Order cancelled... In other words, the Kiel–Gothenburg crossing has been cancelled.
On Tuesday morning I got a call. I was working in The Hague at the time, and I knew the contractor would be ringing because they wanted to measure up the roof this week. That way it could be done nicely before we went on holiday. "We'd like to put the scaffolding up this afternoon, are you home?" Now, I could have known that measuring a roof might require scaffolding, but I'm not a contractor and, as it happens, hadn't thought of that. Neither had Remy.
"No, we're both working in The Hague and can't just leave." Plus, I thought afterwards, scaffolding round the house while we're on holiday isn't exactly ideal. But needs must.
And needs must it was. Today, in fact, because the contractor had no time for the rest of the week.
Time and contractors. A precarious combination.
Communication and contractors. A contradiction in terms.
"I'll ring my husband and see if he can work from home this afternoon, because there's no way I can manage it." It was going to be my last working day in The Hague before the holiday, and I still had things to do.
To my surprise, Remy could. Meanwhile, we found ourselves thinking about our holiday and a house standing in scaffolding. Welcome, burglars! The ladder's all set up and you can get in through the roof: plenty of holes to choose from!
Then Remy rang me at the end of the afternoon: they want to start on Monday…
In the preceding weeks we'd been worrying about whether they'd really start in the last week of August as promised. Well, that worry turned out to be unfounded – and now we suddenly had a new one instead. But six months ago we'd already decided: we fit in with contractors, whenever they can and want to. And of course we're absolutely delighted with a new roof!
So now what? We're postponing our holiday, which luckily was possible. We'll go later, and maybe we'll even manage the full six weeks we'd originally planned. We no longer need to be back in time for the contractors (famous last words).
On Tuesday evening I went straight from work to an orchestra rehearsal, and several orchestra members already knew our house was in scaffolding. I hadn't even seen it myself yet. Well, village life… "But aren't you going on holiday?" "Weren't you only getting a new roof at the end of August?" And our neighbour across the road the next day: "There were six of them!"
Looking back, we could easily have gone away already with the scaffolding up. The whole village is keeping an eye on our house…
To be continued.
1. Why on earth renovate a house?? Our tent doesn't have a leaking roof, and it ventilates well.
2. Scaffolding does come in handy after all!