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.