Month: November 2022

I haven’t posted much just lately but it doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy. One of the things that I’ve done has been to buy the first things for my new house.

The builder recently contacted me about specifying my ‘équipements sanitaires’, the fixtures and fittings that I want to have in my bathroom. In fact the details for my shower and WC are already specified in the contract leaving only the washbasin. To be honest, I hadn’t picked up that it had been omitted and it would have been easy for them to have asked me what I wanted and included it in the contract, but the French love to have furniture in which the washbasin is mounted installed in their bathroom and I suppose they assumed that I’d want to do the same.

In fact I don’t – in my quest for simplicity all I want is a plain white ceramic washbasin mounted on a column with a mirror mounted over it and, like I had at Plazac, I’ll also just install one or two wall-mounted mirrored cupboards in which to keep my shaving gear, toothbrush and other bits and pieces. A week or so ago I made a visit to the supplier of sanitary fittings ‘recommended’ by the builder and was shocked by the laughably expensive prices of all of the items shown on the estimate that they subsequently sent me.

They said that they could supply a washbasin, column and tap for 350€. I bet they could! That figure is ridiculous. I checked on the internet and found that the manufacturer of the WC specified in my contract is Geberit, so I then searched for suppliers of washbasins from the same one. In fact the model offered by the ‘preferred’ supplier was also from Geberit but I’d already established that the one on offer was slightly smaller than I ideally wanted.

To cut a long story short, I found a larger Geberit model which I ordered and had delivered for a total of just over 80€. I then found a beautiful tap from the German manufacturer Grohe, probably the best in Europe, which I had delivered today from Amazon for just over 70€. I found a slightly cheaper supplier but I thought that the higher price was worth it just in case I didn’t like the tap when it arrived and I needed to return it, which definitely wasn’t the case.

So I got everything that I need for just over 150€, or less than half the figure quoted by the builder’s ‘preferred’ supplier! The builders don’t know yet that they won’t be getting their cut, good try though it was, but that won’t be my concern 🙂 The only risk I think is that the white ceramic of the washbasin won’t match that of the WC, but I’m hoping that as they will both be from the same manufacturer, that’ll not be very likely.

Here are some shots that I took of the basin, column and tap now waiting on the floor of my ‘abris’ until the builder eventually pulls their finger out and is ready to use them

I also made a decision about the house’s internal doors. The builder proposed installing plain white composite doors (ie the cheap ones of the type that go into most new-build houses) but I always planned to have plain wood. I was going to let things be but the more I thought about it the more ridiculous it seemed to be to have doors fitted that I’d immediately want to take out and dispose of.

So I proposed that the doors be excluded from the contract and an allowance made and that I would supply the doors that I actually wanted myself. This has been agreed against an allowance of 230€, not much for seven doors complete with furniture, but I’ve had to accept it and will at least be having the doors that I want from the off. The only thing is that I may have to fit them myself, but so be it if I do.

By the way, I forgot to mention that I have received a reply from the builder about my house’s completion date. They said that it will be 22nd April 2023. When I queried how that fitted with the contract, which through its 12 month contractual completion term implied a date of 8th March 2023, they said that the build would be completed ‘according to the contractual terms’. I mentioned previously here on My Trike that as the commencement date was 9th March 2022, any delay after the implied completion date would mean the builder incurring daily penalties. If this is so, I’ll have to go with that.

To finish off, we’ve had a week or so of very heavy continuous rain followed by showers, so it’s not been possible to do very much either outside or in the caravan. It got me thinking about something that I’ve had in the back of my mind for quite a while – a year or two in fact – and in the event I decided to get myself into gear and see if I could make it a reality.

In fact I’ve done OK – very well, I think, actually. I don’t want to mention any more about it at this stage but should be ready to do so in a few days’ time at which point I’ll publish all the details. Keep watching this space 😉

I just saw the news that Sue Baker has died. I can hardly believe it. Sue was my girlfriend and true love when I was 18 and she 17, from my time until I left school and went to university. We were inseparable and had great times together. Unthinkable that she’s gone. Sue, I’ll remember you forever. Rest in peace and drive with the angels.

I’m becoming very concerned about the time being taken to build my new house and the excessive delays, in my view, that are being incurred. Recently the builders sent out a general email to all their clients apologising for what they say are problems arising from the Covid pandemic (the old chestnut), material shortages and problems recruiting labour but I’m not too impressed by this.

Why is that? When I drive around I see other houses being built that were started after mine and are already ahead in terms of completion and in my own case, the materials required to start building the exterior walls have been on site for nearly three months. The builders also said that their contracts are now taking an average of ten months to complete. Mine was started at the beginning of March and should therefore by now be well on the way to completion but in fact they have been on site for little more than ten full working days.

There is no completion date in my contract. Instead there’s a statutory (I think) period of twelve months after which the house must be completed, otherwise the builders must start paying me a daily penalty until it is ready to be handed over. This is based on the cost of the property and in my case works out to about 50€ per day, so depending on whether week-ends are included, this amounts to around 2500€ per month, or 1500€ if not.

Except for the fact that I’d still be in my caravan, I’d be happy to receive such sums as a contribution to the costs I’ll incur in fitting out my kitchen and purchasing other items that I’ll need for the house. But I’d rather not. I’d prefer to be in the house. The builders started work on my house on 9th March of this year, so the twelve month period ends on 8th March next year.

In construction terms given what needs to be done by then, this is not long so I decided to make out a work schedule based on my own experience and judgement. I used a Gantt chart for this, which is a very useful tool for project planning and management and one that I used to use quite a bit when I was a Corporate Planner many years ago.

A Gantt chart is a useful way of showing activities (tasks or events) displayed against time. Along the top of the chart is a suitable time scale. Each activity is represented by a bar and the position and length of each bar reflects the start date, duration and end date of the activity. This allows you to see at a glance what the various activities are, when each activity begins and ends, how long each activity is scheduled to last, where activities overlap with other activities and by how much and the start and end dates of the whole project.

Also, by identifying which activities cannot be started until previous ones have been completed, a Gantt chart allows you to identify the critical path and time line which together define the minimum amount of time that the project will take to complete. The Gantt chart that I created is shown below.

The critical path of my house project is shown along the top of the chart and amounts to 16 weeks and at the time of writing, this is exactly the time left between now and 8th March 2023. I sent a copy of the chart (in French of course) to the builders last week pointing this out, because when I signed the contract with them they said that they never pay completion penalties as they always hand projects over within the twelve month period and waited for a reply.

I suggested that if they disagreed with my estimates they might like to provide me with their own but they didn’t do that. Instead they replied saying that they can assure me of their best possible endeavours and support and that my house will be ready by 22nd April next year. In view of their previous comments about never paying penalties I was rather puzzled by this and sent a message pointing this out along with my choices on tiling etc that they needed.

So far I’ve received no reply. I hope that when the time comes they don’t try to claim ‘force majeur’ for not making the completion date of 8th March 2023 in order to avoid paying completion penlties. In view of the time materials have been standing on site, that could get a bit messy 🙁

Hmmm… I’m not sure, I’m thinking about it. We’ve had some great flying days recently while I’ve been distracted by other things, mainly to do with my house-build. Tomorrow will be yet another with more light winds of around 4-6 kmh and an afternoon temperature of 19 degrees C.

This afternoon I pulled my Savannah out and gave it a good wash as it was again covered with dust and bird poo. I really regret not having had the time before I moved to make covers for it. I bought the material and securing straps but now I’m out of my old house and in the caravan there just isn’t the space to work with my sewing machine.

Here are a few shots that I took after I’d pushed F-JHHP back into the front of the barn.

So why will I probably not take it flying tomorrow? Well, after replacing the old, wrong brake fluid the brakes are still not very effective. OK, they’re probably no worse than they were before but there’s an old English saying that we refer to as sod’s law.

In this case, all the while that I didn’t know that there was a problem with the brakes, I flew the aircraft and nothing untoward happened. However, now that I know there’s a fault and they’re not working as they should, that’s when the problem will come back to bite me.

So I probably won’t fly tomorrow even though I’d more than likely get away with it. I’ve ordered a new set of brake pads and they’ll arrive next week and it shouldn’t take too long to fit them. So I’ll be patient until then and maybe busy myself with some other things on the aircraft if I find myself at a loose end. And when its brakes are working as they should, as hopefully they will be, I’ll feel much more comfortable when I do get F-JHHP back in the air.