No going back - 23. New House

Monday morning, I had to go to the doctor's to get my vital statistics checked, make sure I was still alive. I'd joked about this to Colin, but he hadn't taken it well, he was still worried about me. I apologised, though it was too early in the morning for such conversations. I explained that I'd always dealt with my health using humour, otherwise everything was too much over the top. But there wasn't really time for a long discussion.

Colin had stuff to do early afternoon, so he arranged to collect me. He was looking as pleased as punch as we drove to the new house. The door was opened by Joe of all people, and he had a big, self-satisfied grin on his face. What was he doing there?

All was revealed when I got into the living room. It was painted, there were curtains, a sofa, some bookshelves. It looked terrific. Colin was on tenterhooks.

"Is it OK?"

I shook my head, "It's fantastic. I can't believe you got so much done."

"I wanted it to be finished, but things took longer."

"Look, don't beat yourself up, it's incredible you did so much."

He then looked bashful, "I had a lot of help. Jimmie and the boys came over at the end of each day, as did Joe."

"No wonder your Mum was coy about what you'd been doing", he gave me a big grin.

"Turns out he's a dab hand with the paint brush."

Joe shrugged, embarrassed at the praise, "I made a real mess at first, but Colin and Jimmie showed me how to do it properly."

Colin smiled, "He's a quick learner."

I was wandering around the room, "The colours are what we talked about. The furniture?"

"I went to IKEA, and it arrived on Saturday. You like it?"

"Of course."

"I wasn't sure, but having..."

I leaned over and kissed him, "Stop it. You are talking to someone who would probably have gone out and bought the first sofa he saw."

Joe laughed, "That's what Mum does."

I rolled my eyes, "It's our training."

"Disdain for worldly goods", Joe smiled as he reeled of the quote. Colin stared at him, Joe smiled, "We all got it dinged into us. I was a bit of a failure though. Anyroad. Have you seen the kitchen?"

Of course, the kitchen was the room that had required the most work. The new windows looked terrific, and were bigger and better than the old ones, double glazed and they didn't leak. And one wall was painted, had a splash-back of tiles and a unit, there was a sink unit too, and boxes with what looked like the rest of the kitchen units.

"We couldn't get this anything like done, but Jimmie put the tiles up this morning to give you an idea what it will be like. Is it...."

"Amazing. I can't wait for it to be finished."

We were just having another wander round, having gone upstairs to inspect the work done there, when the doorbell rang. Joe dashed to get it and returned with his Mum, a bottle of bubbly in her hand. Colin went for glasses (though it was the mis-matched ones I'd found for the house when we first started work) and soon there was bubbly all round (including Joe) to toast the new house.

Like me, Mhairi was amazed at the speed and skill with which Colin had put things together, in a way that didn't look last minute or rushed. It turned out that the curtains were thanks to her. One of the women at work had a friend wanting to find a good home for ones she no longer needed, and by some fluke, they were a decent fit. They were not the sort of pattern or style that I would have chosen, but hell, they were curtains.

We had Chinese, from the local take-away, delivered. Just the two of us, once everyone had left. Then we cuddled on the sofa and, well, it ended up as more than a cuddle, so we christened the sofa and the house good and proper. Thank goodness for the curtains.

---

It took a few weeks before I settled in properly and let the rental house go. Colin had insisted that I take things easy, and he had come over every evening to paint, often joined by Jimmie or one of his team and Joe. Joe proved to be surprisingly diligent. He wasn't just deft with a paintbrush and roller, he was serious about the work and if he said he'd come, he'd be there. I was beginning to realise that with his focused attitude, he would be a real credit to his Summer acting course or anything else that he put his mind to. When I commented about this to Colin, he said that it was because I was his uncle; that Joe needed to be fully engaged with what he was doing. So acting would do well, but his maths exams would not. Life sucked sometimes.

The kitchen didn't get finished until the next week, as white goods needed to be ordered, delivered and fitted. Colin's choice of gas fitter was out of town, so we'd had to wait till he returned. It was like that; Colin had a precise idea about how things should go. It was annoying and frustrating, but the results were superb. The first Wednesday I was up and about we went over to IKEA in the evening to look at furniture for the rest of the house. Colin was immeasurably practical, commenting about how things would fit, or how they had to be fitted together. It was rather funny, as he read everything carefully and would tut over details that I didn't notice.

After shopping, we got back to my rental house for a late meal (cold meat, cheese and salads that I had bought) and he'd already apologised for taking such a long time at IKEA. I had to say it was me who should apologise for being so unhandy and useless, for needing someone like him to sort things out. The weekend was devoted to getting the kitchen sorted out, and to my surprise Joe came over to help. Unbidden, too.

It seemed that he was both handy and enjoyed doing things with Colin and me. I tried not to over-analyse things, but I did wonder whether Joe missed that sort of interaction with his Dad. I'd been lucky, in a way, whilst there had been a lot that I could and did moan about when it came to my parents, Dad still made time for me. Granted, this was usually on holiday, with walks and so on, but he enjoyed having me around and I think, if I'd been a bit more religiously inclined, or more to the point, hadn't been so fundamentally opposed to part of his Church's teaching, then we might have been closer.

"Can I ask you summat?"

Joe and I were unpacking the next of the kitchen units, carefully laying everything out so that Colin could check that all the bits and pieces were there. We'd take all the rubbish outside where we were dutifully sorting it into recycling and other stuff. A trip to the tip beckoned. I looked at Joe and nodded.

"Will you still live here when you get all your Grandad's money?"

"Interesting point. Probably. It's a bit difficult to get my head around, until the money's actually in my bank account."

Joe laughed, "That's what Mum says. That we can't spend it till we get it. And she doesn't want me to tell anyone", he looked at me questioningly.

I shrugged, "That seems like a good idea to me, folk can get a bit eager if they think you have money."

"You mean wanting it?"

"A bloke I worked with, way back, came into money unexpectedly. Everyone at work presumed that he was flush with cash and could pay more than his whack when we went out for a drink. It wasn't done in nasty way, but it was rather unappealing. Made you realise quite how shitty people can be without realising it. So, no. I probably won't say much about the money, either. And frankly, this house is plenty big enough for me, and even if Colin stays the night, it's still big enough."

He looked thoughtful, "Yeah. Mum was talking about paying off the mortgage. I think Dad still pays for some of it."

"Makes sense. Paying for your house is often your biggest expense. "

"Yeah..."

"But?"

Joe laughed, "I thought we could have a bit of fun too."

I smiled, "Fun comes in all shapes and sizes", I looked over into the kitchen where Colin was just finishing the unit he was working on, kneeling down and giving us a glorious view of his bum, decently covered in stripy briefs, but a lovely view nonetheless, "Sometimes the best things are those that you don't expect and that don't cost. Besides, the money won't go away."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's not like your Mum and I have inherited a fixed income. We each get an amount, a large amount, which provides an income from investments. If we don't spend it, then it's invested and can generate more income. That's why there's a nice pot at the moment."

"Why. Because no-one's spent it?"

"Precisely. Your Grandfather ignored it, prevented your Mum and I inheriting when we turned 21, so it was simply reinvested, and it seems that the people looking after the money knew what they were doing."

Joe laughed, "So there's plenty?"

"I think it's more like an elegant sufficiency. You know how they go on about interest rates dropping?"

"Yeah. Though I don't read much about that."

"You should. Because if interest rates drop, if 'the market' is dropping", I put the words in air quotes, "then that will directly affect the income from the investments. It's not all fixed." Joe stared at me, clearly recalibrating things, "You know those ads that you see for wonder investment schemes where there's always a warning that investments can go down as well as up?"

"Sort of."

"Well, that's what can happen."

"And if we go mad and spent lots now, there'll be less for the future?"

"That's it. So, your Mum is wise to think about things."

"It's just. She says that the money's for my education, but I don't think she likes what I'm interested in."

"Then the two of you will have to work on things. Talk to her and talk to me. It's no good getting resentful. So, talk. The most important thing at the moment is to keep your options open."

"You mean at school?"

"And elsewhere. Don't pursue acting to the detriment of everything else, but don't let people stop you acting. Keep doing a mixture of things."

"You mean work for my exams and do the course?"

"Yes. And have some fun too."

Joe gave a dry laugh, "Dad's not very keen on fun, and I don't think Mum always gets her head around the idea, either."

"I'm not surprised. My Mother and Father were serious people, life had to be fulfilling a purpose, a useful purpose. You couldn't be idle. Your Mum and I spent a lot of time helping on various Church projects."

"You mean like collecting stuff for refugees?"

"That sort of thing. The Church was very big on missions to developing countries, so we were always collecting stuff and making things to raise money. It was all very gender specific."

He stared at me, "What do you mean?"

"Well, girls and women made things, socks, scarfs, cakes, whilst men and boys did practical stuff", I smiled, "So your Mum and I didn't do a lot of fun as kids. Dad would take us for walks, but there'd be instruction too, on birds, on trees, history and the like. Your Grandad loved history and knew a lot about wildlife. But your Mum has pointed out that my memory is incomplete, there were plenty of occasions when he and I would go off, whilst Mhairi stayed with Mum to do things in the kitchen."

"Useful stuff?"

"Correct."

"Now, I hate to interrupt this trip down memory lane", Colin appeared and stood behind me, his hand on my shoulder and his belly pressing against my back of my head. I put my hand up and slipped it under his t-shirt and massaged his belly. I stood up and kissed him. I was aware of Joe watching us carefully but thought why not. Why shouldn't I be friendly to my boyfriend?

"Sorry. We started talking about money and that led to fun."

"Fun?", Colin grinned, "You're supposed to be working, we still have three cabinets to do. Fun comes later", and he gave an exaggerated wink to Joe, who coloured up a bit, but smiled. It seemed that Joe had developed some sort of relationship with Colin whilst I was ill. Suddenly, I was developing friends, family and...

I shook my head and got back to work.

By the end of Saturday, we had all the cabinets made and up. There was a bit of paint to touch up, and that was it. Mhairi arrived to collect Joe, but she brought a casserole in her electric casserole thing, her slow cooker as she called it. This was plugged back in, and we had a drink, chatted and showed her around the house. We went out into the garden, then Colin and Joe went back to sort out cutlery and plates from the small store of stuff we had brought to the house. Mhairi and I stayed in the garden.

"Joe was asking me about money."

"Money? As in Grandad's money?"

"Yes. I think he's worried about you using it as a weapon to make him do what you want when studies."

"Bugger." It was the first time I'd heard her properly swear in ordinary conversation. "I just want him to be sensible."

I gave a dry laugh, "At that age? He wants to act."

She raised her eyebrows, "But he needs some qualifications too."

"That's what I said." She nodded. "And that he needed to talk to you", I looked over to her, "and you to him. We also talked about the lack of fun when we were growing up."

Mhairi gave a dry laugh, "You bet. OK.", she sighed. "Thanks. It's a bit of a work in progress."

“Did you make any progress with the Manchester solicitor’s, I rather lost track of that what with being ill and the house. You had an appointment to see them.”

Mhairi had been soldiering on with the legal stuff and we’d decided I should not be too ambitious, so she had gone with Joe. He’d not said anything about it to me.

“Didn’t Joe tell you?”

“Not a bit, probably waiting for you?”

“Idiot. Nothing happened really. I told them everything I knew, and they are going to send through the paperwork for us to sign.” She gave me a strong stare, “It’s not going to be cheap.”

“I think we figured that. Play it by ear and we’ll pull the plug if it seems a money pit. But…”

“What?”

I grinned, “I don’t half feel like we’re getting our own back on the old bugger.”

She gave a tight smile, “That’s something like what Joe said.”

Despite all the family business, we had a fun evening. Surprisingly fun. By the end, Colin and my family had managed to entirely replan the house, and Mhairi was talking about the garden. I hadn't even begun to think about that, beyond the need to trim the lawns, but I suppose there was scope.

"Do you know anything about gardening?".

Mhairi and Joe had gone, and we were stood just outside the new windows of the kitchen, looking at the green grass and bare borders. We each had a drink, and I had my arm round Colin's waist.

"A bit. I help Mum", there was a pause, inevitable I suppose when it came to his Mother, "but I tend, tended to just do what she told me. Move stuff around, dig out those weeds", he gave a dry laugh, "perhaps we should learn".

"We?"

He turned and smiled, "Yeah, we. It's what you want isn't it?"

I grinned at him and squeezed his waist, "You bet. You and Joe seem to be getting on well?"

"He's a nice boy, helpful, and I think he doesn't get much support from his Dad".

"He said much?"

Colin frowned, "Not really. But if his Dad crops up then he clams up and goes quiet."

I shook my head, "Families. Look, I think we should lock up and go home. You were putting on quite a show earlier, your bum has been giving me ideas for hours." We would be returning to the rental house, but its days were thankfully numbered.

He grinned, "And..."

"Well, it's about time we put them into practice."

Sunday, Colin got us up early and in the new house we started unpacking all the stuff we’d brought from London. It was a slow process, because every few things would cause us to stop and I would reminisce or Colin would want to know what something was, or I would exclaim and decide that there was no reason for keeping it.

"I reckon we need to go proper shopping and get you stuff, you don't have enough pots and pans to do any real cooking. And you need other things, will these sheets fit the new bed? And towels."

I laughed, "Sorry, I rather got out the habit of thinking about furnishing houses. The sheets fitted my last bed, which I didn't bother keeping. And, as you know, I didn't cook much. Old me would simply have bought a micro-wave."

"And new you?"

"Well, I know someone who promised some cookery lessons?"

He smiled, "That needs something to cook with."

"I'm still going to have to get a micro-wave. For nights when it's just me, and I don't have time to do something properly."

"Yeah, I figured that. So. Shopping?"

"Now?"

Colin rolled his eyes, "There's still a ton of boxes upstairs."

In fact, it took another week. Getting beds delivered, getting everything unpacked. But we got there, and on the following Sunday, Colin and I christened the new bed.