I’ll warn you up front, this is going to be a long post.
Remember a few days ago when I said that Fi and I had had a few concerns about the chap fitting our bathroom? Do you also remember how the boss of the fitting company came out to the house and personally guaranteed that things would be alright? Yes? Well, things haven’t quite gone to plan…
Fi and I returned back from my awesome birthday trip to London in a very good mood. On the train we had joked about how much we thought David would have managed to get done in our absence. It transpired that in an entire day of work he had managed to reduce the distance between the inflow and outflow pipes to the radiator by about 6 inches. That was it! What a joke. Never mind we thought, perhaps it’s a complicated job – things will start moving forwards soon surely (after all, B&Q had originally said that the entire project would take 5 days to finish and Friday would be the fifth day…).
We’ve been planning on decking a large concrete area in our back garden for a while and so, on Friday, we headed off to B&Q to buy the timber. After paying for the timber and arranging to come back to collect it in a hire van at 15:30 we got back in the car to drive home for lunch. Crunch! That’s the sound of me smacking Fi’s lovely Golf into a metal pillar. I was reversing out of the car park and I just didn’t see it in my wing mirror. Sadly, it dented the lip of the driver’s door and was catching every time the door opened so I took it to Tebby’s for them to have a look at it. The owner took a trusty universal adjuster (aka a hammer) to the door and straightened it so that it no longer catches but it is going to need some panel beating and a re-spray to fix properly. I’ll try to sort that out later in the week.
After Tebby’s, we came home to do a bit of measuring of the concrete plinth the decking is to go on. After a little bit, Fi came out to the garden looking very pissed off. Basically, there was water (again) pouring down through the dining room ceiling and onto the floor. Yep, you guessed it – Dave’s craftsmanship was on display once again. This was the final straw. I called Dave down (he didn’t really seem to be too fussed) and asked him what the Hell was going on. He said not to be too upset and that when he pulled the toilet away from the wall that clean water poured out from the back. When I said why was there a third leak after he had promised us that the bathroom was water-tight he simply said that it “wasn’t a leak”. Huh?! If water pouring from a pipe above through the ceiling isn’t a leak then what is?! Fi and I were so angry. We told him that the paint was ruined to which he replied – “what the Hell do you want me to do about it? Repaint it?” Er, yes Dave – that’s exactly what I want you to do. At this point, Fi and I had to leave to go and collect the van from B&Q to get the timber. I was grateful, as this gave me a chance to cool off.
En route to B&Q I decided to call the company Dave works for from the mobile number on the side of his van. Mercifully, Anthony picked up and was extremely concerned and apologetic. By the time we returned home with the van – Anthony was at the house and had sent Dave home. He told us that he didn’t accept that sort of behaviour and that he would personally finish the job and guaranteed it would be finished by Friday. To his credit, he came in Sunday and today (the Bank Holiday) and worked solidly. Time will tell if this is going to pay off for us. I really hope it does because I’m getting fed up of this.