Penny drops...?

David phoned T+B this morning to speak to Jean-Marie; we felt it was better/less aggressive to speak to him directly than to send an email saying there's no way we will be signing any papers on Friday (or even next Friday) to say we are happy with how the work has been finished.

For a start, none of the work is close enough to being finished to be able to tell whether it will be done to a satisfactory standard or not, barring the brickwork around the bathroom window; that's now fine, but only a small part of the builders' work. Until we've seen the pointing on the stone walls, I'm not signing anything. I know I'm taking him at his own estimation, but I have high hopes that M. Hamid will be able to make a nice job of that, and I feel reasonably confident that he will lay the sill correctly.

Poor old M. Waeber should have started on Monday, and can't start till the electrician and plumber have finished [plumber may be here next Wednesday; he won't know till tomorrow's meeting], so there's no chance we can sign off the tiling! The carpenters are delayed because of the electrician and plasterers [who are fitting the insulation, and are missing some damp-proof fabric]. I think the plasterers can't finish until the builder has finished round the window at the back, and need the plumber to have finished first fix. The plumber is not attaching anything that can't be moved until he has had J-M's express approval. The electrician has put five lights in the wrong place, so needs to come and re-do some first fix electrics.

Obviously, we're not signing off on the joiner's work for J-M: that might mean paying him more!

We have managed nearly five weeks work since the beginning of June, but that's not the bulk of our problems.

It sounds as though T+B have finally realised they are not covering themselves in glory: David said that J-M, Joëlle and Nicolas have had a meeting, and I think he said J-M apologised for letting us down. My presence here has saved them from even more remedial works, and they seem to have finally noticed that... I don't know whether any of the artisans or entreprises have said anything to them; I wouldn't be surprised if they have... I've heard a bit of muttering, so I'm sure there's been a lot more!

I suspect what hurts them more is that they were expecting a glowing reference from another client and they didn't get it. I'm left wondering whether they are going through their client list to see who they can call upon for a recommendation, and have noticed how many problems we are having; it wouldn't surprise me if that was across the board, the way things have been this time.

The way I currently feel is that there's no way I'd even consider giving them a reference: their fees have meant that we can't do our bathroom/entrance hall floor, or the sauna or finish the terrace. We wouldn't have been able to do all three on that list, but we certainly could have done one and been working towards a second.

We seem to have paid for less-than-nothing, looking at it in bald terms: they have caused more work, and not saved any expenses, but because the specifications were wrong/lacking we've now had to find more money just to finish phase 1b!

A few examples:

• the plans are wrong, so we have to go back to the drawing board for upstairs, [and not just the drawing board, we may need to remove/re-route plumbing, which needs to be done before the carpenters enclose the space above the joists];
• so many of the sketches have been wrong that we've had to re-lay the concrete for the sill, re-do the sill of the bathroom window, re-do the lintel of the bathroom window [and the brickwork is "wrong" because the builder & I decided that would "do" rather than starting again from scratch: J-M expressly stated which courses to start on to get the pattern correct... Also, Nicolas & I spotted the angles were wrong before the plaquiste had bent the bathroom out of shape!
• speaking of wrong sketches: the electricity plans show three light switches in not-legal locations in the bathroom; the electrician moved them and pointed out he was prevented from putting them that close to the bath;
• still banging on about sketches: the carpenters followed the drawing for the non-lowered corridor, and then had to spend two days undoing their work & doing it again properly. Would we have insisted on that if we'd known the plans for upstairs weren't right? I don't know, we'll have to see when they are re-drawn;
• the "cour anglaise" was specified 1 m across, to allow for a 65 cm window and a 63 cm shutter... Even David's arithmetic can spot that that won't work [obviously another addition to the bill to make it bigger];
• no plan for sealing in the insulation upstairs: we don't want to create a rats playground;
• the spec missed out the bathroom window [for the builder, not the joiner; we pointed that out before the spec was sent out and again after the estimates had been passed as correct];
• the plumber's estimate was "verified" as correct during the six or seven weeks they were "checking" them, but he'd missed out all the upstairs plumbing [so we've got another invoice for that];
• no time plan/calendar, so I don't even know when I'm expecting workmen or if any haven't shown up; the original "plan" was on my calendar, but that has slipped somewhat;
• oh, and if they weren't involved, everyone except M. Baty said they could happily start at the beginning of April and be finished by late May; we believed them, too!

Sorry, I'm not meaning to start a rant [done enough of that already], but just giving a few indications why I don't think I would recommend them as project managers. My experience has been: manage the workers yourself, cut out the project management as much as possible, and try to un-do as many problems as you can caused by incorrect drawings before it's too late; without those drawings, we'd have had far fewer issues to address!

And did I mention that I was still cross at J-M yelling at M. Mekki?!

What would it take for me to change my mind? The only thing we can think of would be a full refund, and completing the rest of the work in a exemplary fashion [and I don't for one second believe that would be a possibility!], and even that than would just get them a lukewarm reference.

If they offered that? Part of me would be tempted, but only because we could get the bathroom finished. I think the honourable part of me would still refuse to give a potential client anything other than a warning...

But the daydreaming part really would like to get our chosen wall tiles ordered before they, too, are discontinued, and the only way for that to happen is for money to appear by magic!