So fickle

I was trying to have a video call with my boss yesterday when the builders (Elvis was joined by Tom, which gave him with someone to swear loudly at again) both knocked on my door twice, once each to use the bathroom and once each to use the microwave to heat leftovers up for their lunch.

I felt sooooo professional ducking away from the camera twice to let them into the house for a wee.

Fortunately the meeting was just ending when it was time for Elvis to microwave his noodles, which gave us a chance to bond. Elvis was very excited to see a half finished jigsaw puzzle on my breakfast bar and showed me a photo of the Mario Kart one he’s doing at his place.

We discussed how you have runs on finding lots of pieces, then infuriating droughts. I said I needed to get my jigsaw finished because the breakfast bar Is being moved as part of the renovation.

“Didn’t we just build this kitchen?” Elvis asked in consternation.

Well, that was about four years ago, Elvis. A woman is allowed to change her mind and I’ve decided the breakfast bar would be better parallel to the kitchen bench rather than perpendicular to it.

Elvis was not impressed by my fickle nature and stomped off into the backyard to eat his noodles in peace.

Soon afterwards, Charlie the Moodle almost died under the wheels of the builders’ ute when Tom reversed out of the driveway as I was taking the dogs outside for their lunchtime wee. I’m talking 30cm away from being squashed flat. Tom was mortified because he has a 20-year-old shih tzu, so he’s very love eyes about small fluffy things.

Anyways, the deck is almost done. Check out my french doors finally opening onto it!

The builders just need to fix the gaps between the doors and the deck, put timber on the front and add some stairs and voila! The dogs are terrified by the french doors finally being open after all these years and refuse to walk through them. They’ll need to get over that.

Next job is the laundry. They are raising the floor, removing the door and current window at the side, adding a window above where the current door opening is and putting in a new laundry unit and a shower. I’ve chosen everything online, which will be … interesting. The only thing I’ve seen in real life is the tiles, which are a $26-a-box special from Bunnings.

I will be much more on the case if I ever renovate my dream home. But since this is just my home-for-now I’m a little more laissez faire. I didn’t even give specific directions for the deck, I just said “build me a deck” and fortunately it seems to be turning out OK.

I had a traumatic deck building experience at my first house in Petersham. We renovated in the depths of winter and didn’t have a bathroom or kitchen for a long stretch. I had the misfortune of getting gastro, which led to some harrowing things happening that can never be discussed.

Anyways, I got home from work one day to discover the builder had laid the decking timber grooves side up rather than smooth side up. It was the straw that broke Alana’s back – I totally LOST IT. He tried to tell me that laying decks grooves side up was a thing and much less slippery than grooves side down, but I became very Linda Blair in the Exorcist about it, so he quickly agreed that he would pull up the deck and lay it grooves side down if I would stop sobbing hysterically.

No such issues this time around, Elvis knew what to do with his grooves.

The builders have gone for a few days to do some work on a shop and will be back on Friday to put the new windows in and finish the deck.

I have no idea what I’ll blog about in their absence.

PS I was very sad to hear about NW closing down yesterday. I spent a heady month running the magazine many moons ago, stepping into the role one January when it was between editors. I had a bulk fun time working with the staff, who were an awesome bunch.

Song of the day: Elvis “My way”