"Man, that was hard work," Bayley said, taking in a couple of deep breaths and wiping her brow. There had been a big smile on her face as she said it.
"I'd say that's a great start," Seth said approvingly, handing her a bottle of water. He looked at the long lawn in the rear garden of their restoration project, which Bayley had just gone over from end to end with a string trimmer. The grass had been so overgrown that she had only taken off the top half of it, on advice from Seth.
"So, why did I only cut down half of it? I don't really understand," Bayley said after downing the whole bottle of water. Even in the cool November air, she had worked up quite a sweat. She opened the zipper on the front of her overalls a bit to help her cool down.
"Because it needs to be cut with a mover to get a proper finish, but it was too long for a mower to get through it," Seth explained. "I'd say leave it for a few days before cutting it again, though. We don't want to ruin it."
"You're the gardener, apparently," Bayley said with a grin. "I thought I was supposed to be the one who knew the most about this side of things?"
Seth smiled back at her. "I'm sure you are. I just remember my mom helping some neighbours of ours cut their lawn when they moved in. It was in a similar state to this, and for whatever reason her advice stuck in my head."
"That's kind of sweet, actually," she said, giving him a peck on the cheek. "Hey, I found something at the bottom of the garden. Come and look."
"What is it? A dead body? The Holy Grail?"
"No, silly," she giggled. "It is something cool, though."
"Duct tape?" Seth guessed.
"No! And don't think I've forgotten about what you did the other week, mister."
Seth raised his eyebrows. "I haven't forgotten, either. You told me to do a better job of tying you up next time. That was noted."
Bayley decided to play it cool and ignore that comment, simply walking off towards the bottom of the garden. "Come and look," she repeated.
Seth quickly caught up to her and trampled his way across the mess that was one day going to be a nice lawn. As they approached the bottom of the garden, he still couldn't see what she was talking about, since he doubted she meant the wooden fence panels that had seen better days.
"Look!" Bayley said, pointing towards the ground.
And then Seth saw it. There was a pond there, obscured under a mess of grass and weeds. It obviously hadn't been used for keeping fish for many years.
"A fish pond," Bayley reported excitedly. "We can clear it out and put some fish in it."
Seth hated to burst her bubble, but they had to keep in mind that they were not fixing this house up to live in it themselves; they were renovating to sell for a profit, or possibly to keep and rent out. That was Seth's latest idea. Bayllins Property Developers could build up a portfolio of homes and rent them out, earning money while still owning the houses and land. He hadn't discussed it with Bayley yet, but he was warming towards that idea rather than selling outright, figuring that if they eventually had kids, it would give them something substantial to leave behind one day.
"You don't look excited," Bayley observed with disappointment.
"Angel, this isn't going to be our house," he reminded her. "We've always got to keep that in mind. This will be an ideal home for a young family. Think about if it was us in that situation. You wouldn't want a pond at the bottom of a garden where young kids were playing. It would be dangerous."
Nodding slowly, Bayley took the point on-board. "Yes, I can see that," she acknowledged. "So, we have to fill it in?"
Seth put an arm around her to soften the blow. "Yes. Unfortunately, we have to fill it in."
"Aww," Bayley sighed, nestling against him.
They stood there for a moment, enjoying holding each other, and Seth kissed her lightly on the top of the head.
"So, how's it going inside?" she asked eventually.
"The kitchen fitters should be done by tomorrow," Seth reported. They had a specialist company putting in the new kitchen for them, as it was a little beyond their ability level, and needed to be done perfectly.
"Yay," Bayley said, looking up at him. That piece of news wasn't a surprise to her as the men from the kitchen company had been banging away in the house for a couple of days now. "And what about you?" she asked.
"Finished the last of the plastering upstairs, apart from the bathroom of course." They were waiting on a plumber to install a new bathroom suite for them before they could look at decorating the room.
"We're making great progress," Bayley said, smiling happily. The living and dining rooms were painted now, along with the downstairs hallway. They only needed their new laminate floors before they were completed.
"We are. At this rate, we might even be done by the new year."
"I'm so glad we started this business, Seth. It's a lot of hard work, but I love it."
Seth leaned down and kissed her. "Me too, babe. Most of all, I love doing it with you."
This time it was Bayley who went in for a kiss before saying, "I suppose we should get back to it, huh?"
He nodded. "Yeah. I might go out in the van and pick up that laminate flooring we choose for downstairs. I can't do much else upstairs today, with the plaster needing to dry."
"Okay, sounds like a plan." Bayley turned and looked at the border that ran all down the right side of the lawn. It was totally overgrown with weeds and bushes, making clearing it seem like a daunting prospect. "Meanwhile, I'll make a start on that lot, I guess."
Seth nodded. "It's a shame we're not allowed to burn garden waste in this area. We're going to have to take it to a dump."
"Okay. I'll pile it all up somewhere then, and we can barrow it around the front and into the van when we're ready," Bayley said. "I'll have to rake through the grass so we can get all of the cuttings out of here too."
"We'll do that together tomorrow," Seth decided. "I'll buy a couple of rakes while I'm out. I'll see if I can find a little chainsaw somewhere too, to make easier work of those bushes."
"Sounds good to me."
They headed back to the house, and Seth made his way out front to the van, while Bayley went to use the bathroom. When she came back outside a few minutes later, she was ready to start tackling the weeds.
"Shame I forgot to ask him to get me some proper gardening gloves," she muttered to herself. The only remotely suitable ones she had found in the house were yellow rubber ones. Deciding they would have to do, she put them on and walked over to the end of the border closest to the house. At least they would stop her from getting mud on her hands, she thought with a shudder.
"So it begins," Bayley said, crouching down to pull out the first of what was going to be a countless number of clumps of weeds.
For maybe half an hour, Bayley toiled away at her task, working her way down the border. As she did so, she found herself thinking herself lucky that she was in great shape physically. Gardening like this would have been a killer if she was unfit.
"Excuse me. I think it's time we had words."
The voice made Bayley jump. It was an elderly woman's voice, coming over the shoulder-high fence between the gardens. A neighbour, Bayley realised. A neighbour that didn't sound happy or friendly at all. She looked up and saw a woman with glasses, curly grey hair, wrinkled skin and a frown on her face looking down at her.
"Can I help you with something?" Bayley asked, keeping her tone pleasant as she stood up.
"You could try making less noise," the woman snapped.
Bayley's brown furrowed, not appreciating the way she was being spoken to. "What are you talking about? I'm out here pulling up weeds. I've barely made a sound for…"
"Not you. Whoever's in there," the woman said irritably, pointing towards the house.
Listening, Bayley heard the kitchen fitters hammering away at something. It had been happening so much for the past couple of days that she had gotten used to it and wasn't noticing it at this point. Apparently the same couldn't be said for the neighbour.
"Sorry about that. We're having a kitchen fitted," Bayley explained, remaining polite. "They'll hopefully be done by the end of the day."
"It's not just the kitchen though, is it?" the woman said, showing no sign of losing her attitude. "Ever since you bought the place it's been drilling, banging, driving that noisy van in and out all the time. People in this area like peace and quiet, you know."
Bayley couldn't remember drilling anything since they had started the project, but she wasn't going to get into an argument about it. She was rapidly tiring of this woman. "Look, we've bought the house, and we're renovating it. I'm sorry if the noise is disturbing you, but it's not exactly something that can be done quietly. As I already explained, the kitchen should be finished today. We are having a new bathroom suite put in upstairs soon though, so that will probably involve a bit of noisy work."
"Well that's just great, isn't it?" the woman huffed. "Sometimes I find it hard to sleep at night, and I need a nap during the day. How am I supposed to sleep with all that noise?"
"As I already said, I'm sorry about the noise, but the work needs to be done. We're not being overly noisy about it, and we're working as fast as we can. I don't know what else you want me to say to you."
Bayley's words seemed to get the woman even more riled up. "I'll be making a written complaint. The last thing we need is noisy neighbours. I feared something like this might happen if young people bought that place."
"We're not noisy neighbours!" Bayley fired back, finally losing her cool. "What don't you understand about the fact we're renovating the damn house? What do you want us to do, tiptoe around the place? I think you need to get in the real world."
"Typical attitude from someone your age," the woman said as she turned and walked away towards her house.
"I'll be cutting down bushes with a chainsaw later, so look forward to that!" Bayley shouted after her, clenching her hands into fists in anger. "Ugh. Stupid old hag," she groaned to herself once the woman was out of earshot.
Bayley went back to pulling up the weeds, now putting her anger into the task, really yanking them out of the ground as tossing them aside. She raged to herself as she worked. "Wait till Seth gets back with that chainsaw. I'll make some noise for you, alright."
A/N: Thank you to those who reviewed the previous chapter.
Bayley and Seth are making good progress, but they now have themselves a nuisance neighbour. Do you think there will be more problems down the road?
Is there any part of the renovation work you would like to see them work on together? There aren't going to be many more chapters in this story, so speak up now if you want to see it! :)