What a mess!!! - Archives 2010

We are back home, but boy-o-boy what a mess.

We fired our builder, who has now sent us a demand for £3000 - our house is a mess, I can't even begin to list everything that is wrong with it and I have no idea where we are going to find the money to fix it.

We would really love to take K to court and demand full recompense to fix everything (one quote came in at £20,000) but at the moment we are not even sure if we can afford that.

We had a meeting with K, at which he said work would be done and be finished within 2 weeks, he was going to come back 2 days later to start fixing the problems pointed out by building control and by our structural engineer.... then followed a series of rather nasty emails about us not letting him in the house, and he said he would be here the following Friday (10 days after our meeting)

Well..... that was enough for us.... time after time we had been promised and assured and told again that these 'small jobs' would be done in a day. I was told again and again that I was wasting his time for wanting him to come and complete all the smaller jobs.

We had given K a second chance and had enough, not only did I feel unsafe with the work he was doing (in that he would create as many problems as he solved and still NOTHING was complete) but I had reached the point that I was not willing to sit in my house with a young child with this man... I did not feel safe and I was not going to be made to feel like that in my home again.

We informed him, by email that he was to remove his tools from the site on Friday morning.

So now he is gone.... but now what? I literally don't know.... Can I even begin to do the work he was supposed to do? does it all need to get recorded by some kind of professional? I haven't got a clue....

Our lawyer has warned us of the immense cost of taking legal action against someone like this... and of course, should we win do we simply get a letter saying he hasn't the means to pay.... I don't know. SO we can go through small claims, meaning we might get a fraction of the costs back.... but of course we still have to pay to fix all his mistakes.

What I do plan on is starting a new blog (cause, y'know, 2 blogs aren't enough for me) which will be all about this horrid situation.

I have also been to the doctor and had to fill out one of those lovely depression questionnaires... taking the questionnaire is enough to give you depression... with statements in it  like "I feel so sad and can't snap out of it" and "I would kill myself if I knew how".... Oh Lord... I'm no phycologist but I would imagine that if you think your patient is thinking that then -  (a) you might not give them a daft questionnaire to fill out - (b) you wouldn't necessarily expect them to keep that appointment you have made for them a week later.

But our is not to question why... So I fully expect to be back in the doctors office in a weeks time to refuse to take whichever mind altering medication he offers me. I've been on beta-blockers before... I'd rather be miserable than have precisely no emotions for 6 months thanks.

Anyway, sorry to put a downer on the whole blog thing..... wish I could be writing about making jam and baking cakes instead, but sadly that isn't on the cards just now...

thanks for reading ;o)