Back from France and the patio's not done
We got back from a great week's holiday in our Brittany holiday Gite on Tuesday and have come back to earth 'with a bump'. The weather was really good whilst we were over there, a bit cold in the morning (and on a couple of days there was frost on the car) but the sun soon got up and by mid-day it was generally quite warm and sunny. We ate lunch outside most days (try doing that in the UK in April!) and it only rained a couple of times.
As I said in my last blog entry just before I left part of the plan for the holiday was to have a new patio and one of the driveways re-gravelled. Well as you can see from the photo it's spectacularly NOT done or even started.
When we agreed the Gite building work in January we asked for the work to be done this week whilst we were over so we would be onsite to resolve any issues, etc. A couple of weeks ago the builder emailed me to say that he was due to start work the last week in March - i.e. the week before we were due to be there. I asked the builder to re-arrange to the first week in April and all was set for us and the builder to be there at the same time.
On Monday I thought I'd better get up early as the builder was likely to start at 8am, so dutifully set the alarm clock for 7:30 - far too early to be up when I'm on holiday. 8am came and went, then 9am and by 10am Liz was suggesting that we ought to phone him up to find out what was happening. At 11 he arrived to tell me that he'd sent an email on Sunday (after we left) and that he now couldn't start until the following week - argh !
Well next week we've got guests in the Gite so that's no good and we had to rearrange the work until later in April.
At least with having the builder over we could agree final details of the works and we also asked him to build a new set of steps up to the garden for us as well. The existing ones are oak beams set into the ground so they look rustic but of course are slowly disintegrating. The builder will email us photos of the work whilst it's being done and we'll not send him final payment until we're next over and are happy with it all.
All in all I'm a disappointed and not happy bunny. Was looking forward to being able to sit out on the new patio in the evening. Guess we'll have to wait just a little longer ...
As I said in my last blog entry just before I left part of the plan for the holiday was to have a new patio and one of the driveways re-gravelled. Well as you can see from the photo it's spectacularly NOT done or even started.
When we agreed the Gite building work in January we asked for the work to be done this week whilst we were over so we would be onsite to resolve any issues, etc. A couple of weeks ago the builder emailed me to say that he was due to start work the last week in March - i.e. the week before we were due to be there. I asked the builder to re-arrange to the first week in April and all was set for us and the builder to be there at the same time.
On Monday I thought I'd better get up early as the builder was likely to start at 8am, so dutifully set the alarm clock for 7:30 - far too early to be up when I'm on holiday. 8am came and went, then 9am and by 10am Liz was suggesting that we ought to phone him up to find out what was happening. At 11 he arrived to tell me that he'd sent an email on Sunday (after we left) and that he now couldn't start until the following week - argh !
Well next week we've got guests in the Gite so that's no good and we had to rearrange the work until later in April.
At least with having the builder over we could agree final details of the works and we also asked him to build a new set of steps up to the garden for us as well. The existing ones are oak beams set into the ground so they look rustic but of course are slowly disintegrating. The builder will email us photos of the work whilst it's being done and we'll not send him final payment until we're next over and are happy with it all.
All in all I'm a disappointed and not happy bunny. Was looking forward to being able to sit out on the new patio in the evening. Guess we'll have to wait just a little longer ...
Labels: Holiday, HolidayHome, Renovations
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