All things come to those who wait …

Well, perhaps not all things, but some things, at least.

Totally within character, two of our “home renovation outfits”, should we call them, delivered on their long-outstanding promises. In one case, it wasn’t even a full delivery, but hey, who are we to quibble – we’ll take whatever scraps we’re given, wouldn’t you?

First, the crane that has towered over our property in bored idleness since September when it was last triggered into action, was finally moved. It has taken probably half-a-dozen requests for its removal, all of which elicited the same response – next week. So we play the game – next week comes and goes, crane still there. Wait another week or so, just to make sure that “next week” didn’t mean “the week after next, or the one after that” (which it frequently does), and we call again. When’s the crane going to be moved? We need the space that it’s taking up to store stuff. Next week.

I must confess it was quite interesting watching it being dismantled and pulled away, a feat of close calculation and small margins for such a beast of a thing – 835 kg blocks sinking a 10-ton truck on its wheels, squeezing through two of the narrowest of gaps to finally get it out.

Not only have we reclaimed the land area, we’ve also got back our air space. It’s actually instilled a sense of freedom about the place, as if the crane was a towering sentinel watching over everything that happened on our little plot. In a way I feel liberated.

Not quite so cathartic with the random visit of the carpenter who showed up unannounced in the middle of the crane removal operation. It’s been some 9 months since the windows were installed, and after an initial resistance to our protestations, he caved and agreed to switch the bathroom and kitchen windows whose designs he had confused. The windows have been ready for some 4 months now. Finally he came to switch them. It took less than an hour. He also brought the window and door frames to complete the job on several of those he had installed but not framed. For some reason, this was not completed.

There’s also the question of the two doors that open into the middle of the room instead of against the wall. He agreed to switch these as well. The man he sent to do the window-swapping seemed to know nothing of these. So we’re still waiting for him to finish the job that we – in our naïve, willing, but totally un-Italian way – paid for in full some time ago.

Boy, do we have some lessons tucked away in our little home renovation satchel. I’d almost like to do this again to be able to do it better next time, both to vindicate ourselves for our sins this time around, and to do it with an overall lower average blood pressure. Fat chance of that happening anytime soon.

Oh well …