roofing |open|

[malfoy]

The first rainstorm to come in had been enough to tell Isaac that the entire roof needed to be replaced, there's wasn't a room where they hadn't had water dripping from the ceiling. The house needed a lot more work than he had anticipated, but Isaac was prepared for it. With his protective ring, a nail gun, and lots of shingles, he set to work that Sunday morning. He was thankful that their closest neighbours were a few kilometers away in every direction, that way he could work as quickly as he pleased without raising suspicion. The day was cold, but the sun was shining weakly, making the weather pleasant. Isaac whistled to himself as he tore out old shingles with his bare hands, and laid down new ones in their place, nailing them into place with the muggle tool.

It felt weird, not going about doing that with magic, he could be done by now, but something about it was a lot more satisfying to Isaac when it was done by hand. Besides, if any neighbours stopped by and the place suddenly had a new roof within a week of the people moving in without any sign of a maintenance crew... Isaac wasn't going to complain, the very physical labour was practically child's play to him. The heavy packages of shingles were like shopping bags, and walking all over the roof, nailing them down might as well have been a stroll in the park. In fact, Isaac was quite enjoying himself. He paused when he heard someone all his name, then came to the edge of the roof to look down at...

[igloogirl]

Gabriella smiled and waved at her husband, who was working hard on the roof of their house It was funny to think of it as theirs, but the two had been living there for a couple of weeks now and Gabriella was excited about it. Of course, the house would need a lot of fixing up, but Gabriella felt like she and Isaac could handle it. "How's the roof coming?" Gabriella called up to Isaac, her voice carrying through the slight breeze. She had been at the ministry all night, but had decided to take Sunday off instead of continuing to work overtime.

[malfoy]

"Pretty good, I've got the north end of the house entirely re-done, but I've still got a ways to go." Isaac responded after looking at what he had already completed. He quite liked fixing up the house, it made him feel accomplished. Besides, it made him feel good, knowing that he was capable of doing the tasks that needed to get done. "Want to join me up here?" Isaac called down to his wife, "the ladder's just around the corner, there."

[igloogirl]

"Sure, I'll be right up," Gabriella called in response. At the bottom of the ladder, she took off her robes to reveal muggle jeans and a t-shirt. Gabriella felt that if she was going to be working on her house in a muggle way, she might as well wear muggle clothes. Plus, they were comfortable. She climbed the ladder easily and maneuvered her way over to where Isaac was. Gabriella grabbed the other nail gun and some shingles, setting to work.

[malfoy]

"Any ideas for the colours you want in the house?" Isaac asked as he tore out some of the faulty shingles. He was looking forward to doing the inside of the place once he had finished the roof and painted the exterior. Isaac had decided a while ago that he would let Gabriella pick the colours and things, as he really didn't care, he just knew they should probably do some new paint, it was flaking off and was probably filled with lead.

[igloogirl]

Gabriella shrugged slightly, filling in the places where Isaac had torn off old shingles with new ones. "I think we should just go to a store and pick out a bunch of colors," she replied. "Or have someone like Safira help us plan." Gabriella wasn't too great with the whole decorating thing, perhaps Safira could help them.

[malfoy]

"Okay," said Isaac, although at the mention of his sister a slight twinge of anger toward Demetri resonated deep within him. He kept it suppressed, though, there was no need to lose his temper again. He was just grateful that Gabriella had yet to hear about the encounter he had had with Demetri after learning of his sister's pregnancy, Isaac wasn't proud of the way he had handled it, but wasn't going to apologize either. "I don't like her living in that house all alone," Isaac commented, "should we offer her one of the spare bedrooms?"

[igloogirl]

Gabriella paused for a moment, thinking. She doubted that Safira would like leaving her home, but it had to be awfully lonely when Demetri wasn't there. "That would be a good idea," Gabriella replied. "Perhaps only during the week, though, I have a feeling that Demetrius visits her on the weekends." Safira would probably be safer staying with Gabriella and Isaac anyway, so Demetri wasn't likely to object.

[malfoy]

"I don't know what his schedule is," Isaac said in an offhand tone, hoping to mask how much he despised the potions professor, "I just know that it probably isn't a good idea for her to be by herself," He bit his lip, and then returned to his shingles, not saying anything else. Things would probably bode better for him if he kept his mouth shut, just the mention of Demetri's named put Isaac in a slightly foul mood.

[igloogirl]

"No, probably not," Gabriella agreed, feeling that Isaac was angered at the mention of Demetri. "We should definitely offer." Gabriella finished off a row of shingles and then adjusted her position slightly so she wouldn't get in Isaac's way as she waited for a reply.

[malfoy]

Isaac nodded, but kept quiet, working on lowering his temper by imagining that the shingles he was ripping off the roof had Demetri's face on them. That lowered his mood to a calmer state pretty quickly as he began to nail down the new shingles in place. Knowing that with each one they would get less and less water in each time it rained. Isaac looked down on his handiwork, wondering if he should call it good for the day as he had already accomplished more in an hour than what a team of humans would in a day.

[igloogirl]

"How much are we going to work on this today?" Gabriella asked, figuring they couldn't finish the whole thing or it might be suspicious to their muggle neighbors. Wizards would just think they had done it with magic, which was fine with Gabriella, but muggles would certainly be confused as to how they had gotten the roof done so fast.

[malfoy]

Isaac thought a moment. "Not too much more, I guess," said he with a shrug as he finished nailing down another row of shingles. He wasn't feeling fatigued in the slightest, perhaps because he had gotten his few needed hours of sleep after Quidditch practice the day before. And the work really wasn't all that difficult, quite simple, as a matter of fact. "Our closest neighbours are muggles, no need to raise suspicion," Isaac added, nailing down another shingle. It was quite satisfying work.

[igloogirl]

Gabriella nodded and continued to nail down shingles at a rapid pace. "Yes, it probably wouldn't be good for our neighbors to become suspicious," she replied. They hadn't even met their neighbors yet, though, and Gabriella was beginning to think they never would. Sometimes she saw muggles driving by to or from their homes, but they hadn't had any sort of conversation.

[malfoy]

"Let's call it a day, then," said Isaac, leaving his materials on the roof, he planned on going out there early the next day to finish the job, unless of course it was raining. Then he would be spending most of the time adjusting pots to make sure the old wood floors didn't get wet. He wasn't sure if the ancient things could take much more water. That would be his next task, ripping out all of the wood floor and laying in new panels. Isaac gestured for Gabriella to go down the ladder first.