Edinburgh - Day 8

Madness………………..  Total, utter & complete madness…………….

How Ann ever thought she could totally refurbish a flat from more than 600 miles away I’ll never know?!! 

What I do know is……………..  My ‘walks routine’ is getting a bit disrupted.  I’m still getting my morning walk, at morning walk time, but honestly?!!………….. Sometimes I’m getting my afternoon walk when it isn’t even afternoon & sometimes I’m getting my afternoon walk in the evening.  And sometimes I just get taken on a little walk round the block for toileting purposes but I never know if that’s the only walk I’m going to get.  Even though Ann always tells me exactly what is going on.

Ignore the following rant if you’re not interested in the ‘big Edinburgh refurbishment project’, but we’re using BLIP as a diary of our big flat refurb. 

This is a Blip of me walking up Blackford Hill.

So our project manager & engineer were supposed to be coming back to see us on yesterday, but they hadn’t given us a time, so on Monday Ann texted them and they ignored the text and then she phoned them and to cut a very long story short, the PM eventually told her that the engineer couldn’t make it so they’d come on Thursday at 9am, with the painter/decorator and bathroom/kitchen designer.  He also said that the quote from the electrician for rewiring, new lighting, new heating, catalogues for the type of electric sockets/switches we want, would be emailed either Tuesday evening or first thing this morning.  Did we have any quotes by lunchtime today?  We did not.  Grrrrrrr……….

Texted the PM who immediately replied to say that he was in a meeting and would phone back in an hour.  He phoned back 2 and a half hours later and said that as he was coming tomorrow he’d bring all the paper work with him.  Asked him to confirm that the engineer was definitely coming with him (we’re knocking down a wall and need to know where the steel beam is going and get building warrants in place) and he said that there was no need for the engineer to come because he’d done all his plans & drawings and just had submit them and he (the PM) could show us exactly where the wall was going to be taken out??!!   Mmmmmmmm - yet to be convinced!!!!  And if that is the case, why didn’t he just come yesterday???  If we didn’t live so far away this company might have been sacked before they even started.  Grrrr………..

Apparently the painter/decorator is still coming, but to be honest he’s the least of our worries.    Oh and the kitchen/bathroom designer (from Howdens) can’t make it until 11am.  And I got left ‘home alone’ today so that Ann could actually physically go and look at stuff in Howdens.  The trouble with Howdens is…………….. it’s ‘trade only’ so no one could give her any prices.  And also, we’re probably going to change the bathroom into a shower room only and Howdens don’t even sell shower enclosures.  Grrrr…. Would prefer to go to B&Q or Homebase, or Wickes, or anywhere that we actually know how much we’re paying for stuff???  So Ann spent hours in B&Q this morning and I had to spend a lot of time ‘home alone’.

We’ve been in contact with these guys for almost 2 months now and all we’ve got is a quote for knocking down a wall.   But we still haven’t got the ‘structural engineer drawing’ which apparently will be roughly in the region of £1,200+VAT……………….  Approximations are no good for us.  We need proper written quotes before we are going to agree to anything!!!

……………………This is sooooooo, sooooooo difficult.

The first company we wanted to use to do the work, were recommended by the letting agents, who said, ‘We can’t recommend them highly enough’.  They were excellent on initial chitchat and then didn’t bother getting back to us and used the excuse that they were trying to get access to the flat.  Funny then that the company that we’re now using didn’t seem to have a problem gaining access to the flat?

Anyway, it’s getting late and I need to go out for my bedtime wee.  Life is so much simpler being a gorgeous little collie, than a human.

As I say we’re using BLIP as a diary of the big Edinburgh refurbishment so in the future, if you only want to know what me; ‘Molly the gorgeous collie’ has been up to…………….  Then don’t bother reading the stuff in italics.
Rant over.
Goodnight all.