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Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on...

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12/02/2010Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side

Blogger Mimi finds quarrelsome building contractors deplorable, and wisdom in the words of François de la Rochefoucauld.

Expat voices: Katy Hanson on living in Luxembourg

Buying or renting a house in Luxembourg

Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side – François de la Rochefoucauld

The works for the extension of our house are almost finished. Thank I don't know who for that. What a hassle construction works can be. I must say however that the big works of the beginning (digging, construction etc.) went quite smoothly compared to the finishing touches of the end.

The problem is when you have different trades that need to work hand in hand. Say for example you have a large bay window installed that needs electric blinds. To start with, the window company outsources the blinds to the blinds company. The blinds company needs the electrician to provide the connection cable from the indoor switch. The electrician installs this cable. The blinds company comes to install the boxes containing the blinds and considers that the electricity cable is not at the right location (i.e. in the not yet installed blinds box) and informs me that the electrician will connect the blinds.

In the meantime, the insulation, frontage and paint coats are added to the outside of the house – enclosing the cable. The electrician comes and does not want to damage the newly made frontage for fear of having to pay reparation works. Oh and it's not his responsibility to connect the blinds but that of the blinds people.

Today the electrician and the blinds company were here and none of them recognised a fault in the whole story. As diplomatically as a pregnant woman is able to, I told them that I don't give a rat's ass whose fault it is, I just want it fixed. But neither of the two wants to do it: it's not their fault or responsibility so it's not their job. They have both made the journey out here in order to quibble about it but not to fix the problem.

The architect arrives and participates in the argument. It is finally decided (by the blinds people) that the electrician will do it with supervision of the blinds guy and that one hour will be invoiced to the blinds people.

During the entire process of connecting the thing (which took no more than 15 minutes) they continued to argue about whose fault and responsibility it was and their reasons for not doing it etc. I couldn't believe my ears and had already proposed to connect the thing myself if they only told me what I needed to do.

The most unbelievable point is that they were both there on company time ready to leave again without having solved anything. No one in this business wants to think a bit further than their own trade. I find that very deplorable.

Anyhow... we still have a minor issue to solve between the electrician and the heating guys and I think I will immediately propose to do it myself (remember I am pregnant) in order to get them going. :-)

Mimi is a working mother of two little boys, who likes to out her creativity through writing, painting and photography. She blogs about self-improvement, creativity, her hobbies and much more at Mindful Mimi.