Tuesday Morning Fantasy

Handy Mike's tools sat on the floor yesterday in the PunquiDunqui Suite at World Headquarters, while he worked on the siding and window trim outside. That's a lot of equipment to move around and doesn't include the saws and nail guns.

But here's how the lower front window had looked after the permastone came off the front of the house and J-Whacky had stripped off the old paint...



...and here's how it looks this morning, after Jacky has primed the area and Handy Mike added the window trim, flashing and casings.



But Mike didn't do this alone. He had a helper. This woman can do anything.



As home renovations go, the worst is anything inside the house involving plaster. It takes many months to get that plaster dust to stop settling out of the air and landing on your toothbrush. Next worse is losing water into the house while they do...whatever the hell they do. Actually, anything inside the house which involves ripping out, while you're still living there, isn't all that cool.

Plot and Duck have had none of that so far. Oh, Plotnik has had a few fantasies...

(CRASH! BOOM!)
(BREAKING GLASS)
(WORKERS SCREAMING)
(FIRE ENGINES)
(DOGS HOWLING)
(NEIGHBORS GATHERING)
(NEIGHBORS SMILING)
(NEIGHBORS LOOTING)
(NEIGHBOR TURNING ON NEIGHBOR)
(HERE COMES TONY THE HOBO)
(HE'S HELPING HIMSELF TO THE GOOD CHEESE)
(HE'S SWIGGING THE RAFFANELLI ZINFANDEL)
(TONY AND THE NEIGHBORS HAVE MADE A BONFIRE OUT OF PLOTNIK'S GUITAR)
(THEY'VE OPENED THE FRIDGE)
(THEY'RE EATING UP ALL THE LEFTOVER SHRIMP ETOUFEE)
(THEY'RE TELLING PLOTNIK JOKES)
(DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN PLOTNIK USED TO PLAY THAT STUPID ACCORDION?)
(MORE TABBOULE, ANYONE?)

...but not all that many, because the Plotniks got smart this time. They made their minds up to use people they know and trust. Mr. Chun has been to World Headquarters before. So has Handy Mike, several times. J-Whacky is a friend. It really does lessen the tension level that usually develops between tradesmen, who love doing the first 80% of the job as much as they hate finishing up the last 20%, and homeowners, who always have that nasty desire to get the tradesmen to do the job they promised to do, on time, which they could probably do if the homeowners would stop adding more time consuming tasks to the original job. Guilty as charged.