The outside of the house has been rendered and painted which is a huge improvement on the chipboard covering the lower half of the bay windows and the house looks increasingly finished. To complete the outside a new driveway and garage door are needed. Marianna contacted a local builder to provide a quote for the driveway and a patio at the rear. The name of his company adorned his vehicle and clothing which often indicates that he may be charging more than the norm and his complimentary comments on our front door, kitchen (a space so large the curvature of the planet is visible) and glass banisters indicated that he believed us to be much richer than we are. Still, his quote for £19,500 for a few dozen paving slabs induced more than a curled lip on my part. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to him since having made a mess of such projects myself I know that these things can be difficult but not as difficult as surgery or naming a kitten. So, we used Mybuilder.co.uk to generate quotes for the work. I may be wrong but the website works like this.....Advertise the work you want doing......a dozen people reply with estimated quotes......you contact them and ask them to visit so they can make a formal quote....only two people turn up....of those two one is a pikey and the other promises to call with his formal quote but doesn’t.....you tell the pikey you’ll give him a call....you don’t.
Dan, Max’s carpenter, spent a couple of Saturdays with us and constructed some lovely, slightly quirky shelves in the front and back rooms. This prompted the opening of boxes which had mostly been filled in mid 2008 and the placing of books and CD’s and records on the shelves. When everything was in place an orgy of self-congratulation began. I’m bemused that a number of my albums appear to be missing; the entire Eagles cannon, ‘Songs in the key of life’ by Stevie Wonder, ‘Music from Big Pink’ by The Band, ‘Night People’ by Classix Nouveaux, a Best of Jim Croce, some original pressings by Nat King Cole, Burt Bacharach and Shirley Bassey and possibly some others. I know I sold some a few years ago (largely Elton John) but not these. Since the start of 2005 I’ve called eight different properties home so it hasn’t always been easy to keep track of things. If you’re related to me perhaps you’d be good enough to check your attic.
In other news.....Martin, the neighbour whose name is never spoken within these walls, is in the process of turning his garden shed into a summer house. It’s been pained a sort of green colour and there are blinds at the window. I suspect he’ll be moving into it soon.
