Saturdays are for caching up

I have to be on site at 8:30 to deliver the paint to Lance. I wake up early so get up to update the blog which I haven't managed to write for nearly a week. I have hardly had a minute all week which means I've been struggling to keep up at school too. The difference is experience. I've taught for nearly 30 years. This is the first and only house I have or will build. Once is enough at this point of my life. I get some writing done then pour a coffee and load up the car. I'll be away for the day.
Lance is on time and gets to work. He's done this painting lark for his working life and knows it inside out. Experience on the job worth its weight in gold. I like the fact he drives a plain clothes ute. No slogans on the side. He's a one man band.
I do some gardening and watering then head to the beach. On the way back I stop at Oderings to get a salve to put on the broken branches of the Japanese maple. It will rot otherwise...looks like it already has in places. It got snapped off when I wasn't around when the team came to asphalt the driveway back in 2014. I need to do this job while the scaffolding is still there.
Lance is off getting lunch but we catch up over a cream bun. We look at the front door...Lance starts scraping the paint off the door step. He hands me the tool, shows me how to use it and I keep going. It's not as easy as it looks but I get it done.
Lance gets his job finished: fascia boards, and the other hard to reach bits that I still don't know the names of. I feel like I've got this project slightly under control. I make the most of this as I know, come next week, it's not going to last. I pick up bits of roofing steel. These are very sharp and dangerous. I also pick up odd nails I walk past. There's a lot which are useable.
I'm knackered when I leave. Nearly beside myself as I stumble up the steps at Chris's. But I have pork bones, and rally to make dinner for the whanau...Chris, his mum, Elizabeth, and his cousin, Bruce. I'd like to go to bed but I need to catch up on a bit more blogging.

Lance, pro painter extraordinaire

Done