Two busy days working on final changes and revisions of the new SFXEngine manual. This work takes an interminable time.
Most of today was spent doing physical house work. Deb had a hole in the wall where the fire used to be. Most of this was bricked up, but crudely, and when the wooden surround to the fire was removed, a fist-sized hole was revealed. The workman was due to finish the job today, but cancelled with an uncertain future date so I volunteered to do it. I started by chipping and chiselling off the large lumps of plaster which stuck out from the surface and, as luck would have it, one lump was large enough for the hole. I filled that and the biggest gaps with cement, then a few layers of finishing plaster. I love plaster and plastering. It's both a difficult skill and the satisfying manipulation of a material that almost feels organic, not too far from oil painting.
The next job was to lower the mantelpiece, so we removed it from the wall, and I hand sawed the left and right legs, shortening them by 190mm. Fitting it back to the wall involved trimming a shelf beside it, then drilling some new holes in the wall for screws. These are not weight-bearing, they stop the thing tipping forwards, so lightweight screws are sufficient. The former screw holes were then filled.
Finally I had a mirror to hang which required some horrible brick drilling at height. The heavy mirror had two hangers, at an odd size apart, so exact wall drilling was needed. I started by marking one location, then using a laser level and a ruler to measure the exact placement, then used a 2mm drill to drill a pilot hole, then a 3mm brick drill for another pilot hole. This is the best way to centre a hole for exact placement. Then, a 6.5mm drill was sufficient, though this was not easy. All in all, all of these complex jobs went to plan and were completed in 4 hours.
The next jobs are wallpapering, lowering a heavy duty T.V. bracket, and fitting a wooden board in the new fireplace area.
For me, I must complete the SFXEngine manual, then start work on more important jobs of art. Art, the goal of life, the fire beyond the human rabble. People worry and fret mostly about the most insignificant things.
