House Work Completed

OK so everything got over day before yesterday. I finally got to see the builder leave our home for good. This house work that we undertook was a learning lesson for me, I never knew that it was so difficult in the UK.

- A builder is never accurate about his quotation.
- As one starts the building / repair work, one is always confronted with surprises.
- The builder is never punctual.
- The work always lasts longer than the stipulated time schedule.
- The builder is only concerned with the agreed work, they are not liable for anything else they may damage in the process of getting their work done.
- And finally they have no sense of responsibility at all.

Yesterday, despite it being a very busy day, I took a day off to clean the house. Since I am the last person who would lie about anything, I got told off by my boss for having taken the day off to "just clean my house". Yes, the excuse does sound pretty trivial, but she does not know that I have been literally living in dust for the past one month. Anyway....

As I sit back and reflect, it does occur to me that we were being a bit too greedy. Our home was perfectly alright. But then we were so concerned with the small defects of the walls and paint and decided to spend almost £5,000 on reworking just the living room and hallway. In the end was it worth it? Well the wall does look smooth and bright, however the gloss work looks a complete disaster. Had I known this would have been the outcome, I would have never ventured into this work. But we were so conscious about what my parents would say when they visit us in June. Though we were not consciously trying to keep up with the latest trend or something like that, we definitely wanted to impress my parents and any future guests.

After cleaning up everything, I found out that the builder had completely ruined our flooring and the wash basin. There were paint marks everywhere and our new basin now looks old since the builder used to wash his hands there. Luckily we have not paid him his entire money. He is coming on Saturday to collect the balance £600. This time, I intend to be a strict with him. Either he tells me how to remove those paint marks or I deduct the cost of cleaning from his charges.

OK so enough of rant. It feels very good to get my home back and the results of the clean up, though exhausting, is extremely satisfying. Our plants have all been put in place. The new dinning table and futon makes the extension and the adjoining room presentable. I am house proud now. It was beautiful and it still is. It took one builder and a lot of painful lessons for me to realise this.