It’s now six months since the photovoltaique panels were fitted, and we’re STILL not hooked up to the grid! The last time Nick asked the company, they were waiting for something from ERDF, so I decided to take things into my own hands yesterday and phoned ERDF, who claimed to be waiting for payment and paperwork from the company. Phoned the company; they’d speak to ERDF again and let us know the outcome when the boss came to see us last night. He claims they sent payment and the forms, but they received something from ERDF in a non-PDF format, which they couldn’t open….. so what did they do?? NOTHING!!!!! Incredible, isn’t it? So I think we persuaded him to contact ERDF and ask for the forms in PDF; he said he’d let us know what’s going on, but I’ll believe it when I see it!

In the meantime, the same company started work on the heating last week, but only for a couple of hours. Nick spoke to the boss, who, Nick thought, said he’d call in last Friday to tell us how much to lift the doors by. No surprise, then, when he didn’t turn up. So I asked his wife yesterday; they’d restart work when the doors were lifted and the walls were in place. WHAT!!?? Obviously a major breakdown in communication between him and Nick, in addition to which, the workman who came last week told him there were no internal walls in place. Well that’s because we aren’t having internal walls upstairs, surely obvious when the walls we do have are all plasterboarded!

So, the boss came round last night to have a look at the doors; we need to raise them 3cm, which is what we thought. He also looked at the floor; lots of sucking of teeth; the parts of it that were underneath the big beams that held the roof up when the floor was poured were pretty uneven – too uneven to put the insulation onto. So today the lads have made up and laid a cement chape over the bad one-third of the floor. Fortunately, it’s been a lovely day, warm enough to work with the doors open, which should help it dry out.

The current plan is to start work on the heating on Friday – I’m not holding my breath.