A Day in the Life of an Overseer

Exhibit A. No harness or safety line used while working on a unprotected place.

 As you all may know, I am at the moment highly involved in the project of getting my new home at Southern Charm built and decorated.

For the menial and the creative work I have enlisted the services of a friend of mine, Butch Diavolo, who is a builder/interior decorator all rolled up into one hot and hunky avatar. The man is actually brilliant at everything he does, but being brilliant does not mean he is an infallible god, no way! As every man he sometimes makes mistakes - huge boo boos in fact!

Exhibit B. Working in an unsafe position

Exhibit C. No shoes worn on building site

Being overseer of the work force at the building site, my most important duty is to see to it that the regulations surrounding workers safety are adhered to and that the builder/interior decorator gets through this project alive and without permanent mutilation or severe injuries. It is by no means an easy thing to try to steer a renegade Dutch "artiste" (which is how he - for some reason beyond me - prefers to refer to himself, with the French pronunciation no less) to a safe and steady working schedule without unnecessary risks involved.

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do", so I try to manage the rebellious Butch, with some small success so far. I cannot even get him to wear shoes at the building site, in spite of the fact that he has already stepped on several nails and almost had to have his right foot amputated yesterday.

Keeping the work force happy

But I will persevere and hopefully we will soon see the end of this project with Butch still alive. Meanwhile I will do my best to keep the laborers safe and happy.

Summit Meeting

Today the laird called for a summit meeting at the building site. The laird needed the reassurances from Guyke and Butch that indeed this was a good idea and that the new house that had been chosen would look great up on the hill on Southern Charm.

After both of them had said they thought it was a really excellent idea and the new house would look wonderful I felt somewhat calmer.

The road that had now been chosen meant that all the furniture had to be removed or stuffed away in some safe place until the new chateau was in place. The things belonging to Ars that were not possible to copy would have to be moved into the skies until they could be pulled back in place.

Yes, everything would go well, I told myself repeatedly, the new house you have chosen will look wonderful over the water fall!

The Redecoration Project

When Ars and I moved in at Southern Charm, just before or after New Years Day 2007/2008 (I cannot remember at the moment), we were in a hurry to get settled in before my vacation ended and the clubs in SecondLife, with whom Ars worked both as a DJ and as a manager for The Sarco Sound Group, started getting busy again after the holidays.

We rented the house and 12,000 sqm (two parcels) because we had both fallen in love with the house sitting over the beautiful waterfall. The house was a part of the deal and the landowner expressly preferred that we kept it a it was. The house is a prefab from one of the biggest suppliers of such homes in SecondLife.

Ars and I did the interior decorating of the second floor and the kitchen and bathroom on the ground floor  ourselves. When we realized that we were running out of time and would not be ablé to get the living room area ready we discussed it and decided to get the readymade package of furniture for that room from the supplier. It was an interesting moment and a new experience for me when i suddenly found myself sitting in front of my computer controlling all the prearranged furniture with my cursor. I was told by Ars not to let go before we had it in the right place because if i did we would have to arrange every individual ugly item ourselves. Luckily I made it without problems (not counting a very high pulse rate) and I believe Ars was really proud of me, for the very first time.

This arrangement was meant to be a temporary measure that we would take care of at the first convenient moment ourselves. Alas that time never came. I detested the living room furniture from the start, and I believe Ars did so too.

When I the other day realized how much I hated it I finally decided to take action. I decided what to do and considered the possible options carefully. When I had thought everything through I contacted my buddy Butch Diavolo, who is an excellent interior decorator.

We discussed the matter and he agreed to help me. We also decided that the first thing he should do was see if he could find a better house that would fit on the top of hill over the water falls. A house that I could have full rights over, as the present one is still owned by the former landlady (who has since left SecondLife) which means I am not able to change anything about it..

If he could not find a good enough house we would settle for redecorating the living room and the adjacent reading room. Butch would, with his expertise and exquisite taste, tell me what to buy and in what quantity whereafter I would rez them in the house for him to move them around. If we needed to do anything about the house itself we would find some suitable workaround ( I have been thinking of Potemkin villages a lot lately). We will cross those bridges when we come to them.

It was with great joy I set about deleting all the shitty stuff in the living room and reading room. The rooms looked much better when the furniture was gone, even if they were empty.