Some finishing touches

Our apartment refresh reached another milestone this week. After week of searching and driving all over Sydney we’ve found the perfect outdoor furniture for our main balcony. Even better, we took advantage of the end-of-Summer sales, and saved thousands. Our shopping spree has netted us an outdoor dining suite, an outdoor lounge suite and enormous BBQ. With luck it’ll be delivered by early-April.


Our dining suite was floor stock used to shoot photographs for next season’s catalogue. It’s delivered next week. We’ve been promised a catalogue when it comes back from the printer. However, you can see last season’s range in white, above. Our table is the same style but has a light tan frame with charcoal coloured slats. The chairs also have a tan frame with white fabric. We’ve bought the six-seat version. To give us additional seating capacity we’ve also ordered a smaller two-seat version. It will live on our bedroom balcony and move any time we need additional table space on the main balcony.


The lounge suite we’ve bought looks identical to the one you see above. The cushions are covered in the same chocolate brown tone but we’ve bought a sofa, two armchairs and a coffee table that doubles as a sun lounger. It was marked down 25% but we managed to get delivery and scatter cushions thrown in for free. We’ve been promised delivery by April 7. The frame is constructed from artificial wicker and aluminum so it should survive life on our balcony without problems.


The new BBQ is Garry’s pride and joy. It was floor stock and the last in the store. We got it for a bargain and talked the store into throwing in a filled gas cylinder. Garry then decided we could save the delivery charge if we partially dissembled it and carefully fitted the pieces into our tiny rental car. After several attempts we finally managed to squeeze it into the car with millimeters to spare. I still marvel at this feat as it has to be the largest BBQ I’ve never set eyes on. Needless to say Garry’s fired it up at least twice since we got it home.


Finally, inside the apartment I’ve been spending my evenings working on the new staircase joinery in our entrance lobby. Unfortunately the custom woodwork I ordered was poorly installed. I arrived home one evening to a scene that almost made my blood boil; two immaculately crafted joinery pieces had been literally butchered by crude saw cuts and other unsightly flaws. Repairing the damage involved a ten-day remedial project. I meticulously prepared paper templates, cut and glued new sections and finally painted the entire ensemble. The result is now much like the image I’d been carrying in my head.

I almost forgot to add that we've successfully secured the services of a cleaner. Incredibly the cleaning lady we had five years ago was still available. She'd even kept the same mobile phone number. Juilet was thrilled to hear from us and immediately made herself available to clean and iron once a week. She's easily the most efficient, thorough cleaner I've witnessed. Life in Australia is definitely falling back into the same familiar rhythm.