Day 63

The skip was finally emptied. We had a meeting with the architects yesterday and they then arranged a meeting with Steve to discuss our concerns. Lots of activity - Clive could now clear the cumulated piles of rubble and dig the trench for the drains, Steve did the false ceiling in the kitchen, the electricians completed the first fix in the kitchen and garden room and the CamTile completed the tiles - just ridge and flashings to do.

So we have progress now and a new plan from Steve - 4 extra weeks - but compressing 9 weeks from the original plan into 6. The new finishing date of the 14th October looks very optimistic. According to http://www.companycheck.co.uk/. Steve has along list of defunct companies associated with him and Inspire has only been registered since Jan 2010.

Day 61

Good news we are no longer held up waiting for the Velux Windows - after my wife had a conversation with Malcom this morning he went away and produced (as if by magic from St Ives) the Velux windows (4 weeks ago Steve said he ordered them after a 90 minute search and paid for them with his own credit card). Clive has returned but was unable to do anything because the skip is full. The electricians are working in the kitchen and garden room cutting holes for the sockets. The roofers put the roofing felt and some battens. Is this just the pre fortnightly meeting burst of activity?

Day 60

Last Thursday they promised

• the skip would be emptied on Thursday
• the Velux windows would be delivered on Thursday or Friday
• Clive would create the doorway into the utility room on Monday
• The electrician would start on Monday
• The roofers would start on the roof on Monday

Today Monday - the skip is still full (it has been for weeks), the Velux windows (ordered 9th August) have not come so roofers came at 8 and left by 9, Clive did not reappear (probably left Inspire after row last week), the electrician came but seemed uncertain exactly what the plans were.

We went for the Rolls Royce approach to building our extension - an expensive architect taking a basic fee of 11% of the contract price for design and managing the contract on time and materials. They chose a builder they had not used before and despite misgivings about the personalities and a gut feeling about the business we did not go out to tender (we would have been too late by then for a summer start if we had). How can it have gone so wrong in so short a time. After the first week mishaps the project recovered when there was an Inspire site foreman on site (Stan who is very competent) and an efficient bricklaying sub contactor (Simon, who disappeared one Friday). Stan disappeared a couple of Fridays later. A few weeks later Clive (a competent site foreman and sub contractor) arrived - but by then the project was stuck with a full skip and the roof held up. He has gone now and the project is leaderless. 

Day 59

This project was supposed to take 14 weeks and here we are at the end of week 12 and there has been little progress for the past 5 weeks. Inspire admitted to being 2/3 weeks over (I reckoned 4/5) two weeks ago and we are now 4/5 weeks over. They seem unable to buy the two P08 Velux windows for the garden room - they were going to be delivered in 10 days over three weeks ago. The skip has been full for what seems like ever. The roof on the garden room extension is held up - first allegedly for Velux windows and then for the barge barge boards and facias. From the delivery of the wood for these it took 6 working days to complete them. We were promised that the Velux windows would be delivered last Thursday/Friday (1/2 Sep) and that the skip would be emptied on Thursday. 

We have a fortnightly meeting with Inspire and Archangel. At the meeting on the 10th August the plan was for the kitchen to be concreted, the drains connected and our temporary kitchen to be moved into there. The drains cannot be connected because the scaffolding is in the way. At the meeting on the 24th August the barge boards were suddenly the barrier for the roof to be tiled.