The Painters Came!

When we moved into this house just shy of 6 months ago, the landlords filled us with promises that the house, not quite finished, soon would be. The dirt to fill the concrete pit which was to be our yard would come in one month (it took 3,) the tiles on the balcony upstairs would be finished within 2 weeks (they were finished 6 weeks ago, and the leftover tiles and someone’s ladder is still sitting out there,) and the house would be painted before November.

I’ve seen our house painter. He’s also painting our neighbor’s house and the next one over. I think I’ve seen him a dozen times in the last 6 months. He’s quite a convivial fellow who seems to like his work.

Last week, just after she finished yelling at me about our dirty kitchen windows, our neighbor said the painter would be here Friday (9th March) to put up scaffolding. He’d been at her house all day touching things up. That’s the last we saw of him until 7:45 am today. There is still no scaffolding, but he and his helper worked until about noon and managed a first coat on the top story. Good for them!

One thing did surprise me: I’ve always thought painting was rather quiet work. At 7:45 this (Saturday) morning, they were banging things against the walls and generally making a ruckus. I think one of the angles of workers here is to make you wait so long for them to do the work that when they do come, you don’t dare complain about noise, what time it is, or whether they clean up after themselves. (Our painter did, most don’t.)

I’m thinking they’ll have this done just about in time for us to see the finished product from the back of the ferry.