buildinggracelands: 1st December

So another month has passed. November was a Good Month. Things happened dramatically. The build has been underway for a month and what I thought was going to be a simple build has turned out to be bigger than the proverbial Ben Hur - in true Grand Designs style. Kevin would be tearing strips off me, cynically having a go because, despite being told , I did not quite recognise the enormity of the undertaking. However, unlike most of the Grand Designs suckers, I am nowhere near breakdown. I am thoroughly enjoying the experience, especially the exigencies which crop up each day. Now, I am not sure if Steve and Greg fell the same way.

Rain has continued to fall steadily all day. The brickies are working inside and piles of sand and bricks fill the interior spaces. They worked on the first floor today and the windows were modified in shape and the main one set in place.

Lester ran into Greg and Richo in the street and they looked stuffed and peeved, to say the least. They had filled the truck with yet another load of rubble and old windows only to find that the brickies had inadvertantly taken the truck keys off to Gilleston Heights when they packed up. These two have certainly earned their Christmas break!

Back across the river things moved along less hectically. Paul worked on renewing Lester's old desk and he brought around the finished chairs. You wouldn't recognise them for the black old ricketty things they have been for the past thirty years.

The man who bought our old Australian Geographics and National Geographics arrived in his Mercedes, from Sydney, to pick them up. He is an enthusiast of tall ships and sails and repairs the "James Craig" at Darling Harbour. He was quite vociferous about the evils of Barangaroo (and Paul Keating), the possible demise of the Newcastle Railway and the virtues of old Victorian houses. He covered many topics in the ten minutes he was here and he paid me more for the mags than he bid for them. I was able to restrain myself and say that ten dollars would have been fine! Maybe I am learning the tough world of business after all!!! I am quite pleased about my eBay experiences (being an eBay virgin). Both buyers paid me more than the final price.

So, tomorrow I have to follow-up on today's investigations into hard-wiring intercom, a camera and fire alarms. Which means we have to finalise The Front Door. Like the colour scheme, this has been discussed many times over the past twelve months and no firm decisions have been made. Lester is not working tomorrow, Friday or Saturday and I am assuming that from next week I will work in the surgery for two and a half days a week to help out. I will be "on-site" and have to endure the noise - only fair I suppose.