Back in the days when I had a boat and a life, this heat wave would have been so awesome, but when you’re busting your buns on a reno, it ain’t no fun at all! Temps in the mid thirties and even hotter in the house are just brutal to work in. We are glistening with sweat and covered in dirt – not a pretty site.

Chris, my helper, went under the house yesterday to do the dreaded spider kill. I thought it would at least be cooler under there for him, but it wasn’t. He was all suited up with protection and looked like a member of the HAZMAT team. Better him than me. Another tough job out of the way though.

The rubbish boys were here for yet another load. Another four hundred bucks for garbage, and we’re not done yet. Seems like we never stop demolishing things. About the only thing left is the original bathroom. We’re still waiting for the plumber to show up to get my bathroom in the suite going, then we can pull the old one out. At this point we’re going to finish the bathroom in the suite so that I have somewhere I can close the door and live without drywall dust and crap around me. It will be SO nice to have just one room finished the way I want it.

This weekend was going to be devoted to a surprise project for my friend, Crystal. She left yesterday to go and see her brother in Saskatchewan and won’t be back until Monday. I got her a deal on some embossed interior doors for her place. They needed some minor repairs and painting, which I have managed to squeeze in this week. I called her Dad to tell him what I wanted to do, to surprise her when she got back, and he was going to let me in to get the doors, then let me in to install them when I had hinged and put the passage sets on. Well, that was the plan. First, she called me and asked why I called her Dad. I guess he didn’t quite get the “surprise” part. I fumbled a bit with that, but managed to get her to just accept that her Dad and I were working on a surprise for her. Then she called me before she left and told me to promise not to call her Dad. That pretty well blew the surprise out of the water and I have no idea why. Her Dad is upset about something, but I haven’t a clue why. It’s very disappointing as I worked hard to get them ready, and without her here this weekend, it would have been the perfect time to do this for her. Nothing I can do now to change it. Sad.

Plumber is supposed to be here today, but this is about the tenth time I’ve heard that, so we’ll see. He has us really in a bind because we can’t do what we need to do without the bathroom done. There’s some tricky plumbing issues with the new bathroom, or I would press on and do it myself. I have another plumber who’s willing to work for me “on the side” so this bathroom will be the last job for the current plumber. Too unreliable. Things are so hot work-wise in the Okanagan right now that it’s really hard to find anyone to work. They’re all getting greedy and don’t really want to work for the money anymore. The boom is projected to last ten to fifteen years here, so things won’t change for a while.

Back to work. Another day in the “sweat shop”.