My Annus Horribilis

[Flick of the Elbow]

Hello, some may remember that I used to post on here. I had to stop earlier in the year when things got too stressful with building work that we were having done. Six months of living in a building site and having to deal with an incompetent builder just got too much. Anyway we're more or less back on an even keel now, by this time next week we'll even have curtains (bliss!), and I'm feeling ready to face the world of the Internet forum again ! Don't ask me for a recommendation of a builder, I'm afraid I can't help there. On the other hand I can thoroughly recommend the architect and also the John Lewis design service, they were both excellent.

 

[Mrs M]

Glad to see you back .
Sorry you had such a rough time with the "builder".
Know how stressful that can be, hope it's all good now.

 

[raleighnut]

Welcome back.

 

[Levo-Lon]

JL are very good for curtains..lol my good lady traipsed me round curtain shops for a excessively long marriage testing amount of time..
nice to see you have the house sorted..

 

[welsh dragon]

Glad to hear there is light at the end of the tunnel. Welcome back.

 

[I like Skol]

Done the loft conversion & extension thing in the last couple of years and know how hard it can be, even with a great builder. Not many of us have the cash to hand over the keys and walk away until it is ready to move back in so it can take a mahoosive amount of energy to keep life and the build running simultaneously. Life does return to normal eventually......

 

[Vapin' Joe]

My cousin had an extension built on his then house about thirty years ago. The electrician he employed was a friend of a friend of someone he'd met in a pub. After it was completed they moved back in, having spent six months with his MiL while the work was going on. His wife complained that the vac didn't work when she tried to hoover the new room, and after taking the machine to bits and not finding anything wrong he tried it in a socket in another room and it worked. Calling another electrician in to find what the problem with the socket was they found out that the original sparks had fitted all the sockets they asked for but hadn't done any wiring.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

My cousin had an extension built on his then house about thirty years ago. The electrician he employed was a friend of a friend of someone he'd met in a pub. After it was completed they moved back in, having spent six months with his MiL while the work was going on. His wife complained that the vac didn't work when she tried to hoover the new room, and after taking the machine to bits and not finding anything wrong he tried it in a socket in another room and it worked. Calling another electrician in to find what the problem with the socket was they found out that the original sparks had fitted all the sockets they asked for but hadn't done any wiring.

I can't even go there tbh - of all the building related tradesmen we have used in our lifetime only a small handful stand out as decent, honest craftsmen. The rest have been total tossers.

 

[Crackle]

Your absence from pro cycling was noted.

 

[swee'pea99]

My cousin had an extension built on his then house about thirty years ago. The electrician he employed was a friend of a friend of someone he'd met in a pub. After it was completed they moved back in, having spent six months with his MiL while the work was going on. His wife complained that the vac didn't work when she tried to hoover the new room, and after taking the machine to bits and not finding anything wrong he tried it in a socket in another room and it worked. Calling another electrician in to find what the problem with the socket was they found out that the original sparks had fitted all the sockets they asked for but hadn't done any wiring.

My sister was watching telly one evening when she suddenly had one of those WTF moments when a drip of water fell on her head, soon followed by another, and another, and pretty soon there was a regular old stream coming through the ceiling. She ran upstairs, hammered on the door, and to cut a long story short found that the people upstairs, so thrilled with their new shower, had decided to give it a try out, tho' the builders weren't coming back to actually tile the bare plaster until the following day...

 

[Fubar]

Hello, some may remember that I used to post on here. I had to stop earlier in the year when things got too stressful with building work that we were having done. Six months of living in a building site and having to deal with an incompetent builder just got too much. Anyway we're more or less back on an even keel now, by this time next week we'll even have curtains (bliss!), and I'm feeling ready to face the world of the Internet forum again ! Don't ask me for a recommendation of a builder, I'm afraid I can't help there. On the other hand I can thoroughly recommend the architect and also the John Lewis design service, they were both excellent.

Welcome back! Perhaps you should be recommending who NOT to use...

 

[SpokeyDokey]

[QUOTE 4029104, member: 9609"]there was a story the other day in the news, some one was trying to have a basement dug out under their London house, it all went seriously pear shaped and the house has now mostly fallen into the hole.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34935821[/QUOTE]

Good job it was only £3.5 million.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Thanks for all your kind words and commiserations. Fortunately there were no basement extensions involved.