Working Weekend

I finally got back into my house there last week. While this has been a much anticipated development I feel I've yet to be able to enjoy it properly. Since coming back there's been nothing but shifting stuff and setting the place up.
I did manage to slip a few sneaky afterwork pints on Friday afternoon. The wife arrived when I was halfway through the third one, I quickly dispatched the remainder and we headed home. The pub I had wet my whistle in had thrown out some free chips and cocktail sausages which meant that while the wife was eating I was able to get a start on some of the work she had laid out for me. As most of it involved moving things from one point to another the few pints I'd had earlier didn't seem like that much of a drain on me.
The major problem for the evening occured when the wife tried to put on a wash which led to the discovery that the pipes hadn't been fitted properly. It was me who discovered the problem so there wasn't the panic the would have been had the wife witnessed the flood which was intruding on her new kitchen. The place was cleaned up before she knew there was a problem.
I eventually managed to get her to stop working shortly before midnight.
Saturday didn't start as early as we would have liked. When we did get going we were joined by my parents. My mother thought us a lesson in cleaning and she scrubbed and polished the front room, after i had shifted the furniture out. My father tackled some of the ceilings in the various room of the house. My general job was to shift furniture and anything else that was considered to be in the way. I did load all the leftover wood from the job into the shed. We're well stocked for winter at this stage.
Further reinforcements arrived in the shape of Fanj who once changed into his work clothes bagan the painting job in the living room. He emparted some painting wisdom which helped make the job the wife was doing upstairs a little easier. I had tried and failed to meet my wifes high criteria on painting the previous week so I left the two of them at it and concentrated on cleaning the one bedroom that had been done before concentrating on the area of my expertise and prepared a big feed for the workers.
Following a highly satisfying day of work we were delighted to tuck into a big dinner accompanied by a bottle of red. Fanj headed off into the night well worked and fed while the wife seemed intent on beginning to work again. I had to drag her to bed or else she probably would have gone all night.
Despite a well intentioned statement from the wife that she was getting up at half eight Sunday didn't start until almost eleven. We went into the living room where it turned out that Fanj had done something that both myself and my brother had failed to do and met the wifes high criteria for painting. With the house nearly painted I was able to clean and arrange stuff as instructed. It was amazing the stuff that turned up while we were cleaning. We discovered an old phone as well as countless rings for curtains. Probably more rings than we have curtains for. Though it seemed like a never-ending task it was with relief that as we finished up on Sunday night I was able to think that the work was nearly completed. I might even be able to relax next weekend.