Windows at last!

Our external windows and doors have finally been installed and the house is looking a lot better, it is also now secure and watertight enabling us to get on with some work inside.

It seems our builder has now disappeared taking our cash with him! We are still speaking with a solicitor and are currently waiting for a report to highlight the condition the builder has left the house in. We may not take the builder to court as there is a chance we won't receive any money back from him but we will definitely be reporting him to the police. We have discovered that he owes money to a number of local tradespeople and to the local builders merchant so we are not the only ones to lose out to him.

We are now obtaining our own quotes for the electrics, plumbing and other items of outstanding work and hope we can now start to move things forward.

Progress Update 03/02/08

It's already February and Matteo is almost 8 weeks old now.

We are all doing fine, Matteo is growing every day and beginning to settle into a routine. We have had a couple of heavy snowfalls during January, one of which left us snowed in for a day. Fortunately the snow plough is out as soon as we have any snow and does a great job keeping the roads clear, even the steep narrow road where we live. Our biggest problem was digging the car out of the drive where we are staying! The heavy snow brought down several trees blocking roads and paths on the hillside nearby so Andy spent a couple of days helping to clear the trees, he's never happier than when he's got a chain saw!

The situation with our house has unfortunately reached an all time low. It would appear that our builder has repeatedly lied to us, has taken our money and has not completed the work and it now looks like it is unlikely he will complete it. We are in discussions with a solicitor about the action we can take to reclaim our money but it is still not clear what, if anything, will be possible. We have made the decision to pay the joiner directly for our windows which have been made and are ready and waiting (even though we have already paid the builder for them). We hope they will be installed in the next few weeks and we can begin to move things forward with the house.