…Really?

For those of you in the know, I’ve been living with a water-damaged kitchen for some time now. All thanks to a cracked hot water pipe back on the third of June. Yeah… Facebook tells me it’s been four months since I uploaded the video on it. The floor is… serviceable. Kinda. It’s like a wave, especially closer to the wall where most of the damage happened.

When we contacted the insurance agency, everything moved along pretty fast to dry out the particle board flooring in the kitchen and get the carpet in the hall dry (no one thought to check the laundry, though, and that’s a mess with our new washing machine jutting into the main thoroughfare to keep it from falling through the still-sodden floor). The builders got in touch, mid-June, looked over the work, took samples and in late June informed us the vinyl has asbestos (does it not just get better?).

Then there was silence.

A lot of silence.

Then the builders told us they’d start in early September. The third… maybe “we’ll call to confirm”. That was back in July. We contacted a cattery to house the kittens as they’re indoor babies and we’d have a freaking hole in our floor. The cattery pencilled us in for sometime early September.

Sadly, that never happened and getting hold of the builders was a nightmare.

Then the builders contact us on the tenth. “We can be there tomorrow!” Wtf, says we. No contact then bam? Nothing was arranged for that sudden drop. The insurance lot agreed and the date was pushed back to… well…

Today.

We hauled out everything last night. Fridge/freezer, stove, microwaves (yes, plural), even the taps are disconnected. Took the kittens into the cattery yesterday, too.

Everyone was up bright and early today, especially myself and my daughter who would need to leave for school before the builders arrive. 7:30 am rocks around. My partner’s about to leave home, whereas I’m looking to leave twenty minutes after.

My partner’s phone rings. Not exactly shocking, but he’s been dealing with the builders.

Everyone freezes. There’s a not-happy look on my partner’s face.

“Sorry,” the builders say. “We’ve been held up on another project and can’t start until Wednesday/Thursdays.” (A fact they would’ve certainly known on Friday)

Well…

Crud.

If it wasn’t for the kittens, it wouldn’t be so bad. But the cattery only has them booked for ten days (and can do thirteen at a stretch, but is fully booked afterwards). The builders say it’ll be ten working days (but I fully expect it to be longer the way they’re going). Those number just don’t line up. So, I don’t rightly know what we’ll be doing there.

Honestly, if it wasn’t going through the insurance company, and using a builder they’d contracted, I’d give them the flip and have someone else to do it.

I’ve over it and it hasn’t even started.

Bright side? I’m just a little over 2k away from the “middle point” of my word count for To Target the Heart.