Omnes relinquite spes o vos intrantes
As so written above the gates of hell in Dante's Inferno, so should it also be carved into the lintel above our kitchen door.
We had a perfectly functional albeit 25 year old kitchen which my dear wife Pam suddenly decided was a room of desolation and needed replacement with something new and imminently zooty; and so it began.........
D-Day -30: We started looking for Kitchen suppliers, within a couple of weeks we had selected our installer of choice
D-Day - 15: Started looking for and select a company to remove the old kitchen, remove the old tiles, re-locate a number of power outlets and plumbing points and do a number of other small jobs around the house such as sanding and oiling our wooden window frames, and do a bit of brickwork around an outside shed.
D-Day - 5: How easy this has all been everything has merrily fallen nicely into place.....how wonderful......how naive.
Now we the naive built our original house 25 years ago, it had 2 bedrooms 1 and 1/2 bathrooms a kitchen and open plan dining room / lounge..... a modest little start we were very proud of, we had a building contractor to manage it, so our involvement was minimal even when the supervisor and I were nearly killed when a large pre-cast slab swung out of control and burst through a wall into the lounge.
10 years later we got it into our heads to add on a larger master bedroom and en-suite bathroom, this was by far much more traumatic. but we got through it with a bit of blubbering and gnashing of teeth.
Did we learn..." hell no. . . . . Six years ago we, and I say we out of respect because I being of sane mind would never consciously decide to build on, decided to build on.... so It was that we built on an extra two garages (now we had four) an extra lounge and patio, was it easy and peaceful; definitely a resounding NO!!!. . . . . did we learn.. of course not..... Enter the kitchen.........
D-Day: And so It Began.. .. out came all the Food and crockery. and fridge and... and.... .and..... all was moved into our second lounge where we have as our kitchen supplier says "a mobile Kitchen"
D-Day +1: On site came the first contractors, and the chopping and breaking and cutting began.
Now it must be said that a contractor should arrive on site suitably equipped to carry out quoted renovations, my Jewellery instructor says one should look at a man's tools to see their quality and how they are kept and you will know the quality of his work; well our contractors arrived with basically nothing ... no tools.... we had to supply a Wheelbarrow, bucket, broom, pick, shovel, newspapers and sheets of cardboard.
And they messed and messed and messed, they didn't bother to put the newspaper on the windowsills when oiling the windows so we had oil on the window sills, they didn't put down paper on our tiles to catch rubble from the wall chasing, so it ended up on the floor, when I complained and gave them cardboard they put the cardboard down on top of the rubble on top of the tiles, enter OUR broom to sweep up the mess.
D-Day +2: The kitchen now removed, the tiling began.... and the painting continued and some brick work we needed got started..... all through this we had to supervise
D-day +5: We find that the tiles glued down were sounding hollow underneath; i.e. the glue hasn't been applied properly for a number of reasons, not one tile, not two tiles but dozens, the contractor was called in and an unholy argument ensued.
And so I've begun my own investigation; I lifted some tiles, the grout crumbled like powder and the tiles popped up as easy as the minute they were laid. The glue underneath the consistency of wet porridge.
I have discussed the issue with the supplier of the tile adhesive and they have organised for a rep from the manufacturer to visit us on site to investigate further.
To be continued............
As so written above the gates of hell in Dante's Inferno, so should it also be carved into the lintel above our kitchen door.
We had a perfectly functional albeit 25 year old kitchen which my dear wife Pam suddenly decided was a room of desolation and needed replacement with something new and imminently zooty; and so it began.........
D-Day -30: We started looking for Kitchen suppliers, within a couple of weeks we had selected our installer of choice
D-Day - 15: Started looking for and select a company to remove the old kitchen, remove the old tiles, re-locate a number of power outlets and plumbing points and do a number of other small jobs around the house such as sanding and oiling our wooden window frames, and do a bit of brickwork around an outside shed.
D-Day - 5: How easy this has all been everything has merrily fallen nicely into place.....how wonderful......how naive.
Now we the naive built our original house 25 years ago, it had 2 bedrooms 1 and 1/2 bathrooms a kitchen and open plan dining room / lounge..... a modest little start we were very proud of, we had a building contractor to manage it, so our involvement was minimal even when the supervisor and I were nearly killed when a large pre-cast slab swung out of control and burst through a wall into the lounge.
10 years later we got it into our heads to add on a larger master bedroom and en-suite bathroom, this was by far much more traumatic. but we got through it with a bit of blubbering and gnashing of teeth.
Did we learn..." hell no. . . . . Six years ago we, and I say we out of respect because I being of sane mind would never consciously decide to build on, decided to build on.... so It was that we built on an extra two garages (now we had four) an extra lounge and patio, was it easy and peaceful; definitely a resounding NO!!!. . . . . did we learn.. of course not..... Enter the kitchen.........
D-Day: And so It Began.. .. out came all the Food and crockery. and fridge and... and.... .and..... all was moved into our second lounge where we have as our kitchen supplier says "a mobile Kitchen"
D-Day +1: On site came the first contractors, and the chopping and breaking and cutting began.
Now it must be said that a contractor should arrive on site suitably equipped to carry out quoted renovations, my Jewellery instructor says one should look at a man's tools to see their quality and how they are kept and you will know the quality of his work; well our contractors arrived with basically nothing ... no tools.... we had to supply a Wheelbarrow, bucket, broom, pick, shovel, newspapers and sheets of cardboard.
 |
| Oil on the sills |
 |
| Oil on the brickwork floor |
 |
| Oil on the brickwork floor |
Oil on the brickwork floor
And they messed and messed and messed, they didn't bother to put the newspaper on the windowsills when oiling the windows so we had oil on the window sills, they didn't put down paper on our tiles to catch rubble from the wall chasing, so it ended up on the floor, when I complained and gave them cardboard they put the cardboard down on top of the rubble on top of the tiles, enter OUR broom to sweep up the mess.
D-Day +2: The kitchen now removed, the tiling began.... and the painting continued and some brick work we needed got started..... all through this we had to supervise
D-day +5: We find that the tiles glued down were sounding hollow underneath; i.e. the glue hasn't been applied properly for a number of reasons, not one tile, not two tiles but dozens, the contractor was called in and an unholy argument ensued.
And so I've begun my own investigation; I lifted some tiles, the grout crumbled like powder and the tiles popped up as easy as the minute they were laid. The glue underneath the consistency of wet porridge.
I have discussed the issue with the supplier of the tile adhesive and they have organised for a rep from the manufacturer to visit us on site to investigate further.
To be continued............
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