Opinion TheReview Wednesday, June 20,1990 — A7 : Today we're going to talk about home renova- tions. Yeah, yeah, I know, you’ve heard this before. You know all the horror stories. Like the one about the plumber who shows up to estimate the cost of fixing a leaky faucet. He looks around, yanks a 145-pound wrench from his hip pocket and whacks it against a perfectly good pipe which shatters. He binds the wound with tape and gauze, scribbles out a repair estimate equal to SO per cent of the value of your house and says he’ll be back Tuesday moming to do the job. The trouble is he didn’t say which Tuesday and, as time passes, you conclude that the Tuesday he had in mind may not be one slated for the current millennium. But don’t worry. This is not going to be a horror story. No sir-ree bop. Blue Eyes and I have cohabitated in the place we're at now for close to 20 years. What with one thing and another, we never succumbed to the dreaded renovation fixit bug which has attacked some of our braver friends. However, we did wash finger smudges from around the light switches when needed. Once every couple of years. We are not fixit type people. We are missing that brain part which aims hammers at nails. It has been replaced by a part which guides fingers into sockets, knuckles against cement and nails into knees. Therefore, rather than tackle a 20-year build-up of supposed repair problems, we decided a couple of weeks ago to move. Unfortunately, for the money we had to spend, the market offered only 30-year repair problem build-ups so we drank heavily and called in a plumber. He arrived the next day, spent a moming poking at pipes, pronounced them perfect except for a sink which should be replaced and he’d be back | in the moming to do the job for cost plus five per cent. “Aren't you going to whack a pipe and make it bleed?” I asked. He smiled, tipped his cap and put the sink in the next day - the same day the electrician arrived. The electrician said he didn’t know who had wired our house in the first place but in all his Mr. Fixit and his friends years in the business he had never run across such high quality and superior workmanship. Better than he was capable of, he said. Should be good for another 20 years, he said. Blue Eyes and I leaned against each other for support. We had heard it was bad manners to faint in the presence of a tradesman. “No charge,” he said as he closed the door behind him. We crumpled to the floor in a confused jumble of spaghetti legs and spastic arms. A painter arrived while we were lying there. He helped us to the couch, tucked a blanket around our knees and brewed some tea. After he’d toured the house, he sat beside us, took our hands in his and said he thought the rooms could do with some sprucing up. He named a price lower than our wildest dreams. He said he’d like to begin as soon as it was convenient with us, that it would take two days to complete and he planned to employ three shifts working around the clock, and we said, Huh? He said that way he wouldn’t inconvenience us too much and what he would like to do is set up a small trailer in the driveway where he and his crew would take the occasional nap, and would it be alright with us if they boiled water for their coffee on our stove, and we said, Huh? He said we were welcome to stay in his house while he worked on ours. He said his house would be empty because his wife and sons worked with him and they preferred to have someone looking after the place when they were gone. We said, Huh? and he asked if that meant ‘yes’, and we said Uh Huh and nodded our heads. And that’s the truth. He said he noticed that our car port and porch could do with some minor repairs before he painted them and that he had a brother who was in that line of work but had a free day between two long jobs. We hired him. It turned out he was also a tiler. We discovered three days later, when we were wandering hand in hand through our renovated home, that he had replaced some suspect bathroom tiles at no cost. Just then the telephone rang and as I went to lift the receiver, I found myself sitting straight up in bed and the alarm was ringing. Kents Cabinets and Furniture For a Free Estimate Call #6 - 10114 McDonald Park Rd. Shawn (1 Block SID NEY Lumber) 655-0881 /\. Let's Go Sailing Discover the excitement of sailing among the Gulf Islands aboard a 3 hr. skippered sail boat charter. Island Breeze Sailing Day and weekend charters also available. 3 hrs. $125.00/4 persons. GARY UTLEY 4771-5396 Winners take home compleie ouitit THE BIG WINNERS IN the Greater Victoria Bicycle Roadeo competition held at Memorial Arena are in. From Sansbury-McTavish Elemen- tary School, Grade 2 student Sandra Heron balanced her bike through all the course obstacles to take first place of all Grade 2 girls in the region. She was rewarded with a trophy, a medallion and “teally nice and unique jacket” from Petro-Can, Sidney RCMP Cst. Kim Horsman said. Heron now has a complete Bicycle Roadeo outfit. Another big winner was also from Sansbury- McTavish School. Chris Wignall is in Grade 5 and took top honors for his flawless performance in the boys’ category. He also took home a trophy, medallion and a jacket, to compliment a helmet and sweatshirt already won at the local competi- tion held at Panorama Leisure Centre a few weeks ago. About 155 youths competed in the regional competition after talking first or second at local events on the Peninsula, in Saanich, Oak Bay, Colwood, Victoria, Esquimalt and Juan de Fuca. Otto, the police department’s robot car, was there to hand out the awards. * xk SPEAKING OF WINNERS, a few of them walked away from the Birthday teaorganized by the Victory Temple Number 36 Pythian Sisters held recently. They were Helen Lobsinger, Jean Harsley, Shirley Allan, Kay Pearson and Alice Ritchie. xk _ THE PRIZE IS WORTHY of dreams and the chances to win it are pretty good compared to the chances of winning some lotteries. The B.C. Cancer Foundation is raising money on behalf of the B.C Cancer Research Centre and the B.C Cancer Agency. For the first time, the foundation is raffling of a car, and it’s not just any car — it’s a 1990 Jaguar XJ-S Convertible, “one of the most beautiful cars in the world.’’ Tickets are $50 each, or three for $125, and only 4,000 tickets are being sold. The draw will be held September 4 and people can get tickets by writing to the foundation at 601-West 10th, Vancouver V5Z 1L3 with a cheque and a SASE so tickets can be sent to you. All the money raised will be used for cancer research in B.C * * OX CADETS OF ALL KINDS have been in the news lately and apparently it’s sometimes confus- ing to tell them all apart, even in one story. Last week in the Review we correctly referred to the 676 Kittyhawk Air Cadet Squadron in an article about Saturday’s annual inspection featur- ing Supt. Henry Richard Waller. The problem was in the last paragraph when the public was invited to attend. Somehow the word sea was used instead of army when referring to the cadets. On the Peninsula we’re fortunate to have air, army and sea cadet organizations, each with a different agenda. 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