Last Saturday at work

For almost 20 years Ann has worked in the tourism trade and has just accepted that she had to work all day on a Saturday.  But now that she’s handed in her notice (to concentrate on the big Edinburgh flat refurbishment); this is the very last Saturday that she’ll have to work.  Though I’m guessing she will have to go back to work at some point and the majority of jobs in Cornwall are in the tourism industry.

Anyway I had to go to work with Ann today and going to work is very boring for a gorgeous little collie.  I spent most of the day lying on the sofa, in the corner of the office, yawning to show how bored I was!

As for the big Edinburgh flat refurbishment; Got a quote through yesterday evening from the independent electrician.  It’s almost as big as the original quote (or should I say estimate) from the original company which included heating.  And this one doesn’t.  And like the other quotes I’ve had – nothing is itemised.  Grrrr…………..

I’m sure trades people just view me as a ‘batty old woman’ who lives 600 miles away?!!  May be that’s what I am???  I certainly had no idea how hard it would be, to actually pin trades people down to give me proper itemised quotes.  I just don’t understand why it’s such a problem.  Why can’t an electrician tell me how much the sockets are going to cost, how much the lighting is going to cost, how much the labour is going to cost, etc, etc, etc?

I’m hoping that in six months time when my Edinburgh flat is a ‘luxurious modern pad’ and I’m sat in my newly refurbished livingroom/kitchen drinking champagne at my newly installed breakfast bar looking out towards Blackford Hill & the Pentland Hills, I’ll be able to look back at this time in my life and wonder what all the fuss was about. Lol!

I think I might write a book – ‘Diary of a middle aged woman refurbishing a flat’  I could be like an older version of Bridget Jones and lets face it; all she did was drink too much alcohol, smoke too many cigarettes and wear big knickers.  And she’s made a fortune???  I’m sure a lot of middle aged women aren’t as stupid as me could identify with me?!!

Well, by the end of the month I won’t have a job and I no longer have an income from a flat. So I need to think of ways to make money.  And at my age, I don’t think selling my body is an option. Lol!

Oh well ho hum.  Life is not a dress rehearsal. I must stay positive…………………….

Perhaps I’m being very naïve……….. but I really do think that I have the organisational skills, the motivation, determination & am financially savy enough to make the big Edinburgh flat refurbishment happen without being totally ripped off.

Time will tell.  As I said yesterday…………….  I am the customer and the customer is always right.  All I have to do; is find some trades people who will do exactly what I tell them.  Simples!!!