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

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.

28 Jun 08: New worktop ordered

The Installations Manager rang - she'd had a meeting with Fitter1, most of the contents of that meeting wasn't my business to know (my words from the start, not hers) but she asked for my assurance that he would get paid at the end of this. Boo hiss!.. Of course a payment will be due when what was supposed to have been done right the first time is eventually done properly. I just feel that, ethically, I should be paying the person who does it right.
MFI really need to rethink the way they contract their fitters!


Had an email from the IM yesterday confirming the worktop & sink would be credited to my card, so I ordered the replacement worktop from those Very Nice People at Blacksheep in Macclesfield and sourced the sink.


Fitter3 has not rung.
Still no further comment from the branch.
Or apology from MFI in writing.