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Blame the jet stream...

Shed prep, with oversight from the dogs

Apparently we have the jet stream to blame for the truly awful weather we are having right now. I blame our builder - if he had got his act together and sorted out Glenn's workshop roof as he promised, sods law the sun would be shining from dawn to dusk. Instead it's still pouring every half hour and Glenn is constantly worried about how much water is coming though the roof / walls / floor etc. Apparently he 'literally' just needs to put the ridge on the top and the gully down the side and it will all be fixed. We are literally at the point of wanting to do him some actual bodily harm. The moment he disappears the better. This week he was also literally going to clad the office ("done") and has failed everyday to turn up and do it (which in my book is literally not "done"). He was also going to have Gary come and finish the electrics (not done), whack down the paving slabs (not done), render the last of the brick work (not done) amongst other things. He has to be fair watched while the patio door man worked his magic and brought the caps over for the septic tank. That's it, all week. Oh, he's also been for a haircut (which he stopped by to show me!) and took his kids to the cinema (this was the reason for not coming to do cladding, even though I'm pretty sure cinemas aren't able to open until tomorrow). Tomorrow he assures us Audris is coming to do the cladding (which is a good thing as at least that means we have a fair chance of it being done properly), although he phoned this evening to ask if he can borrow our nail gun because his is broken. If I wasn't hearing it first hand I'd never believe it! We are so close to just telling him to sling is hook but we don't want him to have the easy route out so instead I keep on at him on a daily basis, reminding him of all the things he still needs to do.

Amazing what you can do in 3 days!

So while Stephen has been practising his excuses, real men have been at work and this week Glenn became the proud owner of a new shed. The RM network came up trumps with the arrival of Russ, his old RSM and now a very proficient carpenter. Russ bent all the normal protocols by turning up 3 days in a row at 7:45am, working through until he was satisfied he'd done a proper days work (despite the terrible weather) and hey presto, so we have a fab new shed for garden machinery and tools - just in case we ever manage to get a garden. Russ can definitely come again (and will - we have a list for him!)

Against the slow progress of Richmond Construction we suddenly had a burst of speed on the legal side. After weeks of pushing for the PCC (having given up of course on a warranty), it came through and so we were able to finalise paperwork. This means (drum roll), we can exchange tomorrow! Having had so much back and forth it has worked out so that we will end up completing on both properties on the same day - who'd have thought it?! 

So we are relishing the thought of reaching the end of what has been a very stressful 6 months. There will be a point very soon when we tell Stephen to call it a day - the cost of completing the snagging ourselves is worth every penny of not having to watch him do it (or not as the case more normally is). We know we need to up the quality (e.g. I've bought a new dishwasher already after spending Friday night packing towels around the base of our cheapo one as it leaked water out of the seals onto the floor), but actually he was never going to have the same quality aspiration as us - its our home and its just a building site to him. Amazingly despite all of the hassle and heartbreak of the things that have gone wrong, we know this is going to be a lovely place to live and we are almost there of beginning to be able to do just that. If it would only stop raining we might even be able to get outside and enjoy that bit as well - it's not too much to ask surely?!

Quantocks walk between downpours
to blow out the cobwebs


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