Chapter 35

Chapter 35

After the putty dried hard, we held sandpaper and stuck to the wall.

The so-called sanding, grinding the uneven putty marks to make a face perfectly flat with the plasterboard.

Scratch scratch, saga-gak—

Soon white plaster powder rose like fog through the whole house.

Around when we were becoming snowman shapes, covered in white dust from head to foot.

"Cough, cough! Kek!"

A cough from behind, I turned my head, and Daisy had come into the house covering nose and mouth.

Freaked at the dust flying enough to haze the front of the eyes, she furrowed her brow and shot blunt.

"Cough! Jeong-su, I said do it resting a bit, and you're here again? Really can't be stopped."

Before I would have answered tight, 'where's the gap to rest if I'm matching the schedule?'

I pulled the mask down a little, and answered laughing bright, covered in white dust I hadn't even shaken off.

"Come on, I don't think of it as work. I just do it because it's fun, because it's fun."

At my answer Daisy stopped coughing and tilted her head.

She looked me over slow, painted white from head to foot, then asked as if odd.

"Jeong-su, you... don't you seem a bit changed? Should I say the mood? Should I say the eyes... you seem tremendously milder?"

"Aat! Miss Daisy felt that too?!"

Dong-myeong, who had been sanding hard beside, jumped down as if he had been waiting and joined the talk.

"That's what I say! Our hyung has really got strange these days? Before at the lodging he was tremendously strict and hard to even approach, and these days he seems really become a bodhisattva. I'm dying because I can't adapt at all!"

The two were busy for a long while setting me aside and laying out a review of where I had changed.

I only burst a hollow laugh.

"I got some Darling Harbour sea wind and abandoned worldly attachment and attained release, that's why."

I took a small paper shopping bag from the bag I had set in the corner and approached Daisy.

"What's this?"

"A present. Thanks to the advice you gave last time I had a very excellent rest. I thought I should at least say thank you."

Inside the shopping bag was the mug with Aboriginal traditional patterns I had bought at the Darling Harbour souvenir shop.

"..."

Daisy was looking at the cup without a word.

I went on urgent.

"Just went to play at Darling Harbour, and I wanted to buy presents for you and Dong-myeong, and there wasn't particularly anything worth buying. So I picked what caught my eye."

"Haha. Look at this. This is what Hyung Jeong-su bought me."

Dong-myeong took a key bunch from his pocket clinking and showed it.

There the cute kangaroo keyring I bought was hanging.

"I have one too."

Mine was a koala.

Then Daisy twisted her face and glared at me.

"Why am I a mug, and you two cute keyrings?"

"Hm? No... just. It seemed it wouldn't suit you. I picked a mug."

"I don't like it! Give me a keyring too!"

Daisy held out her hand square.

Meeting eyes with Dong-myeong, I scratched my head and had to hand over my koala.

Then a soft smile spread at Daisy's mouth.

"Really... anyway thank you. I'll use the mug and this keyring well."

I gave a short laugh and pushed her back.

"Right right, don't keep doing this in a dust pit, let's go out. I'll die stifled."

Like that I led Daisy and Dong-myeong and came out of the house.

Breathing Sydney's clear evening air large, the plaster dust stuck in the nose felt washed down a little.

Daisy held the cup precious and asked me.

"But looking inside it seemed really all done? How much is left now?"

"Hm. A bit more left. Finish the sanding, paint on that, then make the kitchen and lay molding or door handles and the floor. Within one or two weeks at most it'll end complete."

"One or two weeks?!"

Daisy opened her mouth as if she could not believe it.

She clicked her tongue and gave a hollow laugh as if absurd.

"Really tremendous. Leave a remodel like this to local Australian companies and the basic is two or three months easy. They go surfing in the middle of work, go to eat lunch and don't come. If you meet a vicious company, dragging four or five months is basic, and this floor demands extra fees saying material and labor went up. And the two of you..."

Daisy glanced at my arm and went on.

"And one has a hurt arm, and you finish all this in a month?"

"Originally Koreans can't stand the look of resting when work is left."

When I shrugged and answered, Daisy stuck out her tongue sincere.

"I can't tell if it's a joke or serious. Are Koreans really all like that?"

Daisy, born in Australia, did Korean well but didn't know Koreans' real spice well.

Until the word work-life balance was born, no, even after it was born, a construction site was a place that ground people.

"Work like this and even if you make a construction company in Australia you'll succeed big! Think about it once."

"A construction company?"

"Yeah! Sit one nominal owner and you go in as owner and technical supervisor? Something like that, and a permanent-residency visa, TSS sponsorship, can go in too. Then the limits on business in Australia will disappear clean."

"Wow! Hyung! Let's look into it right now! If we can get permanent residency too, a complete jackpot!"

Rather than me, Dong-myeong got excited and jumped.

But does it happen that easy?

Thinking a moment, I realized now was 2004.

'At this time getting permanent residency is still easy.'

"For now I'll think about that more. There's the company I go to now too."

"Ah, you said Crane Australia is busy?"

"Yeah. Still it's my first workplace, so for three months I should work hard."

Daisy laughed and nodded.

In three months I have to move automatic, so deciding then seems it would do.

"Do that."

"Daisy, did you eat dinner?"

"Oh! Are we going to eat dinner!?"

"You, kid, you ate a whole burger earlier and you're hungry again?"

Dong-myeong laughed sly and said.

"Come on, a burger isn't a meal."

I burst a hollow laugh, absurd.

"In Australia that's a meal."

Daisy suddenly clutched her belly and burst a laugh.

"Hoho. A burger isn't a meal. The same words as my dad. Koreans are really strange."

That is a right thing, though.

Before rice, flour bread like that is only a snack to avoid hunger.

"Let's go! I'll buy something good today."

Daisy linked arms with both our arms and began dragging forced.

"Uh! One moment. First tidy a bit."

"Ai! Come on. Fast fast."

Are southern-hemisphere women originally all this fiery?

When a woman with a cute eye-smile charges helpless like this sometimes, it's hard to refuse.

And we headed for a kebab shop.

'Damn.'

* * *

"Uwak. Hyung. I'm dying, it's hard!"

Dong-myeong made a dying sound putting on plastic covers.

"Hey. Do this and it's much easier later."

Before painting, we were covering every place in the house careful with plastic.

Simply painting with a roller and brush, protecting only the spots paint would get on is fine, but however I thought, roller painting was too hard labor for beginner Dong-myeong and me who couldn't use one arm.

Paint has to be applied at least three times, and we'll probably get bone-sick.

So I decided to use a hooki.

"Is this really the easy one? Just rubbing with a roller seems easier."

"Hey. Want to suffer now and go to heaven, or really roll in hell. However I think, the two of us, a machine seems easier, so I haven't even installed the floor and the sink yet. If those were there we'd have had to protect there too. And my hand is this shape, you want to paint the whole house alone with a roller? I guarantee then you'll really shout you're dying."

Then Dong-myeong flinched and drooped.

"I'll do it. I said I'll do it! But what's the hooki method?"

"Hooki is Japanese used on site, and I don't know exact in Korean. Airless spray? I think it was. Just think of spraying paint at high pressure like painting a car."

"Ah! I know what it is. Just spraying paint!"

"Right. You know when you try, no roller marks, and for a beginner to use, the result is much better. Especially that plasterboard absorbs water tremendous, and paint wrong with a roller and it becomes uneven pocked."

"Aigu. Have to do it no question."

"So no talk, cover careful."

Listening to Dong-myeong's complaint and finishing the work, the phone rang.

"Hey, Jeong-su. How's the body? Still hurt a lot?"

Beyond the receiver Rosie's voice was soaked with worry.

"The wound is healing well, and it's fine. Rather it seems the first time since coming to Australia I'm resting proper."

"Really fortunate. But sorry to say this, from when do you think you can come to work? Too many sites looking for you."

"Very busy?"

"A dangerous site, so we can't just use any operator, and everyone is about to die from cargo backed up."

The year-end season approaching, there would be that too.

"Oh. Then for now I'll come to work again from next week. Even if I can't take the cast off, driving the forklift is fine."

"Really?! Got it. Then don't overdo it and look after the body well. If you're bored, contact."

"Haha. Got it. Next day off let's go play together."

"Call!"

Finishing the call with Rosie, I looked at the phone quiet.

Only a little over two weeks since coming to Australia, and phone calls didn't feel hard.

'Because it's Rosie?'

I tilted my head and said to Dong-myeong.

"Roughly done, so let's go buy materials."

"Yes! Hyung!"

I put Dong-myeong in the truck and headed for Bunnings.

Stepping into the store, we bought white water-based paint most used for interior finish, and a large tub labeled sealer undercoat.

But when I picked only one brush and one roller, Dong-myeong asked as if odd.

"Hyung, we have to paint the whole house, does one roller do? Not buying mine?"

"Yeah, we're not painting with a roller. This is enough."

And I asked Manager Michael, who helps load.

"Michael."

"Hm? Need more?"

"Do you have a Graco Ultra Max 395 or 490?"

"Of course. But are you buying?"

"Yeah. Thinking of buying."

Michael thought a moment, then said.

"The price is quite expensive, more than you'd think."

"How much?"

"The 395 model is about 3,000 dollars. The 490 is 1,000 dollars more."

I had only used it on site, never got the tool myself, so I didn't know the exact price.

So I expected a bit more expensive than a compressor... it was much more.

"Damn! Dirty expensive."

"Heh heh. I said it was expensive. Rather going somewhere like Kennards and renting would be much more gain."

"Kennards?"

"Yeah. A specialist store that rents large tools."

"Yeah? Tell me the address where I can rent."

"Okay. I'll write it."

The place we arrived holding the address Michael wrote on a memo was a large tool rental called Kennards Hire.

Inside the big warehouse store, every kind of equipment used on site was packed without a gap.

I went to the counter and asked for a Graco Ultra Max.

Then the manager brought a Graco Ultra Max 395 out on a cart.

"How much is the rental?"

"150 dollars a day."

"I'm thinking of renting three days, can't you cut it a bit? I think I'll become a regular here?"

Then the manager grinned and looked at me.

"Good. Cut 50 dollars, give 400."

"Call!"

Like that we finished a three-day rental contract.

Loading the machine on the trailer and coming home, we went into spray setup proper in the house we had protected careful.

Pouring sealer undercoat into the machine body and matching the pressure, Dong-myeong stroked the hose as if amazing and asked.

"Hyung, before painting for real, we shoot this undercoat first?"

"Yeah. It looks stiff, that white plasterboard, but it's a water-eating hippo. Spray water-based paint rash there, and the board sucks the paint moisture hard and later cracks and tangles. So coating a primer film so the paint takes well is this sealer undercoat."

I undid the annoying cast sling and gripped the airless gun firm with the right hand.

"Dong-myeong, behind me just hold the hose tension so it doesn't twist."

"Yes!"

"Dust suit and mask, and safety glasses, on straight?"

"Yes! All on!"

Hearing Dong-myeong's ringing answer, I aimed the gun at the wall and pulled the trigger.

Hiss— chik!

With the sound of the machine pushing compressed air noisy, white sealer undercoat sprayed like fine mist from the end of the gun nozzle.

Walking maintaining a steady speed up and down with a wrist snap, a smooth, even coating film a roller could not imitate covered the plasterboard in an instant.

"Waa..."

A dazed exclamation burst from the mouth of Dong-myeong holding the hose behind. The time to cover one room white was barely a little over ten minutes.

"Hyung... crazy. The speed is no joke?!"

"Hoo."

I caught my breath a moment and said.

"Hey. Don't open your mouth. Do this work and paint goes in every hole there is."

"Eup! Yes! Understood."

Not a joke, paint particles sprayed at high pressure and turned to mist go into every hole there is.

So we wore dust suits covering the whole body, safety glasses, and industrial respirator masks thorough.

That afternoon we sprayed sealer undercoat through the whole house and finished the coating.

And the next day we painted white water-based paint, the main paint, over the perfectly dry undercoat, and coming the day after and painting once more, the hard painting work ended.

All the paint done, taking off clean the protection plastic we had covered hard, the dark, old house had transformed perfect into a spotless white, wide gallery.

"Kahaha! Hyung. The house is a jackpot!"

Even Dong-myeong, who knew this house's original look, was joyful enough to jump at the changed look.

I let a short laugh, looking at Dong-myeong fooling around shaking his body against the wall gone spotless white.

Through the hard demolition and the carpentry in the dust pit and the putty sanding, now about 70 percent of the work seemed finished.

© Log1#13yd6

Author's note

From now it goes up one a day at 9 in the evening.