Our beauty --Freshly painted for Christmas
Every other month we drive down to Goa to look after Dads beloved house in Pilerne. He gave me the HUGE door key just before he died and made me promise to look after it. As a child I held his hand walking to the springs to get drinking water in his big plastic containers and my fingers encountered the huge front door key that he carried. Then the key worked in the quaint lock, but over the years he fitted a latch and lock to make the house more secure. I always wanted that key and Dad said you cannot get it unless you look after the house. I was around 12 and since then his words ring in my ears, as I now hold that prized key and its my job to do what he did for the house.
Carpenters fixing the huge doors
Every time we go we tackle another issue. This time we brought in carpenters to loosen and straighten the big inner doors which secure every window in the house. Luckily after sending on pest control some years ago our job of replacement is whatever was chewed before the pest control kicked in. Now its less stressful with termites chewing through all in their path.
Painting is needed every two years
The inner rooms and the exterior get done every two years. Using chunna I find keeps the insects at a minimum and is affordable for such a big place. Anyway Goa's monsoons are very destructive and the house needs scraping off the moss and fungus before repainting. I am avoiding fixing modern windows in the dining room as these swinging in the hole, hingeless ones are very effective.
Thats all thats left of the toilet roof. by the damn termites
Tiles and rafters had to be ordered to repair both toilet roofs and the kitchen. Wood is expensive but then wed have no roof if it was not done now in the dry season. Tiles are not cheap and forget about the rafters. The bill rockets but we grit our teeth and do it. Best part -- the house pays for its upkeep thankfully avoiding my having to beg my siblings. Wise decisions by parents have helped me and my husband work on the house unfettered.
Painting the dining room
Its a nice fresh smell that assails our nostrils as we watch the men assiduously paint. Not living in the house as they paint is a great advantage as before we were breathing in all the scraping and paint smells besides the termite guard ofcourse.
We also chopped off branches which hung over the house and smashed the roof every time the mangoes appeared in the neighbour's tree. Two years ago we had chopped them and they seem to grow back faster than ever. This time mangoes smashed 105 tiles and don't ask what it did to the roof. Asking the cousin is a waste of time, so we pay a slim man who shins up the tree with a really sharp machete and chops off the branches. All before the cousin whose tree it is gets wind of it from his servants. Then I get a stern phone call which I don't care about as the branches are already in a heap on the ground. How that tree harassed my poor father. No harrasment for me, just spend and get the job done. The caretaker is pleased -- less work for him!
We walk away with paint smells following us to the car. While the golden black capped Oriole calls from the teak trees and I'm sure Dad & Grandpa are happy
