It\’s been a day I rather put behind me, thank goodness it is nearly over!
The lad arrived from the Carpenters at 7am, and thought he was going to work upstairs…wrong, Marcela was still asleep, so I told him, he would have to complete the downstairs jobs, whilst I woke her up.
We have had a panic… When John was working here, he had what we all thought was a great idea, and that was to put clay tiles on the kiosk roof, so it matched both the house and workshop. As it turns out this was a big mistake, the roof is not strong enough to support them, and Marcela and I noticed that some of the joints were pulling apart, the whole structure was near collapse.
Marcela rang John, and asked for urgent help, unfortunately he was busy, but said he would come later, he owed me some money he had borrowed, so he was due to call around.
In the mean time, I put up the ladder, and I took off as many as I could reach from the ladder, and handed them to Marcela, not liking heights, I was nervous enough on the ladder! But we reduced the weight by a third.
Marcela, then decided to do some gardening, her mentor being Mauricio, the Mayordomo from up the road, so it started with painting a tar like substance on as many cut off tree branches as she could reach.
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| Marcela starting to take charge of the garden. |
My worry was that this chemical, sounded downright dangerous, don\’t breath the fumes, don\’t get it on your skin, wear overalls, well she got one out of three, so I suppose that wasn\’t bad going, for someone who doesn\’t read instructions!
I was getting angrier by the minute, the standard to workmanship by the lad doing the doors was appalling, I was ready to blow a gasket, I spent my time going over their work from yesterday, and making a list of alterations or repairs that needed to be done before I was prepared to pay the balance. In the end I asked Marcela to ring the Boss and ask him to come before I ordered the lad to leave, he didn\’t, but he did get the lad to listen, and most things are now acceptable, not great, but we can live with them. Unfortunately, having looked at all the work and accepted it, the lad left, and I went upstairs to work in the vestier, as I was leaving the room, I saw the door in a different light, and the veneer has cracked and lifted in the lower half for about three inches, Marcela rang, but they had shut up shop, so another job for Monday.
By this time I was digging holes for the three posts we will need to install to support the balcony, the first two were fine, I was extremely careful to watch out for buried pipes this time, the middle and third hole, I was damn lucky, because I brushed the main waste pipe from the house to the septic tank, another inch, and I would have been doing a second repair!
Marcela, has the cheek of the devil, and she rang the company, where we bought the kiosk roof tiles, and asked if they would buy them back… and they are!! as long as there is no damage, they will give us the price we paid, but we have to cover transport, this is brilliant, there have been a few breakages, but not many. I have got around the transport angle, because I need the three posts, for the balcony, so they will bring those, and take back the tiles.
The afternoon was spinning by, no sign of John, and it didn\’t honestly look as if he was going to come, I got on, and fitted a floating dressing table for Marcela, in the vestier.
Marcela in the meantime, was getting ready to go out, first to Medellin to collect the car, then on to a friends, to belatedly celebrate Marcela\’s birthday, and staying overnight.
Vestier completed, I then started staining the workshop outside roof timbers, Marcela came and asked if I would give her a lift down to the Autopista to catch the bus to the Metro, I said that as long as she was prepared to wear her helmet, but women and hair! so she said she would catch the Bus, and off she went. I then heard her talking to someone, and went to the fence, to see her jumping on the back of a Motorbike taxi, which run up and down the mountain, I was not best pleased, as she is aware.
Staining finished for the day, I packed up, went for a shower, and started preparing my dinner, only to hear John shouting at the gate, by which time it was nearly dark. He said if I would help, he would strip the tiles off the roof there and then, so I went and put my work trousers on, and in no time it was done, and I think the kiosk has probably been saved as a result, I will know better in the morning, when I can see. He also had my money with him, so I felt slightly better.
Dinner eaten, one lot of washing taken in and another put out, and it was time to call it a day!
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