Day 24

I had read the latest email from T+B to say that the plumbers were coming Friday instead of today and Friday, but clearly I was wrong. I'd just finished in the shower and was opening the house up again [the heat (& sun) from early morning had totally gone by 9 am], when M. Torelli and M. Jimmy showed up.

M. Torelli had had a meeting with Jean-Marie yesterday; it took some establishing - everyone I've spoken with today feels like it's Thursday - maybe we've all had enough happen this week that it ought to be over! I said that with regard to the bath supply/waste, we wanted to leave that as J-M had suggested; yes, I know it would be 'nicer' to have it (nearly) finished at this stage, but if we factor in wall-mounted or freestanding taps, and various different dimensions/styles of bath, it seems much more sensible to leave that open, and only complete when we have bought the bath/taps.

I don't think he was delighted, but accepted my insistence and I think he understood why.

They have run supply to all the sanitary ware locations, and were doing the heating just before they left. At 6.30 pm!

If I had the right connections, I would enter their efforts for a Turner Prize; I'm definitely seeing a modern art octopus, aren't you?

They haven't linked anything up, as M. Torelli wants everyone's approval: the way he was looking intently into my eyes and saying that it's not just our approval, but the project manager's [his emphasis] as well, made me think he might be hinting at something...? As well as the "we want to avoid any misunderstandings, don't we?" type comments.

I agreed: yes, we do want to avoid any misunderstandings!

So, we're all clear then. I had a phone call from M. Mekki just after the plumbers arrived; he sounds like he's stressing about whether we need the sill doing so that M. Baty can make the french windows. I said I'd get David to ask him [M. Baty], and he [M. Mekki] arranged to come about 4 pm to discuss it...

Miraculously, David managed to get one of the joiners on the phone, who said M. Baty would be back in the afternoon, and then he spoke with the man himself! [Doesn't always work that way.] He said he would prefer to have the sill in place, but he could work from the blue line on the wall if SMS could guarantee that it was in the right place.

Given that we have two blue lines on the wall because the carpenters did their own as they'd found that the builders' one was not level, David and I would also prefer that the sill was in place before any measurements were taken of the opening.

We talked around the subject for ages before coming up with a plan: basically not mention that M. Baty could do it without the sill, until I'd sussed out how much of a problem that was going to be. If I had to 'offer' that as a solution, we would then insist that the doorway isn't unblocked until the new woodwork is fitted, which would be October, as we really didn't want to risk such a huge window being wrong.

If the sill is put in wrong, that can be changed!

Anyway, all our contingency planning turned out to be unnecessary [isn't that what you always want, and why you have a contingency plan?] - M. Mekki said that he and M. Luparello could go and fetch enough stone for the sill in his little van, if it wasn't too heavy. He tried calling M. Pasdeloup to see how much the amount we'd need for the sill would weigh, but only got voicemail.

He was a bit strange when he arrived, and asked if we were OK...

I said "yes", and sort of implied "shouldn't we be?". They've fixed my window opening [that's old news], and I apologised for the extra work for the plaquistes when the VMC tube is moved, so I didn't think I'd done anything wrong. [We'd already discussed how ugly the VMC housing was, and I didn't understand what M. Torelli had said, so I asked M. Mekki if I was causing problems/being difficult, and he said no - M. Torelli clarified that he thought the boxing-in looked like an industrial extractor fan à la chip shop!]

So I asked if he wasn't OK with us, as I'd prefer to know...

Turns out he either saw J-M or had a telephone call from him [I forget which] where J-M had been aggressive, and said we were complaining about the problems the companies were causing.

Erm, no!

I did explain, and probably shouldn't have done, that we had no problems with SMS or M. Baty [I emphasised that, because of what's been said/hinted at about the joiner], or Messrs Mazij or M. Waeber [I'm still deciding about M. Torelli/Schwartz; M. Huguenot seems a different person when we talk to him direct, he only seems surly/unhelpful when J-M is there; noticing a pattern yet?], but said we had had some issues with T+B...

I said more than I should have, but I don't think it's fair phoning people up and yelling at them, saying the clients have a problem with them when the only people the clients have a problem with is yourself!

Sure, we've had issues that have needed to be resolved, but they have been [with all firms, so far], and as I previously posted I don't have any kind of problem with a problem that's been fixed (especially without any hassle); it's life, you make good and move on. As they say here, it's "normale" - not comment-worthy, what happens, normal!

So I gave a few 'for instances', and mentioned the error in the plans which is putting us back further, and even showed the builders the copy where J-M has re-drawn the beam.

Hmmm! Not impressed, but I did mention that we are looking at all the firms and seeing who we want to work with again in future phases... Didn't mention T+B either way, but M. Mekki [oh, I do so want to call him "Mad"; it's his name, not an insult!] is a smart cookie and can read between the lines.

They trotted off with a promise to try M. Pasdeloup again, and call me in the morning to let me know if Plan A was a goer.

I had a phone call about 6 pm saying he'd spoken with M. Pasdeloup who reckoned about 200kg worth of stone, so Messrs Mekki and Luparello are going to Burgundy tomorrow to fetch the slabs, and M. Hamid will fit the sill next week.

Result!

We'd have been fine with waiting till September, but that would put M. Baty back by at least a week, so the windows would be delayed till October by which time it will be getting cold; too miserable to have an unblocked doorway. So all for the best.

It's rained off-and-on all day: brilliant for the garden, and has also brought the temperature down a lot. It was 30°C in the shade at 9.30 last night when I finished watering; today at 7 pm it's 20°C. I'm glad I watered: it means that all the rain around my roses (and other vulnerable new additions) will go straight to the roots, as last night's water will have soaked all the soil - the watering and the rain will both reinforce the effect of the other.

So, I'm a happy bunny.

And with that, I think I've rabbited on enough [*snigger*]!