So. I’m tres` excited because I got a phone call yesterday to say that my first ever made-to-measure cupboards have been finished and are ready to be delivered to my Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe Sized House. The cupboards will double my storage space once they’re installed. Yay! (You know you’re middle-aged when you get excited about cupboards instead of nightclubs, lol.)

However, here’s the thing. Before the cupboards can be installed I need my electrician to move some plugs. But the electrician can’t come until the carpenter’s been. ‘Cause the electrician’s also going to install a plug for my new heater but he can’t do that until a carpenter has built a false wall for the new heater to go into. The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone when it comes to tradies and renovations.

I lined up the electrician ages ago. Around the same time I also spoke to a local carpenter who did some work for me last year. But he was too opinionated for my liking. Wanted to make my choices for me. And there I became stalled. Meanwhile my cupboard guy finally came back from the dead (i.e. a long summer hiatus) and suddenly my cupboards were a-go-go.

And that’s when my eldest daughter started dating a carpenter. A young bloke who has just finished his apprenticeship and is keen to start his own business. According to my daughter he’s very talented. Mind you, this belief is based on the fact he built himself a wooden bar in the basement of his family home. Something that is always very sexy to an 18 year old only interested in partying and clubbing.

Anyhoo. I was under a time deadline and he was available. So I thought, why not? Why not give a young kid a break? Help him get his business off the ground and help my own stalled renovation project progress. We had a chat. A loooong chat about a simple project. He needed lots of information. He was also keen to convince me to employ him to renovate the rest of the house. You gotta give a kid credit for chutzpah.

So today I left him the keys to my tiny castle expecting to see a false wall magically materialised in my lounge room upon my return. And lo and behold when I got home from work it was so. There was just one small hitch. He’d built the darn thing off centre. Put the end of the false wall in the centre of my old wall instead of the centre of the false wall. Are you still with me? Pity you can’t do diagrams on WordPress.

I was very tempted at this point to ring up my ex-husband to suggest that our daughter’s new boyfriend wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But (a) I made a pledge yesterday on this blog not to be mean and (b) my ex would be on the boy’s side. He already thinks I can be mean because – hello! – he’s my ex (and also because clearly I can be. See (a)).

So I just pointed out what I saw and Master Carpenter immediately set to work to fix his mistake. Added an extra 2 hours to his day. But he didn’t charge me for it. He really is trying hard. And according to my ex who dropped in later in the evening, the lad’s done a solid job. Truth be told, the mistake he made is the sort of mistake I made constantly when starting out as a teacher.

The Page Of Pentacles card represents a new job or financial opportunity. That’s what I gave my daughter’s boyfriend today and we are both better off for it. I got my wall at a ridiculously cheap price and he got to build on his portfolio. He’s bringing his camera back tomorrow. ‘Cause I’m giving him some more work. Letting him pull something down this time. (Gulp!)

Have you given a young kid a break? How did the experience pan out for you?