An envelope arrived in the post yesterday. Who could this be from? Ah, the revised plan for the house no less. I looked at the changes and words almost failed me. I wasn't quite speechless you understand, but VERY unprintable words were uttered. Our architect had scaled the house more or less correctly but had positioned it in the the wrong place on the plot! Given that the council approve the exact position of the house and any change requires a request for an amendment, this was a serious professional error. Not only had he moved the house nearer the driveway, but also moved it much closer to the garage to create two potential problems. Firstly, there was insufficient room to turn a car round without reversing onto the driveway (yes I know, its not Regent Street exactly, but you have to play the game), and secondly, the house was now nearer the existing cottages and there is some regulation or other about being no closer than 25 metres. So Jim had done it again.
A rather curt email this morning, and yet another revision is being done, but will be copied to me before going to the council. What is particularly galling is the fact that within the "design and access statement" we've had to submit with the plans, the distance between the house and the garage is clearly show and Jim had written (corrected by me as you might now imagine). I had also given him a drawing showing the measurements of the house on the plot, so no reason at all for this mistake apart from carelessness. Jim is soon to be our ex-architect.
But...with every cloud, comes another one. Well, not really. After nearly 4 weeks of pestering by my solicitor, the council have finally responded to his request for an answer to a question about the dreaded 106 agreement. So, now we'll have to wait and see just what the council make of our one-bedroomed house and whether they try to suggest its too big for just one bedroom! I feel another battle coming on.
Another odd call today with a local firm specialising in building project management. They were replying to an email I sent at the weekend. Right from the start the man seemed quite aggressive as I explained that I was looking for someone to manage the project but that I had various trades lined up so really needed the project management skill only. He rather pompously told me that they wouldn't entertain such an idea, but wanted the whole project - tenders to local builders, choice of sub contractors, total management of the build, etc. "OK" I said, "if I were to take that approach what would be the cost". "6% of the build cost" he said. "Right" says I "if I send you the plans, can you estimate the build cost". "Only if you pay us" was the somewhat suprising reply. "Sorry" says I, "I think I've got confused here. I want you to tell me how much your charges will be based on the estimated build cost which you can surely calculate very quickly based on the size of the house." "Thats right, but you'll have to pay us for that information". To summarise then, this man wanted me to pay him to work out how much he should charge me. Having suggested that for those of us living in the real world, his attitude was rather hard to understand, I told him that the only real value in the call was that it had made me schedule another customer service course for my staff, and bade him goodbye. Amazing.
However...there was a silver lining late this afternoon when I took a call from a local firm of building surveyors who had been recommended to me. Not only can they produce the detailed building control drawings we need with all the engineering aspects, (Jim would have done this but as he's soon to be an ex...) but also have good contacts in the form of a recently retired house builder who would be pleased to take on the project management and help me set up accounts with local builders merchants using his many years of knowledge. He's happy for me to employ my own sub contractors and pay them directly, so the day ended on slightly higher note than it started. His name is Roy. I hope his surname isn't Rogers!!!
Bemused of Clifton
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