Back in Edinburgh

Have a look at this link…………Big Edinburgh flat refurbishment!
When we left Edinburgh on 18th March our ‘cowboy builders’ obviously we didn’t realise how much of a cowboy building company they were?!  assured us, that by the end of April, that the wall between the kitchen/living room would have been knocked down, the rewiring would have been completed and the new lighting in the hall, kitchen & bathroom would have been installed.

……………And then we discovered they hadn’t even submitted the engineers drawings (re knocking down the wall) to the planning department and they’d blatantly lied and told us that they had.  Grrrrrrr……………..  Still don't understand why they would do that?  They knew we were going to be tracking things on the Edinburgh City Council Portal???

Soooooooo………………..  Ann decided to resign from her job in Cornwall and tackle this project herself.  Two weeks ago Ann had a flying visit to Edinburgh (& I had to stay with Alfie the Beardie Collie) when she met with a ‘very lovely architect’ and a couple of other guys to start the whole procedure of getting quotes in again. 

Within 8 days she’d managed to get architect plans drawn up, an engineer visited the flat and reported back to ‘very lovely architect’ that the wall was non load bearing.  Engineers report states: ‘the internal construction of the property is straightforward and consists of concrete floors being supported on a central 225mm thick brick spine wall; all other internal walls in the property are constructed from non loadbearing breeze block construction and therefore we are satisfied that there removal will not require the addition of any new structural support.’

Seriously??????????????…………………..  I’m sure ‘cowboy builders’ just thought…………… Batty old woman; she lives 600 miles away; we can tell her what we want and ask her to pay what we want????  After Ann told them that we knew they hadn’t submitted any plans to the council planning department, (because we are very clever and know that all planning applications can be tracked online) they tried to tell her that four engineers had refused to get involved with the property due to the construction and further investigation would involve going into the flats above and below at an extra cost of £1500. 

Well……………..  Ann’s got proper architect plans, she has a proper letter from the engineer and the plans are being submitted to the planning department.  All of which is costing £600 less than what ‘cowboy builders’ were originally trying to charge us.  I really don’t understand why ‘cowboy builders’ had such a problem getting this sorted????  Grrrrrr………..

Anyway, we are using BLIP as a diary of the ‘Big Edinburgh Flat Refurbishment’ but will try not to rant too much over the next couple of weeks. That’s going to be very difficult??!!

I’ve got to have ‘early walk’ tomorrow because Ann is meeting with a new builder first thing tomorrow morning (that ‘very lovely architect’ has recommended) and then we’re hoping to meet with a guy Ann met the last time she was here, so that he can explain his big huge quote in more detail??!!

Onwards & upwards!

…………..And my BLIP today is of me at the top of Blackford Hill in Edinburgh.  I had a lovely walk there as soon as I arrived, but now I’m very, very, sleepy so am snoozing in my bed!

 PS – Many thanks to Derek who suggested that we buy an ‘Osprey Mini 2’so that we can connect to the internet in our flat in Edinburgh.  We can now post ‘proper ranting BLIPS’ instead of having to do everything via 3G on a mobile phone.  Thank you Derek. xxxx