Yesterday’s bad news

I sent the builder of my house an email yesterday saying that I needed to know what their plans are and when they expect the completion of my house will be. I received a long and thoughtful message back and the news it contained was not good.

The bottle neck is being created by my floor tiles as nothing can go ahead until they’ve been laid. The latest news is that the tiles should be delivered next week but there’s no guarantee that the plinths will arrive at the same time. The plinths go atop the tiles around the base of the walls as there will be no wooden skirting boards like we’re used to having in the UK.

But the worst news is that the matching mosaic tiles that will form the base of the ‘douche italienne’ (walk-in shower) are subject to a further month’s delay, which will make it impossible to go ahead with the installation of the bathroom.

The reason is that the floor tiles have to be laid before the wall tiles can go up and the latter have to go up before the WC, handbasin and shower can be installed. So on the basis of this information, it looks by my reckoning as though my house’s completion won’t be possible until at least late June and more likely July or even later.

I therefore sent another email off this morning saying that I’ve now got to make the best of a bad situation and as the builder can do little or nothing for a couple of weeks or so, I propose to start work immediately doing interior decorative work, prepping all of the walls and prepping and painting all of the ceilings throughout the whole house. The latter will be advantageous as it will then permit me to install the light fittings the cables for which are all still hanging out of the ceilings.

Today I ordered a large quantity of the plastic film that is used to mask up vehicles for painting. I intend to use that to mask all of the floors in the house room by room so I can prevent dirt and plaster dust contaminating the surface of the screed and once that arrives, possibly tomorrow, I can crack straight on getting the living room and corridor ready for fitting the ceiling coving.

I’ll then decide whether to put the coving up in the rest of the house or to finish off the living room and corridor ceilings beforehand. I fancy the latter as that will allow me to install a major part of the lighting in the house, 12 out of the 41 LED spots.

So the situation is not good but there’s nothing I or the builder can do about it and at least my plan will mean that the whole project will not be grinding to a halt and I’ll be cracking on with work that I’d have to do anyway in the normal way of things, after completion.

On a different topic, my new ‘débroussailleuse’ (brush cutter) arrived to day. It looks the part and although a bit heavier than my old one, is better balanced and more comfortable to use.

It started very easily and a brief test using the cutting head containing the nylon line showed that it works fine. I do have one slight reservation, however. Although it comes from a German manufacturer, the engine, although bigger and more powerful, looks like a dead ringer for the one on my old machine that has just packed up.

Maybe all of the machines like this one in the lower to medium price bracket (I can’t justify the cost of a Stihl, say, given the amount I will use it) use cheap Chinese motors, I don’t know. If so, I hope that the German manufacturer has asked for the screws used in its assembly to be Loctited as I don’t want this one to shake itself to bits while I’m using it 😐