Hopping mad or the tale of the drilled waterpipe

In November, the 18th to be precise, my friends partner, Richard decided to do me a good deed and put a blind up for me. I had had new windows fitted and needed to change the blind.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, R drilled through a central heating pipe, conveniently placed, by Barratts, in the wall and NOT in the corner where it should have been. Water started spraying everywhere. Like a true trooper, R kept his finger on the pipe while I ran around like a blue arsed fly trying to get the central heating off and turn taps on to empty the water tank, as at that time, I had no idea what pipe it was!

I phoned British Gas, they came out, it was chargeable, but I didn't care as my insurance company assured me I was covered for accidental damage. BG came, hammered a hole in the plasterboard and fixed the leak. Well done British Gas. I was left with a hole behind the curtain measuring about 12" in length and 4" in width.

The insurance company asked if I would like them to send someone to look at the structural damage, which I agreed to as I didn't have a portfolio of workmen to call upon. But basically, I thought, easy peasy, bit of plasterboard, bit of paint. Sorted.

So move on a MONTH now and eventually someone turned up from the building consortium to look at the damage. I have an open plan front room, so he looked at the hole in the wall, looked at the paint, then went upstairs and measured the landing.................


Christmas came and went, then New Year came and went, my Dads birthday (1st of February), my sisters birthday (14th of February) came and went. Then I received a letter from the insurance company asking how I thought they had dealt with my claim. So I told them. They had acted superbly, but to date I was still waiting for the building consortium to contact me about a start date..............

Eventually, 5 weeks ago, the building consortium telephoned me. They wanted to start the work. I would be sent a schedule of works and someone would contact me in 3 days to arrange a start date. The schedule has arrived. For a hole 12" x 4" they are going to paint the ceiling all the walls in the living room, plus the landing because I have an open plan room. I'm not complaining about that, it seems ridiculous when they can just patch it, but Hey, I can do with redecorating.

WHAT I am absolutely SEETHING, FURIOUS, HOPPING MAD, LIVID about is the fact that they have still not phoned me to arrange a start date. C'mon guys, it is almost 5 MONTHS since R made a hole. What's more, I now know why my insurance is sooo bloody expensive.

Mind you, it might make a nice feature, sort of industrial looking