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Plus 1 Although it has to be said the only one's that really took the p was the guy who was my main contractor and that is because his confidence by far outweighed his ability as a project manager and as a man manager as his team totally took the p too. They were getting a day rate and didn't care if they were sat half the day in the garage because it was raining.

I started with hope and joy and a few modest must haves......2 years on older, poorer and possibly wiser I was just desperate to get to the end. Of my must haves some are here and some are not. I learnt to my cost that unattended builders take the easy route which does not necessarily facilitate the must haves and then it can be impractical, impossible or just too expensive to undo what has been done. You need a padlock on your wallet and eyes in the back of your head...oh and give up the day job. Its what I ended up having to do as things were clearly going wrong. I have no experience of managing contractors some (most) took advantage of my inexperience and some (very few) were really nice.

Still loving the view. Even a JCB can't make it look bad.

These snowdrops are hardy critters having survived a three country journey from the Sandringham Estate to the middle of Lincolnshire. A few years ago the seller of the plot shipped some spoil back home following a job on the estate and the bulbs self seeded on my building plot. Anyhow thanks for the horticultural tip, I will ensure the scraped off topsoil is dumped in a shaded corner of the plot.

I would be really peed off it I was charged a day rate for someone sitting on their arse. We had a few here who tried it on. Turned up at gone 10 and wanted to knock off at just after 3 having taken a lunch break too so they only worked about 4 hours. When they invoiced hubby paid them for half days and told them to GTF . They were inside workers too so no excuse re the weather. I was desperate to get to the end after more than 8 years believe me! There were some really great people here (a few) but I did feel that I was taken advantage of by some when I was here on my own trying to get things finished, especially during the long running heating saga. I also paid 1k for a joiner who was here for 2 half days fairly recently because I had agreed a price for the job. Had I understood how long it would take I wouldn't have agreed to that. He left a hell of a mess too that took me hours to clean up. 3 rooms covered in sawdust as he just sawed the stuff where he stood.