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M. Torelli is supposed to finish off the plumbing today...

But the region [like much of the UK] is having SNOW!

We've had a mail from Jean-Marie saying that M. Waeber was unable to get up the road to open up the gate, so I'm not 100% convinced that M. Torelli (who has six months of excuses to his credit) will manage better.

BREAKING NEWS: M. Torelli can't get his van up our road, and intends to fit the drain for the shower and the housing for the loo today, but then he has to leave in case he gets stuck in the snow.

That I can completely understand: having been caught out in a blizzard trying to get home from school [don't know why the headmistress let everyone else (who lived out of town) home an hour earlier than she let me leave, but after she broke her ankle she got a lot more reasonable about letting me travel the ten miles home before the roads got blocked!], I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

But what is p***ing me off is that he's had six months in which to get this finished, and waits until the last possible moment (before we carry out our threat to close the house up for four months) before scheduling us in.

And I'm equally un-chuffed to find out by email this morning that he's got no intention of finishing the "nourisse" [a kind of 'distribution board' for water/central heating pipes] in the laundry; the one in the dressing room, yes, but the one that is needed so that the loo will work, no.

He's not going to bill us, so that's OK, right?

Well, no, wrong!

If you are charging to supply and fit a loo [the rest of the bathroom has to wait for more funds], you can't expect the client to be happy that it's there (and connected to the sewer) but that there's no water!!

David has emailed T+B and pointed out that until we can use the loo, the job will not be considered finished, so we won't be issuing a cheque.

I'm just wanting to get the place cleaned up, and a hole in the wall with a load of water pipes sticking is NOT what we were led to expect would be a 'finished' job. The wall, being stone, leaves the kind of mortar/masonry dust that never stops, and if rodents were to get in behind the insulation they have free access to the rest of the house.

We still have the upper hand [cheque book] in the negotiating stakes, but this just drags the sodding process out even longer; after Christmas we'll be into the second year of a two-month project...

Ooh, I'm spitting feathers!