For some reason I woke up feeling quite bright and cheerful this morning. I think it was probably the unexpected good night’s sleep that did the trick. I still woke twice in he night, but after each time I fell back into deep slumber and woke refreshed.
Gregg’s Vegan Sausage Roll
Lots of stuff has happened since my last post, but although I made mental notes, I seem to have forgotten most of it and can’t think of anything to say. Not only that, but the days has slid through my fingers like a Vaselined viper and I have, as yet, nothing to show for my continuing existence.
The rotary dryer in the back garden has now completely ceased to function. It’s about a year old and should have had years of useful life. Despite Julia’s undoubted talent at wrecking anything that moves I think we can put this down to the first builder we used, the one I tend to think of as The Expensive Mistake. He was supposed to source us a good quality dryer and install it. Normally, as I recall, you cement a socket into the ground. This one, which I assume is poor quality from the way it has broken, was set directly into a block of cement.
I don’t have an itemised bill, but I do remember from a rough calculation I made at the time, that i would have been cheaper to hire a lawyer to do the work. A lawyer would probably have made a better job too, as much of the work has already needed redoing. It isn’t worth the hassle of trying to get him to do the work properly, or get a refund, which is what cowboy builders rely on.
I am conflicted because I don’t like being ripped off and like to stand up for myself, but I just don’t need the aggravation.
We have had five tradesmen since we moved in. There was The Expensive Mistake and then the Rip-Off Gardener. I asked Julia not to take him on, but she went ahead and it did not turn out well.
Fortunately we have then had the fencing man, the handyman and the conservatory roofers. The first two were very good and were reasonably priced. The third was very good but I was left with a feeling that I was funding a lavish lifestyle.
I’s hard finding trustworthy tradesmen when you are new to an area. It wasn’t easy finding them in Nottingham, though they tended to be cheaper than they are in Peterborough.
The photos are from March 2019 and they are pictures of things I am no longer able to eat under my new dietary regime.
Too bad you don’t live closer to Derrick. He features terrific workers on his blog.
Yes, I have noticed the quality of his tradesmen. I am, I admit, envious.
Same! How I wish Martin could work for me.
I hope Clif doesn’t read this . . . Poor man . . . 🙂
Find someone who knows someone….. Maybe a community noticeboard or magazine
The Builder from Hell was recommended by my sister, who had used him before.
Ah. All my pros have been recommended by other local ones
To be fair to my sister, she also sourced two of the good ones from work they had done (a) for her or (b) for her neighbours. Now we have a group that can do most jobs reliably I feel more confident now and will start keeping a list.
It can be hard to find good help.
It certainly can.
You make me very glad that we haven’t moved house for fifty years. All the same we recently used a new tradesman who we felt fell into your third category. He complained to us about having to pay higher rate tax!
🙂 🙂 🙂 Life can be hard . . .
A friend of mine was a builder and he used to run a Porsche. He charged a modest hourly rate and worked very hard, so he desrved it. On the other hand when he did a job he did it properly.