Categories: uncategorized
Date: 21 April 2006 23:00:28
Tickets for guided tours of the newly renovated Smudgie Towers are now available. No discount for group bookings. Wibloggers half price.
I am feeling rather smug myself. What a wonderful week that was - though I was almost (I repeat almost) glad to get back to school for a rest. Everyone commented on how I looked far less tired than I had looked for a long time. I don't know if less tired was really the word they were looking for, seeing as I was and still am exhausted, but certainly less stressed.
The Monday of the shipmeet my sister drove back to the mainland carrying two small passengers in the back of her car, all laden up with enough clean clothes and videos for five days. Later the same day my brother's car arrived complete, not only with my brother, but with his entire tool collection and my Dad's friend from the Midlands. The friend (who has known me since I was still in my mummy's tummy!) stayed with Dad and, while he was unable to do the actual practical caring side of things, enabled me to switch off from being on call and from feeling the need to keep Dad company while I wasn't at work. No Smudgelets, no Dad, no school, my brother's company, and a job to do that was something I'd longed for for ages.
"Don't worry, I'll just need you to hold pieces of wood occasionally, or pass me a hammer, or make me a cuppa. You'll be able to get on with your own things most of the time." Hmmm... what most of the time would that be, John? We started each morning at six, finished each evening at eight, with a break for a bacon butty at about eleven. In between it was non-stop... and of course after knocking-off-time there was still the tea to make, the dishes to do, Dad to tuck into bed. I ought to have lost a great deal of weight.
But wait till you see the photos. My hall has been repainted. There is a new light fitted. The doors have all (bar one) been replaced with beautiful (if cheap) wooden ones with brass handles, the wood all varnished (by yours truly) and the kitchen (and ultimately the lounge) doors having lovely glass panels which have made the whole place so much lighter. The frames have all been painted - to our surprise they turned out to be metal frames rather than wooden, and with the hinges built in, so we were unable to replace the hinges and I now face the not-so-pleasant task of sanding them all down and painting them with brass-coloured hammerite. There is laminate flooring down in the entrance hall and new carpet ordered for the hall. And the piece-de-resistance? A fantastic new front door courtesy of the insurance company, with a beautiful glass-block panel at the side. It is wonderful. Now to keep it tidy!!!
Tiddles, meanwhile, is paying off the cost of the new door according to the glazier's estimate of just short of £1000. Naturally he cannot do this with money so he is doing it by labour, at a rather generous rate of £5 an hour. It's having fantastic impact on his understanding of the value of money. I was rather amused, however, to find him trying to convince an eager Smudgelet of the joys of sanding down door frames - somehow he'd found that after the first two hours it became a slightly less enjoyable task, but he wasn't letting on to his little gullible brother if he thought the latter might offer to do some for him ! They both laughed later when I read them the story of Tom Sawyer whitewashing the fence.
My brother has now gone and my home is in disarray. I have a to-do list as long as my arm, most of it needing doing before the carpet comes on Wednesday. Bother. And the trouble with the glass doors is that you can't close the door and ignore all the mess in the kitchen and lounge. Ho hum.
The laugh of it is, the doors were replaced because Tiddles had damaged nearly all of them. As we went around labelling the old doors so that we knew which way round they went when using them as templates for cutting the new ones, my brother got a bit carried away and doodled all over the lounge door. When the delivery from B&Q arrived, they were missing one door. Guess which one!!!! Still, one good thing is that, because they were unable to get the door to us in time, they have promised that they will pay a carpenter to come and fit it for me. My brother was delighted - one less lock to chisel out! But in the meantime, I am left with one door which rather undermines the effect of the hall... "Kilroy was here!"