Jack of all trades ...

As you can see by the previous entry, Kenneth is pretty handy - partly because all through our married lives he's had to be, we never had the money to bring in the professionals. I might be biased but I think he does a pretty fine job - he did most of our "apartment" single handed, fitted the kitchen, did all the woodwork and plumbling. He is still in the middle of doing the bathroom, though I think it will be next year before that's finished given our current financial status, but I can live with that!
With Yasmna now walking we suddenly realised that the lack of a protective rail at the top of the stairs could be a problem! The stairs themselves were fairly recently built. Until then we had been coming upstairs by means of a vertical ladder! I must admit it was a bit scary but you can get used to most things! However, climbing the vertical ladder with a baby in arms was impossible - one of us had to go first and then pass the baby up or down! It was quite a pantomime at times and quite amusing at times but also dangerous so we knew we had to do something. On discovering that the cost of having a company build a staircase was far too much for us, Super Ken leaped into action and said "I'll build one". "Build a staircase, how will you do that?" I replied "Not sure yet, but I'll work it out!" was his answer ... and he did! Of course he'll kill me if he reads this blog ... not least for the earlier photo of him with the false Mohican hairdo!

Since then with the pressure of all the other things he has to do, the stairs have been left unpainted but functional. At the top we had an assortment of pieces of wood to stop us from falling, but with a baby now toddling around this was obviously inadequate so it was over to Kenneth again ... and a couple of days and several trips to the wood merchant later here is the result (if you look closely, you'll see wee Yasmina standing alongside). Nice eh? Behind the "barrier" you can see Kenneth's office corner!

Poor Kenneth, he has so much to do that most of the time he doesn't know whether he's coming or going. Recently he had to deal with a flood at Kenny's new apartment. Kenny's first apartment was put on sale so we had to help him to find a new one. Then he had trouble with flatmates not paying bills (their parents sent the money and they spent it!) Finally he has a nice two bedroom apartment and two lovely flatmates - Claudiu sleeps in the living room, Kenny has the smaller of the two bedrooms and Ana has the other bedroom. Yesterday Ana cooked for them all because it was Palm Sunday here in Romania.

Just after they moved in one of the pipes burst and it turned out to be the pipe for the heating system for a quarter of the apartment block. Believe me when I say it was like a fountain and it just kept on coming until the whole heating column emptied. It was hilarious - while Kenneth battled in vain to try and stop the gush of water Rosanna and I baled out into the hallway with plastic tubs (he stays on the ground floor fortunately). We were all covered in a brownish sludge from the old pipes and Kenneth especially was absolutely soaked through literally to the skin. Kenny meanwhile ran upstairs for the owner who then arrived with a plumber as the flow of water had slowed to a trickle. The kitchen, hallway and bathroom were all under several Cm's of water and we only managed to save the other rooms by putting a barrier of sleeping bags and towels across the doorway from the hall. Just another day in the life of the crazy Clokes!