When a butterfly flaps its wings...

Himself has just spent all weekend fixing a leak to the overflow in the downstairs washroom. Turns out that since Fitters4 plumbed in the kitchen sink, the cold water system is full of rubbish and grit. That's what caused the overflow to leak.

Remedial Work : Fri 15-Aug-08

Dawn breaks over the silver birch, a lonesome magpie surveys a silent field from a high branch. Not me, I was fast asleep. Thank feck.

Fitters4 came back without any alternative sink clips. As far as we can see they've fitted just two of the ones they gave up on last time - one at each end of the sink. And that shallot.


The sealant round the sink looks GREAT ! ! ... Pity it's only on 3 sides. Yup, they've not done the back. FFS.


Here's the best bit. Fitting the shelf in the sink base unit. Tell this story to your children at night for endless fun and amusement.
And this is the reason that YOU NEED TO WATCH OVER THEM...

Fitter4 holds shelf at an angle in the base unit, weighs up where the randomly placed filter cartridge bracket comes to on said shelf (roughly) and puts a dodgy pencil line on the shelf.
He then hands shelf to his apprentice with the instruction to cut a square into it so it will go onto the brackets.
I enquire, just out of interest, with Fitter4 whether the filter cartridge bracket could have just been moved 2 inches to the left - thus negating the need to saw a square out of the shelf.
Fitter4 does a good impression of sucking on a lemon.
In the background the sound of manic sawing fills the air outside.
Fitter4 smugly remarks that it's too late now anyway.
I helpfully remind Fitter4 that the piece of wood his apprentice has is not the only spare shelving in the house. There is a full size piece, for example, under the stairs out of which he could have not 1 but 2 more bites at the apple.
Fitter4 gives an encore performance of the fruit impression.
In a fit of pique, he takes his cordless drill and unscrews the filter cartridge bracket (one small screw so no biggie), totally fails to measure 2 inches, shoves it back in again at a 30 degree angle using a combination of unprofessionalism and random guesswork and then finds the shelf still won't go in because the new location is still too close.
He then repeats above step another inch to the left.
Shelf then fits in perfectly with no need to hack it to pieces.

I guess that now makes me a qualified fitter.
What say you.


The sink base units are still misaligned. The end wall panel still needs replacing. There's an inverted 'V' gap on the endfill next to the freezer now that those appliances have been moved around. Rods in the drawers are adrift. The electrics are still not done.

Etc Etc. It just goes on and on. Plus we now have an additional 2 wrong holes in the back of our sink unit.

After the fitters leave, I open the sink base cupboard to find a steady leak is slowly creating a little froggy paddling pool.

By the way, kind regards to all my new readers.
:-P ;-)
Love and hugs, guys.

TeleCommunications

On Monday this week, the IM rang about our list of concerns following Friday's work which I duly went through. We traded gritted teeth comments about the sink fitting; she said that moving the sink an inch to the right wasn't on the original list. Of course it wasn't - (a) it was a Solution that Fitters 2 & 3 came up with, and (b) it's common sense that you work out how much room you need for the plumbing tackle you're going to use and then ensure that you put the sink in at the appropriate place for it!!! Jees. And I'm only in the next room for feck's sake, is it really that much effort for them to ask.


Anyway, 2 things were missing at the end of last Friday's session
- the Franke connector kit, and
- the Duropal sealant tube.

The IM said that Fitters4 had probably taken the connector kit to match up with an appropriate fitting to replace what they'd used.

As for the sealant...
...I told her that if the reason for it missing was that they'd used it all up then I'd have to know asap because it would mean ordering another tube for them to do the sink edging. She said she'd ask them.
...I now have a voice message from her today to "confirm that the sealant is not required". What? Eh? Of course they need it! To do the sink! - and does that mean they did use it all or not? !

FFS.

She didn't mention the Franke kit on the voice message, so I'm taking that to mean that her original answer stands on that one.


Footnote
That makes a running total of 4 things going for a walk now: the kit, the tube, the bag of bits, and the Gorgeous Blue Mug.

That Sinking Feeling

Blacksheep rang to tell me that the sink had been delivered but it was the wrong colour. AAGGHHH!!! they'd been sent a black one, not champagne. I'd started to get nervous about it yesterday as I'd been expecting a call on Tuesday to confirm delivery.

I asked them to do me a favour and drop me an email so I could send it on to MFI. Otherwise the IM will probably think that I never placed the order and am now stalling. They said they would, and took my email address, but no email arrived.

I rang Fitter3 and told him about the sink. He said that he would come back next Thursday then, instead of tomorrow, to start on the base units.

On a separate note, the plasterer did not come back today. He did say (plenty times) on Tuesday that he'd nip back to finish the corner today so we could paint by weekend.

I texted Fitter3 (didn't want to overdo the Hassle By Phone) to find out when the plasterer was actually going to come back and finish the corner, but there was no response.

That's it then. Sit back and wait for the sink whilst trying to manage a household using a kitchen that is mostly packed away in cardboard boxes or spread across 3 rooms.

The remaining installed worktop that is not to be replaced has been covered in plaster to the extent that it could take months to get all the bits out of the textured grain finish. Why didn't they cover it, or at least come and ask me if I wanted to cover it myself. Took me ages yesterday to clean the f*g kitchen floor, too. I could've put newspaper on it in no time if they'd said. And the windows and remaining units are all covered in f*g plaster splashes and, even worse, huge swathes of whitewash effect where they wet-wiped the splashes into the grain.

PHOTO: I should've taken more pics before I cleaned up; basically the place looked like the opening titles of Saving Private Ryan. Like the high tide had come in through the hall, washed over the kitchen and swept out down the drive again leaving a trail of debris reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina.

Personal reflection
A day of tears. If it were not for being a mother, I would have got on a train to god knows where to make it all just go away. I am so sick & tired of half-a-job harrys doing every little f*g job wrong and having to do it all over again or get it put right somehow with little or no chance of it ever being put right in any f*g case. And it's not just this kitchen. It's every f*g thing I ask any tradespeople to do. The house roof. The decorating. The wardrobes. The cleaners. The conservatory roof. The carpet fitters. The builder who moved the downstairs door. The idiot who did the chimney. I'm not bossy, maybe I'm not assertive enough. I thought that being polite and respectful to people was right and proper. Seemingly not so, because it obviously gives them carte blanche to write 'doormat' in huge invisible letters across your forehead.
Jeez I'm so fed up. I don't sleep at night because I'm too wound up. I don't perform well the following day because I have no f*g motivation left in me. I'm getting migraines, mood swings the like of which could start an international incident, and barely feel like eating anything until at least midday. Just walking into the f*g kitchen is enough to put me off food.
I'm frightened that if this misery continues, there is nothing to ground my thoughts and rein my depression in. I am just grateful that I at least have a sense of humour, and the sense to remain reticent, and that I can exorcise my mind here!!! :-P ;-D