Early in 2009 we decided in our wisdom that the little stash of money we had managed to accumulated would be better spent on doing some much needed renovation work to the house. I figured that spending the money on a brand new car that depreciated by the hour was not a cleaver move and that bringing the kitchen and bathroom up to modern standard was going to be a much better use of the money and should appreciate the value of the house.
So with not a jot of knowledge of what would be involved I set about planning .........and planning.......and planning.
Accurate measurements and a floor plan of the rooms seemed to be the first move so I measured all the walls from every angle. On my old computer I used the the Publisher program to draw up plans. Then we visited nearly every kitchen and bathroom showroom in the area. Choosing, rejecting, debating, until we had refined our wish list. The next move was to get quotes for the work we wished to have done. That step was an eyeopener. It's amazing on how the same set of plans and a wish list varied when the quotes came back. Eventually I sourced and purchased all the kitchen myself at a far more reasonable price. To help keep the cost down my builder Brother in Law agreed to come down from Yorkshire and with my son as a labourer they fitted a new kitchen.
July last year saw the completed the kitchen and I was very pleased. It looked as I had visualised it and is so much better to work in. It had come in just over my original budget.
A little while later I started to tackle the bathroom. It seemed to take me much longer to get my head around what was needed. Advise from a plumber friend was asked for. Showrooms visited and revisited, more quoted were obtained. For some reason these plans were taking much longer to refine. The budget escalated. I realised to get the quality and finish I wanted I had to up the budget. I decided that for this job I needed to get a firm that could do a complete job from start to finish. Builder Son wasn't always available and Brother in Law was busy building his Grandsons homes. That pushed the budget up further. Eventually after several unexpected, unrelated delays I chose a firm to do the job. Work was schedule to commence on March 1st 2010.
The Catalogue of Errors Commences.
The Bathroom firm guy decided he didn't need to survey the job. First mistake, I should have insisted he did it. The Thursday before the job was to commence the plumber hadn't made contact to see what the job entailed. First phone call to the Bathroom Firm produces a call back from the plumber who promptly visits to reconnoitre the job. He turned out to be an efficient softly spoken Irish guy who turned up promptly on March 1st and striped out the old bathroom and disposed of it.
Tiles clattered off the walls showing flaws in the under rendering. This indicated a mistake in the make up of the original rendering mix and is most probably the reason hairline cracks have appeared in the rooms.
Plumber Tony went to the Bathroom firm to collect the good that we had been assured were already in waiting to be collected. Wrong. The Toilet unit was not the design I had indicated that I wanted, so that was returned. Worse still the shower tray hadn't arrived. It was vital that it was in positioned before the plasterers commenced their work. Two days delay followed.
Enter the Plasterers. They hadn't been primed on the full extent of the job. Far from the simple one day job they expected this would be a two day job which took them into their weekend. Oh yes somehow they managed to cause a pipe to start pouring water. They stopped it somehow and wedged a tilted bucket under it. A little later the when off to 'get some bits'. While they were gone I heard water running and investigating found to my horror water running through the ceiling into the lounge. As fast as I found a bowl to catch it, it cascaded through in another place. four bowls and buckets later I realised I had to give up and dashed upstairs to try and stop the deluge. Water was pouring from the pipe and cascading out of the bucket in to the floor space. I yanked the bucket out and threw the contents out of the window and shoved it back. A desperate call to the plumber got his answer phone. A call to 'Himself ' was the only answer I needed help desperately. Struggling with the controlls on the pipe I actually managed to get it to stop and I went down to survey the damage. My saviour in the form of 'Himself turned up and fixed the pipe so it couldn't leak again and we set about mopping up.
The plasterers eventually returned after the emergency was dealt with and did their job. Some of the original render had to hacked off the walls and replaced. The remaining original render just sucked up the PVA applied to it before the plaster could be applied. The guys weren't the tidiest of workers. The dust I sort of expected but plaster from back garden through the house to the front garden I didn't. They did clear up. Well, in their fashion. It took us both, several hours to clean after they had gone.
Tony the Plumber turned up again Monday morning to experience another another setback. The lovely smooth glossy white wet wall shower panels I had hoped for would not sit against the walls as hoped. The walls were just too irregular. The original builders obviously didn't know what a plumb line was for and the plasters had follower the original contours of the wall. Enter Tony the Tiler. A lovely little Italian guy. The plumber and the tiler had a conflab and came to the conclusion that the wet wall panels would not be suitable and leaking problems would soon develop after the job was completed.
Severely disappointed and dispirited at 4.30 in the afternoon I got in the car to search for suitable tiles before they all closed for the night. After a search of the Tile Warehouses I eventually arrived home with 12 square meters of white tiles and another box of floor tiles as the original estimation of the amount we needed for the floor by the sales person was wrong.
Tony the plumber had also returned with the replacement loo. Ok, it still wasn't right but I can live with it but It didn't have a soft close lid which we wanted. Another replacement is being awaited for.
Tony the Tiler arrived promptly this morning and set to work tiling the wonky walls. It's not proving to be easy for him but he so far doing a great job.
Well thats the tale of woes so far. Please, please let the rest of the job go smoothly!!!
