Accidentally on purpose

There is no good reason for my lack of postiness except that every time I have sat down to write something, life has gotten in the way.  But! As one who previously spent so many months crouched over the keyboard endlessly google-mining for the buried treasure of a solution to our infertility woes, I can say that dealing with a series of "real life" stuff comes as a sort of a good thing.

Note the manner in which I put such a positive spin on the silliness that has ensued here at the Barn in recent weeks. For starters, we accidentally on purpose sold our car. Well, I say "we" but in fact, I was simply following in the slipstream of one of E.'s half-fermented ideas.  Thing was, E. figured he'd "try" to sell the car privately, and no one would buy it.  Then we'd concede defeat, decide what kind of car we want, and head round to that dealership for the ritual trade-in mating dance with the salesman before enduring a shafting for way more money than we wanted to pay in the first place.

Only guess what?  The very next day after putting up the ad online, we had a buyer coming round to view the car with the cold hard cash in his pocket. Cue a bit of manly pawing of the ground interspersed with kicking of the tires, and by the end of the weekend we had ourselves an envelope with a fat wad of cash and a nice big empty space in front of the garage where the car used to be. Huh.

Turns out thereafter we have had quite a lot of trouble figuring out what kind of car we do want, and then finding one that actually fits the bill.  Thus several weeks later we are still sans auto. Which makes doing the grocery shopping that much more amusing.

Then there was the saga of the bathroom tiles. The previous owner of this flat had put carpet in both the main bathroom and the ensuite. Now, I don't know about you, but something about carpets in bathrooms equals heebie jeebies.  You could practically hear the mildew growing underfoot.  It wasn't even nice carpet but this sort of bland pale beige colour. Ack. It gives me the shudders just thinking about it; I don't know how we put up with it for as long as we did.

Anyway, so we decided to rip up the carpet and put down tiles. Since the layout is a bit weird, complete with funny shaped bathtub, the tiling wasn't the kind of thing we could do ourselves. So we phoned a tiler guy to come round to give us a quote, and he actually showed up more or less on time, provided a reasonable estimate for what would be a two day job to lay some natural slate tiles and offered a start date of before next Easter.  Super, I thought!  This might actually be OK!

Erm, well, it started OK. Except that his tile cutting machine broke on the first day so he didn't get very far past laying a few tiles in the ensuite; then the next day he explained that the pesky natural slate tiles were in fact  causing a bit of bother in terms of needing to be recut; then the day after that he didn't show up at all but texted E. at 11pm to say that he wasn't sure about how long it would take, the tiles being sort of crappy and all; until finally the last day, when he finished off the small ensuite before departing in a puff of dust, flat-out refusing to do the rest of the job because the tiles were the worst he'd ever seen, leaving a note charging more than half the estimated price for doing less than half the work. Then texting us every half hour to ask for his money.

I know!  The bloody cheek! To cut a long story short, First Tiler Guy was jujitsued with one of my sharp email specials, and we got somebody else in to do the rest of the work.  Second Tiler Guy efficiently completed the job in a day (turns out much the maligned tiles were absolutely fine), and all was well. Even if he did leave a big mess behind when he left.  I don't even care, such is the vast improvement to the previously manky bathroom floor. Really, it is so much nicer in every possible way, and far pleasanter underfoot.

And that is more or less what I have been up to.  How are you?  If you get a chance, please go round and give some blog lovin' to both Thalia and Pamplemousse, two fine women on the receiving end of some particularly cruel blows.

Comments

[Donna]

Life goes on, despite what is happening or not happening with our reproductive tracts. Who knew? What kind of car are you thinking about?

[mm]

Carpet?! In the bathroom?! Ewwwwww!

Just so happens that Mr Limbo are embarking on our own bathroom reno and car buying sprees right now. (After 14 years, we thought it was time for a new jalopy. One with air conditioning. And a decent stereo.) And all I can say is aaaargggghh!

[Lut C.]

Are there no decent car sharing schemes in your neighborhood? Not the 3 families, 1 car kind, but the fleet of cars at your disposal kind.

I was looking into one of those around where I live. It would be much cheaper than buying a new car, but it wouldn't be worth it for us to get rid of our car, since it's paid for. Knock on wood that it keeps running.

If a car is your topmost worry right now, than you're doing rather ok. No?

[Kath]

Dear Mare, our tiling story sounds horribly, horribly familiar. Only in our version of the British Builder Comedy of Errors (at my family's flat in England), half the bathroom had to be re-tiled after the first guy's hasty departure. And the floor opened up again and re-wired. It turned out to be the most expensive bathroom in recorded history. And now -- get this -- the shower leaks.

Good luck finding a car! Wads of cash are fun and all that, but good for hauling they ain't.

[Pamplemousse]

I was just about to send round my tiler but you got sorted out in the end. My tradesmen are all wonderful but boy, will I be glad to see the back of them! The mess, the upheaval, the lack of privacy when all you want to do is wail your head off.

Thank you for your kind thoughs, my dear.

[Alli]

I am lmao over your email jujitsu! That is hilarious!!

[Truly Tested]

Good for you for getting on with life although of course your war stories just confirmed everything I've ever heard about contracting work in one's home! Why does it always cost more and take longer than they say? Good luck with your car quest and getting around until then!

[isabel]

Thank you for writing about your experiences. It helps to know that in some things I'm not crazy or alone.