Monday 28 - Thursday 31 January
There's not a lot to report this week. Not the builder's fault this time. It's down to me. A tickle and sore throat on Sunday had turned onto a full blown head cold overnight and I woke up on Monday morning with a runny nose, sniffs and sneezes, feeling rough. Couldn't face the thought of builders coming that day or indeed until I felt a bit better, so sent a text to the brother in law of the man in charge to ask him to hold off sending anyone for the next few days and took myself back to bed.
I'd forgotten about the chap who was coming to template for the glass splash backs early on Tuesday - his ring on the doorbell woke me up...But after a false start and apology (in my drowsy state, I thought he was a door to door salesman..) he was very gracious, accepted the apology, came in and did the job. And I went back to bed afterwards with a box of tissues.
By Wednesday evening, I was feeling a bit more human so gave the builder the green light to restart work the next day; measured up and ordered a strong adjustable shelving system to go up in the dining area alcoves, and arranged for a friend to help me put it up next week, when I'm back from a work related trip to the Channel Islands.
Thursday has been spent in the company of the electrician who is still putting right all the things that were done the wrong way by the previous guys.
By close of business, he had sorted out the power supply to the Saniflo in the loft loo; fitted the last of the dimmer switches upstairs and downstairs...
...sorted out a set of sockets that hadn't been connected...
...fitted the recessed light into the ceiling in the downstairs loo, which had been dangling loose since before Christmas...
...rewired the bathroom light that hadn't been earthed, but left another hole to fill in the process..
...and patched up some (but not all) of the big holes in the loft ready to be made good properly by "dad builder".
While he was doing that, the electricity was going on and off, so no wifi or heating intermittently. Not a good idea after the coldest night of the year so far. But I managed to go through the latest invoice from the man in charge, make an interim payment and explain why I had withheld a small proportion. He's still asking to be paid for variations in costs incurred before our "showdown" meeting last October.
We'd agreed back then that he would not pass on additional costs up incurred up to the date of that meeting, in return for which I would pay the full amount of the tender even though some of the works had not been done or had fallen by the wayside for other reasons. Our respective losses more or less balanced each other out so we had drawn a line under things at that point in time and called it quits. Or so I thought...Another heart to heart discussion on the cards, I think.
I have drawn a line under the house project this week. The snow has started to come down this evening (I can see it beautifully from the kitchen diner by turning on the new outside lights now!) so it will be a snowy start to February...
...I'm off to spend the weekend with family, followed by a quick turnaround at the start of next week ready to hop over to work in the Chanel Islands. The house project will move forward at a snail's pace (if at all) next week, but it will have to fit round my life now, rather than vice versa. After spending 35 weeks on a 10 week build, I don't think that's unreasonable...
There's not a lot to report this week. Not the builder's fault this time. It's down to me. A tickle and sore throat on Sunday had turned onto a full blown head cold overnight and I woke up on Monday morning with a runny nose, sniffs and sneezes, feeling rough. Couldn't face the thought of builders coming that day or indeed until I felt a bit better, so sent a text to the brother in law of the man in charge to ask him to hold off sending anyone for the next few days and took myself back to bed.
I'd forgotten about the chap who was coming to template for the glass splash backs early on Tuesday - his ring on the doorbell woke me up...But after a false start and apology (in my drowsy state, I thought he was a door to door salesman..) he was very gracious, accepted the apology, came in and did the job. And I went back to bed afterwards with a box of tissues.
By Wednesday evening, I was feeling a bit more human so gave the builder the green light to restart work the next day; measured up and ordered a strong adjustable shelving system to go up in the dining area alcoves, and arranged for a friend to help me put it up next week, when I'm back from a work related trip to the Channel Islands.
Thursday has been spent in the company of the electrician who is still putting right all the things that were done the wrong way by the previous guys.
By close of business, he had sorted out the power supply to the Saniflo in the loft loo; fitted the last of the dimmer switches upstairs and downstairs...
...sorted out a set of sockets that hadn't been connected...
...fitted the recessed light into the ceiling in the downstairs loo, which had been dangling loose since before Christmas...
...rewired the bathroom light that hadn't been earthed, but left another hole to fill in the process..
While he was doing that, the electricity was going on and off, so no wifi or heating intermittently. Not a good idea after the coldest night of the year so far. But I managed to go through the latest invoice from the man in charge, make an interim payment and explain why I had withheld a small proportion. He's still asking to be paid for variations in costs incurred before our "showdown" meeting last October.
We'd agreed back then that he would not pass on additional costs up incurred up to the date of that meeting, in return for which I would pay the full amount of the tender even though some of the works had not been done or had fallen by the wayside for other reasons. Our respective losses more or less balanced each other out so we had drawn a line under things at that point in time and called it quits. Or so I thought...Another heart to heart discussion on the cards, I think.
I have drawn a line under the house project this week. The snow has started to come down this evening (I can see it beautifully from the kitchen diner by turning on the new outside lights now!) so it will be a snowy start to February...
...I'm off to spend the weekend with family, followed by a quick turnaround at the start of next week ready to hop over to work in the Chanel Islands. The house project will move forward at a snail's pace (if at all) next week, but it will have to fit round my life now, rather than vice versa. After spending 35 weeks on a 10 week build, I don't think that's unreasonable...
Comments
Post a Comment