Sunday 17 January 2010

This House I - New Roof

'New Roof'

I've been writing a story for almost a year now (since March 2009) about selling my father's family home and all the memories which that process triggered - 'That Ordinary House' 1 to
16 (so far) and more to come.
I've also become more interested in photography over the past year or two. My trusty Panasonic Lumix digital takes simple photos.
I'm interested in the simple.
I thought why buy an expensive digital SLR camera when I still don't know the capabilities of this simple little fella.
And what, I thought, if I decided to turn my camera on my backyard and my house/home rather than seek startlingly original images across the whole city as others do so effectively. What if my ordinary house had a story to tell?

That's going to be quite a challenge I thought as i started to snap randomly. It may even be boring I realised as I tried to find the interesting amidst the familiar. But, I thought I'll give it a try. What's to lose but some friends on the net!
Thus 'This House' is born.

'New Roof'.

I live in Brisbane in an inner city suburb full of small cottages, large houses, the occasional mansion and a series of ever expanding apartment developments.
My house is approximately 90 years old (i need to do some more research), constructed of timber with a tin roof and sits on high set stumps - originally hardwood now concrete.
This week it has been driving the neighbourhood nuts as the source of unstoppable noise and mayhem - banging, thumping, drilling, metal screeching against metal - as a new corrugated iron roof replaces the old.
I have been very nervously supervising this make-over as my judgement was knocked for six at Christmas just after I'd signed the contract with the roofing company. It was a good price. Too good to be true perhaps?
On Boxing Day I was in a conversation where roofing came up (as it does at that joyous time of year). My sister-in-law's nephew and his wife were relating their tale of woe about the roofing experience they'd recently had. A disaster! A bunch of incompetents!
Yes you guessed it - the same company. So now I wake each day in a sweat. I follow the roofer around like a puppy. I check each detail obsessively. I expect the worst. So far it seems to have gone well. Three days done and one last day to go.
And then wait for rain.

3 comments:

Alex Daw said...

Ooh luvvie...much sympathy this end....you're at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs on this one aren't you?...the need for shelter....I know there's nothing more comforting than lying in bed in the middle of a storm and knowing that you have a roof over your head and are dry. Fingers toes and eyes crossed that all goes well.

Vera said...

I was going to ditch my camera because of its furious appetite for batteries, but after an Internet search as to the reasons why this was, I purchased some Sanyo eneloop batteries to see if it will give it some photo mileage.
As for roofs: I know the feeling of being worried in case the roofers turn out to be bad'uns. Got the t-shirt on that one! Hope your fears are not realised. Mine weren't.

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