The last day

Made it to the last day. Somehow I slept very well even though I did fall asleep wondering if I'd be woken by a tiler at 7am. But no, they drifted in at a leisurely 8.30am.

It was a little like a bus station all morning, with the comings and goings. Since they all need to buzz for access to the development and then the apartment block, which I need to action I was up and down all morning like nobodies business. Despite the shower room being one of the smallest room in Dublin two of them managed to work away, plumbing and tiling, so close in fact I think they are now in a relationship.

Then DHL arrived with the TV cabinet which I unpacked and assembled all by myself.

I sent himself a photo and then received instructions as to where it should be place! I ask you.

It arrived the same day that the refund for its non delivery appeared on the credit card but rest assured we rang the manufacturers and told them it had arrived. We are honest like that.

3pm and the plumber, Eddie, finished up. He was quite nice and helpful and I think did a good job. How do you know until you've used all the facilities for a little while. Since I am only staying until tomorrow and have the use of two showers + a bath it is unlikely I'll test everything. Or I could return to the UK the cleanest person ever.

Having said that the choice is so great that I am unsure whether to have a bath or a shower tonight. Life is like that, I cannot have either in the gaff for a week or more, than a choice and I cannot make up my mind.

It was 6.50pm before the last of them left, took a little longer in the end but they made it. They cleaned up very well after themselves, although I have been sorting out everything and that's taken me till 8.30pm.

As life has it I am nearly too warm for a bath after all that cleaning...

I clearly don't want to be going back to doing any cleaning in Beckenham, so I hope yer man has kept the place clean and tidy.

It's slainte from me,  I fly back to London tomorrow and hopefully be back here within a couple of weeks - we have two sofa's being delivered. I hope I am not writing a blog about that saga.

2 days to go

The place is abuzz with activity and apologies. Thankfully I woke at 6am - I don't often say that but being up and dressed when the first workman appeared at 7am was good - for both of us. I might have a few good looks, but 7am in my PJ's is not one.

Phil who is the supervisor was here at 8am and quite shocked by the mess left by the tilers from Saturday. Robert followed shortly afterwards with words of wisdom and more apologies and a reassurance that they were back on schedule and would be finished tomorrow.

Robert says "we should finish the bathroom today". I says "share with me your vision of finish because my vision of finish is that you'll have nothing left to do". He says well "it's somewhere in between what it is now and your vision". So I says "not actually finished then" And he says "eh no, not fully finished".  When you google what does "finished" mean you get a lot of answers that involved Jesus, hopefully we are all not turning to divine inspiration to get the job finished tomorrow.

They have promised me that I could have a shower in the morning, what I am less sure of is whether they are telling me that because they view it as progress or whether it is a hint that I should shower.

On a more serious note I have run out of coffee. I appear unable to get capsules for the Nespresso machine in Rathfarnham. I feel withdrawal symptoms kicking in and a trip to the Orchard for a coffee might be the order of the day.

Midday arrives and by now the towel rail is installed but for some strange reason is boiling hot despite the heat not being on... Myself and the Lithuanian plumber stare at it as if the radiator will suddenly start speaking and give us the answer.

Keeping myself calm by playing albums from Joni Mitchell, Lisa Hannigan, Mary Black & Nina Simone.

Can't keep the excitement to myself, there is a man here clearing. I am not saying that because it is a man doing the cleaning,  I am saying it because they feel it is worth cleaning. Deep breaths.

Tomorrow should be exciting on many counts, not only is the work due to finish but the TV console table that we ordered in August is due to be delivered. Bear in mind that it left the UK on 18th October and each day last week we were told it would be delivered but DHL have managed to fail on each occasion. Seeing will really be believing on this one. Ironically we cancelled the order on Friday and have now received a full refund from the manufacturers...

You'll have to tune in to hear what happened tomorrow.

A friend is coming around tonight to "rescue" me and take me to the nearest wine bar.

And it's 350kms back from Ballyferriter

We are woken by bright sunshine and Michael asks how many times during the night did we hear rain. Personally, I slept straight through but himself and Peter compare notes – men of a certain age I think.

Peter produces an impressive full Irish breakfast which sets us up nicely for the return journey.  My turn on the drive is at the start as we cruise across the Dingle peninsula and towards the M7. The weather is brilliant and the views are breathtaking.

We repeat our pit stop at the Obama services which this time is heaving with an inordinate number of unhealthy looking people leaving Peter to compare it to a hospital canteen. We can’t help wondering if there is a correlation between the food outlets in motorway services and the unhealthy people.

We arrive back at 188 to a very disappointing scene. Somehow and we don’t know how the workmen thought we’d not be back until Monday. It could have been worst; they could have been sleeping in our bed but what we were met with was all their work tools in the very spot that the beds we brought up from Ballyf were going.

We were all pretty annoyed - well not Michael obviously. I shall be sharing my view with Robert from Odyssey who is now coming first thing Monday morning to talk it through with me. I texted him a photo and shared my thoughts with him. Major black mark for not calling me up there and then to apologize.

You'll need to tune in tomorrow to find out how the conversation went and in fact who did all the talking. Peter is putting his money on me....

In the meantime I am off to make up my bed in the spare bedroom where I'll just be sleeping tonight in the company of a hand basin, toilet (sadly not connected to anything) and numerous other bathroom fittings.

Peter and Michael headed off for the airport with Michael taking back the van. First reports is that Hertz have not spotted the scrap over the wheel arch, but I feel with a bit of daylight to see it all more clearly they might just spot it.

Its 350Km to Ballyferriter

With most of the van packed up the previous night, we got up at a leisurely 7am to take down our bed which is going down to Ballyferriter to form a proper guest bedroom.

Within minutes we have an "oh darn" moment when we realize that we need a spanner to dismantle the bed and yup you guessed it, we didn’t have one. Within minutes the day is saved by our Moldovan tiler when he arrives at 8am and has the necessary spanner in his tool box.

Bed in the van along with half of IKEA we hit the road. 2 hours later we have a pit stop at the Barack

Obama Services on the M7. Yes, you’ve read that right.

The service station is in Moneygall, the ancestry home of Barack, who’d have guessed. 

This is a photo of himself and Michael in the Obama services with our van, clearly the side that had not been hit. 

Himself being Peter and not Barack, but you’ll spot that.

We are sharing the driving, doing an hour & half each and the roads are quiet as you can see from the photo. Michael was particularly encouraged by this as he says Ann does not like travelling on busy

motorways. Bear in mind that this is a Saturday of half term!

We arrive at the house by 2pm, unload and within moments we get visitors. AM arrives from over the hill to see how we are getting on and then the daughter of the man who built our house pops in with an apple tart to welcome us. 

We find out that the house has a name, Carrigeen. Once we know how to pronounce it properly we will use it. Until then it will be known as Ballyf.

The village of Ballyferriter is 500m from the house and home to four pubs. You might be surprised to hear that as yet we’ve not frequented the establishments. We thought there’s no better time then now to make a visit. Off to Murphys we go for a lovely evening with a warm fire, excellent ales and delicious meals.

Suffice to say that by the time we are back at the gaff we are all a little whacked but that doesn't stop the DIY from tackling a shelf system for the shower room. While I keep up to date with the New Zealand v Ireland rugby match in Chicago. A fair split of tasks I feel.

BTW for those of you who missed the news, Ireland did beat NZ.

Hire a van, what could go wrong

Michael arrives on Friday, finds his way to 188 easily. We head down to Mayfield restaurant for a breakfast/brunch, which also has the added attraction of using their toilet. In fact, the day is pretty much dominated by where we can use a toilet which means we end up going to the pub next doors several times that day to use their toilet – honestly.

The plus side is that we end the day with a working toilet but the more challenging aspect is that there is no door on the room! Michael suggests that we sing whilst on the toilet.

On Friday evening Michael & I decide to take a chance and head to the airport before Peter’s flight arrives to pick up the van. Our thinking is that we could save 20 minutes or so by doing this, then meet him at arrivals and if all goes well we’d be back at 188 by 9pm.

What could possibly go wrong… We got to the airport and headed to the Hertz depot. At the desk they advised us that no insurance had been taken out on the van.  I decided to take a chance and buy that insurance even though it was going to cost 40Euros and I was sure we already had it, but sure why take the chance.

Our van is a Ford Transit and close inspection shows there are quite a few dents and knocks on it. I opt to drive it up to the arrivals carpark.  Michael helps me maneuver it out of the space and we head up the ¼ mile to the arrivals carpark. Have you ever notice how tight the entrances and spaces are in airport carparks… ? I ask because I can now tell you that they are quite tight. This is a photo of the van before we picked it up.

We enter the car park and are not quite up to the first level of the carpark when we scrap a wall! I say we but since I was driving… Yup we didn’t even get out of the airport before that extra insurance I took out was needed. I could tell you that the first words I spoke after scraping the wall was oh golly gosh but it was more like F***, The kind of language if spoken on the TV the announcer’s apologies for.

Anyway what can you do, nothing except try and find a car space, get the van into it without hitting anything else! Peter arrives about 5 minutes after we park up and we head back to 188, load up all the stuff into the van and pour a few large drinks.

Friday.... Yeah

It's Friday 4th November and the fourth day of the project. So far this morning there is only person here finishing up the tiling in the bathroom. He seems to be doing a very nice job, although how do

you know.

Still without a shower so I headed off to the David Lloyd club here in Dublin to shower last night. What a joy.
I thought about staying to have something to eat but since it looked like the same food served up in the UK I thought I'd not bother.
I had a fish pie in the freezer that I could cook anyway.
What I failed to notice on the cooking instructions was that the fish pie needed to be defrosted before cooking... sigh.

Finally about 9pm got to make myself scrambled eggs on toast and watched The Apprentice.

I think between the absolutely thick people on The Apprentice and the vile reaction to the judges ruling about Brexit I am slowly losing the will to live. How did we get ourselves here and OMG it could get worse within a week.

So makes my bathroom concerns seem small in the grand scale of life. Speaking of concerns this is

my toilet for the night, I left the bucket out of the photo - I think you've got the story by now.

Life is going to get dramatically better today because firstly Michael has flown in from Bradford. I've already had a text from him to say he has landed. I replied saying have a wee at the Burlington before you come up here! Then Peter is flying in from London this evening and then we rent our van to load up and drive to Ballyferriter.

The next post maybe from Ballyferriter,

A little update

I had not expected to be saying anymore about our bathroom refurbishment today, as I thought I had a grip on it all and know the landscape.

Then we got a delivery.... and now am hoping that Michael will be bringing his own bed and maybe a tent!

All the fittings needed for the two rooms have arrived, toilets, rails, showers etc and they've all been put into the spare bedroom.

And I am still waiting for the TV cabinet from Swoon which is coming from DHL and how that will come in through the front door is anyone's guess.

Where's that crane when you need it.

More musing of refurbishing a bathroom

Thursday 3rd and I need to set the alarm for 6,30am because the two Moldovan tilers were arriving at 8am. I need the chance to have two coffee and a wee with my bucket before they turned up. I am now thinking that I will need a holiday after these 10 days.

Apart from the obvious worries of where & when can I go to the toilet, my main concerns today are, in no particular order - how can I get the spare bedroom from being a storage area into a guest
bedroom for Michael who is arriving in 24 hours - will we have a working toilet - will the Swoon furniture delivery arrive and how will we get it into the flat with the hallway blocked with boxes of tiles.

That's our shower tray on the right of the photo if anyone is interested in looking that closely.

I know small worries when within a week we might have Donald Trump as US president.

Met with Robert - co-owner of the bathroom place and share with him my concerns...his first thought must have been oh la la glad I am not married to this one. Seriously though he is so far and I hope I don't have to eat my words, is very good to deal with. Fun, engaging with a sense of humour.

The plan is that the tilers will finish tiling the bathroom today which will allow a fully working toilet to be installed by the end of Friday. Michael it is safe to come over but just expect a shower :)

They'll be working Saturday which means that it's going to be an early start for the Ballyferriter Road Trip.

Day two of the bathroom refurbishment

Recovering from a highly productive visit to Ikea I was out for the count when the alarm went off this morning at 7am. Coffee was barely drunk when Sergio knocks on the door at 8.15am to get started. He is the Lithuanian plumber and his job is to sort out the pipework.

Today however is mainly tiles and tiling which means that half of the boxes narrowing the hallway will be gone. Interesting and possibly boring fact is that they are tiling the whole room before they put in the fittings and we are very happy about that.  I am also able to decide how many shelves I would like and am like a child in a sweet shop.

No sign of the new bath, did I tell you about the upla moment yesterday? The bath turns up and we all stand with our hands on hips admiring it. Sergio asks me where I'd like the taps, I say half way down the side. We are all happy.

What he omitted to do is tell Davis who does what he does best, gets on with any job in hand and proceeds to drill holes in the bath where he thinks the taps will go - at the top. I only know about this when there's a knock on the door and Sergio says "umm, we have an issue with the bath".

Well what could I say when I saw where Davis has drilled the hole, but say sorry that's not going to work, we agreed the taps on the side. That was yesterday and so far today Davis has not turned up for work....

Today should be even more exciting in that I am expecting a delivery from Ikea of two Billy bookcases + two armchairs & a foot stool plus some boxes from the UK of "stuff". How easily one is excited these days, I remember when it used to be booking exotic holidays abroad that got my juices going.

For elevens I made them coffee and gave them the cake. I didn't bother to ask if they wanted any, cos I figured that they are being polite by saying no and at this rate I'll be taking the cake home. Smiles all round when the plate came back empty.

By mid morning the electrician arrived to install the wiring for the underfloor heating. I know, so far the temperature in the flat without the heating on has never fallen below 18degrees but we felt that need to prepare for the arctic conditions and install underfloor heating. Also they started to take out the fittings in the en-suite which means that & I'll cross my legs as I write this, we have no toilet in the flat!

Tiles have gone onto one of the walls, the rubbish is slowing moving out of the guest room into the skip and the en-suite is empty. Except and most importantly for a toilet although I have to flush it with a bucket of water no less! So a good day all round.

Oh and we have a bath but Sergio says not to use it as it is not plumbed in. Sergio has very quickly become my new best friend, clearly won over by my amazing cake baking skills. He helped me lift in the two armchairs from the corridor that the IKEA delivery men left out there.
Also helped me dispose of the humongous cardboard boxes that they came in and even filled up the bucket of water that I would use to flush the toilet.


Finished up the day by attending an author event in Dubray Books in Grafton Street to meet up with Jess Kidd - author of Himself, you should read it, it is excellent. We then went for a bite to eat and a glass of wine, first author event I've attended since leaving the bookshop. It was fun, I think I now get why they are so popular when you are a punter.

Early night as the tiler want to start at 8am! In his broken english - he is from Moldova - he try to persuade me that it really would be 9am if the clocks had not gone back. Picture the scene my friends, a Moldovan with broken English trying to make a joke in Ireland...

Day One of bathroom refurbishment

It's Tuesday 1st November and as promised Richard from Odyssey Bathrooms arrives to "walk me through the project". Slightly concerned in that he thought I was heading off on holidays to arrive back when the work was finished but I assured him I'd be here through the whole process.

Davis aka the Polish plumber turned up, so I feel in safe hands. Although not sure there was a need for the crane to take away the bath!

On a more serious note the crane is here to help reload the fountain that on the grass area between the blocks. One fountain has been working fine and the other one is out of action. It turns on every morning at 8.48 and within seconds you hear a little trickle of water. If you are still in bed this helps wake you and you suddenly feel the need for a wee.

I wrote to all our neighbours to alert them to the potential banging and noise so it was no surprise when Joe - next door neighbour with a heavily pregnant wife called to check if it was going on all day. She is due next week and was home for a rest... she headed off out, over to her Mum's to sleep. He was pretty chill about it all, glad I alerted them in advance about the work - he didn't want cake though = black mark.

And by lunchtime Polish Dave has created an empty bathroom... and a mess in the guest bedroom. Does he not know that Michael is turning up on Friday.

The skip is arriving tomorrow so more fun. Thankfully I think the crane will be gone by then, on the other hand it could have come in handy.