The good, the bad and the builders
Mar. 5th, 2025 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustBuilders - about half a dozen of them, with three vans - arrived right on schedule, just before eight on Monday morning to replace our windows. It should have been quite a gentle start: we thought we were ready for them. They had visited in advance, declared the dormer window in my attic study to be sound and not affected, and had measured all the relevant windows. The scaffolding was in place, so there external access, and we had cleared space next to the affected windows indoors. All we now had to do was take down curtains at the last minute. Builders would be working in one room at a time, starting with the purely external task of replacing the downpipe and guttering.
On Monday morning I went up to my study to update a couple of websites, trying to ignore the voices and the hammering from outside. Only of course they didn't stay outside. It turns out that however sound the dormer window may appear from inside, there is bad news when you have scaffolding which allows a careful inspection of the exterior. The window was unceremoniously removed, while I tried to ignore the conversation about how bad it looked, and what a horrible job this was, and other ominous remarks (was I putting the worst possible contruction on something only half herd? I hope so...), complete the immediate tasks and escape downstairs.
Yesterday I was prepared for the attic to be unliveable: never mind, I had things I could do at the kitchen table (writing this was only one of them). But no, yesterday the builders planned to remove the ground-floor window, and the kitchen was filled with icy draughts and the noise of hammers: I took refuge in the sitting room, and read Einstein in Kafkaland, Ken Krimstein's graphic account of the year-and-a-bit 1911-1912, when Einstein lived in Prague and made decisive progress towards his General Theory of Relativity (it says here). I enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy advanced abstract thought when you are hiding from builders, which is more than you might expect. Actually, the abstract thought is beyond me at the best of times, but I loved the exuberance of Prague's art nouveau cityscape.
Before the builders left yesterday,durham_rambler questioned them and learned that today they would be working in the sitting room: so this morning before breakfast he took down the sitting room curtains and shoved all the furniture into the middle of the room. This felt like good timing, because this evening we will be out at the pub, so it won't be inconvenient... So naturally when they arrived this morning, what they brought with them was the frosted glass for the upstairs bathroom. So it goes.
This is work that needed doing, and I'm glad it is being done. At least, I will be glad when it is done. I'm just not enjoying the disruption of it actually happening. I would be tempted to go out and leave them to it: butdurham_rambler has a full schedule of online meetings this week. Also, from time to time the builders lock themselves out, and have to ring the doorbell for admission...
On Monday morning I went up to my study to update a couple of websites, trying to ignore the voices and the hammering from outside. Only of course they didn't stay outside. It turns out that however sound the dormer window may appear from inside, there is bad news when you have scaffolding which allows a careful inspection of the exterior. The window was unceremoniously removed, while I tried to ignore the conversation about how bad it looked, and what a horrible job this was, and other ominous remarks (was I putting the worst possible contruction on something only half herd? I hope so...), complete the immediate tasks and escape downstairs.
Yesterday I was prepared for the attic to be unliveable: never mind, I had things I could do at the kitchen table (writing this was only one of them). But no, yesterday the builders planned to remove the ground-floor window, and the kitchen was filled with icy draughts and the noise of hammers: I took refuge in the sitting room, and read Einstein in Kafkaland, Ken Krimstein's graphic account of the year-and-a-bit 1911-1912, when Einstein lived in Prague and made decisive progress towards his General Theory of Relativity (it says here). I enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy advanced abstract thought when you are hiding from builders, which is more than you might expect. Actually, the abstract thought is beyond me at the best of times, but I loved the exuberance of Prague's art nouveau cityscape.
Before the builders left yesterday,
durham_rambler questioned them and learned that today they would be working in the sitting room: so this morning before breakfast he took down the sitting room curtains and shoved all the furniture into the middle of the room. This felt like good timing, because this evening we will be out at the pub, so it won't be inconvenient... So naturally when they arrived this morning, what they brought with them was the frosted glass for the upstairs bathroom. So it goes.This is work that needed doing, and I'm glad it is being done. At least, I will be glad when it is done. I'm just not enjoying the disruption of it actually happening. I would be tempted to go out and leave them to it: but
durham_rambler has a full schedule of online meetings this week. Also, from time to time the builders lock themselves out, and have to ring the doorbell for admission...
no subject
Date: 2025-03-05 12:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-06 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-05 06:24 pm (UTC)I am not looking forward to renovating any more of our house, but the truth is we need double pane windows and a modernized kitchen if we're to live out our senior years here. Also air conditioning and new insulation, because this house retains heat incredibly well during the increasingly hot summers and not at all during the winters, such as they are.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-06 11:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-05 07:26 pm (UTC)Are you sure that the builders aren’t playing some sort of game where they find out where you would like to be for the day and then do an evil cackle as they prepare to Unleash The Freezing Draughts And Loud Tools? Now that I think about it, it seems like every builder loves that game :D
no subject
Date: 2025-03-06 11:51 am (UTC)And the dust. And the radio.
Oh, dear, I fear you may be right!