Silence

Ahh, the sound of blissful silence. What more could a girl ask for?

After eight weeks of head-banging noise, starting at 7am sharp, today I was greeted with silence and that can only mean one thing.....

The repairs on our sinking pool and deck are finally complete and every last contractor, jackhammer, table saw, rock pounder, air blower, vacuum cleaner, power drill, nail gun and slamming port-a-potty door have left the premises. In their place I swear I can hear angels singing!

Regular readers know this saga has been going on since last August, when out of the blue, our pool and deck decided to move south-- as in down hill for no apparent reason. For months we agonized over what to do, how to do it, and who to trust with such a major repair expense. The parade of characters and the proposals we received were enough to make this little girl scream-- which I did on a number of occasions, until my dream man entered the picture.

Mr. Bruno was an angel sent from heaven, or rather recommend by the delightful Thomas aka Mary Poppins, our project guru. As the on-site manager of the repair job, Mr. Bruno rode shotgun over all the workers, oversaw every detail and made sure our yard was spotless at the end of every day-- And I mean spotless! (The empty pool was vacuumed literally every single afternoon before the last guy left!)

For the better part of eight weeks, whenever I looked out the window into our yard, thanks to Mr. Bruno, all I saw were asses and elbows-- of guys working really hard and efficiently and amazingly neat. Despite, the early morning hours, the blaring construction noise and the OMG invoices we paid, at the end of it all, it was way less painful than I ever expected. And that is a dream come true.

There were no surprises, no "oophs", no mystery charges, no disasters (despite an earthquake in the middle of the repairs) and most important-- no drama! The job was done according to plan, on schedule (give or take a few rain days) and on budget. What a relief!

Of course I was hoping for some juicy blog fodder in the process. After all, some days I had a dozen men by my pool and food trucks lining up and down the street to feed them, but I'll take on-time and on-budget any day of the week in lieu of good blog gossip.

Now all that's left is to replant the flowers we moved into temporary pots so it looks like this again....

...And wait for the warm summer weather for our first pool party! Of course no one will ever notice the repair job since everything was put back to it's original place and condition, but when the lounge chairs are full of friends and family on the deck, I'll be confident no one will be going anywhere-- except to the buffet!

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A very big and very late hug and shout out to Alix at Casa Hice for including me in her Blogger Buddy Award recognition. I'm an Alix groupie and never miss a post. If you don't know this amazing woman go check her out. You'll be really glad you did. Alix is a great friend, a true inspiration and one of my all time favorite reads.

This award requires I pass it on to ten Blog Buddies but you know me-- I hate to name names (except for Holly at Your Mother Knows But Won't Tell You-- I love Holly and I'm pretty sure she's how I found Alix in the first place.) So after Holly, I pass this on to the first nine commenters and all of you who would like to send some blog love to your favorite Blog Friends too.

Are you ready for summer?

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins

Photo Credit: (bumble bee) © smilewithjul - Fotolia.com