Tiles/bath

David received a call yesterday from the really helpful lady at CVS - our tile samples have arrived, and she will hold them until we can go and check they are what we want.

We're thinking that in the 'grand scheme of things' a quick trip to look at wall tiles could prevent a much greater amount of hassle in a few weeks. Although M. Waeber assures us that tiles only normally take three to four weeks to arrive [obviously excluding if you want to order any around summer time; our last lot took about three months!], we really want to avoid the scenario where work is delayed because the tiles haven't arrived/been fitted yet.

That may not be a problem, but with the catalogue of excuses we've already had, we don't want our delay in choosing tiles to be a cause for any further procrastinating.

Obviously, if those tiles are OK all will be well! But we've seen too many badly printed tiles to make the decision based on a thumbnail in a catalogue, and if we need to find another alternative, that will take time...

So, we're hoping to squeeze in a visit in the near future.

We've also [finally!] made a decision on the bath; despite a (near) life-long desire for a ball & claw footed cast iron bath, we don't think there is enough room for it to look as elegant as it should. That, coupled with the fact that when I tried out several of the modern baths the angle of the ends is so steep that my chin is pushing into my sternum, mean that we've chosen comfort for long soaks over gorgeousness.

We've also chosen the more ugly-looking squarer-ended bath as a round-ended one in the hotel in Seefeld was pushing my shoulders in.

I'm a bit sad that we won't get the "dream" bath, but the whole point of having a bath is so that I can soak away the aches caused by too much gardening/d-i-y etc, and if the prettier-but-uncomfortable one is going to look shoe-horned into the space, it's not going to be the effect we would want anyway.

That also means I can have the wall mounted taps and will make cleaning so much easier; not to mention the storage we can fit under the bath - since moving from Brixton I miss the cubby hole to hide the spare loo rolls/shampoo/bleach etc, etc, etc!

I know getting a cupboard under the bath will be a struggle, but am hoping that it will be easier this time around without the project manager's reluctance to let us have what we want because it' not something he's done before!

Wow! Having finally made the decision, I feel quite relaxed.

I think I'm off to do one of Solara An-Ra's wonderful meditations!

I got some photographs published!!

Clean Slate Magazine, Winter 2010, issue 78 features two pictures of our kitchen in France!

Or, more precisely, two photos of the hemp-lime insulation in our kitchen to illustrate an article on hemp-lime insulation.

A lady from the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth [ooh, I remember visiting there in the 1970s, probably not too long after it opened to the public!] contacted me via Flickr having found some photos I'd posted there.

I don't think it's a testimony to my wonderful photographic abilities, as she said it had been really difficult to find any photos of hemp-lime insulation, but hey, I'm not proud!

Whilst I understand that people might get paid for having their photographs used for publication, it seemed a reasonable thing to let a worthwhile charity use my images if that helps to encourage people to use better-insulating/less-energy-consuming building materials!

And I got my name in print, and a few more people will have seen photos of our lovely house!

Working outside

It was beautiful weather while we were in France, so we decided to take advantage!

For me that meant a "spot" of weeding, and David was very kind and let himself be persuaded into joining in...

He would much rather have started chopping down trees/scrub, I'm sure, but the speedwell is starting to flower [and therefore would be spreading seeds in a week or two], whereas the more rufty-tufty stuff can definitely wait!

We spent about four hours on each Saturday and Sunday [before leaving to come back to London], and apart from a very few weeds that we up by the fence against the road I think we've covered the whole garden!

I ended up cutting the elder bushes back to about 2-3' - we want our view back, and it made weeding under them so much easier!

I think the twigs laying around has confirmed the decision to buy a shredder!

I know it's too soon to have cut the perennials back, but some things were starting to grow, and I just needed to gain a sense that I have control over something.

It's a risk I'm willing to take - frost might cut some plants down, but it made weeding so much simpler, and it looks much tidier.

We had a look in the pré for some seedlings from the little red plum tree - it's looking pretty precarious, and given the fate of the other plum that tumbled in last winter's winds, we want to transplant a "successor" before it's too late!

We found a couple of sprigs that we are fairly sure will be from the right tree [there are loads round where the other tree fell], and David transplanted them to by the fence/hedge.

He also move a couple of (what I think are) lizard orchids. I'm not sure we're doing the right thing, but he took a huge ball of soil with them, so hopefully enough of the commensal rhizome [or whatever it is] that the orchid needs will go with it.

The hay cutting stops the orchid from seeding, and if we could save a couple of plants it will be worth it.

We're desperately hoping that the French equivalent of "credit crunch" will put a stop to all the verge tidying that seems to have become epidemic in the last few years; it all looks very tidy, but stops all the wildflowers from setting their seed and we see a fraction of the varieties we did four or five years ago.

Another "fingers crossed" occasion [for my lizard orchids and the Department's verges].

Meeting on Friday

We went to France on Wednesday evening, and had a MUCH better journey down there - no snow/snow ploughs/gritters and the Shuttle was working fine [unlike for the poor people who got stuck last night!].

First thing Thursday morning M. Antoni fixed the télécommande on the boiler - we now can phone it up and get it to heat the house before we get there! It was 7°C in the kitchen when we arrived; not warm enough, but thankfully the poêle soon got it up to a bearable temperature.

On Friday we had a meeting with Messrs Torelli, Mekki & Luparello; sadly, J-M either lied to us [again] or got his facts wrong [again], and what he promised would be done with the housing for the loo cistern is not possible.

Unfortunately, now we can't go back to the less-preferred (but still better than what we have now) option; if he'd been honest, we would have have made the room a little smaller to avoid having a bulky housing sticking out.

So now we have to do what Jean-Marie wanted; instead of having an elegant room, we will have one with a "feature" shelf niche. Project manager 1, client's wishes 0.

I'm fairly certain I know why he has clients [to give him money and manage all the tedious project managing he can't be bothered doing], but I'm racking my brains as to why we have a project manager [we do all the project managing and give away money that would be useful for more building work]...

WHY?

NOT happy, but am getting pretty good at not stressing the sh!t that guy has been shovelling our way. Apparently, M. Torelli told him that there was no way we could have the smaller housing, and suggested exactly what I'd said about moving the wall in about 1½". J-M insisted that he do what we didn't want, and refused to countenance the second-best option.

It's too late to do that now as the shower base is done.

I know that's all hearsay, but I've seen his previous drawings/him instructing other workmen to do the "wrong" thing, so I'm inclined to believe M. Torelli over J-M.

Everyone is much more content to continue working without him.

We feel a bit happier about everything else - M. Torelli seems much more amenable now that we have seen him without J-M there, and Messrs Mekki and Luparello are as accommodating as usual!

A little later we saw M. Waeber - how lucky to see him before he used battleship grey grout on the shower tray [that wasn't going to dry any lighter!].

He's now done it in the same beige colour as the grout between the tiles, the tiles and the dry pebbles in the shower.

I think it's not the right sort, but at this stage I don't care; if it "goes wrong" very quickly it will be really easy to rake out & replace, and it if lasts a decade I'm not going to worry!

I have to admit to a mini-meltdown, but my excuse is that since mid-October 2004 I have been working to get this house to a liveable state/finished and it's not going to happen before Easter [if we're lucky]. It's NOT been a massive drama all of the time [or even most of the time] but it HAS been going on for far too long!

Not to mention costing a lot more money than it should have done!

On a final note: we mentioned to one of the artisans that we have only received one bill from any of the firms working on the project since June, and that was three months late because it had got "stuck" at St Mesmin. Another set we know was sent in July/Aug/Sept, but we received a copy direct from Schwartz when we chased them [still haven't received the original bills from T+B], neither have we received a promised credit note...

This unnamed artisan reckons that J-M is deliberately withholding the bills from us in order to make us look like bad payers - I think he's wanting us to come across as "nightmare" clients. If that's not the case, he's just being massively incompetent; I'm not sure which is the "better" scenario?

David has written a really nice letter to all the artisans asking them to send any communication to us direct, as we risk looking like bad payers because J-M is not handing on invoices... I wonder how many more bills his letter will flush out!

Oh, I forgot to mention: in the fourteen months that this job has been going on, the tiles we chose for the bathroom have been discontinued; another little irritation!

Fingers crossed: a very helpful lady at CVS showed us a very similar-looking example in a catalogue and rang up and ordered a sample of both colourways while we were there. She says they should arrive next week, so as I say fingers crossed!

Phew!

Photos sorted; backed up to disk; documents backed up to disk.

That feels a weight off my shoulders.

Now all I need to do is hope I get to take some more house progress photos sooner rather than later!

Right, I'm off to take advantage of the sunny afternoon and have a walk; happy sunny winter afternoon!

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.

Latest "progress"

It seems to be a case of 'two steps forward, one step back' at the moment.

David spoke with M. Torelli (the plumber) yesterday, who sounded as hacked off with Jean-Marie/T+B as we are; they have agreed between themselves that David will call with our next planned trip several weeks in advance, and M. Torelli will schedule in two days [the second day for "just in case" purposes] to finish the work here.

David did have an email from J-M last week, but it just sounded like the catalogue of excuses that he's come to expect, with no real information.

I, of course, don't know what's in the mail, as T+B [did I post that they lectured David on "politeness" in one mail?] do not have the courtesy to include me on any of their correspondence! David reckoned it was insufficiently important to reply to, so I missed out on seeing it as he cc's me on his response.

The thing that has got me going "that bloody man" today, is the housing for the loo - it was supposed to have a gap between the side and where the shower screen will go - it's all clearly marked on a sketch dated 23 September in J-M's handwriting...

So why is there no gap?!

We were just finished cleaning up the water from the snow that's melted in [NOT too impressed with a watertight structure that's NOT!], when I noticed that.

So we have to delay M. Waeber from coming on Monday to finish the shower tiling, contact M. Mekki to get M. Kadir to come and undo/redo more of his work, and as David says, this might be the thing that finally has us telling T+B to f*** off!

If we have to manage everything ourselves, at least we wouldn't be trusting someone to do his job who seems incapable of getting anything right.

AND we'd save ourselves a shedload of money & hassle!

Sightings

We've just been for a bimble in the snowy countryside, with a main aim of trying to spot some more wild boar.

I think I was spoilt after last Christmas's back-to-back sightings: we saw a huge gang of them just outside the village on Boxing Day, and a family with four or five piglets the next day.

Sadly, no porcine spottings today. but we did see some pheasants, partridge, buzzards and a deer.

AND a coypu!

That I was NOT expecting; thankfully, David didn't mind turning the car around for a second glance [and then again to head back in the right direction], so I saw him three times.

Too shy for a photo-op, though.

Day whatever!

I really have lost count of what day we are in terms of the building work; given that we're five months overdue, the number isn't as high as you would expect!!

M. Kadir showed up this morning - that is the plastering finished, but guess what?

Yup, we're still waiting for a plumber!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are having a wonderful time, (either peaceful and quiet or activity packed, depending on your preference).

I'm just profiting from David's lie-in to update my blog and then it's time to start cooking our meal or clearing snow from the gateway...

Hm! Let me guess which: warm, cooking smells, maybe a glass of "cook's nips" or cold [-5°C, same as it was over three hours ago when I got up], no reason to get the car out for over a week, might thaw/snow again before we need to...

That's going to be one tough choice, isn't it?

Well, I'm off to enjoy being at liberty in a big kitchen and temporarily off the wagon, so I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Things I'm going to gloss over...

...As it's Christmas day, I'm not going to focus on:

• The continuing inability of the project manager and plumber to finish a very straightforward two-month conversion project in less than a year [!]
• Our journey down: delays leaving the office added to delays leaving London and then we came up against delays on the Shuttle service, and then further delays on the service. We arrived at the house at 6am; not quite how I'd planned starting my birthday, but at least we are here!
• Tiredness: I managed two and a half hours sleep yesterday morning; David had a two hour nap late yesterday afternoon. It's just not enough when you get to our ages!

I am going to focus on:

• Enjoying our poêle
• Enjoying the divine voice of Jessye Norman singing Christmas carols
• Enjoying the candles I managed to find [too much snow upstairs to want to disinter all of our Christmas decorations]
• Enjoying the company of my lovely husband, and the peace and quiet

And that's enough for now!

Christmas cake

I watched a video of Kirstie & Phil's Perfect Christmas last Thursday, and was inspired to make their 'Last Minute Christmas Cake' which Kirstie said could be made up to Christmas Eve - sounded perfect!

I went out and bought the missing ingredients [some blackstrap molasses, glacé cherries, string and a skewer] on Friday.

I was so tempted to make it then, but wanted it to be a surprise for David [hence why I am only posting about it now], so had to wait till Monday.

It took me so long to actually assemble the ingredients into a finished (pre-baked) cake, that I followed another piece of advice from the TV program: 'you can leave it in the tin for a few hours or even overnight before baking it'...

There's nothing like a red-hot cake cooling on a rack and the smell of baking to give the game away!

I was so glad that I did; the cake, instead of taking the three hours on the programme, took five and a half hours to bake!

I still wasn't convinced at the end that it was done, but was terrified to leave it any longer; despite covering the tin with brown paper, the top was getting very dark, and the outer parts of the cake had been cooked for over two hours, according to the 'skewer test'.

But the middle still wasn't producing a "clean" skewer.

However the bit adhering to the skewer were looking like cake, rather than cake mix, so I called it a day.

I think the bit I enjoyed most was pouring the calvados [couldn't find apple brandy, and it's virtually the same thing] over a cake fresh from the oven; it made a satisfying sizzling sound and smelled delicious!

I wasn't convinced it was fully cooled by the time David got home, so hid it on the cooling rack on a cleared shelf in my wardrobe [standard hiding place, but the first time I've had food secreted there!].

So that brings us up to Wednesday morning, and I couldn't resist adding another three tablespoons of calvados [in case any of the previous six had evaporated] before wrapping it up in greaseproof paper and foil and putting it in the tin [which I then hid in a box to bring with us].

The only alterations I made to the recipe were:

1) I used molasses as I couldn't buy any black treacle

2) I added a teaspoon of ground ginger, and half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and two teaspoons of vanilla extract as 1 teaspoon of mixed spice and half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg really did not seem enough spice

3) I added an extra three tablespoons of calvados when the cake was cooled, and the calvados was in substitute for apple brandy

By yesterday evening I couldn't hold out any longer, so we had a piece each [think of it as an alternative birthday cake, and that sounds better!], and it was gorgeous: really moist, cooked but not overcooked and not too dark.

The only change I would make [I think criticism is too strong a word] would be to add more spice the next time: it was barely-spiced rather than nicely-spiced, if you can imagine what I mean.

Oh, and I might try harder to remember to bring the sherry...

You don't seem to be able to find it here in France.

Altogether, though, a roaring success, and although time-consuming, not difficult enough to put me off making one much earlier next year!

Latest...

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!

Progress?

Well, maybe...

Jean-Marie says that M. Torelli is going to come and finish the plumbing on the 16th, and has allowed the 17th in case of 'vagary'. [I think it means the equivalent of "rains stops play", but why we need a contingency for vagaries of weather in a room that is watertight, I'm not sure; I am prepared to accept it in the sense I would use it - you've been promising to do this job since mid-July and haven't yet managed to schedule in half a day's work. I think that qualifies as vagary!]

J-M's also promised that the electrics will be finished, as will the plaster-boarding. He hasn't mentioned the breaking-through from the rest of the house, but as we're in contact with M. Mekki fairly often, I'm quite happy for that to happen as & when.

Speaking of M. Mekki: David talked to him yesterday, and gained the impression that he was pretty cheesed off with T+B.

Know how he feels!

It MAY be a coincidence, but since David copied Nicholas on the emails, it seems as though the emphasis has shifted away from arguing about why they should be paid [without any noticeable progress] to actually achieving some progress.

Hopefully, he will also be working on the plans; I can't wait to get this phase finished & wave goodbye to T+B [forever]!

On a nice note, M. Mekki sounded fairly positive that they might visit us over Christmas/New Year; if the work on the house is finally finished we really will have something to celebrate.