The events of weeks 1-3 at the Berkley Estate - VF

26th September - 15th October
Well we have had interesting times at the Berkley estate after returning from our honeymoon. We got back in the afternoon of Sunday 26th September and spent the next many hours emptying out the basement in preparation for the demolition builders to come and remove sections of internal walls, a few stairs and an in-built cupboard or two. There was 60 years of dust and dirt to work around but eventually we triumphed and things were cleared away sufficiently.

Monday morning came far too soon as Jamie was off to work for Day 1 of his 12 days in a row and so at 5.45am we heard the unwelcome sound of the alarm clock heralding the commencement of our first day home as a married couple. The first of the building crews to arrive was Brent and Brandon - two brothers who live 90 minutes north of town. They are rather blokey characters - very into their hunt'n and fish'n. They set to work with a vengence down in the basement and soon mountains of gib-board (dry-wall, sheet-rock or whatever), old wood, and other unknown items began appearing in pieces up the stairs and out onto their trailer. There was much huffing and puffing and sneezing on account of the dust and the effects of the dreaded 'black mould', but within a few hours, amazingly they announced that they were done. An hour after their commencement there was another knock on the door and there was Bill and his co-worker with their "Closet Factory" truck. Bill has been working with the Closet Factory for many years, but it was his new trainee's first day. Judging by several of their strained conversations they might not be working together for long! But this did not hinder the assembling of the new floor-to-ceiling wall of cupboards in our bedroom and a new selection of storage compartments and hanging space in the exisiting wardrobe area. By the end of the day, not only did we have a partially dissected basement, but we finally had enough new wardrobe space to commence hanging up our clothes. Along the way I managed to talk Brandon and Brent into a couple of extra little tasks including moving some of the original wooden shelves upstairs from down in the basement, cutting short a metal bar so I could make some other shelves, fixing the wires that make the doorbell work, advising me on paint stripper and discussing how best to rebuild the stairs. In the evening I raced downstairs to do as many loads of washing from our honeymoon as I could as I suspected that there would be minimal opportunity for the next few days (how right I was!!). Day 2 brought "Tyson" and the other B-Dry boys along with their jackhammers. They commenced making trenches all around the internal walls of the basement, approx 18 inches in from the wall. This process took 3 days - so not the most fun of times for Mrs Finch listening to the sound of the weapons of mass destruction and wondering how many times in one day that workboots could possibly tramp through the house in search of the loo (bathroom). I found it mildly amusing that within 3 minutes of the jackhammer starting on the day he was home in the morning, the husband decided it was time to go to Home Depot (the hardware super-store)! He did return with a number of useful bits and pieces including a very thoughtful present of a stepladder that now enables his wife to reach the high cupboards. The mess in the basement continued for the next 4 days and by lunchtime Friday it looked worse than ever. I couldn't imagine how they were planning on getting it finished it by the end of the day as there were big piles of rubble and stones and pieces of pipe all over the place. The concrete mixer outside droned on and all of sudden there seemed to be a lot of men having lunch on the lawn and new ones joining the queue for the loo. It seems like Tyson had called in reinforcements and there was an entire army working hard-out on our "basement drainage system". At 2.30pm a voice was heard in the kitchen saying "Excuse me Mrs Finch-Ma'am; we're ready for your final inspection". The army stood proudly to attention as I walked though, exclaiming that I couldn't believe the transformation over the past 4 days but particularly within the previous 2 hours! What surprised me most was that the evil musty smell was completely gone! They apologised profusely that they couldn't help the fact that the cement wouldn't be dry until Monday and so someone would return then to put back the washing machine and dryer and obviously they couldn't be used until then. They weren't quite sure what to think when I cheerfully responded that it wasn't a problem at all and what a great excuse to not do any washing.

On Sunday around 9am Tyson and his merry men re-appeared (unofficially of course) for the extra task we had created of 'removal of the tank' (see separate post). Amidst much heaving and ho-ing and and with only millimetres to spare, the nasty tank vanished from it's hiding place of 60 years to somewhere the other side of Flint.

Sure enough, as promised, on Monday the washing-machine-connector-man came. He visited at the same time that Brent and Brandon were back to measure for our next project - the new laundry. Much washing ensued later that day, and now we had a stylie wardrobe to put it all in!

On Tuesday at 9am, Hilda arrived. The reason for requiring Hilda's assistance was to establish some kind of a baseline in the household as the Berkley estate had thereto been a bachelor pad for some 8-9 years and was rented out for 20 years or so before that. I was told by a couple of people here that I wouldn't find a decent cleaner for under $35/hr and even then there's no way they would do the kind of heavy-duty work I wanted done. But Hilda came and has done a phenomenal job for only $20 an hour. She is from Central America - has been in the USA for over 20 yrs after escaping from Nicaragua with her 2 babies the day before the communists took over (her husband was killed in the civil war when she was 5 mths pregnant with the 2nd one; she has now re-married an American - and he went off to the first Iraq War but luckily for her he did come back). She has had her cleaning business for 4 years, having previously been area manager for a courier company for 13 years and now has 4 people who work for her. She also owns several rental properties so she was quite a fascinating person to talk to as we worked side-by-side (I did the easy things like cleaning out the fridge and moppnig hte floors!). Hilda scrubbed and scoured for hours on end until the windows looked as thought they didn't have any glass in them, the steps were unrecognisable and the bathroom tiles looked almost like new. With the ivy removed from the lovely bay window (by the new Mrs Finch hanging out it backwards!), the lounge looks completely different - so light and bright and airy. Every day it seemed that the furniture is in a different place so that we could clean under and behind it and throughout all this Jamie has managed to somehow avoid potential spells of disorientation as his home is completely realigned and rearranged and reorganised. Hilda has also gone the extra mile, giving me tutoring in how best to care for the lovely polished floors we have and has explained all about the various the different cleaning products etc. I did need such tutelage as it's quite strange when one is confronted by the vast array of products in the supermarket because everything apart from the window-cleaner looks so completely different to what I'm used to so it was all rather confusing, (no Jif, Ajax, Pledge or Spray 'n Wipe). With hundreds of products in the shops and it's almost impossible to know what is what! So now I have the 'preferred options' list. Everything here in the cleaning product department comes in individual wipes also - like those baby wipes - quite fascinating, very handy and very useful to keep in bathroom cupboard etc.

After 3 days with Hilda, just when we had made some headway into the dust issues, Brent and Brandon were back! Again I raced down to do some washing - just as well because my suspicions were indeed correct.... as it transpired, it would be 7 days before I could do wash again. Brent and Brandon installed themselves in the laundry, pausing only for regular journeys to Home Depot or to the loo, and, of course, on the way to those destinations, making hints about needing coffee, feeling the need to share long stories about fishing or the significant others in their lives (Brandon's 15 month old baby and Brent's current girlfriend). I continue to attempt to look busy with my cleaning and cupboard re-organisation whenever they show their faces as listening to stories is definitely not part of their (or my) job descriptions. However they have been kind of helpful, providing advice as I endeavour to hone my handyman skills which have extended thus far to putting up shelves, mounting the new door-bell, removing the 30yr old screen door from the front, attempting to de-stick the door through the use of a very ancient rasp and a vast amount of sandpaper etc (my grandfathers would both be impressed!). The builders seem to find my attempts at home rennovations rather amusing and have apparently named me 'Hard Case'. Over that week, the laundry was transformed (see pics to come) from a place that I'd rather not go to, to a functional place that is both spacious and waterproof. Finally, on Friday 15th October we had a full day with no-one visiting to perform tasks..... and then it was time to catch a plane again. This time to New Orleans.... (see next post).