Builder nightmares!

Can I just say that I hate tradesmen???? I have had the WORST time trying to get this leak in the roof sorted. First of all, it's been like pulling teeth to even get roofers out here to look at it. Then the few who do come out don't even bother with mailing me a quote (people here only mail written quotes, they never tell you a price right there on the spot). I waited a month for one, and then after giving up and calling two more roofers I managed to get one more written quote, to have the magic three required so the rest of my building could decide. The unfortunate thing was that all three quotes were for wildly different things... So it's a bit hard to compare apples to oranges. Anyhow, long story short - there is no consensus in the building about what to do. So, I called the Council (that's just what we call city government here) to have them put a statutory notice on the building. That means they'll call in a city building specialist to look at the roof and determine what needs to be done. Then they'll hire a roofer and bill the other tenants separately. The extra cost of having the city manage the work is 15% and their contractors always seem to cost twice as much an anyone else, which is incentive for flat owners to work together and avoid this type of situation. But for me, I'm just tired of staying home on my days off to wait for roofers and trying to get a hold of my neighbors who are never home. It's been 6 months and we still have a stain on my bedroom ceiling! Hopefully the council can get this resolved soon, although I hear they have lots of work and may take a year.... Oh well, perhaps we'll just pay for a half-ass job to try for a quick fix instead of the full blown council work.
That's the roof story, then we also tried to get quotes for reopening up a skylight in our hallway. I called in a builder from what I thought was a reputable firm (http://www.brucecollie.co.uk/), only to have the dishonest idiot either drop something heavy or step on our plaster ceiling. I heard a big crack while he was up there and immediately got scared. But he took forever before coming down and then didn't say anything and I sort of forgot about it. Then after he left I noticed that there was a round caved in portion of our plaster ceiling next to the skylight opening(which is currently covered with plywood). Our ceiling is wall papered, so nothing actually fell down, which makes the repair all that much more expensive, as we'll now need to stripe wallpaper off of our entire 30 foot ceiling, patch the hole/crack and then repaper and paint the thing! I have no clue what the cost will be, but I image it'll be at least £1,000. I called the company and spoke to the secretary. She called the boss and the boss told her to call me back and tell me to talk directly to the kid that came out to do the work! Can you believe that? He didn't' even try to talk to me directly. Well, needless to say this kid said that he didn't step off of the loft joists and crack the plaster - DUH! If he didn't tell me right after he did it, do you think he'd fess up a day later? But he's coming out on Tuesday morning to have a second look at his damage after I told him to. Needless-to-say, I am not letting him up in our loft again. And will have to find out (or ask one of my many techno-genius friends!) how to google slam this builder's website with my poor reviews of his business if he doesn't at least pay my home insurance deductible. Hell hath no furry like a woman scorned!!! Oh, it's all just such a pain in the butt! I wish I had a list of great tradesmen without having to learn the hard way!
Well, enough about my flat bitching... Here's a great video of Marius having a blast with his friend Francis. And some photos of our wonderful day today at Campbell Castle.

A very beachy weekend

This weekend has been great!!! I'm not sure I have ever seen such a dry weekend in the year and some months I've lived here. So, we decided to go to the beach yesterday and today. Yesterday we went on a bit of a drive out to Gullane, where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Unfortunately it was at 3:30 in the afternoon.... But we get more than our fair share of sunshine in the summer, so it really does even out. Marius was a little scared of the ocean at first though, which made us feel bad for not going out there more often. He just started shaking and staring out at the water. I thought he was just cold, but after putting on his mittens, we realized it wasn't the cold wind, but the water that was scaring him. Perhaps watching a video of killer whales coming up to shore and eating baby seals the night before walking along the beach wasn't the best of ideas! But after a half hour or so, he got more excited about it and forgot his fear.
As we were walking along the beach I told him that we'd go to another beach in California, where Nana and Paka live next month. And, mom you will be VERY happy to know that for the first time he said "nana" and "paka." But I think my may think you are the ocean, because he kept saying it after I mentioned the word beach! Oh well, he'll get to spend about 3 weeks with you in December, so it'll sink in who you are then!
We went to another beach today too. But this one was much closer to the house and not quite as scenic. The tide was really far out, exposing lots of sand with little ripple ridges and pools of water. Marius really enjoys splashing in the puddles, so next time we'll have to make sure he's wearing his rain suit and has his wellington boots. That being said, he didn't seem to mind it being cold and his trousers (I have to remember to keep saying trousers as opposed to pants, because pants mean underwear here!) being wet.

Here are some pics from the weekend.