Bit of a Nightmare Job – But What’s New

04 November 2010

Well, the run up to Christmas has well and truly started and for the first time in a long time I am looking forward to it. There are a few reasons for that. Number one is the fact that we can afford it this year. The bigger jobs I did recently have left us with a little bit extra and number two: we are staying home.

Yes, we are having a Christmas at home with just us and the kids. No one is visiting, the in-laws aren't staying and I can be a complete slob if I feel like it. We have decided to have a Christmas Eve party for our friends and neighbours, but otherwise it is going to be a nice relaxing time.

Boxing Day however will be the relatives day, which will involve hours of driving and too many air kisses, but them's the breaks.

But before all of that truly gets going I have quite a lot of work to get done. I am still nursing my arm to a certain extent, but Katy has been brilliant and is definitely getting her hands dirty. This week has been spent fitting a floor. Bit of a nightmare job, but what's new.

The problem is that when people decide they want to move from a vinyl floor to tiles they don't consider the state of the floor before they start. Chris thought it was going to be a straightforward job, but it wasn't until I removed the old vinyl (a job in itself) that I discovered the pitted flooring and very strange levels.

Obviously if I laid the tiles directly onto the old floor we would have had cracked grouting and loose tiles within a few weeks and I couldn't do that. Typical me, has to do everything properly.

So it was out with the self levelling compound, of which I had to use more at one end of the kitchen than the other. This has led to problems where it meets the door as there is now a small step down. So it was off to the local timber yard for a piece of oak to use as a threshold to tie it altogether. Combined with the tiles, it does look nice, but wasn't easy to achieve.

Sometimes I just wish I could do a bodge job...

Speaking of which, I have been watching that Cowboy Builders program recently. What a laugh. While I do feel sorry for some of these people, I can't for the life of me work out why they hand over thousands of pounds when the work isn't finished. I would never dream of asking for money upfront to that extent.

My advice is that if a builder hasn't put enough money aside from your deposit to pay for materials then he is spreading himself too thin. The money is going to another job and you need to be asking questions. It is just a matter of careful planning and most of these builders seem to have got themselves into trouble because they take on too much at one time.

Never catch me doing that....Ahem!