Off to the home of democracy...

Just about to leave. Very excited for lots of reasons. Ever since watching Ghostbusters in 1984 I've always wondered what a twinkie tastes like and now I might find out. Also going to see lots of buildings familiar from movies, visit the Smithsonian and do some shopping. Oh, and go to a very good conference where I will learn lots about 'serious games'. Will make sure I say "Internet" and not "Innernet".

Sorry the missus isn't coming :-(

Jimmy

Head
Originally uploaded by chill.

Couldn't resist posting this from Chris's site.

Renovation... kitchen in progress

no kitchen wall!
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

... and it's gone, hurrah!

2 days of building work, and they seem to be cracking
on pretty damn quickly. We've really got a sense of how big our new open plan kitchen/diner is going to be. All very exciting.

What this photo doesn't show is that they've built half of the units ready to be placed. I am very happy not to have had to do this bit.

Renovation... kitchen

kitchen wall and dresser
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

One of Derek's greatest bits of work: the fake dresser in the dining room, built to accommodate the fridge and microwave in the kitchen.

Rebrand!

Have been meaning to get comments working for ages. Will someone test them?

The builders start on Monday on the kitchen and other bits and say they'll be done in 2 weeks. It's all moving really quite fast... and is getting a bit scary. Oh well - looks like pre-Christmas visits are on if anyone is interested!

Work is also quite busy - we've been around schools all over the UK testing our first prototype site. Just in from a daytrip to Newcastle ("Geoff, Geoff, Spuggy's stuck in the lift!!"), was in Wales earlier this week in a town I think was called Llllddddyyyfffcawllll. Next week I'm off again on the BBC Leadership training programme for 2 days, then to Washington the week after where I'm definitely not going to buy a new ipod.

Hold on, I'm going to miss half the building work... oops. I was also away when the living room ceiling fell in. Good job we've got such a good project manager holding things together.

Busy day at the office...

This is worth the 9mb download - a newly cut trailer for 'The Shining'. Very odd.

Spare bedroom - after!

sparebed_after2
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

We're moving into this room for a few weeks, while we get cracking with our bedroom, which will first involve the removal of some of last owner Derek's particularly superb DIY innovations - including a built-in wardrobe with 45-degree mirrored doors, and a very strange contraption made using kitchen worktop. Oh yes.

Spare bedroom - before...

sparebed_before2
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

Spare bedroom - after!

sparebed_after1
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

Spare bedroom - before...

Nice pink walls and cloudy ceiling... we thought about keeping this...

sparebed_before1
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

New things...

Rachel now has a blog, which is really good and funny. Have a gander.

The renovations are moving very quickly, but are naturally causing a bit of a financial meltdown... spent £500 on wardrobes today, and figured extra spend wouldn't matter too much in the scheme of things, so I bought this for the study:



It's marvellous - CD, DAB, Amp all in one, plugged into my existing hi-fi speakers. Sounds brilliant, and perfect for the space. I notice you can plug an ipod dock into it as well... but it isn't compatible with my 3-year old ipod. And I'm definitely not going to buy one of these new ones which are either extremely small or play videos, even if they are 30% cheaper when I go to the states in 2 weeks. I'm really not, honest. If mine were to wear out however...

While I remember, something amazing happened. Ikea delivered our kitchen... early... and everything came, down to the last hinge... this feels wrong to me. This means we might be on track for our pre-Christmas renovation completion deadline. Sarah Beeny has nothing on us... what's more it seems like it's not just us who are perplexed with her hair this series.

Enough rambling and time for bed. Busy day tomorrow knocking a wall down!

renovation - new bathroom!

bathroom after
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

Much better!

We're moving along very quickly now... bathroom done and really superb now the many leaks left by our dodgy plumber have been fixed.

The study and spare bedroom are done other than carpeting. We're going to move into the spare room this weekend to start work on the main bedroom, ripping out the nasty wardrobe.

Kitchen arrives tomorrow, hopefully the builders will start within the next 2 weeks...

renovation... bathroom

bathroom before
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

terrible bathroom

for a change... ipods!

Apparently there's going to be a new ipod again tomorrow. After all, it's been AGES since they announced the nano. The rumours are that it's going to play videos and have an 80 GB hard disk. WOO.

Was having a surf while watching the magnificent Sarah Beeny, and came across this site - find the perfect ipod for you. All of them, I say, although my shuffle is only really doing memory stick duty unless batteries run out on grandpapod.

The Sony PSP which my lovely wife bought me is an absolutely fabulous machine, especially as I have a completely valid professional reason for having one - at work we're formatted and encoded all our short films for various mobile devices...

And more...

funny film

Jane is staying, very nice to see her.
House is in chaos, office shelves are up on the first attempt.

I know, I know...

Where do the months go?

Here's something funny from our friends across the pond. I am happy to say I'll be making my maiden voyage over there at the end of the month.

We've moved house by the way. It's chaos, but fun fun. Rach being an architect is good for project managing the refit of bathroom / kitchen / walls / floors / ceilings. Plumbers who don't make watertight seals are not so good.