waiting and waiting

The building project is at a complete standstill. My energy and inspiration are wearing thin and I feel trapped. The lousy weather and a debilitating head-cold have not helped to cheer things up. As a person who suffers from complete absence of patience, I find this waiting game intolerable. Let the new year bring on the builders, the light and brighter prospects.

keeping warm

As compensation for not having a kitchen at the moment, I have been watching Nigella Lawson cook up some Christmas goodies, which I will be trying out as soon as I have the new kitchen in March! It is never too late to spoil oneself.

no kitchen for christmas

No wine today, the builder’s gone away

The bottle stands forlorn, a symbol of the hope

No wine today, it seems a common sight

But people passing by don't know the reason why

 How could they know just what this message means

The end of my hopes, the end of all my dreams

How could they know the palace here is planned

Behind the door my kitchen is not manned

 No wine today, it wasn't always so

Manu and team were gay, they’d turn night into day 

 But all that's left is a place dark and lonely

A terraced house in a mean street back of town

Becomes a building site when they aren’t here

Just two up two down….. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClQepFF-Sr0&feature=player_embedded#!

fine dining in style

If it weren't so cold, we could have planned the big christmas lunch in the new dining room. Check the view... spectacular urban construction covered in crispy fresh snow.

hope springs eternal in the human breast

I have had to vasbyt * and swallow my disappointment when Manu told us that the new windows will not be ready till January 12 at the earliest! If setbacks come in sets of three, then we have had the three: blocked sewer, below freezing temperatures (builders cannot work in extreme cold) and now late delivery of windows. As far as I know, Alexander Pope coined the phrase "hope springs eternal in the human breast" in his Essays on Man. We hope, we dream and imagine. In the meantime, we are selling (and sampling!) wine for the season's festivities.

*vasbyt : Afrikaans expression for biting hard or fast when you need to persevere.

getting closer

you may say I am a dreamer

But I am not the only one. Even Manu and my other half can already visualize the new kitchen. And yesterday I met with the kitchen man. There is progress indeed. I fear though that the deepfreeze temperatures will return by the end of the week, in which case everything will come to a grinding halt.  But not my hope that my kitchen and I will be as one. 

Last week was of course the 30^th anniversary of John Lennon’s death; we were all reminded again to imagine.

the joys of a flush

Never take your flushing for granted. Appreciate it. The Nivelles Commune heard our desperate cries and sent some gallant knights in shiny armour, riding on a huge beast of a machine with mechanical snorting rocket engine pipes, suction contraptions and more extravagant pumping devices. They pumped and sucked all day, removing the SS debris from the ancient street sewer. A relief in more ways than one for sure. 

Je vous remercie pour votre dévouement pour nous sauver.

Furthermore, the builders are coming back tomorrow as the deepfreeze is thawing! But the kitchen man did not arrive for our rendezvous, hmmm... this kitchen remains elusive.

neolithic nivelles and fighting SSO

You can’t think underground sewer without thinking history, right? On the left see a corner in the cellar, just so that you understand our fear of SSO. Bear with me while I tackle the history aspect first before I attend to the SSO aspect.

How old is Nivelles? Danubian peoples apparently cleared forests and cultivated fertile soils here starting in 4000 BC. They made pottery and kept domesticated cows, pigs, dogs, goats and sheep. Here we are talking pre-bronze age…The region was gradually turned into agricultural land and then a couple of thousand years later the Romans came along, destroyed everything, built it up again. By now (my understanding anyway) we are apparently talking about the Iron Age….The Roman settlements were destroyed again and built up again by the Germanic invasions if the 3^rd century. How much infrastructure remained we cannot really tell but by the 7th century, the territory was part of the Austrian Frankish kingdom. Modern Nivelles was developed around the abbey founded by St. Gertrude, Pepin of Landen's daughter, in 648.

The main cause of SSO (Sanitary Sewer Overflow) usually stems from serious rainfall or a sewer line blockage. In our case it is because we live downstream from four restaurants, where food solids end up in the municipal sanitary sewer and this sewer is blocked by said debris. “The combined flow of wastewater and stormwater can exceed the capacity of the sewer system ….This circumstance is most prevalent in older cities whose subsurface infrastructure is quite old.” Nivelles is rather old. We know the sewer and our house are about 300 years old, or older in the case of the sewer. Who knows what iron age artifacts lurk there, adding to the debris?

The pictures below show two men struggling with SSO, one in India and one in Nivelles. 

letter to the mayor

Dear Mr. Mayor,

Would you believe that we live right in the centre of your town and we are victims of a total municipal sewer failure? How would you manage if you and your family could not flush a toilet, nor have a shower, nor wash the dishes, nor wash the laundry for nine days? And all this in the middle of freezing temperatures? We have tried to alert your works department already several times and there is nothing they seem to be doing about it. We are in the middle of a major renovation and we find the situation extremely challenging. We are now considering checking into a hotel this afternoon and sending you the bill.

Yours sincerely,

Stek

PS Since the street sewer backup is overflowing into our cellar as I write this, we have taken the liberty of pumping this stuff into the street.

new kitchen floor

The new structural sub floor looks more like a flaw to me. It remains a challenge for the imagination to see the walls with sparkling new kitchen counter. But I have to be positive: at least the general area is already white. Today being a snow-day, there is no school for me. But of course the builders also need the odd snow-day. They have already taken four this week. To keep the minus 6 degree frosty draft from blowing up from the cellar and the ground floor, I hang a curtain over the stairwell. Our two critical off-springs offer advice. Consider yourselves rich and fortunate they say.

If we didn’t have the sewer issue as well, it may have been easier to take up the suggested consideration. The street sewer needs unplugging, as there is a lurking threat in the corner of the cellar, where all my precious cooking tools and technology is stored, patiently awaiting the new kitchen. My other half is going to again see the chaps at the commune this afternoon; he will try and see the very mayor himself. We were promised a clear sewer by last Monday. On the menu tonight? Choucroute garnie with rookworst and smoky bacon. 

winter building woes

Some say that “with due precautions and proper equipment nearly all construction work can be carried on in winter…”  I am not sure if this is true.  Our sturdy team have abandoned site.  This week the world around us turned into a white deepfreeze.  With no form of central heating any more, we hover around a small blow heater in the evenings before and after supper, we double up on duvets and eat well to keep up our strength.  We munch on assorted slow-cooked stews , or gobble fried boudin with butter beans, zucchini and aubergine, all gently tossed around in olive on the hotplate.  We wash things down with smooth peppery shiraz or soft hearty merlot.

dreaming of a white kitchen

I have been looking at new kitchens: minimalistic, sleek, contemporary design marvels that almost intimidate me with their sophistication. I dream about clean clear kitchens, white glorious cooking heavens, empty shiny counter tops by the meter. I wake in a cold sweat. Should it be the glossy white or the soft birch?  My other half reminds me that we cannot order any kitchen (no matter the colour) until the builders have actually built the kitchen and the cement has set. How long can I wait?

  

process

fly ash, slag and aggregate

Manu and his sturdy team are almost ready to pour the first layers of fly ash, slag cement and aggregate mixture, otherwise known as concrete. My sister-in-law Marna asked me tonight if we could not after all host the New Year’s party on January first (it is actually our turn to host this annual event you understand) since the speed at which we are moving, may well deliver a new kitchen by Christmas! 

I am beside myself with the prospect.

high humour, low stress (pour le moment anyway)

Tonight garbanzo bean stew with poached salmon, cooked in slow cooker (on bedroom floor) and hot plate situated on all-purpose ikea table shared by computers, french and dutch dictionaries, glass of beer, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, remote control and spring onions.

demolition almost done

I am not wondering who the electrician will be nor the plumber, the layer of floors nor the general handy-man... It will be my other half!  At this point of the exercise, the other half is holding out very well. Even on this Sunday he is right at the face of the coal.

firewood?

don't know why, but

                       Why am I thinking about William Wharton and his memoir Houseboat on the Seine? It could have to do with the idea of floating or sinking like Wharton’s houseboat. Or it could perhaps have something to do with never-ending renovations. With multiple visits to the hardware store over the years? Most likely with the idea of always choosing the most difficult, most challenging path.

oops, we went into the neighbours kitchen!

Without meaning to be invasive, our builders went right into the kitchen next door! The gourmet sandwich restaurant next door yesterday reported a sudden burst of dust, a cloud of old ash, puffing out from the shared wall. Not a strange event actually in this neck of Nivelles, where we live right beside each other, sharing our heat, mutually supporting our vertical structures. What next? Manu, our entrepreneur, found a reservoir filled with groundwater, the source of which is still a mystery. Could it be from the neighbour on the south?

peeling away the past

Multiple layers have been stripped off, revealing some past owners’ taste for a graceful kitchen interior. It’s a kind of archeological exploration, digging into lost stories of private lives, gone forever. I conjure up images of cooks fretting over coal hobs, scrubbing muddy roots for a tasty pot-au-feu. The kitchen-no-more was built about 70 years ago, simply stuck onto the 300 year-old house. During previous improvements on the ancient part, we found wattle and daub walls, a building method developed thousands of years ago. Latticed strips of wood were bonded together with wet soil, dung and straw; a low-impact building technique appreciated anew during our present move towards eco-friendly construction. 

lingering smoke, dust in the air

The chap who developed thermal underwear was also the guy who designed the first percolating coffee pot. Apparently not only was he into underwear and drinking coffee, he also enhanced the design of the chimney, and all this sometime during the late 1700’s. By restricting the opening of the stack, he enlarged the up-draught, which is supposed to get the smoke up and away into the chimney, rather than leaving the smoke lingering longer in your living area. By now you have guessed that Sir Benjamin Thompson aka Count Rumford was not around when our chimneys were built here at number 19. Tonight I am more than thrilled to report that two of those chimneys have bitten the dust.

how and what to eat when you have no kitchen

Hearty-lentil-stew -- jolly delicious. Someone suggested a slow cooker and yesterday I went off in search of just such a thing. I came home with a Kenwood Mijoteur. All I had to do this morning was place the ingredients in the crock, adjust the cooking time electronically, and set the contraption on the bedroom floor. Voilà, nine hours later after some intensive hard labour, we can feast. Of course, your local friends also spoil you with supper invitations! Bassett update: she had the long walk as promised.

what is happening here, asks the bassett

The dog seems to be more agitated than we are. She is investigating what is left of the back of the house, checking for memories, checking her peemails in the courtyard among the piles of rubble. You are still a lucky bassett, we tell her. You could still have been stuck at Animaux En Peril. We promise you a decent long walk in the forest tomorrow, so that you can frollick and gallavant galore.

unsettling the dog and the pipes, or how to keep sane

The dog howls all night. Our beds were moved too but we don't howl all night. I suppose when a dog sees  her dogbox and dogbed move as well as her dogdoor to the backyard shut for good, she becomes unsettled. Our foodbowls too have moved, I remind her.

But the best unsettling we caused yesterday, was the removal of the old kitchen plumbing! Now let me tell you about that old single kitchen sink. It was never deep enough for a large moules pot, nor ever wide enough for a casserole dish. How did I ever manage all those years? I have to admit that I rejoiced when the thing was violently ripped from the creaky counter, and you can well imagine what lurked below. I am doing lots of cheering on, lots of encouragement when that ten-pound hammer is flung about.You have to keep that smile on your face, I keep reminding my patient husband, who keeps reminding me in return. Christmas is a-coming.

to give an idea....

The antiquated old kitchen had only two electrical outlets on which I had to connect the toaster, the kettle, the combination oven, the microwave oven, the food processor, the blender, the senseo coffee machine, the coffee grinder, the electric grill and the juice-maker. Nevertheless, I was always grateful that I had a kitchen counter on which to balance all these appliances...

a new kitchen for christmas?

The builder says he can do the job in six weeks! Imagine, a new kitchen for Christmas! I am so gullable. Anyway, yesterday we started clearing the old one. I found stuff I never thought I had. Seaweed expired in 2003 already, rancid nutmeg and truffle olive oil, dating back to 98. This is too embarrassing, so let me change the direction I am moving in. While sucking up old dust from behind the kitchen cabinets - cabinets I swore would leave the premises after two weeks of moving in in October 91- I promised myself that my new life will be feng shuied into enviable minimalism.

I have wanted a new kitchen for 18 years....

Now it seems we may be getting closer. We have the building permit! The house is 300 years old; so waiting for almost 2 decades to renovate the kitchen is not long. In fact, we will be gaining more than just a new kitchen. We are creating an entire new section with new open-plan dining area and kitchen upstairs on the first floor while downstairs the wineshop will get its own toilet, kitchenette and walk-out to the courtyard.... we are thinking wine-garden next spring!

The picture shows our wine-shop banner on the front of the house on rue de Bruxelles, Nivelles. We have been trying to sell South African wine to the local francophones, with some success!