Becoming un-stuck?

I've been feeling pretty bogged down; the 'progress' [or more specifically, the lack of it] in France coupled with waiting in all day for six out of seven days during the months I was out there left me feeling as though I was wading through treacle...

So, I never got around to uploading any photos to Flickr.

Hm! Now that I'm hopeful that we are going to do more than inch forward when work recommences, it's given me the impetus I have needed to get on top of the photos!

I'm working my way though nearly three thousand pics in Picasa, and uploading hundreds to Flickr; having a date fixed on the calender has given me the incentive I needed!

[Note: I've still got all the hard copies of the previous phase of work to put into albums, and because WHSmith no longer sells its slip-in huge albums, I'm making space, so that's still something to look forward to!! Or as it sounds in my head, "OUCH!"]

Hint of progress?

David has made contact with M. Torelli, and [hopefully!] we have a meeting arranged in early February... He [M. Torelli] just needs to confirm with another client before firming up the date with us, and then David will try to fit M. Mekki in on the same day.

Fingers crossed that this time M. Torelli is serious!

Shutters...

David spoke with M. Baty; we've got several questions outstanding with him, and the best time to actually speak with him (as opposed to passing messages backward and forward through Mme. Baty) is the evening, so they had a very productive chat on Tuesday night.

He's made the shutters, but because of the cold weather (and I suspect how damp it is), the paint is absolutely refusing to dry.

That's the downside of the linseed oil paint; as it's not full of VOCs there's nothing to dry it out artificially quickly, so it takes its own sweet time.

Not that that matters to us, but it does mean the shutters are clogging up M. Baty's painting/drying room. Hopefully that will make him really keen to get rid of them when the paint finally does dry!

As we're not likely to use the room before April or May there's plenty of time for him to fit them; we might even get the doorway broken through!

He's also going to fit us some temporary internal doors - the one we really need is to close off the unheated bedroom from the rest of the house, but it will be nice to have ones in the other two frames, too.

The thought of losing all that heat from the house is the main reason that we haven't had M. Hamid come and take down the block wall ourselves.

[Of course it's interesting to watch J-M not doing his job/not noticing we can't access the bedroom from the house!]

There's a minor problem with the lock plate (which M. Baty will see for himself when he goes to fit the shutters), and he's farmed out the repair to the back of the buffet to a retired friend of his; I think the 18 month delay on that means he might jog his friend's memory.

We can still use the buffet, but it would be nice to have it back on its columns as it would give us another kitchen surface on which to put things!

I got a mail from Jean-Marie

Let's rephrase that:

I got a mail from Jean-Marie

See how much clearer that looks?!

David responded to the last email, saying he was very busy, have you done those plans yet? And please include Maria in your emails.

Well, it's the first communication I've had from T+B in months, and needless to say it's a request for money, with an excuse for why they can't do our plans just yet...

Apparently, they need to do plans for people who are paying for them!

I need David's help to phrase a reply saying "what about people who paid for plans years ago, and have found out [six months ago] that they are wrong?"; he's at the dentist at the moment, and I'm not feeling much sense of urgency [perhaps T+B's lack of impetus is catching?].

Again, torn between feeling petty and thinking that someone needs to point out some stuff to these people VERY strongly.

AND I'm way past caring whether they have to cease trading; in a way I think it might be better if we didn't pay (yet) and their business failed, if this is the way they think that clients/projects should be handled.

On a positive note, I am managing to be less affected by this - feeling less stressed - but it's still leaving me feeling very shaky/jittery; I don't like confrontation, but the need to not let ourselves be walked all over might just prove stronger in this instance?

Response from Jean-Marie

Finally we have received a reply to David's mail from last week; it's all M. Mekki's fault, as his workmen were sent a sketch in September of how the plasterboard should be [obviously it's not J-M's fault that he didn't do his job and make sure that the plaquistes followed the sketch/notice they hadn't!], and he [M. Mekki] is now the one delaying the work...

My understanding of his email [not always 100% accurate, admittedly!], is that he wants to get the work finished as he's desperately in need of funds...

I think it's the first time that he's talked about finishing the job!

And (again if I'm not mistaken) the first time he's implied that he might finish the work before submitting another bill!

No mention of the plans we paid for four and a half years ago and that he's known are wrong for nearly six months...

Hm! Not sure what David's response is going to be, but I've run out of pity; I hope we can just receive the plan, get him off the job and out of our lives. I can't help feeling that if he is desperate for funds, and he really has been working 60 hour weeks, it must mean that he's left an awful lot of other clients unhappy/with half-finished projects.

Perhaps it's better to finish one or two jobs well, and in good time, than to take on so many projects that you cannot get anything right on one of them?

And we only know about our extension; so there could be lots of builds out there where he is showing the same level of diligence/attention to detail.

Still, if he is replying to our email after ten days, it shows there's no urgency, right?

Just got an email from David

He's had M. Mekki on the phone this morning; apparently Jean-Marie has been calling M. Mekki and been quite aggressive wanting to know when they will correct the errors to the plaster boarding [that J-M never noticed till David emailed him].

M. Mekki just wanted reassuring, I think, that we were still good-to-go with Plan A [the plumber, plaquiste and David & I getting together, when the weather's better, to sort this out].

I feel quite sorry for him that he's taken the flack; we are still waiting for a response from J-M to David's mail [to see what he's got to say for himself] before 'officially' stating that we want him to stop causing us any more problems.

M. Mekki asked how I was, so I've just pinged a quick mail wishing him a Happy New Year, and saying I was looking forward to working with him later in the spring when we finish this bit off. I hope I've managed to reassure him that I'm happy with SMS!

Part of me feels a bit petty that we haven't just emailed J-M direct to say: 'butt out; stop causing us problems', but the other part is so fed up of the lack of communication (and being the only person to spot problems) and wants him to have a 'taste of his own medicine' and find out what it feels like to be messed around. Not great to feel like that, but we both think that to give J-M a chance to take better action is what we need to do...

He's blown it already, of course, but he'd have found that out if he had the courtesy to respond to an email sent over a week ago!

Not sure if I should post this, but someone (who shall remain nameless) said our project manager was behaving "chien" - the dictionary translates it as bloody-minded or nasty, so it's not as bad as it sounds in English - that's really strong coming from someone I've never heard say a bad word about him before [although there have been a few 'looks']!

I'm not expecting any action, but will post when I next have anything to report...

Happy New Year!

Sadly, we're back in England now; no more fires in the woodburning stove, or showering in water from our well, or keeping an eye out for wild boar when we're out in the car...

Seriously, we're not (too) unhappy, and a decent break like that really does make us appreciate our lovely house, AND how easy it is to get to [normally!].

Our journey back last night was pretty good: we were worried about being late in case the Shuttle was experiencing delays like they had on the way out, so David drove at the speed limit [rather than our normal, more economical speed] and we made it in time for the train half an hour earlier...

Only, of course, we didn't - the Shuttle was having some sort of trouble, but we did end up leaving about five minutes before our booked journey. The queueing for the best part of an hour was not-so-much fun; as David remarks it doesn't seem to take much increase in passenger volume for the system to cope not very well; at least yesterday they had all the passport booths open - queueing for over an hour because they only have four windows open, and then shut the one we are aiming for has happened more often than it should have done!

Coming back to London was also problem-free; we think [we never remember to look at the clock to see when we arrive; we get caught up in unloading the car & putting things away] that it took about seven and a quarter hours - far enough that you know you've been away, not too far to put us off going for a long weekend.

We were reading French Property News, and were astonished at the times from ports being quoted: there was one place 45 minutes from Cahors [where you leave the motorway] that the owners said you could get to from Calais in eight hours. We drove from Paris to Cahors and it took over ten hours, and Mick who fitted our windows says he regularly drives to a friend's place in the Lot valley and it takes him 13 or 13½ hours and he does the journey at night, non-stop and going full pelt! I'm guessing that the people who do the journey in five hours fewer must get an awful lot of speeding tickets?! [Can't remember if Mick said he broke the speed limit, but I think it might be likely that he does bend it a bit!]

Not a total non-sequitur talking about properties in the Lot department: we had fallen in love with the area when we visited in 2003, but the immense journeys we experienced persuaded us that unless you fly [and put yourselves at the mercy of the airlines & BAA], there's no way you could enjoy a property for weekends.

Our place is close enough that we can do the nightmare meeting trips that we did (nearly) every fortnight for a year: leave London between 1-2pm, arrive at the hotel just off the motorway [NOW we could stay at our house!] by midnight, get up & have a leisurely breakfast before arriving at the house for a 9am meeting, leave again at midday [when everything grinds to a halt in France], and get home again usually before midnight!

Boy, do we NOT miss those meetings!

Regarding the house: David is waiting for a response to his mail to Jean-Marie pointing out the errors made around where the loo should be. He hasn't yet pointed out that the job is NOT finished - I've posted a photo of the "loo"; we know the French don't seem terribly concerned about where their waste goes after it leaves the toilet pan, but they normally do at least have it connected.

Also posting a picture of the "doorway" to the bedroom; we could use the bedroom, but unlocking a door, putting on a coat/wellies, walking around to unlock another door to get into the rest of the house doesn't seem 'finished' to us!

[If you can't see the "doorway" it's because it is blocked up & plastered over - at the end of the corridor behind the stacks of chairs - not terribly useful just yet!]

Ending on a positive note: both the plumber and the builder are totally happy to work with us to finish this incredibly tiny bit off, and I think are happy that Jean-Marie is being cut out of the loop - it sounded as though they both think he's caused most of the problems/delays and prefer not to work with him - and Mme. Roussey says she is glad that we've confirmed to her not to give out the spare keys; apparently J-M had asked for the keys one day [we knew nothing about that, and hadn't told him he could], so hopefully no-one else can go and do any work wrong!

If all work happens when we are there, we've got a chance of getting it done right.

For a job that should have taken two months, and we kicked off the process in late 2009, it seems that the overrun will probably take us up to a year after work should have been finished. But I feel as though the nightmarish quality will end; David really has had enough of the inefficiency and delays, and I'm getting another opportunity to practise becoming more Zen about things, so it's not all bad!

Have a happy and peaceful new year.