The Hopefully Very Last Bolts
The staircase is now almost refurbished and needs just a few things.
I think it would be improved if oversized washers were put on my dome-headed bolts.
But perhaps the last thing to do is replace the three brass-painted coach screws with dome-headed coach screws.
A Dome-Headed Bolt and Coach Screws
The picture shows shows from the top; a fake dome-headed bolt, a stainless steel coach screw and one of those used by Jerry, the builder.
It would seem that the solution is to saw the head off the stainless steel coach screw, put a screw thread on it and then screw on a dome-headed nut.
Dixons Get It Right
I have said that the fridge had been wrecked by the previous tenants and a chippy came round yesterday morning and removed it and fixed the kitchen cupboard doors, which the tenant’s children seemed to use as exercise equipment.
The Wrecked Fridge
Note the broken door and hinges. There also seemed to be evidence of small furry animals behind the fridge, but as the chippy said, there are lots of them round here.
I’d seen the type of fridge I wanted in Currys on the Kingsland Road, so I found one that fitted on the Dixons web site, so I ordered it. I also paid £9.99 extra to get it delivered in a three hour slot on Friday morning, when I know I’ll be here.
About an hour later, I realised, that I would need to do a swap and get the old one humanely destroyed. There was also the problem of the fact that my kitchen is on the first floor. So I phoned them and explained. I was on the phone to their call centre in Sheffield for perhaps a couple of minutes and the instructions for the delivery were sorted. At no extra cost too!
I’ll be needing a new washer-dryer in the next week or so. I wonder where I’ll look first!
John Lewis Gets It Wrong
I’m putting up new blinds in the house, as the tenants of the previous owners, wrecked them, just as they wrecked a lot of other things.
I’ve always liked vertical blinds that you can draw to one side, but have never installed them, as C preferred traditional curtains. The house is modern and I live on the first floor, which has a large living area and my bedroom behind it. There are three big windows, with two in the living room and one in my bedroom.
So I felt the best plan would be to get new blinds fitted in the bedroom and then if I liked them, put them in the living room. As I’m not too sure of some of the things I do, I felt it best that plan would be to get John Lewis to measure them to avoid any mistakes.
The lady came and measured my bedroom and whilst she was here, she measured the living room windows as well, so that they’d have them on file for later.
A few days later John Lewis sent me two copies of each of two estimates; one for the bedroom and one for the living room. It was a total of over a dozen sheets of paper. As instructed I accepted the estimate by signing and returning it. As I thought that there was only one estimate, as I thought the living room was just being kept on file, I signed the last estimate, which as luck would have it was for the bedroom.
Imagine my surprise yesterday, when the fitter arrived with the blinds for the living room and not the bedroom.
At first they said that is what I’d signed for and it was only after some lengthy phone calls, that John Lewis admitted they had made a mistake. They’ve also got two blinds made up, that don’t fit any windows except mine.
It still means that I’ve not got any blinds in my bedroom and in a few days, the sun will be streaming through from about four in the morning.
This is a classic cock-up, that could have been much worse. So why did it happen?
The sheaf of papers I was sent could easily get mixed up. I didn’t, but when I returned the estimate, they did something like put it in the wrong file.
Suerely, in this day and age, there should be an Internet-based system, where everybody can see and check the progress.
The Anonymous Widower 