I am absolutely spitting mad furious

[possum]

if you don't like your hubbies pointing, then do it yourself, it is not a difficult job at all, all you need is a pair of strong leather gloves. I am not a DIY expert, but i have done it myself on more than one occassion.

[Millymollymandy]

if you don't like your hubbies pointing, then do it yourself, it is not a difficult job at all, all you need is a pair of strong leather gloves. I am not a DIY expert, but i have done it myself on more than one occassion.

Er yes, whilst holding myself up with crutches? Quite how do I climb a ladder then?

I have no time nor desire to do the job which I have no idea if I would be any good at it. Hence the need to pay someone to do the job for us!!!!!

[Cheezy]

I can relate 3M , we have a builder friend and it's difficult with him as he's a friend first. And a pain in the arse second!.

Believe it or not We've been waiting 18months for him to do the pointing on one wall, which I found needed doing when redecorating the bed room and hacked at some damp plaster and got day light!. We know him of old so we waited and waited , and reminded then waited etc.(I filled the hole from inside with expanding foam!)

So when does he turn up 2nd week in September this year, the only summer week we've had , and the week we have booked off from work! Luckily after 18 months it was a 2 day job (1 day angle grinding the mortor and re pointing :arrrgh the mess) and one day to replace the leaking gutter. Which we added on to the job once we had him trapped round the house.

Over the years we have learnt to be patient, and always add in the "George factor" . Which describes the lack of communication/understanding/timing/cleanliness.
But never the quality of work or price as in the end he does a great job at a good price.

My advice to anyone who uses work men who are friends and you want to keep them as friends is bite your tongue, or don't hire them.

[Millymollymandy]

Or just lose them as friends, because this one obviously wasn't a real one! (his wife and daughter blanked my husband the other day ).

Good news is that the original French guys who started the job should be able to do the rest of the house before the end of the year, so looks like I'll get to do my flower beds next spring after all!

[theabsinthefairy]

Hi Milly Molly Mandy

Sorry to hear that you have been let down. We have noticed that this is becoming commonplace amongst English builders here in France - we hear many many complaints.

Only sorry we are so far from you and can not help, even with recommendations of good builders (there are some thankfully).

We have done our own pointing here, but fully appreciate that with your foot you are really stuck and poor hubby is carrying a full load.

Sympathies with you.

(sorry to hear about your chicken too - we lost one of our black birds early this summer, having had them in the spring, just as they started to lay so think she may have got eggbound and deteriorated really quickly)

Monika

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks Monika! How's your mare - hope you are enjoying getting on her again. Doubt if I'll be riding again before next year but I'm not really bothered about it at the moment.

I also have heard horror stories about 'English builders' too but I think most of them are the unregistered ones!

[possum]

if you don't like your hubbies pointing, then do it yourself, it is not a difficult job at all, all you need is a pair of strong leather gloves. I am not a DIY expert, but i have done it myself on more than one occassion.

Er yes, whilst holding myself up with crutches? Quite how do I climb a ladder then?

I have no time nor desire to do the job which I have no idea if I would be any good at it. Hence the need to pay someone to do the job for us!!!!!

I wasn't trying to have go at you, just pointing out that most people are capable of doing pointing, it is not a skilled job.
Sorry about your foot, but if determined enough you could still do the first few feet without going up a ladder.
If you were inclined then you could start with a test area, if you liked your result, then could continue on.

Here we have the problem of getting people to come out and do the job, so often regardless of whether we have the time or inclination to do it, we have to do it ourselves.

I do understand that there are some jobs that it really is not worth while doing yourself though. we recently had 70 post driven it, it cost a lot, but it saved 70 hours labour.

[Millymollymandy]

You miss the point of this thread - the point is that we had decided to get a professional in to do the job and he decided to pull out the day before, which is not professional.