Over the period Thursday 8th September to Saturday 10th my wife’s nephew Mr MG was staying with us. Mr MG is regularly contracted by my company to produce web design work and had visited the house on a few occasions previously during the course of the works to discuss websites.
On the Saturday morning 10th September we awoke to find a great deal of water on the floor of the new kitchen and dining room. It appeared that following a heavy storm the night before water had been entering the property through a joint between the new kitchen/dining room. The water had tripped the electricity supply so that there was no electricity in the house at all. There were large water stains on the ceiling with water dripping continually through cracks in the plasterboard which was warped. We all helped clear up the water and I tried unsuccessfully to reset the RCD which kept tripping out.
My wife tried on at least two occasions to contact The Cowboy before he answered. He eventually called at around 10 o’clock.
At that time I was upstairs getting changed and my wife was downstairs with Mr MG and my seven year old son.
I began to hear The Cowboy's raised voice so I went downstairs to see what was happening.
The Cowboy was fiddling around with the spotlights when I came down. The Cowboy was in an extremely aggressive mood and was swearing a lot. He was saying to my wife that he had told her before that he couldn’t do anything until Monday.
My wife said that this wasn’t good enough and we had to have electricity and suggested that we find an emergency electrician and roofer.
At this point The Cowboy ‘exploded’ and started ranting and swearing.
I was having a cigarette by the back door and trying to boil a saucepan on a camping gas heater that I'd got from the shed when The Cowboy turned on me and said aggressively ‘well what have you f**king got to say about it?
I said ‘S**** I can’t talk to you….What do you expect me to say? There’s water pouring in, we’ve got no electricity, there’s a swimming pool outside the backdoor, broken doors and loose wires everywhere and you’re not offering any help.’
The Cowboy then jumped down off the stepladder and said ‘Right that’s f**king it, I ‘m out of here – you can keep the money you owe me!’ and he started off towards the front door.
I followed and laughed in disbelief. I said to him ‘Fine – but I think you mean the money you owe me! I've paid you £21,000 up front and you haven't completed anything’
He shouted back ‘F**k Off ‘and slammed the front door behind him.
My wife then tried to telephone around for a roofer and electrician to come out no avail.
Later that day around lunchtime I went out to purchase tarpaulins, tape and temporary flashing from St Anne’s builders merchants to patch up the roof.
When I returned my wife was with Mr MG and Mr MB of B********* Builders ( My wife had called him to see if he could help as he only lives up the road) who informed me that The Cowboy had returned to the property (probably because he had seen my car wasn’t there) had overheard MG and MB outside the rear of the property discussing the state of the works, stormed in and had become very abusive again, insinuating amongst other things that my wife must be on drugs.
Mr MG and I spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to make the roof secure.
Whilst on the roof we noticed that there was a gap of about two feet between the wall and the new extension. There was simply no covering at all, neither tiles nor flashing and the felt had just been tucked into the roof void. There were also large holes in the existing building above the RSJ that he The Cowboy hadn't packed.
I also attempted to try and reset the electricity RCD on many occasions, but on each occasion it would trip out with blue sparks shooting from the box.
From Saturday until Tuesday when an electrician finally called we were without power completely. Not a good situation with a two month old baby to care for!
It was another week and a half before we got power finally restored to the downstairs circuit.
Next post - High Noon - The cowboy returns and we call for the Police!
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