WEEK 50 - It's a year! (Delay = 34 weeks) (*)

Never in our wildest dreams did we believe the project would be into its second year before being wrapped-up. When we originally set out on this venture, back in March 2006, we genuinely believed the professional consensus. Contractually, the entire project should take 16 weeks, which would take us to mid-July. However, when the architect and quantity surveyor suggested it was an “ambitious” timescale, we assumed August/September 2006 would be pretty realistic. There was little else we could do but to take the learned advice of the contractor and the professionals.

How wrong we all were.

Today is exactly one year since the demolition of the old garages started. We still have a number of issues to resolve. There is light at the end of the tunnel but we’re still a few weeks away from the end target. It’s been the toughest year for a long time and not one we would like to repeat.

(*) To most people, one year is 52 weeks. But this project hasn't been "normal", so the minor matter of a couple of weeks isn't really a big deal. When trade holidays and the new year absence is taken into account, the effective number of contractor weeks is nearer 45. The important bit is the original start date and the number of week's we've had to endure living on a building site. It's a year, irrespective of how you count!