Lesley is here now - Message Board

That was a fun morning. I was up at twenty past seven (argh) and they rolled up at half past eight - the boss, with a minion and a catalogue.

I picked cabinets and worktops, and the boss went off to buy them while the minion broke up the cabinets that are going to be replaced.

He washed his hands in the kitchen sink, and got a puddle on the floor. Whence the puddle? The waste pipe isn't connected. Water goes down the plug hole, into the u-bend, and out of the waste pipe - into fresh air. This house has been crawling with plumbers - good, bad, indifferent and British Gas - for as long as we've been here, and it took a builder to spot the reason for a rotten cupboard and rusty tins.

We waited and waited for the boss to come back. We both expected him to return with cabinets to install. At last they made contact. He's ordered the cabinets and they will be delivered at nine o'clock tomorrow morning.

Wondering if I might learn to like seeing mornings again. Hmm.

Reply #5161. Oct 22 12, 1:01 PM

Will be worth it in the end Lesley, i canot tell difference these days between early mornings or late nights lol :)

Reply #5162. Oct 22 12, 3:15 PM

I'll let you know in a week's time! :D

Reply #5163. Oct 22 12, 3:24 PM

I am glad to know that contractors are the same there, as here...OMG! Seems as though nothing is ever the way they tell you...;)

I know quite a few contracters, and even like them...However, most of them are liars. Sad, but true.

Reply #5164. Oct 22 12, 9:06 PM

So true VM, when the blkock of flats i lived in was being rewired 18 months ago, a lot of things went wrong and in some cases missing.

The contractors/council talked with all parties and obviously found in favour of Contracters workforce. I had my computer power supply blown due to a substandard bunch of electricians, it cost £50 to replace and get installed, i was advised to buy a new computer as contracters were at fault, however i am not greedy and the person who looked at my computer is a friend and expert on them said i only needed power supply so went for that.

Prior to my problem a neighbour who does not like banks had £1,000 stolen by same electricians from under his matress, sadly his word against theres even though i knew he had the money in his flat. Chap is not dishonest and the money did go missing, the council and contracters ruled against my friend. So when i had them in my flat i watched tehm like a hawk which they did not like.

Reply #5165. Oct 23 12, 1:52 AM

Oh that's really cheered me up, thank you.

I was just out of the shower when they arrived at eight o'clock with one cabinet. The couriers came by nine with the rest.

The man who came yesterday is banging away in the kitchen - presumably installing cabinets! and a new one is up a ladder, plastering the top of the wall above the bottom of the stairs, so he's a long way up. Rather him than me. Still, it gives him something else to grumble about. Oh and the metallic noise was him dropping a Stanley knife into the hall and then it bounced into the living room. "It just fell out me pocket."

Reply #5166. Oct 23 12, 3:00 AM

Difference Lesley you can choose who does the work for you, i am lumbered with who i get, thats why i had problems i highlighted.

I did get the money back for the computer repair but it took a phone call to a newspaper legal expert and a meeting with the company the council uses, at first they did not want to pay so rang the paper whilst the representatives of the company were present, the head person pleaded me to hang up and then said if we pay the £50 you paid out will you be satisfied i said i woulkd be but why did it take the action i did to get them to pay out. Seemingly the electrician was removed from the job and he had the ammount deducted from his pay,so he was not happy.

Am so sure your work will go fine lesley and look forward to hear you tell us all how happy and pleased you are with it.

Reply #5167. Oct 23 12, 10:58 AM

There's no guarantee that choosing who does the work will get you good people.

I too have won fights with the council by roping in the local press. Shame that we are forced to do that.

In about 1987, we had some work done on the house. There was a wet-behind-the-ears bricklayer, barely out of school. I gave him a cup of coffee, which he put on a sloping surface. It fell off and broke, and he was narked because I broke his coffee.

I had a shower, which ended up being much too hot, and I couldn't work out why I could get cold water to mix with the hot. Eventually we learnt that he had been using the outside tap. When he heard what it had done, he burst out laughing. Wrong answer!

He also started lecturing me about Margaret Thatcher. I don't appreciate lectures from anyone, political or otherwise, and rarely from a boy who has only just learnt to wipe his own nose. I told the boss, and the boss said we do not talk politics to our customers - and took the little squirt off the job.

No, I didn't get a new coffee cup.

Reply #5168. Oct 23 12, 11:43 AM

You should have had a new coffee cup Lelsey, seems we all suffer with tradesmen.

I know once i had to have a new kitchen ceiling silly old lady above flooded her kitchen and it broughtmy ceileing down, the plasterer was in doing the job when i had to nip to doctors, and was day of videos, i looked at book case and noticed something amiss, he had took them out looked at them put back in wrong order, so i complained to council and he was severely reprimanded it seemed that he had done something similar before but far worse then moving my videos, he had gone through the underwear draw of a young woman he was doing a job for, lucky he could still walk to be honest as girls boyfriend was a renowned thug he lost his job and his wife and kids over the later,

Reply #5169. Oct 23 12, 11:54 AM

tobyone

I once had a plumber who spoke, somewhat witheringly, to me about my lack of knowledge of his craft.

Later, when he was on his back under the sink unit, my very large German Shepherd dog strolled in and put his nose up the leg of the plumber's shorts.

In some haste to leave, the plumber left behind a useful wrench and never sent us a bill.

Reply #5170. Oct 23 12, 1:46 PM

I was once the silly old lady who flooded the flat downstairs. It might have had something to do with the clever young man who plumbed in the new washing machine.

Nah, an unmatched coffee mug was a small price to pay to get shot of the adolescent loudmouth.

This lot seem OK. I'll let you know if they're not.

A mannerless, patronising plumber, and a very clever dog - and no bill! what a beautiful story. :D I'm almost tempted to rush out and get a dog!

Reply #5171. Oct 23 12, 3:19 PM

Not exactly on topic, but today, I had my carpet cleaned...The 'boys' who came to work were wonderful, and did a bang up job!

During the process, I had to lock the cat in the bathroom, so he wasn't upset by the strangers in his house.

After the job was done, and I let the cat out, I noticed my toothbrush holder toppled...At the market, I bought a new toothbrush. When I got home, guess what wasn't in my bags...Yep! I'll boil the old one tomorrow! ;)

Reply #5172. Oct 23 12, 10:01 PM

I'm glad/relieved that the job went well. Sorry about the toothbrush!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Yesterday was a bit messy. Men came at eight, one in the kitchen and one upstairs plastering.

Another man came later, with the boss, to look at the windows and measure up. I added a small windowsill that they seem to have passed over, so rotten I could sink my fingernails in with no effort, and swollen from the rain. Next time I looked, the entire sill was lying in orange pieces on the ground.

A friend came with some shopping, and I was going to give him something I'd frozen, but I couldn't get to my freezer because two worktops were leaning against it. At 11.30 in the morning, I told kitchen man I'd want access to the freezer at about 3.30. It's OK, the kitchen man said, I'll just move it for you. "Just." Don't you love that word?

Friend came at 4.30, worktops were still in the way... Kitchen man called plastering man to help him move them; answer came there none. Friend decided he couldn't wait all day. He'd be back later. Obviously five hours' notice isn't enough for a man with a job to do!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My niece is going to have a trans-oesophageal electrocardiogram, and asked me if I'd ever had one. She thinks it's like an endoscopy. I have, and it's exactly like an endoscopy. If the test comes back clear, they're talking about taking out her central line and getting her ready to go home.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I took a few progress photos for Jonathan.

The friend popped in later, after the men had gone and the worktops had been moved.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the evening, I relaxed and cooked myself a huge meal. Nice. I usually end up snacking before bedtime. Yesterday I was so full, and so tired, I fell into bed, unsnacked.

And got up at 7.50 to let them in at eight. I can't believe what I heard myself say: "I had a lie-in." Ten to eight is a lie-in? what's happening to me!

Reply #5173. Oct 24 12, 2:53 AM

Wow hectic there LEsley, will all be worth it in the end, Seems niece is coming on nicely, yes i have had same test myself is something they say can find most problems and resolve them.

Lets hope she will oon be home as she will improve far quicker at home, friend in Canada husband was making little peogress but is now home been a week and she says he has made a vast improvement.

Reply #5174. Oct 24 12, 4:54 AM

The plasterer finished after lunch. He did two big plastering jobs and they look perfect.

The builder finished at four-ish. I got home from the cardiac exercise class just as he was leaving, so I didn't get a chance to talk to him and don't know if he needs to come back. I phoned the boss later and he didn't know either. Do I get a lie-in, or must I learn to love early mornings?

The new cabinets look beautiful and I am delighted. He put back the old kitchen mixer tap and realised that it was broken, so I'm getting that replaced.

Now I have the fun job of replacing the contents of the kitchen, and reclaiming my living and dining room. That'll make plenty of space for the contents of the understairs cupboard so the electrician will have access to the fusebox. Work on the windows will start about a week after that. When that's done, you will probably find me in a dark corner, hugging my knees and rocking gently.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My niece said the trans-oesophageal electrocardiogram was horrible - just like an endoscopy! It was a little quicker, though, because it doesn't have to go as far. She got the result this afternoon and it's negative. She's come off the antibiotics, so no longer needs twice-daily blood tests to gauge the dose: her central line has come out and anyone who has had a central line will know what a huge relief that is. If you haven't had that pleasure: it's like having a ton of chains hanging round your neck.

She is straining at the leash to come home, but she's still nervous about being at home. After nine weeks, her husband and children will have a lot of missed attention to make up for. The children are old enough to know that she gets tired easily, but perhaps not yet old enough to be able to leave her to rest. Still, it's been a long time since I heard her as vibrant and giggly as she was this afternoon.

Reply #5175. Oct 24 12, 4:38 PM

Oh thats fantastic news about your niece Lesley, is so good to hear shes coming along well.

i know all about the test she had have had both that and endoscopy so know how it is.

Lets hope all goes well for her

Reply #5176. Oct 25 12, 4:46 AM

Thanks, Gary, me too - which is how I was able to tell her that a TOE is just like an endoscopy! She may have guessed, and that may be why she asked me.

I've ordered a CO detector and a hand-held vacuum cleaner online, and they both came today, before and after the phone call from my brother to tell me that his daughter is coming home tomorrow. I've also spent some of today corresponding with an American cousin, whose life seems to be back on track now, at last, and working out where and whether to replace kitchen contents I removed a week ago.

Team games, then on with the head-scratching.

Reply #5177. Oct 25 12, 10:55 AM

Have you tried the handheld? Just asking, because I've bought 3, and didn't like any! I'm hoping to save up for a Dyson, because it seems to be WONDERFUL! ;)

So happy that your niece is going home. She will be better off where she lives, and is loved.

Thinking good thoughts, :)

Reply #5178. Oct 25 12, 3:11 PM

Thank you, we're all delighted and relieved that she's going home. She's been looking forward to going home for two months, and she's a little bit apprehensive, and very, very excited.

About twelve years ago, I bought an upright Dyson because it was bagless and lightweight, only they lied about the weight. It's effective, and beautifully and cleverly designed, but a couple of bits have dropped off, which is not what you expect when you've shelled out loads of money, and it's also a bit too heavy for me to manoeuvre on the stairs.

I've only just got round to unpacking the CO detector that came half a day ago. The vacuum cleaner may wait till tomorrow. I really only want it for stairs. It should be OK, if the reviews are anything to go by.

Have you looked for reviews? Amazon is a good place to look for reviews, because it starts by giving you best and worst.

Have you seen these?

http://tinyurl.com/Amazon-reviews-BIC-for-her
Don't bother with the product. Just scroll down for the reviews.

Reply #5179. Oct 25 12, 5:05 PM