As we approach the end of month 1 of our extension project, progress came to a grinding halt today. At 7.50am I received a phone call from the builders explaining that my two guys were needed to finish off another job, but they'll be back tomorrow for the rest of the week.
So should I have flipped my lid or kept calm? Well, I bit my lip and took the second approach on the basis that it's relatively early days with the build and after 15+ years of managing the delivery of IT solutions I've learned that individual projects ebb and flow based on competing priorities in your portfolio. To date my relationship with the builders has been very good and I decided to keep my powder dry for when I really need to escalate. I suspect Emma may have adopted the Ghengis Khan meet Vlad the Impaler approach and asked for their firstborn as hostages until the work was completed - that's HR for you though :)
There is also the age old conflicting interests of what everyone wants Quick, Cheap and Good Quality - it's almost impossible to achieve all 3. So my logic is that we love our house, which has stood for almost150 years, a week here or there won't kill us but a poor quality rush job or an expensive money-pit are distinctly less attractive options.
Rather annoyingly the weather has been fabulous for building today (like I'm an expert) but it's warm, sunny and dry.
The walls are approaching the height where they will put down the block and beam floor and where they'll be using the imperial-sized soft red bricks, apparently the brickwork will really speed up after that stage and the chaos will really kick in with scaffold etc.. The bricklayer said that the chimney was the thing that was going to be the most taxing, what with the patterning in the brickwork and the turn halfway up.
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