Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

savingholmes

Sounds pretty good deal on the theatre. Glad you are planning to make more time (& £) for joy.

I would be worrying about the landscapers too. It's so annoying isn't it! The only consolation is it's typical behaviour - so probably too early to worry. 

Merlin's_Beard

savingholmes said:

Sounds pretty good deal on the theatre. Glad you are planning to make more time (& £) for joy.

I would be worrying about the landscapers too. It's so annoying isn't it! The only consolation is it's typical behaviour - so probably too early to worry. 

If it's too early to worry, I'll not mention the half hour I spent scrutinising emails to figure out whether I'd been scammed and lost my money, then.  

savingholmes

I'd be the same....

It's so easy to tell others not to worry, so hard to do in practice yourself.

rtandon27

I'd also feel the same way MB - nothing worse than a tradesperson who can't keep an appointment! - Don't feel guilty about chasing though, or second guessing yourself (and rereading e-mails), expecting timely communication from them is not a big ask!

On the other hand, if they come with glowing reports on the quality of their work, it may be that they are genuinely delayed by the heat!  It's been stifling out there & I've had to vacate my end of the garden office by noon every day since last week even with doors & windows open.

Merlin's_Beard

rtandon27 said:

I'd also feel the same way MB - nothing worse than a tradesperson who can't keep an appointment! - Don't feel guilty about chasing though, or second guessing yourself (and rereading e-mails), expecting timely communication from them is not a big ask!

On the other hand, if they come with glowing reports on the quality of their work, it may be that they are genuinely delayed by the heat!  It's been stifling out there & I've had to vacate my end of the garden office by noon every day since last week even with doors & windows open.

They've turned up this morning!

I definitely don't mind them running behind - I've done outdoor jobs in 30C heat and it's vile, and the house is all shut up with curtains drawn today to keep it cool - but the sitting around waiting for someone who isn't turning up got old, very fast. If I'd known that they weren't coming even the night before, I could have done something with my time off work.

savingholmes

That's the disappointing bit isn't it - feeling like you wasted an opportunity. Glad they turned up today.

rtandon27

So glad to hear they turned up today! Looking forward to hearing about the progress and results.

Merlin's_Beard

They've turned up two days in a row! Ground has been fully rotavated, paths planned out, and dug out, and hard core gone in over them and the shed base. Patio area next I think.

The job list is progressing along now they're here and my brain has unstuck from waiting mode. And as long as I put "hoover" somewhere on the list, everything else gets done.

Car has had the stone chip rust removed and painted over (£14.99 chip repair kit from hlfords), bathroom plug which was stuck in the down position has been fixed (£6 WD40 and a pair of pliars), house is clean and tidy (even the hoovering, even in this heat).Have stitched a bag back together (the leather tag that the handle attaches to had the stitching snap) - not sure how well that's going to hold out but we'll see. Feeling pretty accomplished with all that!

Old stamps have had their form filled out and just need posting.

Only failure so far has been a fathers day present - completely clueless there. Not even entirely sure what he does with his time now he's retired (I ask my mum and she says: he does nothing. A reminder that we need to be running towards something in retirement rather than running away from work, I guess) I still owe them a meal from last year so maybe I'll just add to my tab?

badmemory

Merlin's_Beard said:

 A reminder that we need to be running towards something in retirement rather than running away from work,

This definitely.  When my father retired he did absolutely nothing for the first six months.  Well other than seriously annoy my mother.  She was still working & didn't want to stop as she was only in her 50s.  Thankfully he eventually saw the light.  I've been retired just over 10 years now & to me if you are ever bored then you are doing it wrong.

killerpeaty

Yay for the tradesmen turning up! 

You could get him a national trust membership. Might encourage him to go out and enjoy himself a bit.

My uncle made big model train sets when he retired, converted one of his kids rooms into a train room. Everytime we went on holiday together he would manage to get something for his sets.