Month: October 2022

Originally seen in 2004.
Five weeks without posts… much has happened but not enough has happened.
Pretty much everything that could possibly go wrong has.
The 10 week build that should have been completed by September 23rd enters week 17 and is still at least a month off ‘finished shell’ completion. After this we have to paint, fit stairs, fit utility and cloakrom, tile, finish off doors, add skirting boards etc etc.
Some of the delay was due to Idiot Not-An-Architect the Architect’s failure (yes, another one) to design a way for the 400 year old roof to be joined into the new roof coming off at right angles, or even mention the need to consider this once the 400 year old roof was uncovered, but, the builder also failed to notice this omission until the end of the week when he left four labourers (three 18 year olds and a less than bright mid-20s) to take the front out of the house in his absence elsewhere. This meant that Mr BW had to spend a week supervising, so, rather than stand over them, he decided that the best way to be able to monitor proceedings was to build another long piece of wall with the stone and rubble taken out of the house. It is truly a work of art and several local people have asked how we found a good dry stone waller without a 3 year wait and if they could have his details.
We ended September with stormy gale-force weather, rain pouring through the old roof in the middle of the night, and the need for emergency support for the main house roof and first floor, and a first floor cupboard that houses the brand new 150 litre hot water tank and main electricty supply suspended in mid air by nothing other than luck.
Cue 12 acrow props, an emergency structural engineer (almost the only competent person who has been here – but who then sent a large bill with VAT added and no VAT number, yes you can guess the rest), another £7K’s worth of internal steel supports being required – including some in places where no-one would want to see one in a finished room, but it was either that or take the new roof off again, and as it took 4 weeks and 7 visits from the roofers to do what should have been 2 days’ work, due to a dispute between the roofer and the builder over a different payment, that was not an option.
So many things have been incorrect – including the design of three of the new windows finally fitted last Thursday (these have supposedly been ready to fit for 6 weeks now, and while the building had holes for windows and doors, but no windows or doors, an owl took up residence).
So many things bought new when we moved in, or since, have gone wrong: fridge/freezer, Mr BW’s phone (only just over a year old), all huge expenses we didn’t need, as we still have 2 unsold houses down south and no prospect of more buyers any time soon thanks to Pussy Bow Truss and Kami Kwasi Kwarteng having crashed the economy.
The new fitted vanity units and 1500mm long basin top for the cloakroom arrived on Friday late afternoon – completely broken on the pallet in transit, although this was not obvious until the shrink wrap was removed and the boxes opened to check.
And now… Mr BW (whose birthday it was on Saturday), who has been wonderful and worked so hard throughout to try to overcome or get round everything that has gone wrong, has seriously injured his back shifting piles of builders’ rubbish in an attempt to get things tidy and clean. He is currently forbidden from lifting anything heavier than a tea cup, and it is unclear whether he will be able to do all, or indeed any, of the things to finish off the new space, if/when the builder and his mates ever leave.
And to think that back in August we were on track to have Mr BW’s Mum’s house sold by the beginning of September, Coven Sud sold and everything moved up by the end of September, and the building work finished by 23rd September, ready for us to get on with our lives that have been on hold/controlled by other people and workmen since March 2020.
So, enough stress to send most people over the edge. It’s been bad enough living it without having to write about it too, hence no posts for 5 weeks, sorry.
Given that we cannot have the heating on until the building work is finished, it’s fortunate that it has been an incredibly mild autumn: 5 or 6 degrees warmer by day and by night than this time last year or in 2020. As this current week is the week we have spent up here every year since 2005, we also know that autumn is at least 3 weeks behind. There are still leaves on most trees, all the late summer flowers are still blooming, raspberries are still producing, and there has been only one very mild grass frost a couple of weeks ago that disappeared within 15 minutes of sunrise. There have been many years when we were visiting where we had to scrape thick ice off the windscreen every morning. It seems that breaking point may have been reached for the climate as well as the inhabitants of Coven Nord.