Thursday 27 September 2007

On the progress of the building work

I have come to the conclusion that it is best to simply leave one's house alone and not do things to it. I have now had no heating for 2 and a half weeks, no bathroom for one week and no lights upstairs for one week.

Having removed the bathroom last week, the builders appear to have, how shall I put this? - fecked off. This, incidentally, came but 3 days after they didn't turn up in the first place due to having all gone to Blackpool for the weekend and got too sozzled to work. Of course, it was probably best that, given that they had got themselves drunk, they didn't arrive, since they might have got confused and pulled out the kitchen instead, or something (that is literally the only way this could have got worse). Anyway, as I say, they did eventually sober up and come round, removed the bathroom and disappeared again. When I say 'removed the bathroom' I mean they took away the sink and bath, dismantled the hot press, took the walls off (I can't really explain this, you'd have to see it), did some plastering, and then went away. They left the hot water tank, which we'll return to in a moment.

So, every day for a week now, I have come home and looked in vain to see what they've done. I know they come every day, because the assortment of leftover food on the living room table changes, but I can't realy see any difference (although I admit that I'm not the most DIY-aware person, so they could be doing obscure behind-the-scenes stuff that I don't notice). So last night my dad phoned them to see what's going on.

It seems they are awaiting the arrival of the bathroom window, and don't want to do too much until it arrives (quite why this is the case was not explained). My dad asked about the hot water tank and why it hadn't been taken away, and the bloke replied 'We thought we'd leave her with hot water'. Now let's think about this for a paragraph or so. Hot water... to put in what? The bath? No, that's now in the back garden, out of range of the taps and in full view of the neighbours. Unless I decide to have a David and Bathsheba moment I am unlikely to need hot water for the bath. The sink? No, that also is in the back graden. The toilet? Why? The kitchen sink? I could boil a kettle for about 1/10 of the energy used to put the immersion heater on.

Still, it was a nice thought.

Needless to say, the new downstairs room has also ground to a halt, but since it's kind of 'nice to have' rather than 'core functionality', as we say in the IT industry, I'm not so concerned about it.

Still no word from Q&B Darren.

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