wow… council tax reduction

The local council have just given me a £400 exemption on this years council tax because we didn’t live here for three months when we got flooded.

I just wrote one letter and they did the rest.. nice one LB of Sutton.

There’s a bit of a breeze…

That is basically all it took to bring Britain to a halt.  Not a typhoon, not a hurricane or even a tornado, it was a strong breeze.  Then all hell was let loose, as were loose walls, tiles, scaffolding and trees.  Perhaps if we did have  these more often then the weak walls and trees etc would all be blown over sooner and not all at once.

Saying that it was better than having to sit up all night emptying a bucket after bucket of water from yet another leak I found last night.  I don’t have some odd illness that compels me to make leaks around the house, certainly not to miss a whole nights sleep and start getting those slightly weird feelings and poor judgement it brings on.

The guy who did our boiler was in the area and came round to fix it as it was sort of to do with him – it shouldn’t have been but that is how these bloody flats are designed.  I can’t go into detail, I’m bored already.

The leaking tap was also fixed this morning – this time it was the fitting that was broken – just one of those things.

I shall now try to remain awake for the rest of this sent.,.;lc;la.cccccccccccccccccccsaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacccccccccccc,,,,,,,,,,,,cmm mc

wha.. wah.. w..w..w..w..w.. what time….  what time is it?

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

we now have a bathroom (take 2)

Last night I finished the last of  the work on the bathroom.  Sealing the bath in and cleaning up the mess.

Atean and his mate fitted the new bath and tiled it all in one day – they were here until 9pm but also fitted  the sink, put up the light and mirror. Eternally grateful to them for coming up from Cardiff to do that for us. Well they were grateful to as it turned out we got a job for them in January, fixing up our friends new flat.

Anyway, a few final touches were added to the bathroom and now it looks great (well I think so) and we can all enjoy a nice soak tonight after smelling quite bad for the last three days!

Have a happy new year!

not sure I can take much more of this

I have found a crack in the bath – not a lump of crack, a crack, split, a hole (not quite all the way through) but this will probably mean removing the bath and all the mess which that entails – dirt, dust, disruption.
Not sure I can take much more of this. I could jump off the building right now. Especially after the arguements we have had with the builder recently over the things he won’t do or does badly… and right before we would have moved in. May be we will still have to.

Who says the builders will take responsibility for it? Then it is up to us. I just can’t believe this is happening.

It may be just a little crack but that crack will cause so many problems for us.

back working

It’s been a whole week now at work – oh the joy. Well that is only compared to being on holiday – work is actually quite fun as HackDay2 is starting.

The worse thing is the building work going on in the flat – it’s good it is happening but keeping an eye on the endless procession of builders that seem to come in, make a mess and then leave.

Looks like we will get a new kitchen now as the old one was cracking up after getting wet – hopefully that won’t slow the process down. Will we be in before Christmas? I have a feeling not.

We are back in the Holiday Inn, seems like home now. Phoebe seems to be happy with it anyway, she was jumping around this morning when she woke up. Dancing in and out of the bathroom, thought I was going to need to call the doctor for her.

let me in!

For the second time this week the plumber has been unable to gain entrance to the flat above, so as to see where the water that is on the stack pipe may be coming from.

Two appointments had been made with the tenants.  Monday, no-one came to the door and today they said they had left a message on the property managers phone that they couldn’t make the meeting.  The girl upstairs, standing in her bed clothes, said they were going out and that no-one could come in.

Fantastic, thanks very much. For what we hope is a ten minute job it has taken over two weeks to get here and things still aren’t fixed.

Another appointment has been made for Friday 20th and this time the letting agency for the flat is coming with the keys. Surely this time we will have success….. not that it matters a great deal – we are off on holiday on Sunday.  I just hope the person that is looking after the place while we are away doesn’t get much crap.

i deal with so many peoples names

That is what the property agent said when I called her again today! 

Then went on to say that she knows me, she knows the problem, she knows what is going on. Does she hell.  I have been waiting for her to call back since Monday.  I have now sent a letter by email to tell Centro just how useless they are.

The builder says the water on the waste pipe is a weeping leak and the plumber says it is the de-humidifiers drawing water out.  The fact is that this water was there when we opened up the pipe to start with, so it has nothing to do with anything we have done.

I go on holiday soon and wanted this sorted out before we leave.  Is it going to happen?  I doubt it.

would you adam and believe it – another leak!

Yes, last night I found water coming from the ceiling in the kitchen – no idea how long it had been coming through and I only found out because I was in a mood and looking for some keys.

This is now starting to feel like a cross between groundhog day and hell.  Will we ever move in? At the moment I feel like selling the damn place and packing it all in.

This after the weekend started so positively.  We went out on Saturday looking to make the most of the time to do some more work on other areas of the flat we hadn’t time for.  We changed the toilet and tiled the floor.  I stripped the wallpaper too.  We went out looking for a wardrobe and spotted one as we went to B&Q, in a house removals shop, just by the roadside, £145 for a solid pine, triple wardrobe and a set of drawers (3+2) £45 – whole lot for £180 – nice!

So now I have spoken to the builder, who cannot believe it.  Just called my solicitor to see what we can do re: compensation, so where decent to stay – hotel is killing us. Called the managing agents about the flat above and they still haven’t come back to me.  Luigi, the nice guy that owns it, is on hols in Italy – without him I have no hope and Bob Hope of getting this leak sorted.

Lounge flooring gets sanded

After two coats,
originally uploaded by ragtagman.

Well after much worry, because I had no idea what I was doing the floor looks pretty good, considering.

There are some rough bits, there are some gouges from the sander, although not bad.

The main floor sander was easy to use but the edge sander is a back braker.

After sanding all over a couple of times – one rough and one more gentle, I filled all the main gaps with mix and fill (glue and sawdust) and then let that dry overnight and filled in any that sunk in the morning. More pictures of that on my flickr.

Next day sanded down the whole floor again, running over and bits I missed the first time or wasn’t happy with. After that it was time to let the dust settle – literally.

When the dust has fallen hoover and white spirit the floor and wait to dry.

Once dry it was on with the first coat of varnish (Ronseal DiamondHard, Clear Satin) which takes more the first time as so much of it sinks in to the dry wood.

Second coat went on after a couple of hours and left the windows open and for the first time sat out on the balcony and had my dinner which Ping had made me. Lovely evening for it too.

Next morning I was on my hands and knees again sanding it with 240 paper to flat the raised grain a little. Followed by another hoover and wet rag time all over.

By this time I was in need of back surgery and two new knees. Not forgetting that I had a hangover from the mix and fill which is enough for even the hardest glue sniffer.

Well after the warm summer/autumn day dried the floor nice a quickly it was down with the last coat of varnish, followed by more hanging around on the balcony – as it was the only place to be as I painted myself out of the front door.

Total cost was about £190 which is good as a new wooden floor would have been around £660 for the same room size (22m sq) and I don’t think I would have had the same satisfaction either.

Sorry, can’t stay here longer.. need my bed.

if I had the energy

I would write something but I’m about to fall asleep. So off to watch the football in the lounge and have a beer, it does feel like summer after all.

Flat is going well.  Walls painted and the flooring is going in the bedrooms tomorrow.