On the face of it, giving my house keys to an Albanian builder I bumped into on the street might be deemed a silly thing to do. But to those traditionalists who quibble with such a sally, I would make certain points in defence of giving a strange man called Stefano unlimited access to all areas of my life seconds after meeting him when he was repairing the windowsills of my next-door neighbour.
Stefano is special. Stefano is fixing everything. After I admired his handiwork, he offered me ‘good price’ and got to work on my sills and frames. Then he branched out. After taking a quick look at the outside of the building, he surveyed the interior, went home that evening and emailed me a quote for everything.
He itemised every single job that needed to be done, room by room, inside and out, with prices, all very reasonable, on a handy ‘how to fix your life in 35 easy stages’ type of itinerary.
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