This week was projected to be the week of more progress on the house. And we certainly saw a lot achieved. But we have certainly not made any progress on one big issue, Lisa’s ankle. Apart from a continuing deterioration over months, things came to a head on Friday a week ago when she had an accident whilst cooking dinner. She had an appointment with a local consultant scheduled this week (to look at the long term problem), so we hoped that we could kill two birds with one consultation. But there is little point in a consultation on either point until Lisa had had a MRI scan of her lower leg. This had been ordered by the consultant three weeks ago (he was just leaving for two weeks of vacation at that time).
However, between his surgery and the hospital, there was a communication problem and things had dragged on. Then it transpired that the hospitals was not on the list of approved places by our medical insurance, The hospital was happy to do the scan for cash ($1,200), but that was not what we pay insurance for. So then the consultant’s surgery had to find a hospital who could do the scan and were on our insurance group’s list. Which, we find out, is the hospital in the middle of Dahlonega. But the bureaucracy drags on and on, and repeated promises of calling back with an appointment for the scan have never been fulfilled. In the meantime, we have got the wheelchair purchased in Delaware (see my blog of 28th July last year) for details out of the cellar and back into service.
But what have we to complain about? This week saw real tragedy. Our good friend in Ealing, Mark Tompsett, went into hospital this week for yet another operation. He has been battling internal cancers for our years now, and has had several operations and multiple cycles of treatment. He has been told that he was in complete remission, but the big C kept returning. He worked hard at keeping fit and positive – earlier this year he undertook a long cycle ride for charity. This operation was carried out on his 62nd birthday, 13th August. The operation was deemed successful, but alas, he died later that night from post-operative complications.
Mark, with his infectious laugh and love of a good pun (or better still, a bad pun), has been part of my life for so long. A friend for 25 years, a time when we both lived in Ealing. Colleagues in three different companies. For the last 13 years until our departure for America we lived less than a hundred yards away from Mark, his wife Kim and children Alicia and Ben. He was always the most positive person one could find and his memory will remain an inspiration for us all.
On the Build Site – Progress and a step back
We went into this week with high hopes of massive progress. Some of this has happened, some things have been delayed, and there has been a big step in the wrong direction.
So, what has actually been achieved?
- Plumbing by Brock of sinks, basins, taps, showers and toilets is well under way. Not complete, though, so the portaloo outside is still a necessity. At least we have taken another consignment of things to be fitted out of the rental house. Which has been a very good thing in light of Lisa’s currently limited mobility.
- Painting was complete a week ago, but we are seeing more and more places where touching up will be required. But, that comes later.
- Trimming the house with moulding, picture rails, and coving is being completed by Tom, WC and Taylor. Tom has replaced the temporary working stairway with a proper job made with heartwood pine treads. They are also starting to fit door furniture. A big push in the first half of next week is promised.
- The elevator has seen no progress. First there was a question over who was responsible for supplying some electrical components, which has now been fixed. But now the elevator installers won’t complete the job as there is apparently a seven inch gap between the outer door (fitted by Bill) and the cabin door (fitted by Blue Moose). The legal limit for this is five inches. We can understand that this is a security/legal thing – it is just a pity it has taken so long to get these issues on the table. Oh, well, another job for Bill and Tom next week.
- The Counter tops installed last week needed a few adjustments, which have been done – job complete!
- Electrical connections remain at the same place – Jonathan and his helpers will be back when there is enough work for them to occupy a full day or three.
- Bob has now completed the Air conditioning including the compressor for the wine room are in and working. But the high-tech NEST thermostats are still to be installed.
- Guttering has been installed, and we expect that rain chains (in place of downspouts in two places) will be fitted in a day or so.
- No sign yet of the proposal for Security and data wiring .
But this week’s disaster is the fitted furniture in the library. We had been waiting for the first post-painting rush to be completed before starting on this, so on Wednesday and Thursday this was undertaken (as well as finishing off some other cabinet installations. What a mess. Somewhere, some key measurements were obviously wrong. Unfortunately, rather than taking a deep breath and start to think of a plan to fix things properly, the installers tried to squeeze things in, making the situation far worse. They chopped chunks out of the window architrave. They tried to match counter tops when they were obviously the wrong size, but nevertheless pushed the cabinets together leaving a one inch gap in the counter tops. And also, they have obviously put a screw or nail into the wall in the one place where they should not have done so. The nail is now preventing the sliding pocket door into the room from moving. What a terrible shame, we have been so happy with the other fitted furniture that they have installed. This is not going to be a five minute job to fix. On Monday we are going to see John Browning, the owner of the cabinet firm, to get hear his side of the story and what he is going to do to rectify all these errors.
So, what of the coming week? There is a lot happening with the project in the “Crazy Place”. We need to get real closure of parts of the work if we are to meet our planned move on date of 10th September. That’s less than four weeks away. As best we can, we have assembled a list of what is outstanding (and even the things that can wait until we have moved in). But the list of “must-be-done” things is still pretty daunting. And we need to get all the final quotes agreed. And we are really hoping that there isn’t any more damage done to the work so far by anyone doing their own things. Our fingers are resolutely crossed.