Wednesday 16 July 2008

Wednesday - Holiday Day 3

Things in life are rarely simple. Any attempt at home improvement we make is also rarely simple. From the time that the new sofa was delivered (and got wedged in the door) to the time that the new fridge-freezer was delivered and abandoned in the garden, to the time that they re-did the ceiling and the disintegrated plaster and lathe ceiling came down all over the living room floor... well you get the idea. If it can go wrong it usually does.

The purchase of our new flooring with delivery and installation the next day seemed too good to be true. Probably because it was. The workmen arrived this afternoon and looked at the kitchen floor and told me that they couldn't install the hardwood levelling base as there was 'nothing to fix it to'. I would have thought that they could have drilled into the concrete... but apparently not. So, it has to be a screed. Screeds of course require time to 'go off'; I know these things, working in the industry and all, and let workmen know it, so that they don't try and pull the wool over my eyes! This means that we have to clear the kitchen for basically two days. I'm a bit annoyed. I did tell the woman in the shop that the floor was concrete... so she should have said that the workmen wouldn't fix hardwood to concrete. Oh, and they won't work around the fridge freezer, so we (that means Rich) have to move that too. And presumably it will have to sit in the garden for twenty four hours... great - my nearly £300 fridge-freezer open to the elements.

So now I've to wait for the shop to call me back to let me know when they can fit in the new appointments. In the interim the carpet is gone from the kitchen leaving bare (cold) concrete, and without the softening of the concrete the cupboard in the corner no longer has any help with levelling the floor and wobbles alarmingly.

All depressingly predictable.