They got underway on January 29th and have been stressful, way more so than was ever sold to us!

On one particular day the house was so worked on that we couldn’t actually live here. We’d already had to leave for the day, that was made clear to us. The woman acting as our liaison is a patronising bitch and, in my mind, most likely a former social worker! The project has been allowed to fall behind and then she had a long weekend off.

This was how it started off looking, this is just with the kitchen removed. Not too horrendous, it was still useable anyway.

We had already moved most things into other parts of the house so just needed the fridge, sink and cooker to be connected.

The floor tiles were meant to have been removed by now but that didn’t happen as the Asbestos (ASBO Man as they seem to call him and his team) Surveyor said they had asbestos underneath. Turned out they didn’t but this was after the destruction team left them to the ASBO team who then left it because there was no asbestos.

The walls were stripped but not very well so the plasterers had to dry line all the walls and plaster over that to sort the room out again

This is what our lounge is like, indeed, most rooms in the house are similar with only the bare essentials left out of boxes.

Of course, the stupid manager didn’t let us know they had to change all the light fittings, she said they wouldn’t so we placed everything underneath them. This caused the electricians some real issues so things got broken, that and she’d allocated the same amount of time as she normally would to a 3 bedroom house. As this has 5 bedrooms and an extra reception room, it was a stupid deadline that they couldn’t keep to and they did try.

So, the result is, carefully stacked boxes were toppled and things cascaded and fell to the floor and broke. The manager was being totally unrealistic and not communicating adequately. We had no clue what was going on most of the time, the written schedule had long since become useless.

So, on our worst day we came home past the kids bed time at 6:30pm to discover the house uninhabitable. Loose wired, carpets up, the contents of our loft thrown onto beds, dirt everywhere, we just couldn’t get it cleaned at all let alone in time to sleep. Thankfully, Sue and Fred amazingly took us in, Adam gave up his bed, we were really grateful for that otherwise we’d have had to fun a hotel.

We are now one week into this and the light is appearing at the end of the tunnel. The double glazing is in, though badly, so still needs to be made good. The bathroom is in but, wonky and broken so needs to be made good. The tiles are nearly up from the kitchen, so someone is coming back to make that good.  Holes for the new extractor fans were drilled and covered up again by the plasterers! Tomorrow we have the central heating being replaced, double glazing checked by the boss man, floor totally removed from kitchen, plastering done, and something else I have forgotten!

Wednesday the kitchen is meant to be going in, I think that’s a little optimistic.

Daisy and me had a short break Saturday when I took her to see Sleeping Beauty, the ballet in Milton Keynes. I thought it was amazing, I think Daisy did too.

I am missing seeing some of my friends, Tyler in particular, he always makes me laugh. Many others I just want to chill with too, just so little time.

They got underway on January 29th and have been stressful, way more so than was ever sold to us!

On one particular day the house was so worked on that we couldn’t actually live here. We’d already had to leave for the day, that was made clear to us. The woman acting as our liaison is a patronising bitch and, in my mind, most likely a former social worker! The project has been allowed to fall behind and then she had a long weekend off.

This was how it started off looking, this is just with the kitchen removed. Not too horrendous, it was still useable anyway.

We had already moved most things into other parts of the house so just needed the fridge, sink and cooker to be connected.

The floor tiles were meant to have been removed by now but that didn’t happen as the Asbestos (ASBO Man as they seem to call him and his team) Surveyor said they had asbestos underneath. Turned out they didn’t but this was after the destruction team left them to the ASBO team who then left it because there was no asbestos.

The walls were stripped but not very well so the plasterers had to dry line all the walls and plaster over that to sort the room out again

This is what our lounge is like, indeed, most rooms in the house are similar with only the bare essentials left out of boxes.

Of course, the stupid manager didn’t let us know they had to change all the light fittings, she said they wouldn’t so we placed everything underneath them. This caused the electricians some real issues so things got broken, that and she’d allocated the same amount of time as she normally would to a 3 bedroom house. As this has 5 bedrooms and an extra reception room, it was a stupid deadline that they couldn’t keep to and they did try.

So, the result is, carefully stacked boxes were toppled and things cascaded and fell to the floor and broke. The manager was being totally unrealistic and not communicating adequately. We had no clue what was going on most of the time, the written schedule had long since become useless.

So, on our worst day we came home past the kids bed time at 6:30pm to discover the house uninhabitable. Loose wired, carpets up, the contents of our loft thrown onto beds, dirt everywhere, we just couldn’t get it cleaned at all let alone in time to sleep. Thankfully, Sue and Fred amazingly took us in, Adam gave up his bed, we were really grateful for that otherwise we’d have had to fun a hotel.

We are now one week into this and the light is appearing at the end of the tunnel. The double glazing is in, though badly, so still needs to be made good. The bathroom is in but, wonky and broken so needs to be made good. The tiles are nearly up from the kitchen, so someone is coming back to make that good.  Holes for the new extractor fans were drilled and covered up again by the plasterers! Tomorrow we have the central heating being replaced, double glazing checked by the boss man, floor totally removed from kitchen, plastering done, and something else I have forgotten!

Wednesday the kitchen is meant to be going in, I think that’s a little optimistic.

Daisy and me had a short break Saturday when I took her to see Sleeping Beauty, the ballet in Milton Keynes. I thought it was amazing, I think Daisy did too.

I am missing seeing some of my friends, Tyler in particular, he always makes me laugh. Many others I just want to chill with too, just so little time.

I have been really vocal lately about friends, what they’ve done or, what I consider they haven’t done. If I am honest, when I have been hurting, and, this past year I’ve had plenty of reasons to be hurting, I have felt ‘some’ of the people I consider friends ‘could’ have made a better effort. But, I accept that maybe they didn’t realise just how bad things were getting and, of course, they do have their own issues too.

One particular person I have been quite tough on. I feel, as clearly I wrote enough to identify him that I owe Adam an apology and, quite likely, his family too.

Adam is a lovely person with a kind heart, ‘I’ have caused difficulties between us this past year. Yes, it is true to say that Adam is ageist and that has been one of the issues, my refusal to accept his viewpoint. He is entitled to the way he thinks whether I agree or not, it’s none of my business really. So, it’s me who screwed up things there, I should never have pushed for anything other than what there was which was us getting along because I happened to be Daisy’s dad and his mum’s friend. I so need to observe people more and actually listen to what they are saying and stop assuming that anyone and everyone is going to automatically want to be my bestest buddy! I would one day like to be friends with Adam, close friends because I think we have a huge amount in common but, I don’t have the right and neither should I have pushed it. So, sorry Adam for being a dick and sorry too to Sue, Fred and Charlotte for what has probably got back there now too.

I get so much right but, now and then, I royally fuck up! Who knows, one day my brain may actually catch up with my body.

Hopefully this apology is OK, I thought making it public and making myself look stupid was the right thing to do seeing as my previous comments were public too.

I love that family too much me thinks.

I have been really vocal lately about friends, what they’ve done or, what I consider they haven’t done. If I am honest, when I have been hurting, and, this past year I’ve had plenty of reasons to be hurting, I have felt ‘some’ of the people I consider friends ‘could’ have made a better effort. But, I accept that maybe they didn’t realise just how bad things were getting and, of course, they do have their own issues too.

One particular person I have been quite tough on. I feel, as clearly I wrote enough to identify him that I owe Adam an apology and, quite likely, his family too.

Adam is a lovely person with a kind heart, ‘I’ have caused difficulties between us this past year. Yes, it is true to say that Adam is ageist and that has been one of the issues, my refusal to accept his viewpoint. He is entitled to the way he thinks whether I agree or not, it’s none of my business really. So, it’s me who screwed up things there, I should never have pushed for anything other than what there was which was us getting along because I happened to be Daisy’s dad and his mum’s friend. I so need to observe people more and actually listen to what they are saying and stop assuming that anyone and everyone is going to automatically want to be my bestest buddy! I would one day like to be friends with Adam, close friends because I think we have a huge amount in common but, I don’t have the right and neither should I have pushed it. So, sorry Adam for being a dick and sorry too to Sue, Fred and Charlotte for what has probably got back there now too.

I get so much right but, now and then, I royally fuck up! Who knows, one day my brain may actually catch up with my body.

Hopefully this apology is OK, I thought making it public and making myself look stupid was the right thing to do seeing as my previous comments were public too.

I love that family too much me thinks.