Friday 18th August
Overnight overcast skies move back in with misty rain swirling around during the night. This is the last day for all the trades to complete their tasks and have the house back together again ready for the big party tomorrow. There is not a great deal we can achieve until the appliances, fixtures and fittings are reinstated.
The first to arrive are plumbers to install the new vanity in the now freshly painted downstairs bathroom and replace the toilet bowl. Immediately there are problems, the tiler hasn’t made the opening big enough for the toilet outlet. There is some cursing but eventually they find the right tools to enlarge the hole in the porcelain tiles. More workers arrive to replace the tiles in the basement ceiling, only a few are water damaged as a result of the flood, but matching replacements couldn’t be found leaving no alternative but to replace them all.
As the day wears on the weather improves and the ground dries up a little, we can put up tables and chairs outside, a neighbour has loaned Troy some outdoor furniture, they have canopies to erect over tables and chairs to shade the guests from the hot sun. We can start to prepare the backyard to some degree at least. Meanwhile once the bathroom is completed and in working order, the team move into the kitchen only to discover the tiler has tiled in some unexpected areas altering the cabinet levels, some more cursing and the cabinets are painstakingly adjusted to fit adding another delay. Once this is completed another team start to replace the appliances. The washing machine and dryer, the oven, then the dishwasher. All goes smoothly until the dishwasher, there is no intake for the water, once again the tiler has tiled over the hole that took the water hose from the basement to the dishwasher, this time the hole has to be re-drilled through the tiles from below. By now the time has ticked onto 6.00pm the two remaining tradesmen sweating profusely in the thick humidity are stuffed.
During all this Eric, Troy & Heathers neighbour from across the street runs over to warn of impending wind gusts of 40-60mph, we proceed to fold down umbrellas and lay over lightweight chairs, then comes the possible tornado warning. I look at the sky, a mixture of dark and light grey clouds are swirling above us. So close you can almost touch them, lightening crackles on the edges of our horizon seemingly moving from one edge to another. Meanwhile the clouds above us swirl even more, like the hand of some malevolent god above the clouds is stirring a cauldron. Then the rain and wind comes almost together, we hurriedly drop the canopies and remove their covers, topple and fold chairs and move pot plants out of the wind. In an hour the brief storm has passed, undoing most of the preparation work we did during the day. Once the kitchen and laundry is complete we can put those rooms back together, before Troy goes out to collect pizza for dinner. All the kids by this time are back home, a full house for dinner tonight.
The house is in good shape, new tiles look great on the kitchen and laundry floor, fresh paintwork in those rooms and basement. New carpet throughout the basement, now looks great, the kids can once again enjoy the space and Justin at last has is bedroom back. Outside the sun has reappeared reflecting an eerie light somewhere from pink to orange across across the landscape, a full rainbow arches from north to south indicating that all is well with the world and a great day will be had tomorrow.