Wall done - or not

The builders had made good progress with my wall. The left side of it looked totally sturdy now! And it was quite a change toward it had been; when they had to remove the wall, it became clear that what is behind it is just lose slate rubble. Quite scary! I was really glad I had given them the task of making this a bit more solid before it would come crashing down in an uncontrolled manner. 

The awfulness my conservatory is built on

They didn't want to take the right side down and build it up again; they had suggested just re-pointing that. I thought that must make it sturdier than just being a pile of stacked slates so I was okay with that.

One day I came home and it was all beautifully tidy. The builder said they were done, and suggested I pay the bill. But they hadn't repointed yet! I questioned that, but soon I heard a knock on the door, and it was the main builder. And he showed me that in the messages we had exchanged he had specified that the quote he had given me was indeed only for that part of the wall that they were going to pull down and rebuild. And that he was going to give me a separate quote for the repointing. Crap! How often do I tell the students to read the documentation? Now I had fallen into that trap myself. I had clearly agreed to paying the entire amount for just the left part of the wall. And I want to be as good as my word. So I swallowed a bit, and then paid the bill! And then told the builders to proceed with the re-pointing. I won't feel entirely reassured until that is done. And re-pointing is less work, so considerably less expensive. My bank account will take another hit but I am sure it will recover! Well I just hope it also means I never have to worry about that wall again. That will be worth the total amount of money!

Much better!