Not Sure We Work Well Together

01 October 2010

Well she didn't get the job. Claire that is. You might be wondering why I have jumped right in with that piece of information when this is a builder’s blog. Well, I love my wife to bits, but I like my lifestyle as well. If she got a job then that would mean that the way I run my business would have to change and as sexist as that might sound, I don't want that sort of change.

The problem is that she is pretty much devastated and upset. She feels as though no one takes her seriously and that she is just a boring stay at home Mum. It doesn't matter what I say or do to show her how appreciated she is, she says that I don't count...Nice!

What she needs is a nice home based job which does use her talents and this landscaping lark seems to be right up her street. So I have tried to encourage her to follow it up and she is now looking into courses she can do in computer aided landscape design. I think she will be brilliant at it and having an expert on my doorstep will be a big boost for my business too.

Having said all that, I am not sure we work together well. She has been helping me with the gardens at the Victorian flats this week. By Tuesday afternoon we were tearing strips off each other. Thank goodness the tenants work all day because it was kind of embarrassing really.

When it came down to it, I just couldn't handle her telling me what to do. It was like “plant that, plant this”, “Dig a hole here” and “ I need some paving slabs – now”. I felt like a right dogsbody. Katy told me that it is just because I am used to doing the bossing around...I have no idea what she means. Ha! Ha!

But the garden is close to being finished and Claire will only be back for a couple of days next week to do the finishing touches. All the inside snags are finished as well and the tenants appear to be over the moon with it all.

This job has been such a long slog and now the benefits have started rolling in. I have been able to pay all the final bills and can now see how much money is left. It looks as though I have a nice little nest egg. More than I had expected, considering the extra work which was needed.

But it isn't spent yet; I have decided to keep it all in the account as a little bit of a cushion if things ever go wrong in the future. Just having that little extra can be a real help as trying to get a loan or an overdraft these days is like getting blood out of a stone. Funny thing is that banks love to lend you money if you already have it – how does that work?

So a new job starts on Monday, but I will tell you all about that one next week. Here's hoping we have a nice simple one this time.