Working opposite a gobby cowboy

Sat here watching the rugby so that I would put this up on a Satarday morning.Sorry this is quite a long post but quite amusing (for me anyway). I just shows the benefits of doing things right and not gobbing off too much.

My daughter lives in quite a posh area and at the bottom of the garden was a huge laurel hedge well over 4m tall and 3m wide in places. They agreed with their opposite neighbour that they would trim the hedge to something more manageable and fit a fence either side to keep each of their dogs in. Since I would be doing my daughters side she suggested to the neighbour that I could do hers as well. The neighbour said there is a man that does a lot of work for her and around the neighbours and she would ask him to do it. No problem she thought and left it at that.

A few days later, I had set my fence posts in concrete, just as the neighbour’s builder turned up with his “boy”. He started telling the other lady it is going to be difficult and expensive. The women left them to measure up and the comments started flying. You know sometimes you immediately you just know how it things will turn out. After the usual nods, I was putting my tools away when the old boy next door on the side popped his head over the other wall and chatted about the posts I put in. I explained I go for the thicker posts as they are only a little extra, last longer and I can use things like coach bolts on them. Over the fence I heard “fecking stupid it’s only to keep a dog in! Must think he is building the great wall”. The old boy asked where you get them with the patterns on the top and that colour. Soon as I said “Simple with a router and staining them now makes them last, over the fence came “Sounds like fecking Norm Abraham doing the job over there”.

Next day, arrived with materials and put down scaffold boards and some old ply. The old boy asked what it is it all for and why the fence boards were all short. I explained that the ground is soft so I walk and work on, protect the lawn and keep my stuff clean and that with the top and bottom boards everything is a constant size so I could cut the boards offsite in the workshop and then run them in one go. Over the fence came “fecking lawn can grow back in time…He thinks he so fecking clever etc”. So it continued old boy pops his head over every couple of hours to see how and what I was doing, I would explain and more swearing and references to Norm Abraham came over the fence. Same pattern until the job was finished.

A few days passed and the other neighbour asked my daughter if she wanted the fence offcuts for her wood burner. I guess the old boy had been talking to the other residents and word had got back. Daughter went round and the lawn and she described it like the Somme - muddy everywhere, barrow marks, gouges, sawdust, sand and debris everywhere. Like me they had used feather edge but instead of fitting a level base board and levelling it, they had literally followed the ground stones, bumps and dips. There was a huge pile of offcuts, rubbish and spoil. An awkward silence came when the owner said doesn’t it look good and the damage to the lawn is to be expected but the men have given me a price for new turf. The woman helped my daughter bring the timber back and then apparently there was longer awkward silence while she just starred at what I had built and the pristine lawn. Daughter’s boyfriend had to bring out some tea as the neighbour was going through some serious mood swings over the job and prices for materials. It didn’t help when the old boy apparently made an appearance and put in his two penneth worth. Eventually the mood settled at the nuclear level and she left in an almighty mood.

Not sure what happened but daughter says there was a lot of activity in her garden over the next few days and other builders battered old van hasn’t been seen in the area since ..

 

By all accounts they should have given the job to the horse as he should have had something in his mouth to hold his tongue.

Several weeks gone by now and I still can't get over the guy. We have all had runs and sometime or another with someone who wants to throw there toys out of the pram about t he least thing. But I couldn't even see this guy as he was the other side of the hedge and fences - may be he felt brave over there

 

she probably worked / saved quite hard for that money and then to get ripped off thats what really makes me mad,