Things here are coming to a close after ten days or so of serious hard work. We've stripped, painted, scrubbed, drilled, filled, dug, lifted, weeded, seeded and drunk all the tea and beer in the western world but it's over. I've got a few before and after type snaps of the work that we did, but it's not going to be massively interesting to anyone who wasn't there (which is everyone but me). The cast of characters of this set of snaps is: Me, Amanda (the woman of the house, and foreman of the DIY work), Thea (Amanda's daughter) and the two Aussie helpers that joined me here a good while ago. They are called Graham and Renée and are a delightful couple of drongos from Brisbane. He's 26, she's 28 and they've been going out for 7 years. They been an absolute life saver for me, as they're fun and friendly and not part of this mad family. The feral 4 year old needs and incredible amount of entertaining (it's school holidays here and she's got nothing to do all day). She's got the classic 3rd child syndrome where the parents are a bit fed up of all this baby stuff and just give her whatever she wants to stop her screaming. Trouble is that this only means that she's not used to not getting exactly what she wants, and is an expert on bringing on wild screaming and "crying" fits whenever something happens that she's not up for. These things include: Her having to go off with Daddy while the others stay and get work done; her having to stay with the family while daddy goes off to town or wherever; her game being cut short by the serving of dinner; anyone sitting in the chair she wants; her not having the same plate or fork as her mummy; bedtime; conversations between adults where she's not the subject; an adult not wanting to play football with her for any more than half an hour etc etc. Life in this house is essentially a round of laughter and hyperactivity while things are going the kids way and wild screaming and arguments when they're not. Quite tiresome. Fortunately, between Graham, Renee and I we are able to soak up the kid and leave the others free to live a life of some kind.
Anyway, here are a few snaps of the house before, during and after the transformation:
Outside the house (before) 
Graham working to tidy up the broken front wall
The finished product
Renée painting the ceiling
Me painting the ceiling (coat two I think!)
Graham painting the ceiling (quality ladder use here)
Here are a few tool-porn shots:
Yeah, check out that hot tool-porn shit!
Ok, that'll have to do for now. More words and pictures soon. Love to all, Rob.
Hi Rob - it's H.P's mater. Good to see that you are keeping busy but not much sign of a sun tan!You are obviously of the aristocratic variety! Did you know that Helen has French ancestry -of the peasant type I fear. Have Fun Jo
ReplyDeletetool porn. mmmm.
ReplyDelete