I so wish I hadn’t decided to drink a lovely G&T to mark the fact that I got to the end of the day in one piece! This will be a very difficult entry to type up tonight! I cannot deny that I am seriously stressed and that this whole scaffolding lark has really got to me. It has meant that I cannot sleep at night as I have visions of the man turning nasty when he shows up to dismantle it all and then fleece me for more money.
Anyhow the good news is that at 3:45pm I rang the scaffolder’s mobile to inform him that we no longer wanted the scaffold and would he come and take it away. In other words, we are “off hire”. I had hoped it would make me feel elated, but I am just too tired. The rendering isn’t actually finished as believe it or not, they have run out of render (sound a familiar theme?) I have come to the conclusion that the trades people are all underestimating the size or complexity of our house, which to all intents and purposes is working in our favour, as I am doing a fixed price for the work. The renderers promised me they would blitz it in a couple of days – that was more than a week ago. We had a very rainy day on Thursday when they couldn’t work but apart from the day they didn’t show up at all (Tuesday) they have worked long hours. It is not the same people who have done the North wall or the garage so yet again, we are having to explain details, which as they are clearly an Eastern European crew, makes for complications. The foreman came up with a Plan B on Wednesday, seeing how stressed out I was! He said that although they had more render on order they would do all the high bits, so that I could take the scaffolding away and that they would come back and finish off without the scaffolding. I think that has partly been the case, although it seems everyone has ignored the front sitting room “fins”, which were technically quite difficult. Apparently they will arrange for a scaffold tower to complete that when more render comes. I don’t honestly care, as long as I can get that horrid scaffolder off my land and out of my life.
My Travis Perkins order of sleepers, loam and MOT1 arrived yesterday and John was here with his digger to start work on the raised beds for the kitchen garden/cutting garden to put my plants in from the allotment in Leatherhead. He also dug the trench for the wall for the waterfall and rill outside the front of the sitting room as I have a three week deadline to get it built so UK Power Networks can come and reroute the electricity off the telegraph pole into a junction box that I will get fitted to the back of the wall.
The raised beds are partially built and I have worn myself out barrowing the loam into one of the beds that is finished. I only managed to fill it a quarter full before I gave up, which is very unlike me, but my arm is killing me. I also met up with a plasterer on site this afternoon to get a quotation for the work to be done inside the house. Some of the internal walls inside the house have yet to be built, so cannot be insulated or plaster boarded, but we haven’t put in the ground insulation, vapour barrier and underfloor heating so it is another chicken and egg scenario. I definitely want to start fitting out upstairs first. The plumber has been back on site and done more of his first fix. I have ordered cisterns and flush plates, but these appear to be on back order so may have to wait a month or so for delivery! I hadn’t banked on that when I ordered them online as it didn’t say they were out of stock. There is still plenty for us to get on with, and it isn’t holding anyone up at present.
Martin had to go up to Lincoln today to collect Emma and all her clobber. I cleaned out the shed thinking we could store some of her pots and pans etc in there for the summer until she goes back to University again. She is going to a wedding tomorrow so I won’t actually see her until Sunday.
I have no idea what tomorrow will bring – whether the scaffolders show up and if John manages to finish the kitchen garden raised beds and paths. I am off to work to escape it all – I didn’t even make it to Tescos this week; I am so welded to this building site!
T
he field where Ludo, Vici and I walk in the morning has become seriously overgrown. I end up with wet soggy jeans above my wellington boots from the grasses and weeds as we walk through the fields. The boys seem to love it still.
Ludo and Vici's New Kennel Blog 