The Walls are Done.

Emptied the wall cupboards last night and cleared the kitchen ready for the fitter today. Strange feeling of deja vu.

Fitter3 turned up this morning - with his apprentice, the plasterer (who was actually Fitter3's previous apprentice), and the plaster's apprentice. I didn't realise it was a block party. The kitchen is no bigger than a small caravan. And here's me with only one mug between the 4 of them. ;0)

By the end of the day my house once again resembles a re-enactment of The Somme, inside and down the drive. Even my black car has not escaped being dowsed in splashes of plaster. But, bless them, they did try to clean up a bit - even asked for a mop! which unfortunately I had tidied away to some forgotten remote recess a long while back. So they did their best at wiping down with an old wet tea towel. My new car did not escape the wiping and has some scary streaky effects down the side now.

The wall is looking good. Very good. If walls got invited on chat shows, this one would be on Parkinson. Impressed so far!

Later on, I noticed the partially plastered-over electrical joint on the newly plastered wall was hissing intermittently, after they'd all gone. Thought "that can't be right" and rang the IM to get Fitter3's mobile number. IM was on voicemail. Coincidentally Fitter3 rang up anyway to see how the plastering was looking; by then the hissing had subsided and he said it had probably just been a bit of water off the plastering that had got in there.

They'll be back on Friday he says; the plasterer will finish a bit round the pipe boxing so we can decorate over the weekend, and Fitter3 will do the base units.


Somewhere in a Regional Office far far away...
Plasterer spoke a little bit about an internal shake-up within MFI to expel the bad fitters. He spoke of a new regional manager overseeing the shedding. He didn't say whether the guy walked around in a brown hooded cloak and carried a luminous wand which hummed when he waved it.

Agenda Morphing.

I got an email from the IM last week asking whether Fitter3 had contacted me with dates for this week. I answered No, and said I needed to know. I need to plan around it accordingly. Ok, leave it with her.

Then in some bizarre turnaround, she rings me Friday asking if I've got the sink and when I say no, it'll be Tuesday, she says he's not coming until the sink's here. WTF???
He doesn't need the sink here to come and take the blasted units off the sodding wall and smooth it over.
Allowing the plaster to dry before it's even ready for an undercoat will take at least 3 days!!!

How dare MFI back us into a corner and hold us to ransom against him starting on the wall. In fact, he could have done that already by now, sink or no pigging sink! It's been TWO MONTHS, FFS!

Can you sense a distinct edge to my tone at this point. :-P

Anyway, Fitter3 rang last night (yes, Sunday evening 8pm) to say he'd come Tuesday for the wall, then return probably Thursday to start the base units.

I should jolly well think so.

"How very dare you" ! ! ! pmsl

Still waiting.

Do you remember the bits in The Battle Of Britain where they're all sat around waiting for the scramble? It's eerily silent today.

Yesterday another wall unit arrived by courier & swathed in bubble wrap. I've marked everything 'unchecked' and not opened a thing; it's down to them to ensure it's all present & correct.

Hopefully I can collect the sink from those Very Nice People at Blacksheep in Macclesfield soon. They have been fantastic, a veritable beacon in a stormy night.

The installations manager asked me via email yesterday if we'd heard from Fitter3 re dates for next week. Fitter3 has not rung. Er, so that was a big fat No.

What's arrived, and what's not.

The replacement worktop arrived from those Very Nice People at Blacksheep in Macclesfield yesterday. They must be made up.

Phone call from installations manager yesterday to check Saturday's delivery; I told her what had arrived and she agreed that it was short by a unit and a base door, the latter of which is not available for another 9 days (so, she said the larder unit will have to be done on a 'nip back' basis but as it involves the completion including foot plates of the larder unit I would expect it will take a bit more than a 'nip'). A voicemail from her later confirmed that the missing items (except that base door) will arrive by courier tomorrow.

Also rang Trading Standards and got a reference number. They will add the details of my call to the MFI branch case file.

Now awaiting Fitter3 to give us a date to come and remove the wall units & skim so we can get some proper base coats put down.


Thought
Why wasn't the floor to ceiling unit designed originally with all base units, instead of 500 wall units stacked up? It's not right - using wall units means there's uneven spacers down the front. So that's another thing we were missold on.

Fitter3 Prepares for Action.

Last Saturday, Fitter3 came & surveyed the required remedial work, identifying that the original replacement list fell short and an additional unit would have to be ordered on top of what the IM had listed.

He said he would strip the units off the wall and get it skimmed, then allow a couple of days for us to decorate before he put the replacements back up.
He said he would contact us this week to let us know a date.

No-one's rung this week.

Today we had a delivery of a few items - looks like it falls way short of the mark in terms of what should be getting replaced.