working with teens is weird

Sometime this spring there was a post to the Lövånger FB announcements group from a guy looking for work this summer painting houses.  My house is brick, and doesn't need painting, but the wooden window frames sure do--the paint is old and cracked and peeling to expose wood. We started that project last summer, but were so busy we managed only the windows in the bathroom and bedroom, and only finished the bedroom because we replaced one window with plywood in which we set a cat door so the cats could get to their enclosed catio outside.

The bedroom windows are the same size as the ones in the other room (save for the one large living room window), so the plan was we could do the sanding and painting of that one, then put it in place of one of the other windows while it gets sanded and painted, so as to minimize the amount of time any window is open, and thus keep the number of mosquitoes in the house to a minimum.

Therefore, when I saw the ad I replied that my windows needing painting, but as I am not working I could only offer barter. After a bit of discussion we agreed that the kid (taller than I am, but clearly still in school) would help me with the project, and in exchange he could have Keldor's old car, which started leaking brake fluid badly enough that the brakes quit working sometime last autumn, and which has been sitting waiting for him to have time to fix it ever since.

The first time he came over I gave him that window from the bedroom that was never finished, and I put our one window screen in place of a kitchen window, and we both used power tools to sand away the old paint. He was able to start working directly, as we'd taken off various parts last year, but I got a slow start because I needed to take off the hinges and other things that are in the way, and remove the interior blinds from between the panes of glass. Even so I managed to get the outer surface on both sides down to bare wood, but not the part in the inside of the window (double pane glass, each in a wood frame, that has a hinge to open up and access the inside), nor the window frame edges. He had been working with the smaller triangle sander, and hadn't gone all the way around the outside yet.

That was last week, and since neither window was done, I painted the part of the window I was working on that I had gotten down to bare wood, and we put it back into place so that we would be able to close the window while we were gone. I had time to come by on Tuesday of this week, but I was busy, so he worked on his own. Tuesday was also Keldor's birthday, so I made him a cake.  Henry came to the front door just as we were about to eat cake, and said that he thought his window was ready for painting. However, it was late enough in the day that we agreed that it could wait till next session. I said that he should go put everything inside before leaving for the day. He said yes, and I went in, and promptly forgot about it.

Wednesday was my recovery day from road trips, and after working in the morning (1.5 hrs) I didn't do anything but the long blog post about our adventure, clean the loo at home, and scroll on FB. Today I have much more energy, so before leaving for work I stripped the bed and started a load of pillowcases.  After I got home from work an hour later (Thursday's cleaning of the health center takes less time, as there are fewer Tuesday-Thursday rooms than there are M-W-F rooms) I decided that since it was such a pretty sunny day I would hang them on the lawn, and went through the door to the garage with the laundry basket only to discover that the garage door was wide open, the window still outside on the workbench, and the power tools and electric cable outside on the workbench, and the bits of old sandpaper that he'd taken off the tool were scattered all over on the ground in the area. So I have written him a note explaining the importance of cleaning up after working, and exactly why we do not leave power tools and freshly sanded wood out to get wet from dew or rain, and that he must be certain after working that everything is inside, and the door shut properly.  

I don't really think I would have needed that lecture at that age. Then again, at that age, I wouldn't have gone looking for a paying job, either.

verbal job offer accepted

 Assuming all goes will with the paperwork details I will start on the 1st of September as a Research Coordinator at the Umeå University Library. This is a temporary job filling in for someone who will be gone for 8 months, and I am very much looking forward to it.

Umeå is an hour south of here, so this will be a good test case to see how I cope with the commute--things are always easier to cope with when you know there is a time limit, and, if it turns out to be fine, I can try to talk my way into something else there next year. Or go another direction. Who knows? Life is an adventure.