Thursday 31 May 2012

little patio on the caravan site in kings lynn

Turf up, slabs down and rained non stop whilst doing this!



Wednesday 30 May 2012

Non payers kitchen

Here is the fitted kitchen with the owners hand cleaning it. needs tiling but its all installed and working, wheres our money? In the post im told.




Tuesday 29 May 2012

Period house gets makeover

This slightly large house got its face lift over 3 1/2 weeks with up to 6 people working on it at a time. Car body filler in the damaged windows and mad priests reporting us for putting road barriers up. Yes  its true after a driver clipped one of the ladders with a painter at work on the top windows we decided enough was enough.. temporarily blocked the road off and ended up with the council breathing down my neck. Lovely guy and very helpful! Let me know that a priest had made the complaint even though there are two more roads leading to the same point. Shocked? slightly as i was led to believe god would pat people on the back who are trying to get off their backsides and earn a living. But obviously his disciples don't agree with the working man. It was not the first time we came under the wrath of the religious foes, several times the vicious tongues gouged lumps out of us with torrents of abuse and quotes from some out of date manual. They would rather see us laying on the floor in a heap than wait or go round, thats bloody sad. when the barriers were up people still moved them and drove up the road to be stopped by a tipper truck blocking the one way street whilst being loaded by us with rubbish.
Still the works were completed and the client was more than happy, we got paid lol.
us blocking the road and still they manage to hit the ladders
during the great clean up

red gloss arghhhhh
instant wood in a tin

the rubbish from the garden

Monday 28 May 2012

trampoline

Dug out by hand in the rain due to the local college not allowing us access, well it never stopped raining throughout this job. Rain at the start and rain at the finish ! we even floated the concrete up under a tarpaulin to finsh the ground works. had to go back to pump the water out even though we installed a drain as the water table was soooooooooooo high it never drained away.
Due to the clients being a care home we decided to stick at it so the trampoline could be used.











All parties happy!

Sunday 27 May 2012

whats happening!

Well we got the money for the kitchen but not the labour cost so off to Court we go, papers all in and lodged for a response.
Just finished loads of jobs where we had to draft up to 6 extra hands in to move the jobs along. Reviews came in and are great!
caught up with the work load and after spending the last two weeks working 12-16 hours a day able to kick back and spend next week surfing into the weekend with a smile and contentment with four days off.
camper runs better than it has for years but has to still be tweaked to rid it of the awful flat spot where the two carbs need balancing correctly.
The sun is out and making working inside a nightmare! fully booked into august and thats FULLY booked.
watch the coming week for pictures of the works we have completed as i will have time to update the blog

Thursday 17 May 2012

Non paying clients

Well its been a long time since having to take a client to court for non payment and it still goes against the grain but what else can you do? Hardly go back round and remove the kitchen as the law is against you and whats a new/already been fitted kitchen worth? A baseball bat ? No the only legal avenue is "Count court small claims".
You would not expect your next door neighbour to not pay you considering this fact and her partner is headmaster of a local school. Well its true!
We allowed them to use our "trade account" to purchase a kitchen at a knock down price plus a small drink for ourselves as a thank you. "Thank you" that's a laugh (not funny though) two weeks later, horrendous amounts of emails, calls and invoices with NO payments. Left fantastic feedback for the first jobs we did and loved the price with lines like "fantastic builder wont need to look elsewhere for another, will have them do all our work". I some how dont think so!
Alarm bells did start to ring when the red blotchy skin on the face, the glazed eyes, all ways having headaches and looking rough in the mornings, asking us to start later, making jokes about their "new drinking partners", you get the picture. Alcoholics?Excessive drinkers? How ever you want to label it consuming large quantities of vodka is not good for work or working. On one occasion where i turned down a glass of vodka i felt the room transform into an unfriendly hostile environment and knew we had to get paid up and get the hell out of dodge.
Well that was then and this is now.
What do you do? Their your next door neighbours, they owe you £3600 for the kitchen, money for fitting it and want you to do more work!
When we chased the money we were asked if we had a "cash flow" problem? Erh yes! from you!
Mr headmaster got all high and mighty sending emails from his school account whilst probably knocking back a vodka or two, the lady struggles to get to a local gift shop in a straight line. So much so she ran into another neighbour in his car a few weeks ago, no damage of sorts done but kicked off at him when it was her fault. Looks like these people are set to fall from a high height living at the bottom of a bottle and not in reality.
So as we wait for the paperwork to return they still refuse to pay, well i say refuse! Have sent emails saying a payment just for the kitchen has been made by "BACS" but thats over a day ago and still nothing. Not surprised.
The sad events which they dont seem to grasp are that if the papers get hold of the story, it goes on the net, twitter, facebook you get the picture when found guilty i can then put names and addresses in for other builders etc to see. I would question if this was worth it having a career as a headmaster with a drink problem and maybe pay what i owe before it gets too late.
But i can only make assumptions over the alcohol problems basing these on the events i have witnessed personally and those of a recovering alcoholic who pointed out all the signs to me.
Name and shame! People have the right to know Bad payers.


Tuesday 8 May 2012

review on my builder

Saturday 5 May 2012

heres the latest letter of praise for the team! (pictures to follow)

Morley House
68a Goodwins Road
Kings Lynn
Norfolk
PE30 5PD


1st May 2012.

Dear Stefan

I am writing to thank you and your team for the excellent job you have done in fitting our ground level trampoline.

I was very impressed by your thorough explanation of the quote, and how the work would be carried out. You were sensitive to the needs of our service and proactive in keeping me up to date on progress.

The weather you endured was appalling but you were all professional and helpful throughout.

The young people have already started to use the trampoline and I know it will be an asset to our service.

I would not hesitate to recommend you to others and have forwarded your details to our head office and requested that you are placed on our preferred providers list.

Thank you from all at Morley House.

Yours sincerely





Carol Gyton.
Morley House Manager.