Site meetings

Every week, for the last five months, we've had site meetings to review progress and resolve any construction and design queries. Managed by the architect and attended by the construction team and, occasionally, the structural engineer and quantity surveyor, these meetings have enabled us stay on top of the programme for the next few weeks. It's pretty important as living in the middle of a building site is not easy.

Normally, such meetings are no-go areas for clients but after some gentle persuasion, I was allowed to attend on the understanding I wouldn’t put any spanners in the works. From my perspective, this wasn’t really up for negotiation as we’re paying the bills…

However, during recent meetings, it has become clear there is a real detachment between what's being agreed and the reality on site. For example, last Friday it was confirmed re-tiling of the en-suite would start on Monday. The plumber would be lined up for fitting the sanitaryware on Thursday and we could move into the bedroom at the end of the week. At the time of writing (Wednesday), there is no sign of the tilers. While they have now been promised for tomorrow, I won't put any money on this before they've physically turner up.

This reality detachment is the most frustrating element of this project. Unless we can start using the same 24 hour clock and Gregorian calendar, we're stuffed and it will be Christmas before we know.