The Chantier: the stairway to hell

It's been a while again since I seem to be conveniently choosing not to think about it all.

The plumber...to know more, just read the label for this post. Jerome asked him if he could finally fix the leak in the pipi pipes and that it had now become urgent since it'd been leaking since before he disapeared on vacation in July! The plumber said to the contractor, "what's wrong with the client? he's got an attitude." Jackass.

Supposedly, the gas company is coming on the 10th (of October 2007 I hope!) to give us an estimate for the new counter. Apparently, when we called them over 2 months ago, they said they'd call back to make an appointment and then when we called again because we hadn't heard anything, and they said they'd call us back to make an appointment was less effective than using connections to get an appointment directly. I said to Jerome that this was good, we could give notice on our apartment since we'd have gas soonish. He said he wouldn't hold his breath because they could very well come and have a look only to tell us that it's not them but the city who has to deal with it. Sigh.

Then there's the staircase. Somehow, the staircase up to the new floor was de-prioritized. I was luckily able to push it back to priority level. All looked well - we saw 3-D plans, Jerome approved them, it would take 2 full working days to build. Then Jerome comes home last night and says, "there are problems at the house." As I sat there trying to eat my dinner and with my mouth gaping open, he explained that 1) the guys broke one of the custom made panes of glass for the patio door (300€ down the hole!) and 2) the staircase doesn't work because you bang your head in 3 different places because someone forgot to think about leaving enough headroom from the 1st to 2nd floor and not just the 2nd to 3rd. Fortunately, there were only 2 actual stairs built. I suggested to Jerome that maybe it's only a problem for tall people? He spent all night tossing and turning thinking about the staircase conundrum...and had come up with nothing this morning. So I'm thinking, ropes? I've always wanted to do a ropes course. Cheap, quick, requires no manual labor and I can strangle the contractor with it...

But it'll be nice one day. Jerome is convinced we'll be in by Christmas. So I asked if he was so convinced, then why hadn't we given notice on our apartment yet? And he replied that it was because of the gas company. For once, I have something I can blatantly blame on the French! It feel so much better to have a scapegoat.