Bloor Homes » Bloor Homes

My final blog post – farewell!

Craig — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 12:00:00 +0000

And so, the end is here. It is just over 6 months since I posted my first entry, and we have been through so much together. We’ve had:

• snags galore (here and here)
• gadgets galore (here and here)
• near disaster (here and here)
• killer flies (here)
• and sexy lingerie (here).

I hope that my posts have informed and entertained you. They have certainly provided me with a welcome outlet for many of the frustrations involved with buying a new home.

It only remains for me to thank my wife for her unending support and New Build Inspections for sponsoring this blog. Oh yes, and to provide one final, shameless plug for my hilarious novel ‘A Foreign Education’. Please visit my web site at www.CraigAlanWilliamson.com to download a free preview, or head straight to Amazon UK or Amazon USA to buy a copy of the paperback!

Flooding aftermath news and a busy week ahead

Craig — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 11:32:32 +0000

My slippers have just about dried out, as has our living room carpet. While memories of the great stop cock flood of 2007 will endure for a generation, life has moved on. Our carpet was left stained and still slightly soggy, so the site manager has agreed to replace it without any fuss. The carpet fitters should be visiting on Tuesday and it will be nice to have our ground floor fully back to normal after a week of inconvenience.

There should be plenty of other activity this week as well. We are having our loft boarded on Monday and Tuesday, which will then allow us to move junk from our spare room up and out of the way. All being well we are also having our garden attended to on Wednesday. While I have previously teased about our plans for the garden, all will be revealed in my next posting. That is assuming everything goes to plan – so far we have been less than impressed with the company we are using, so only time will tell if everything goes to plan.

There is also only 1 week to go until my novel is released, so now is a great time to download a preview and then place your order at Amazon!

Crags bags snags in showdown shocker!

Craig — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 19:07:18 +0000

Craig Williamson asked some tough questions of Bloor’s site manager today, as his snag list entered its 10th week. Craig, 31, wanted to know exactly why he still had a list of 19 outstanding snags and why there had been no progress for the previous month.

Bloor’s site manager was quoted as saying “Sorry” while unconfirmed reports say that Craig was heard replying, “You can shove your sorries in a sack, mister. Just sort out my snags.” It must be stressed that these are unconfirmed reports, and it may just be that Craig only thought about saying those words.

As negotiations entered the 11th hour, a deal was finally struck and the following statement was released to the press: “Bloor have pledged to resolve the vast majority of the snags by Monday of next week, with the final few details being completed within the following week.”

When asked his thoughts on the deal, Craig had this to say: “It’s been a gruelling process but I feel we have reached an agreement that both sides live with. Now please go out and buy my novel – it will bring laughter into your life and help you to forget about the stress of this whole sordid affair.”

Question time

Craig — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:37:46 +0000

Question 1: You are a decorator employed by a large building company. You visit a customer’s house to repaint a ceiling that was damaged by another tradesman. Do you:
(a) Do a perfect job and leave the house in perfect condition
(b) Do a poor job but leave the house in perfect condition
(c) Do a poor job and splash some paint on the carpet, but tell the customer and arrange for a cleaner to visit
(d) Do a poor job, splash some paint on the carpet, rub it in a little to make the mark even worse, and then leave without saying a word

Question 2: You are a landscape gardener who has, after several calls and cancelled appointments, finally made it round to a potential customer’s house to provide a quote for some decking. Do you:
(a) Give a quote on the spot
(b) Promise a quote the next day and deliver it the next day
(c) Promise a quote within 7 days and deliver it within 7 days
(d) Promise a quote within 7 days and deliver it after 14 days

Put the letters of your two answers together and write them down. If you have just spelt out a large bra size, then you have probably visited my house this week.

20 snags still left after 5 weeks – why?

Craig — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:42:47 +0000

I’ve been fairly complimentary about Bloor Homes and their contractors so far, but perhaps today is the day that I turn. This snagging business is just getting a little annoying now – it has been over 5 weeks since my 255-item snag list was submitted, so why are there still 20 remaining? I could understand if they were all major items requiring a great deal of coordination (one or two are, such as laying tarmac on our rear path), but the vast majority are simple things (scraping away endless lumps of grout on tiling, cleaning marks on the carpet). So what’s the problem? And while I am ranting, why can’t workmen clear up after themselves? And why can’t they, when they leave marks all over your walls, at least mention it and arrange for the decorator to return? There is a real lack of co-ordination that just destroys your will to live after a while. Well, after 5 weeks to be precise.

In horticultural news, two landscape gardeners eventually turned up last week to quote for our decking, and both promised we would have their quotes by the weekend. Needless to say we are still waiting.