When are passers-by going to  finish asking me when we are going to finish? 

I know, they've just stopped for a chin wag - to be nice, to pay a compliment. Some even are interested in the answer. Sometimes I cant read the mood  quickly enough and give the wrong type of answer: 

 

• It depends [...]
• What do you mean by finish ? [...]
• Never.
• Five years [...]
• There's an online  colleague  I have called @Onoff : let me tell you a story about him [....]
• I had an instructor in the Army who told me I had two speeds; dead slow and stop. He was right.

 

I think in future,  I'm going to answer - 

 

 "When you see me cutting the grass on a Sunday morning"     (We have no plans for a lawn)

 

How do you deal with the question?

 

Edited March 11, 20215 yr by ToughButterCup

Tell them you're nearly there and you're looking forward to bullying off for the final chukka.

Jeremy famously said “90% completed,  only 90% left to do” ?‍♂️. Plus what are you going to fill your time with when you have finished?. I think the answer depends on the questioner. 1/ friendly neighbour with a sense oh humour = “cheeky bugger, it is finished. 2/ persons unknown = “how long is a piece of string?”.

10 minutes ago, daiking said:

Tell them you're nearly there and you're looking forward to bullying off for the final chukka.

PMSL.?

This is West Lancs. I'd get one of two responses: a long stare or  ... "Fookin' ell mert, whar's thar onabart?......"

I started cutting the lawn around the new house LONG before it was habitable and long before we had even moved into the static caravan.  The logic was I had just about finished the ground works and wanted to sell my digger, so it's last job was spreading and leveling the piles of topsoil that had been waiting since excavating the foundations.  Then it could depart happy that it's work was done.  Of course once the ground is flat and bare, one has to seed it with grass and then mow it.  you would not want it left to just grow weeds and all need digging up later would you?  Nor would you want to press on building the house only to get to the end and realise you still have a bomb site outside and needed to hire a digger to deal with it.

 

I think our neighbours have given up asking when it will be finished. But at least it feels like it's moving again, I have been putting up some scaffold around the sun room in anticipation of the windows arriving soon and being fitted.

 

Re odd perceptions and odd questions, neighbours when passing often say to me when it's blowing an absolute hoolie "great day for sailing"  erm no it is not.

 

9 hours ago, joe90 said:

 

Jeremy famously said “90% completed,  only 90% left to do”

 

I think I’m going to steal that and use it as my own. We do get asked the ‘when will it be finished’ question almost daily. 

I always said ‘ay? It is finished’. 
 

I've started a reply to this thread and will post it up when finished.

18 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

How do you deal with the question?

I don't have to any more, thank goodness. I used to say 'it'll be years yet' and I was never wrong and no one was ever disappointed.

9 hours ago, Russdl said:

I think I’m going to steal that and use it as my own. We do get asked the ‘when will it be finished’ question almost daily. 

 

I used it the day before yesterday while on-site at a friend's self-build!

When will be moving in? "last year".

I had that question for years even before the building work started, I remember somebody in the community laughing when I said that we need to convert a loft in my parents in law 's house to create a flat and then be able to save sufficient funds for the build.

 

I have a bit of gripe now that the house is done and somebody 'says you are so lucky', like we won the house in a raffle.

 

 

I just say “18 months from finished “ . Just repeat that every 18 months .

Unless you’ve ‘done it’ a non diy builder just won’t get the amount of time and learning required ( oh and cash ) 

1 hour ago, Thedreamer said:

says you are so lucky'

That p*saves me off . “ Lucky “ to get planning - took 5 years fighting for it .

You make your own luck ; and that requires effort .

1 hour ago, Thedreamer said:

...

I have a bit of gripe now that the house is done and somebody 'says you are so lucky', like we won the house in a raffle.

 

Like @pocster, with  slight twist:  .... it used to piddle me off . I now say  "Yes, I am really lucky: I got used to the persistent sleeplessness after the fourth year." And smile. 

7 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

Like @pocster, with  slight twist:  .... it used to piddle me off . I now say  "Yes, I am really lucky: I got used to the persistent sleeplessness after the fourth year." And smile. 

You’ve become to nice 

 

The ‘lucky’ ‘ it’s alright for you ‘ attitude of people extends to everything 

 

As a LL I get told “ ok for you with all your houses “ , I reply honestly and say (expletive deleted) off and borrow a million pounds then like I did . Tends to end the conversation.

 

Recently had on my ‘new’ car ( leased ! ) . “ Lucky you can afford one they are expensive “ . I explain it’s a lease I.e a long term rental . Tends to end the conversation also .  People judge on what they see not what they know ...

Lucky, lucky, that I lived in a Freezing caravan through winter, up to my ass in flooded morass, working endlessly and never ending......don’t get me started (oh i did ?).

Edited March 12, 20215 yr by joe90

1 hour ago, joe90 said:

Lucky, lucky, that I lived in a Freezing caravan through winter, up to my ass in flooded morass, working endlessly and never ending......don’t get me started (oh i did ?).

We look back on it as "character building"

 

Ours was the winter of the Beast from the East.  Thank god i put a WBS in the caravan.  Keeping up the wood supply was challenging.  The "highlight" of the winter was when the hot water froze, because a mouse had eaten about a foot of the pipe insulation, and lying on my back under the caravan at night, during a blizard with a hairdryer to thaw the pipe.