I have my handyman friend visiting on his day off. He is a workaholic, getting him to stop working is a problem so we talk and drink tea and do small jobs around the place that I can’t do!

We are working on the water tank project, fixing up the brickwork that is cracked around the garage and plan to paint it as well! So we are cementing all the cracks and taking out the broken mortar so he can put new mortar in, I am fixing the large cracks between the brickwork and laid cement from 30 years ago. You can put a thumb down in parts. One area needs just cement & sand mix then pushed down into the cracks and the larger cracks will need gravel & cement mix then push this down these cracks, it took a 20 L bucket of gravel to fill this crack as it was 4 large bricks deep down to the foundations in parts. Then he fixed the mortar between the bricks on the outside of the building. This all took about 2 hours, I had all the stuff needed to do the job, from my last project when I paid him to do some work around the house like re-stumping some broken stumps etc.

After lunch we started washing & painting the walls around the garage. The plan is that he will do the high parts & I will do the lower parts and paint the brickwork when it dried on Tuesday . I was painting last year so I have all paint bought as well! 10L of main color Cream (dark side) & trim is a Heritage Green (dark green), the job will take about 4 – 5L of paint to do the job properly! It will take a few days to do, but I am happy that it will be finished before the tank arrives.

As he is going home to New Zealand in a few months, I will not be able do all my small jobs before he goes. I do pay for all the material used, and provide him free meals when he comes. Today I am cooking a roast chicken dinner for lunch.