The Murano antique

No, I am not from Murano myself, thank you very much! It's now time for the fun things to start. We hung the aquamarine glass chandelier I purchased almost a couple of years ago for the house from a local antiques shop. The wiring is not yet in but it already looks fabulous.

Bathroom light

Have been on the lookout for the right light shade for the bathroom and think I might have found the one. It's Zara Home's January lantern. I wonder if the Sliema branch in Malta stock it. I'll have to call them tomorrow.

The kitchen pod

The kitchen had been lying in dad's garage for far too long. Now that the doors and windows were in, the kitchen could finally be fitted in. To start off with we insulated the kitchen from the stone wall using boards that can take humidity (Maltese stone tends to retain moisture within it). This had to be taken off again and re-applied as I had made some miscalculations with were electrical outputs ought to be. This time dad and I decided to do it ourselves as we would have been charged extra otherwise.



Kitchen was taken out of its flatpack packaging and assembled by two guys from Aplan and we found out there was one missing part. I phoned the company that has transported the kitchen from Germany and their guy came over to have a look. The part should be coming in with their next order.



Gennaro (yes, you guessed it, he IS from Naples) came over to build the gypsum structure for the pod I designed for the kitchen. It does make a substantial difference to the look and feel of the kitchen, even now in its unfinished state. It's looking good already.

The Hanex surface I have ordered is from a company called Seamless. They promised they'd install it for me before the end of the month

Metal spiral staircase

I set out to design a spiral staircase that could be equally contemporary and classic, above all one that was comfortable and free from any additional decoration. The white metal part is already in and the carpenter has come in to measure the chunky wooden parts that go on the surface of the steps and on the frame of the balcony that extends from the room upstairs. The white structure looks so light that I am tempted to not add the dark wood I designed in the first place but, on second thoughts, the wood will add contrast and warmth to the whole thing.



It was a bugger getting the extremely heavy thing into the house as no aperture was wide enough. The staircase had to be lifted by crane and slowly rotated through the aperture by several men all yelling out instructions. Some damage was done to the gipsum walls which will need to be fixed at a later stage, but on the whole, the thing went smoothly.

Sky on the big screen

The double glazed ceiling to cover the 3 x 3 meter courtyard has arrived. Getting the frame right took a couple of days to assemble and finally the heavy glass was taken out of its wooden packaging and carried carefully by 5 workmen, watched by one nervous owner. It's great to watch the clouds scuttle across the sky through the glass. What's even better is staying dry when stepping into the courtyard on a rainy day.