22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les · 3 September 2017 at 8:00PM

Was feeling pretty good today, right up until I put the kids' school uniform in the tumble dryer and wandered off to make a really nice cinnamon and pear upside down cake - it was lovely.

Sadly the 10 month old replacement H0tp0int dryer I got for £99, as the old one was recalled due to the fire hazard thing, has died.

Error F01 - circuit board error.

Did all the turning off and turning on again things. Not playing ball.

I was just wondering, considering I have hardly used it over summer, and the rest of the time it could, realistically be used at least every other day during a wet autumn and winter, if I was not responsible for an 'abnormally large family', it would be about 4 months out of its 1 yr warranty if it were to be used by a 'typical' family. Hmm. Considering the one it replaced was about 5 years old and I had had to have the bearings replaced as I had worn them away. It does not seem to be as good a bargain as I first thought.

Anyway, I have sent emails to the relevant departments, will let you know if I am successful in my efforts to get it fixed for free. It should be under the 1 year manufacturers warranty. I hope it is anyway or I shall have to get Martin's SADFART rules out.

f0xh0les · 5 September 2017 at 11:38AM

Well today I managed to save £3500. !!

Sadly it was because the window fitters refused to do the job without scaffold, which was included on the work sheet, but was the wrong type of scaffold, and not put up. So after 2 hours of waiting, the company building control chappie turns up and says nope, extra £500 please.

So I said I would think about it, knowing full well that the company makes its own windows to order, and mine were already made and sitting in the van waiting to go in.
So now I sit and wait for the company to get back to me.

I did find the whole thing quite funny actually. Must be my perverse sense of the absurd.
Came back from he morning school run to find men in their van looking surly, refusing to make eye contact, so I offered them a cuppa, and a sofa to sit on - they took the tea but refused the sofa and sat in their van for 2 hours with the rain chucking it down.

So, I am not yet glazed, but I have met two more grumpy tradesmen to add to my list.

greenbee · 5 September 2017 at 12:02PM

Good luck... hopefully they'll see sense. Why on earth didn't they quote for the correct scaffolding in the first place?

My builder is here - garage doors are sanded and knotting being applied. Hopefully he'll also get the airing cupboard floor done as I've cleared it out.

Plan is to start work on the rest of downstairs 2nd half of October, and do whatever we can in two months. This of course is all dependent on the outstanding items being finished by then, and his other jobs completing on time. But at least something will be done by two weeks before Christmas!

And my cleaner will move from Tuesday mornings to Friday after work so she can clean up after them. She's also going to do some 'overtime' helping me pack/unpack/repack as we move things around the house. So hopefully it won't be too unbearable.

Main flooring decision is made - bamboo. Just need to decide on tiles. And get someone to quote for putting a stove in.

f0xh0les · 5 September 2017 at 12:22PM

Just put in a call to my happy scaffolder I have used before, who chuntered on my behalf for the double glazing company's mistake, asked who they were and then fell about the place laughing as he is their scaffolding contractor.

Hopefully will work out cheaper going direct and possibly even cheaper for cash.

Small world.

greenbee · 5 September 2017 at 12:56PM

At least they hadn't started taking the old windows out!

I remember having mine done (all 17). Dust, mess, noise, but well worth it!

f0xh0les · 5 September 2017 at 1:41PM

We did say to them that they could start doing the ones on the ground floor while they were waiting for the other building control guy to come, but they said they did not like starting a job and then having to come back a week later to finish it.

It was raining.
I think that was a major contributing factor.

greenbee · 5 September 2017 at 1:46PM

Yep, my builder has just gone home because he can't do anything more in the rain.

Didn't bother to mention a couple of small indoor bits as CBA right now. He can do them next time. What I must do is get the whiteboard out with his list on it. I'm not here on Friday, but he'll be back to do some outside work, so I'm hoping he'll take the TV ariel off the chimney while he's there.

f0xh0les · 5 September 2017 at 6:06PM

Scaffold will be £350, I rang the windows people and asked how much they charged on the quote for using their tower, they hurriedly put me on hold and made up the sum of £100, so I told them to take that off the bill as I was supplying the scaffold. So have saved nearly £300, but still it has cost me £250 extra, which is not too shoddy for 3 flights of scaffold for a couple of days.

All in, it will make the job go faster, be safer for the window bunnies, and hopefully will be scheduled for next week while DH is away, so mentally putting that away in the 'not to be worried about right now' file.

Tumble dryer fixing bunny should be coming tomorrow to fix the stupid bloody thing. Hopefully that job will be struck off the list.

greenbee · 5 September 2017 at 6:43PM

Well done on the scaffolding. Make sure you check the bill carefully.

It's nice getting jobs off the list isn't it?

f0xh0les · 6 September 2017 at 10:51AM

No jobs off the list yet! Not until they are totally completed.

Scaffold to go up the end of next week for window bunnies (there will be three of them now!) to start Monday 18th. It will take 2 days.

Tumble bunny came this morning, yes it is broken, they don't carry circuit boards as 9 times out of 10 they can just reset them, I am the 10th time. So he has ordered a new one and a new heating element as well as it is out warranty in 5 weeks and if that is what tripped the board, I might as well have peace of mind.

So waiting on an appointment for that, and no dryer of a few days.

Step-Gran taken into hospital last night with suspected dehydration after a tummy bug, so might have to head over there and play Florence.

It is a really bad time as DH is booked to go away for a week from Monday-Sunday. The kids are back at school , I know she has not done it on purpose. Poor old duck. Just bad timing. Oh well, I will sort it out.

22 Foxhole East

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