It came a year earlier than I thought. The invitation to join the vojska in july. By the law I had to do it no later than the year I turn 27. I'll be 26 this year. At least I got a job and I didn't work shifts nor in a throwout division - all my classes were in just four divisions and I even inherited a class of my own, the graduating electricians. Among them one guy is the brother of that M. from DC-99.
So whe will be alone with Go for 12 months, probably a bit less, everyone out there gets to leave earlier. However, I didn't expect the relationship between them and my folks to get any better when I'm not there to mediate (a role I gradually disliked more and more). So we decided to swap rooms with grandma, and adapt the former shed (rebuilt in 1971 into two 2x4m rooms, half brick thick walls and just a concrete slab for roof) into a kitchen and bathroom.
Which we did over the course of the remaining months. The little window on the now kitchen was kicked out and replaced with a big 1x1m kip window; it went into the bathroom. The bathroom was in the furthest corner, just a shower cabin. Having no experience with the tiling, we did it in plastic sheathing (which was a fresh thing then and still done right - almost 40 years later it still looks good). Getting the water there was a bitch, I had to pull an okiten line from the garden tap all the way around - had to dig about 12m of ditch and then break the concrete floor to distribute the water to the wall, then through the wall to get into the kitchen sink and around the bathroom to get to that corner where the washer will be. The kitchen was likewise in brown plastic sheating. The floor was raw concrete, covered that with vinaz (vinyl asbestos) plates. The electricty I solved by pulling a fresh thick 5-wire cord through the attic and down into the room, then to kitchen and bathroom. There were some wires already, but they provided just light near the door. During all this we finally got the phone line, so I ran a twisted pair across the attic, and down the room wall close (but not too close) to the electric line. Connected parallel to the in-attic box, and installed the proper outlet on the other end. Except we didn't have a phone. In parallel with that sheath I led another one, for the antenna cable, for the time when we'll have an antenna.
First I got some wires, outlets and switches from Romania, but then consulting some electrical engineers on the job I threw the wires away - they were aluminium. They'd have to be twice as thick for the power needed by the water heater (a 50l Končar, indestructible) and would require special alloy connections in the places where they touch copper, as the humidity would galvanize and build who knows what kind of salt there. Could easily burn.
The front side of the kitchen, where our new table and chairs would be, was upholstered in dark blue itison carpet, the kind you'd find in tourist agencies and perhaps hotel lobbies - sturdy felted synthetic, good enough for car floors. We put it on the floor and the walls up to 1m high. We put a wall-to-wall carpet in the room (had to sand down the ridges where the floorboards rose, as there was some humidity in the soil below and the street wall, so they warped) and wallpaper.
It was an interesting time, these five months, but we got it ready on time. The households were separate, with separate entrances. If they get into days when they don't want to see each other, they could do so. The day of the move was some time in june.
26-III-2018 - 17-IV-2026