The Night The Ceiling Collapsed

One. More. Sleep. OMG Yes. I think I actually *deserve* this holiday more than any holiday before! Wait till you hear how the rest of my week went.

So, I was having a chaotic week work-wise. And then The Trucker got a call at almost 3am on Friday morning. From his sister. With the shakiest voice I've ever heard. In our half asleep state we couldn't quite muddle thru what she was saying. Was there someone in the house? No, the ceiling had collapsed.

The. Ceiling. Had. Collapsed. Feel free to read that again. I was as shocked as you. So we put on some clothes and drove thru (luckily my old house, which she is renting from me, is a mere 1.5km away from us). Still bleary-eyed, we stared in shock, open-mouthed at the destruction. Never in my life. It looked like what I imagine Pompeii looked like. There was a lot of insulation up there that was now covering everything in her lounge.



We bundled them into the car, barely thinking of how we'd solve this in the light of day. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep much after that, panic and worry and considering the expense of it all o_0. Not pleasant. I dare say his sister & niece couldn't sleep much either. Coughing from the dust they'd inhaled and thinking of everything that was under a pile of dust back home, the open laptop, the clothes waiting to be ironed ... But yes, thank goodness it was the lounge and not either of the bedrooms. I don't even want to think about that.

I worked from home for the morning. Well, at least until the power went out at home, which meant the router died and I was praying my laptop battery would last. So I ended up heading thru to the office before lunch, there wasn't much more I could do to help anyway.

The Trucker was amazing. Superb. A superhero. In the morning while I was making calls, to the Insulation people, to maid-services (turns out I couldn't find one that can help in an emergency because they all need to be booked in advance), to the Managing Agents, I discovered a little paragraph in July's AGM minutes ... Sounds like I was not the first person with a ceiling to collapse in the complex, and it was for the owner's expense.

In retrospect, it seems like shoddy workmanship when the complex was originally built. The Trucker showed me some of the old nails that were used to hold up the ceiling boards. They had very small heads, which means a very small surface area holding things up. We've used much bigger ones (same length tho).

The insulation can be re-applied, as long as we kept it (so we did). By Friday afternoon, The Trucker had 3 guys working there and the roof was already back up and the cornices were being done. Saturday the work continued, the down-lights were put back in, and the primer was painted. On Sunday, the last of the painting was done before lunch time. Amazing, really.

And it didn't cost nearly as much as I was anticipating. Okay, so more than I would've liked to spend mere days before heading off to the USA on holiday, but roughly one month's rental income. It could've been far worse if The Trucker didn't have connections. I am so lucky <3

So, The Trucker's sister & niece were staying with us till Sunday morning. And it wasn't the relaxed pre-trip weekend I was expecting, by a long shot (even tho I barely had to do a thing, amazing).

But I did get to pop out for a 4hr brunch with some of my favourite people on Saturday, @louisabouwer and Nicola, @Arkwife and Sienna, @Rubyletters and @RebeccaHumphry and Jackson. Wow, can't believe how long it's been since I'd seen all the kiddie-winks as well. My, have they grown. *cough* String-bean Jackson *cough*. It was such a lovely brunch, which ended with Sangria ;)

And that was about the extent of our weekend. We had a pretty lazy Sunday, although The Trucker has me building a small website for some extra spending money in the USA for the both of us. He made his next round of beer too, so it'll be ready when we get home :)

And then we watched Where The Wild Things Are. Meh, it's quite well done, but definitely aimed at a younger audience. The Trucker was yawning his head off. Also, while I know I read the book as a kid, I had no recollection of the storyline whatsoever.

And did I mentioned that my gel nails have peeled off 2 nails again? They lasted a week this time. I think I'm giving up on this whole nail-polish saga. Just not meant to be, clearly. And certainly not worth the expense at this rate! Oh well, the polish on my toe nails is still there and unchanged. So I reckon I'll just stick with toes instead, then :)