A SNOWBALL IN SCOTLAND

An excerpt from a recent e-mail from my cousin Wallace in Scotland...who said "no good deed goes unpunished?" 

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 WALLACE SAYS:

2012 was not one in which we did much gallivanting. I had my week in southern Ireland, and we spent some time in Arbroath trying to get tradesmen to quote for electrical work, and bathroom replacement in the flat. Electrics were all done, but we only got one response from 4 people about the bathroom replacement, so that had to be shelved - we think we might just try and co-ordinate it ourselves, calling on individual tradesmen as required for the stuff we can't do ourselves.

We did manage to get some work done in Edinburgh, but it ended up being a bit of a saga. We needed to replace the toilet/cistern, so arranged with our friendly plumber to do that. Since that was to be removed we thought we'd redecorate the wall behind it (remove old tiles, get it replastered and painted/papered to match the rest of the bathroom) before the plumber put in the new toilet.

Since we'd get a plasterer we thought it an idea to have him skim the ceiling, which was a rough texture, that was a pain to get any mould growth from. It was then suggested that the reason we got mould was that there was no air flow, so an extractor fan was proposed - electrician required.

If we're having an electrician we might as well get him to replace the light fitting and move the switch outside the bathroom (instead of a dangly pull string) and put in a fancy lit mirror unit.

When the electrician arrived it was decided that the fancy mirror needed a separate electrical circuit, which meant a new fuse/trip switch/consumer unit (it needed [to be] replaced anyway), and because it sat next to an old security alarm (which we never used), we might as well get the latter replaced with something modern and slightly smaller (so the new, larger, consumer unit would fit in the space).

Then once we'd removed the old wallpaper we thought the plasterer should skim all the walls, so we needed the plumber back to remove the central heating radiator ...

The 60s comedy song, "The Gas Man Cometh" by Flanders and Swan, springs to mind ...

So it's now all in place and working fine ... and would have all had to be done at some point. But it was a bit of a shock at the time how it snowballed ...

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I'll say.  I think it's a family thing, Wallace.  Sigh...