22 Foxhole East

greenbee

I'm rural, so they have to drive. This guy lives in the next village and apparently the person who answers the phone in his office lives down the road from me. So I don't think drinking is a problem. But actually being available to quote and do the work is either very efficient or worrying. 

QueenJess

You wouldn’t think scaffolding and drinking were natural buddies..

f0xh0les

Nor electricians, but there you go!

LadyWithAPlan

Living dangerously those chaps but I guess they play with electrics and climb for a living so what do we expect ! 

Loving your OH decadence - more of this please  

f0xh0les

I can control finances, there is little else I can control.  I cannot control DS1 nor DS2 who are still in bed. I have asked repeatedly for them to get up, but no joy.  They make me sad.

I applied for a Nationalwide bank account switch yesterday, that should be £200 the week before C-Word. 

Went to a website that claim They Buy Books, boxed up one book and 8 Dvd's (mostly c/s ones I got at 5 for £1) and that is ready to send for an extra £9.98 to family funds, plus a whole box of tat out of the house.  What the book buying people did not want are packaged up and ready to return to the c/s.

The builder claims that 2/3rds of the roof on the back elevation needs to come off again.  Oh well, the slates will be reused, they would have had to come off anyway if they had been new or not.  The roof no longer leaks, and it means the velux can be retained, and just shunted up 6" and the stairwell will not be a dark well of despair - last week they said the velux would have to be lost, today they admit it can just go up a bit.  

But the builder went to DH ( why do they have to go to the man???) and now DH thinks the entire roof has to come off, and that we (ahem, I ) have paid thousands for a wasted job - I explained to him that we have had 2 named storms in the fortnight the roof has been on, and the bedrooms have not leaked for a fortnight, the loft has dried out, and the roof coming off, and going back on,  will use the same new  battens, the same roofing felt, and the same slates that I have already paid for.  The job has not been made any more complicated, they will just be taking a new bit off, instead of an old bit off, but it can  all be reused  on the cladding.  

 But DH is now all stressy and annoying, and convinced I have paid 50% more than I needed to,  so I packed

 him off to work at 9am because he was doing my head in.  Made sure he took a towel so he can shower at work. 

£11k bill = £2k VAT + nearly £2k for front dormer work = £7k for the slates and leadwork + scaffold divided by 2 (front and back elevations) = £3.5k - for the back of the house - all materials can be reused, the velux can now be moved, so I could probably have saved just under £1k if I had either waited, or people had turned up when they were supposed to.   There is no drama, and I may have saved on having the velux moved, as the roofers were quoting £1200 for putting on extra in, whereas the builders will just do it as part of the dormer job.  I hope.  Anyway they will not be charging £600 labour on each of the two velux, so I might actually save money.  

Anyway, now DH is a stressy nightmare convinced he is going to come home to an entire roof in the back yard and we will have to go and live in a tent in the local park.

greenbee

I suggest you drop DH's PJs off and tell him to come home when it's done

The plumber DID turn up yesterday. I have never seen anyone service a boiler so thoroughly. And he repressurised and serviced the megaflo tank, which clearly hadn't been done since it was installed (most people don't take on board that they need an annual service). He needs to come back to replace the magnetic filter, which clearly has been broken since before the last service as a minimum, and will probably be up for doing other bits of work that we've discussed. I intend to hang on to him (is it wrong to kidnap reliable tradespeople?). 

trix-a-belle

& I hope you had strongly worded discussions with the builders about the fact they are dealing with you & not DH therefore why did they go to him at all.

Do I forsee the beating of a large pot around the bedrooms of the house at an appropriate time of the morning to rouse 2 certain children in the future....?

f0xh0les

greenbee said:

 (is it wrong to kidnap reliable tradespeople?). 

There has probably never been a precedent, as reliable tradespeople are rare as hen's teeth. 
DS1 and DS2 are being kept informed of how much everything is going to cost, and how much I have paid out already.  They are getting the idea that stuff costs money.  The builders are making lots and lots of lovely noise from 8am.  As my civic duty, I go and inform DS1&2, as soon as DS3&4 go out the door to school at 8am,  that work is going on, because the working day has begun, and that they might consider looking for a job today? Maybe? While people are in the office? Perhaps?  Anyway, I told DS2 at 11.00 that he  was needed in the living room until I returned. Which he did. Clothed. Awake.  He scarpered as soon as I got home though. 

beanielou

So so glad that I did not have those troubles with my DS. Though I have no desire to relive the teenage years! 

f0xh0les

and we might have to have  wall ties as the builder thinks the gable end is bowing in (rather than out). I  will find out more tomorrow.