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.

third week of building

Monday mornings are not always good for many reasons, today was no exception.  Amazingly though this time I managed to maintain my composure and not throw a fit.

John, our “builder” said he couldn’t fit the oven because a pipe is in the way, although I have been telling him this for a while (and it is there on the wall for all to see) he has decided to ignore this problem until they have to do something about it…. hmm, planning is not a word he understands.

Thankfully one of the actual builders said he had his measurements wrong and that things could fit with a bit of digging into walls – the alternative is to put the water waste from the sink and washing machine into a drain which may only be a soad away, something I would rather check than just do.

Things seemed to have moved on, no-one has been stressed, John has gone for a lie down and I’m here typing, still a little worried over what will happen.

Tried to call the builder that the management company said knows the flats inside out but it appears he is either on hols, Christmas shopping or has his head in stuck under a bath (working) as I got no reply from his mobile.

No rush, it is only Christmas in 2 weeks, might be our first at the Holiday Inn.

building work has now started

The bathroom is almost back to how it was – the only thing to do is finish a little tiling and put the shower up.  Then the stuff we had left over we can do with the help of our little friend and not pay £319 just to put a vanity unit/sink up.

We have been allowed to get a new kitchen, which was nice.  So we have that being put in.  Now as the kitchen is a bit of a squeeze I’m hoping they can get everything in but I will wait and see.. it makes me nervous just typing about it.  What will go wrong and what won’t be done how I want it to.

You talk to these guys and try to head off problems but they just say we will deal with it when we get to it.  Then moan that they have a problem the next day,  “You didn’t tell us about that,” they say, when you tried to just that.

I can’t believe how many days I have said where the sink goes.

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.

how long can you stay in a hotel?

Spoke to the loss adjuster yesterday and hopefully we will move out of the hotel soon as it is doing my head in. It is also costing the insurance company too much.

In under two weeks time we go on hols so I’m not sure what will happen then. I certainly don’t want work being done while I’m not there – not that I don’t trust the builders, I just want to make sure it is done how I want it to be done.

In the office again today as broadband hasn’t been installed yet, should be activated on Thursday so I can work from home and save money on diesel and food.

Phoebe went to the doctors yesterday as she had spots on her face and legs. Seems she has an infection, probably from something in the hotel or just the stress of living somewhere odd and certainly she is not getting enough sleep – none of us are.

Hopefully this will all change soon.