There was a neighbour on one side but not the other. Then there wasn't any fence around the house. The whole place felt very bare. Sleeping at night felt a little naked. Too bright for my liking too. Much to my annoyance, tradies simply walked into my compound to use our external taps for more than 5 occasions. (excluding the times we didn't catch them) Writing to their builders didn't help. Their reasoning was so logical. Since they had their own taps, there wasn't a reason to use ours.
Fine. They will pay for what they did. 10 folds. I will make sure of that. Since my actions will not rank well with those riding on their high horses, as well as the law abiding, I shall not elaborate on my crimes.
The priority was to fence up the area. That cost was covered by the developer. The blood suckers who sold the land, who cheerily told people the land came with free landscaping and fencing! Yeah right, free. The amount Savvy Steve paid for that paid was enough to buy a 3 room flat in Singapore (was it?) I was beginning to think I gave the wrong advice to him. Anyway, it was time to put pressure on the fencing company.
As usual, the company gave us the "WA bullshit" but I wanted nothing of it. We had scheduled your job blah blah, coming next month blah blah, long queue blah blah, we trying our best bullshit. I was well prepared and wrote an email for Jen to forward them. It was short and simple, reminding them we had informed about them regarding the installation more than 3 months ago. That was ample time for them to make the arrangements. Two days later, the folks came around when I was still painting the rest of the house I didn't have time to complete. They planted the columns for the fencing and left, informing me they would be back in two days' time to install the fencing sheets once the cement mix holding the columns was set.
I knew they would be coming back the next day instead. That meant there was something I needed to do urgently that evening. Failure to do so would result in a lot of trouble for me later on.
If they sealed off this part of the place, the only way I could access the area would be through the sliding door, across the living room, past a narrow corridor before making another turn through the laundry area to get here. That was a nightmare if I were to pave the area. I was already quoted more than $300 to pave that area itself. It was another 4 square metres job. Balls. No way, I would pay anyone that kind of money anymore.
The other alternative was to remove the fence sheets when I needed to do the paving work so that I could access the area from the outside. Fortunately that plot of abutting land was not sold. Therefore I could use the land for access if I have to. The smarter solution, of course, was to do a site preparation before it was too late.
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| So I excavated |
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| Filled it with sand |
So when the fencing guys came back to finish the job like I anticipated, I already have enough sand in the bay. Getting enough pavers there over there in future was bad enough. I didn't want to haul buckets of sand through the living room as well. Pat actually drove past and stopped by while I was wheel barrowing sand into that area.
"What are you doing?" Pat asked, who must be wondering what the fuck I was up to again.
I explained and he nodded like a zenmaster. We chatted for a while before he went back for dinner. By then it was sunset, I had to go return home. We moved back to Savvy Steve's old place for a weekend camping experience in order to allow Albany to finish her final three days at her old school. They should be pleased to see the fence up by the time they return.