June 2011 D Ream...the only way is up...or is it?

Hi Again Capt Finn...where are those Pirate Dinosaurs?,I'm on a bit of a roll here, so let's not stop it. Of course there we are thinking that we are looking towards the finishing line, or at least the end of building. You see people ask you, when will you finish, noone can tell you. It always feels like it should be three months and it never is, but it soooo feels that it should be.

Anyway, this was the first month that I think we genuinly felt we should have the builders out by the end of the month. That would only leave surfaces to be complete, zeliging, plastering, tadlakt, madlouk and martobbing...well that was the theory and of course it is only ever a theory...but you need a dream, it can never take as long as it might, I don't think it's bearable. That's why we say three months, as that's all we can sustain, till the next three months!

Anyway here we are at the begining of the month, surely, surely we could pull off the end of construction within 30 days!!!!

Of course things don't go that way. Rachid plods on, tho he's more on our side these days...I think the competition from M'hd Everything by the M/2 has helped, but he's painfully slow. And then of course there is the rest of the house to consider. In the garden we've put in a new bartal, which is a grandious garden seat space.

But we've done this by nicking wall space from a neighbours even up to getting to within the thinness of the hirsch on their walls...inside. However a few plinths above and red bricks below and Ali's your uncle....only if he's your brother too...in joke there!

Of course we also have our eco shower and plant beds/wells to put in and there's so much other work from electrics to plumbing and of course carpentry to fit in...we must be crazy...delusional, to think the end is in sight......but it feels so, I can almost smell it, allow myself to dream of not trudging up the hill to negotiate, be shouted at, be disappointed...surely, oh surely it's close...please!

Our delusion has lead us to begin to move things in to the house that reflect the paradigm of finishing. Of course we've been buying and preparing for this glorious day...and there is so much else to buy...so much more to spend money on. Your mum has been excellent here, she searches out bargains, negotiates deals, batters down prices in ways I never could.

God she's good at that, and at so much else...I look forward to the day we can just enjoy each other. We went to Rabat for a weekend away...well a weekend away to buy windows for the hotel, nonetheless it wasn't Soulimans Yard, which is something. Anyway we stayed at a great little hotel, got all dressed up and had a time of it and then, there, away from it all, I remembered who we'd been before this consumed us...I can't wait to get that back. Thus the dream!

But then there are moments when you see an area in the house...the top floor garden for example, which has been planted and begins to take root. It's begining to grow, begining to give the impression of a house without dust and dirt, builders and stinking toilets, shouting and screaming, abuse, lies and headholding....it all feels so close! Is it?

Of course it is only a mirage, because although there are plenty of examples of us having made progress, of walls having gone up, balconies being constructed, potos being made. The reality is that we are still in the midst of a chantier and have gapping holes to fill. It was a joy to get Driss...Good Old Driss, not the other one, back, but he soon disappeared and we were left again, mason lite.

We've thought of re employing many a dud, but can't bring ourselves to. I even called Goldie who said he'd come the next day...and didn't.....only for a refugee from M'hd Everything by the M/2's team to turn up, work a day and then not return...that's how fragile progress is. But guess what, he came back and I smiled, muttered, mumbled "Silver lining"...but will he be there tomorrow?

Yes the shower wall looks so different now, but there is soooo far still to go and so many mines to trip on to, waiting to explode and kill the dream...or at least confound it again.

And that's just it, untill this stops we will forever be at risk of someone leaving, not agreeing to up hold a deal, slipping in a bit of passive or very agressive, aggressive, simply to fuck us up.

Driss puts in a quaos...how long did we take to get this image?

Another classic involves another carpenter. So Hamid left where others had before him and we brought inYussef and Abdelhaq. They're not great but they're better than nothing. We made a deal to do the quaoses over the windows in Twin, the ones we'd bought in rabat and been quoted 9,000 dhs for in Fez. We were up on a deal and could finish the room with the quaoses and a mason. Y and A said they'd be done in a week. They came in after 2, which was fine, but they were too big...just poor attention to detail. We needed 80 cms, they'd done them at 88cms. So they had to be done again. But Y needs more money, and we won't pay any more...we know the story...so now 6 weeks later, we finally get them after weeks of tomorrows and nights of when, oh whens.

Ali has done the same, simply not turning up because he threw a strop...so no plumbing...which is to say running lines through work that has already been done, which means it must be redone!

And then this afternoon Abdellah ( the neighbour who lost his son) from next door comes over and says he'll complain about the build unless we pay for a new cover to his terrace and halka. He knows he's threatening us, that he can get the baladier in and they will find some reason to stop the build, untill a little sweatener has been made...or something has been ripped out.....

And in reality, that's how close we are...which is to say still far too far!

And yet we dream!