Mischief and other things

[Faery_Light]

Our house (this one we just got this year) has showers only, no tubs.
My daughter and I are happy about that as we both have issues getting in and out of a bathtub.

 

[Hornet3d]

Our house (this one we just got this year) has showers only, no tubs.
My daughter and I are happy about that as we both have issues getting in and out of a bathtub.

I do know it is a problem for many people as they grow older and I suspect the number will increase as life expectancy grows. Our bathroom was as it was when the house was built almost forty years ago and so it has lasted even though it has been dated for a number of years. The problem started when we added a shower at the end of the bath, the fibre glass bath would flex and despite many attempts at sealing the side of the bath nothing lasted for long. I doubt if the new bathroom will last as long as the old one but it should take us well into our retirement an we felt you had to look at realistic outcomes particularly as it will be a few years before we could afford to have it done again.

 

[Hornet3d]

Not a good day, we now have the replacement toilet but there is no sign of the guy to fit it, I think he must be with the guy who was going to clear our garden of all the mess as there is no sign of him either. Looks like both is now going to wait until after the Easter. Fate has also done everything to keep me looking on the positive side as we now have a leak from both the radiator and the basin.

My good luck continues as I purchased an LED panel to fit in the bathroom and it has the craziest connection method I have seen. Rather then screwing the power wires into a connection block you place them in the connector that only locks down when you screw the cover over the top of the block and this presses some fingers down onto the connection block thus trapping the cables. This means you either need two people up the ladder or some very long power wires. Now what you do is lift the LED panel over metal plate you have screwed into the ceiling an push two plastic clips into the side of the panel which lock into the metal strip. This is all done by feel as the unit is now so close to the ceiling that you cannot see the holes in question. Taking it down is even more trickily as you have to prise the clips out with a screw driver again using touch only (guess how I know). So it is all up on the ceiling and despite the fact that I lined it up with the wall it runs at an angle to the shower. I think I might try again but this time with a different make of panel and a round one at that.

 

[Mythocentric]

Do you ever get the feeling that it might be time to sit down and relax with a strong, hot cup of coffee Hornet?

 

[Hornet3d]

Do you ever get the feeling that it might be time to sit down and relax with a strong, hot cup of coffee Hornet?

Thank you for the suggestion and that is what I did but only after I lost my cool. The guy was about an hour late and so I rang the shop asking what was happening. They contacted him and he stated he was on the motorway but stuck in traffic the stretch of motorway in question was only 15 miles long, I knew that because I knew were the other job he was working on was located. Rather weird was the fact that the Internet traffic site did not list any delays let alone slow or stationary traffic. My point was that, I was prepared to accept that he may have been delayed but why was I not advised he was going to be late. The lame excuse was he had lost my phone number. My next question of why did he not ring the shop so the shop could ring me seemed to have them stumped. By which point I was now under the firm impressions I was either being lied to or being treated as an idiot, neither of which I am happy with when I am paying the bill. So I made it clear that if I was going to be without a working bathroom all over the Easter weekend, he need not come back at all, and I would use the 25% last payment to get someone else in to finish the job and clear my garden and they could sue me for the balance. Strangely the guy who was just 15 miles away took two hours to reach me but I do now have a working toilet and he still needs to come back tomorrow, Good Friday, to do the last few bits and pieces.

Strange thing is that once I made it clear to them what course of action I was going to take I felt very calm and curled up with a book and a hot cup of coffee even though I was far from sure my threat would have any effect. I am also a good few pounds better off as the rather sizable tip the installer was going to get will now be repurposed.

 

[Faery_Light]

Good for you!
Sometimes you need to light a fire under their butts.

 

[Faery_Light]

A really great opportunity has come my way.
My oldest brother is planning a trip to Ljubljana in September.
He is offering to pay my way if I can go and I am thinking hard on it.
Neither of us are getting any younger and this would be the trip of a lifetime.
It's exciting but scary, never been on a plane, he has often.
I would need to raise some cash and get me a portable nebulizer to take with me for my COPD but otherwise I think I can handle it.
His daughter is going with him so we would not be alone,

 

[Hornet3d]

Good for you!
Sometimes you need to light a fire under their butts.

There was a time when I was more than happy to light a fire but I have mellowed over the years given a choice I would rather not, I guess I look for the easy life most the time. These days when I feel I am forced to make a stand I tend to resent it but, on occasions such as this, I feel I have little choice. What I cannot seem to get across to people is very few customers start out angry, there may be some odd individual that like conflict but most start out as happy customers they are made angry by the actions of the company they are dealing with. In this case I tried to be reasonable and not complain when the start dates was moved on a month but that is then used against me as they say the delay is partly due to it being so close to Easter. So whose fault is that, I didn't delay it, the project should have been completed by the middle of March, long before Easter.

Then there is the contempt they have, "He is on the motorway heading towards you" should probably been more like, "he has knocked off for the Easter and is at home eating his tea but we decided not to tell you because we thought we could get away with it". End result is I am unhappy at the position have been put in, the installer loses his tip and the company now has a customer who would not recommend them, will give them rubbish reviews rather than recommend them. No one wins at the end of the day and all it would have taken is one phone call to let me know what was happening and why.

I will console myself with the knowledge that the bathroom will be finished tomorrow or I will have and extra few thousand pounds in my pocket. Happy Easter

 

[Mythocentric]

It amazes me just how much some of these characters think they can get away with. A few years back a friend of mine was having the outside wall of his shop rebuilt having decided that simple repointing wouldn't suffice. The wall in question was about 50 feet in length and required the whole outer brick layer removing so he contacted a reputed builder who specialised in that sort of work. The guy arrived on time, they agreed a quote and the builder's team arrived two days later, erected the scaffolding and started to remove the old brickwork which took around a week. My mate was quite pleased with progress until one morning they failed to turn up. He called them and was told that they were waiting for materials. To cut a long story short, two weeks later there was still no sign of materials or builders and his calls were going unanswered. Now remember that this was a shop and the wall undergoing rebuilding contained three windows on the upper story complete with easy-access scaffolding, so to say the least he was worried especially with the surrounding area's growing reputation thanks to some of its less law-abiding citizens. Another fortnight goes by and my mate happens to get into a conversation with a fellow business owner at the wholesalers who mentioned that she was having some work done and she was very enthusiastic about the builder and would he like their contact number. Yes, he would, received it and was rather perturbed to find it was the same builder. The following day he went down to the site accompanied by a chap from the Trading Standards Office. Eventually, it resulted in a court case during which the builder admitted that he was using deposits from one client to pay for materials and labour to cover previously contracted work. He was eventually declared bankrupt and my mate was out by his £2000 deposit plus having to pay for someone else to complete the work!

 

[Hornet3d]

It amazes me just how much some of these characters think they can get away with. A few years back a friend of mine was having the outside wall of his shop rebuilt having decided that simple repointing wouldn't suffice. The wall in question was about 50 feet in length and required the whole outer brick layer removing so he contacted a reputed builder who specialised in that sort of work. The guy arrived on time, they agreed a quote and the builder's team arrived two days later, erected the scaffolding and started to remove the old brickwork which took around a week. My mate was quite pleased with progress until one morning they failed to turn up. He called them and was told that they were waiting for materials. To cut a long story short, two weeks later there was still no sign of materials or builders and his calls were going unanswered. Now remember that this was a shop and the wall undergoing rebuilding contained three windows on the upper story complete with easy-access scaffolding, so to say the least he was worried especially with the surrounding area's growing reputation thanks to some of its less law-abiding citizens. Another fortnight goes by and my mate happens to get into a conversation with a fellow business owner at the wholesalers who mentioned that she was having some work done and she was very enthusiastic about the builder and would he like their contact number. Yes, he would, received it and was rather perturbed to find it was the same builder. The following day he went down to the site accompanied by a chap from the Trading Standards Office. Eventually, it resulted in a court case during which the builder admitted that he was using deposits from one client to pay for materials and labour to cover previously contracted work. He was eventually declared bankrupt and my mate was out by his £2000 deposit plus having to pay for someone else to complete the work!

Trouble is builders like this appear to be the norm rather than the exception. We recently had out driveway dug up and replaced with block paving. He owner of the company had responded within 24 hours for a request to quote. He arrived on time and we agreed a price and terms which were no deposit and full payment at the end on the job. We agreed a date and he even gave us a decent discount as we were having it done earlier in the year and it was a quiet period for him and wanted the work to keep his team ticking over. We heard nothing for two weeks but on the day areed his team arrived at 08.30 and they started almost immediately they were very careful not to inconvenience the neighbours when parking the various trucks and trailers as they worked. They clean up as the went and were courteous and approachable. They finished the on the second day and the owner arrived a day later to see if we were happy, we were and we paid him. A neighbour then asked who had done the work and a week later he was laying a driveway for her. Since then he has gone on to erect two fences, laid three driveways, two patios and landscaped one garden all that in a block of around fifteen houses. We recommended him to someone in our walking club a few weeks ago and this week they told us he is doing the full works for them, new driveway, path, patio and landscaping both the front and back gardens. Based on what we paid for our work I estimate he had done thirty to forty thousand pounds worth of business just from recommendation and potential customer seeing his work. This all goes to show just waht potential there is there for people to have work done when they find someone they can trust.

Surprisingly the replacement toilet was installed last night and the installer was back at 08.30 this morning, his usual time was never before 10.00, and the bathroom was finished before 11. Just before he left the guy clearing the rubbish also arrived and took away mound of old bathroom parts and packing from the new. Shows it can be done, what a shame it took the threat of not paying the last 25% of the bill to get it sorted. What is so tragic is that his standard of work is first class, we only went to him because we had seen other work he had done. I guess we should be pleased that it is to such a high standard but the lack of communication and bad time keeping really took the edge off the whole thing.

 

[Janet]

A really great opportunity has come my way.
My oldest brother is planning a trip to Ljubljana in September.
He is offering to pay my way if I can go and I am thinking hard on it.
Neither of us are getting any younger and this would be the trip of a lifetime.
It's exciting but scary, never been on a plane, he has often.
I would need to raise some cash and get me a portable nebulizer to take with me for my COPD but otherwise I think I can handle it.
His daughter is going with him so we would not be alone,

Have a wonderful time! Take lots of pictures!

 

[Faery_Light]

Gonna try!
won't be till September but I am looking forward to it.

 

[Hornet3d]

Gonna try!
won't be till September but I am looking forward to it.

Looking forward to it is half the fun....have a great time.

 

[Faery_Light]

They have social Security so messed up now, so my daughter had to go back to work against doctor's orders.
I just hope his predictions of what will happen if she continues to work does not come true.
He said she could end up in a wheel chair for life within 6 months to a year if she keeps working.
she has a nasty spinal problem.

I feel a need to earn some money too, at least 100.00 a month but don't know how I can do that as I can't work out side of the home.
Can't answer phones, can't be on my feet more than a few minutes so don't know what I can do...sigh.
I tried the Amazon Mechanical Turk thing and it isn't working out.
Gotta try something, somehow.

 

[DanaTA]

I hope you can come up with a plan that works for you.

Dana

 

[Faery_Light]

I hope so, but not an easy quest to embark on at my age and health.

 

[Janet]

What happened with MTurk?

 

[Faery_Light]

most things are not in my line of abilities.
I can't type very fast or long now, not good at proofing anymore or data input...sigh.

 

[Janet]

There's a lot of easy tasks there. Look for productrnr or there's another one that pays 2 cents but only takes a split second to finish. Can't remember the name of the company but they would post thousands of them all at once a couple times a month. So sort by number. It was real easy stuff like match this color or crop this picture. ProductRNR just asked you to pick one photo out of two.

 

[Janet]

I just signed on there and I think the one that was super easy is now called: Computer Vision Turk, just click on their name and request qualification. Then wait till they qualify you.