bloke didn't design his way into the history books with just one innovation, or even two -- he just kept coming up with bold new material: tunnels, steel ships, suspension bridges. All brilliantly conceived and executed with due consideration of function driving form and such. It would …
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that despite our best efforts, one simple DIY job will generally spawn several more; when this principle is combined with the immutable law that no DIY job is as simple as it first appears, you have a rule or constant that indicates that a man’s work is never done. Worse, the …
It’s been a weekend of bits and bobs and dabbling about at Corner Cottage. No grand designs, no magnificent triumphs, but the satisfaction of getting some niggling tasks out of the way. Let’s call them odd jobs. First up – the bathroom door. Although now freshly painted and boasting a new glass shower screen instead …
You must be logged in to post a comment.