Photo The Damage
.. “before removing from off pallet” or so the theory goes. We’ll take a moment to ‘celebrate’ minor delivery “fails” and subsequent successes.
One of the true successes of online trade is the ability to order pretty much anything and get it delivered pretty much anywhere.
Ordered additional Global Stone paving from the Paving Superstore for the patio overlooking the beck. A few too many broken on delivery – you’re given an unrealistic 20 minutes to fully inspect them – the driver wasn’t for hanging around. He’d managed to get his fully automatic pallet truck a couple of metres up the steep incline of the drive – job done. Some time later i.e. the next day, the lot were unpacked and stacked in the right place. Quick email to the vendor, pictures attached and, credit to them, replacements shipped in a matter of days.
Better Bathrooms next to star in the minor failure league. Ordered a vanity unit for the new bathroom (the one that replaced the stairs? “What? You don’t have stairs? How do you climb a bathroom?!”). From the inner packaging it was clear that one of the corners was going to be damaged, the broken polystyrene protection had been moved and retaped.
Email to BB, offered a £30 off for the broken unit – felt like we’d won the lottery. Their subsequent offer? £40 off if you take it in BB vouchers – be still my beating heart. They eventually dispatched Palletways to retrieve the offending item – you don’t get a replacement until they get the dodgy one back. They arrived, without a pallet, and left, therefore, without the item (Palletways by name, pallet ways by nature). Another week later Palletways returned, no pallet, they took it anyway! They rang four days later to check it was them that picked up the item to be returned because BB were expecting them to pick up the item they’d picked up (are they serious?).
With Summer in full effect (the ducks are ‘busily’ producing round 2 and 3 of the local heron’s preferred diet).
Build progress has been slow, with ‘The Most Loved One’ having radiotherapy over at The Christie for three weeks – a remarkable place.
Thankfully Tom booked us in for a few days, and phoned a friend – enter Craig, loves nature and his Ford ST. It’s been a joy to build with some of the old, reclaimed, stone.
With a date in the diary for Master Plasterer’s Inc. to return, the second fix in the upstairs bathroom had to be completed before boarding downstairs (“Highly illogical” I hear you say, not so Spock). We’d purchased a bath that logically couldn’t be fitted and a tap that would need to be connected in the ceiling below. Tom expanded the initial plan and created a big enough hole to allow levelling of the bath from below. Then test and test and test again – once fitted there’s no going back.
“Plasterer Number 1” (imagine you’re in the Post Office at lunchtime) returns! It turns out true quality is worth waiting for.
The man himself in action – great prep., great finish.
Downstairs shower room, mini hall and utility expertly plastered. Note the Profab access panels.
There had been a grander plan to refurbish both bedrooms and the original bathroom in the old barn, but time, now more precious than anything, and the magic elastic plastic funds have been stretched further than Stretch Armstrong and his dog, Fetch, combined. Tom built a cupboard in the gap where the landing led to the old stairs.
And we discovered more novelty cabling. The main light feed wraps its way around the skirting board then the bathroom door frame. Now it’s been discovered we can’t leave it and will need to find a regulation route for the replacement cables (one step forward, ….)
Cable to the switch wasn’t in great nick either.
With a few more gallons of white paint thrown around we’re about ready to refit the utility i.e. with the repurposed old kitchen units, we’ll sand and repaint the doors and add a new worktop. Gives Tom a chance to remind himself he’s a top class joiner by trade.
It’s been a while and there’s a chunk still to do, but we’ve achieved a lot for such challenging times.