It is a fine sunny day today. Sunshine is doubly welcome as we head towards the shortest day so I looked out of my window for a shot of visual pleasure from my small courtyard garden forgetting that this week my house has turned into a building site.
The work involved in creating a new bathroom in a pre-Victorian terraced house is more than usually awkward as there really isn’t enough space to take the overflow or the workman’s tools or even the workmen most of the time. It will obviously be welcome when it is finished but until then, life is, shall we say, inconvenient.
After the plumber, the electrician and the carpenter completed their respective duties on schedule, the tiler began covering the walls from floor to ceiling and brought things to a head this week when the house began to spiral out of control. If you gave a class of five year olds a barrel of porridge and asked them to throw it around as much as they liked, they could not have made more of a mess than Jack the tiler achieved in four days of tiling hell. We have parted company today after, as my American friends say, I found myself walking away from him.
Now the chaos is under control again in the capable hands of Darren who has replaced him in the nick of time. Darren has been here before and, even though this house is still in turmoil a new sense of calm has broken out with the job is now heading, I hope, for a benign completion.
In the meanwhile I shall try to maintain my patience, close my ears to the noise, try to ignore the dust up my nostrils and thank God for the public lavatory situated just round the corner from my now bathroom-free living quarters.
So welcome back Darren but it would be nice to see the back of you too my friend.
