Velence Cottage

Week Starting 26th March 07

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:56:19 +0200

We now had to seriously talk to Stoneman, where was he? Can he supply the necessary paving stones or was he cruising on the Danube. Will we have a building site for the rest of the summer. No, this is not a nightmare or a bad dream Mr. Stoneman. Finally, we had made contact with Stoneman and it seems he was busy counting 30 square metres of natural stone and I thought he was water skiing on the Danube. He could be the first.

We then had to order another skip for Easter weekend, a 4 cubic metres would do as well as ordering 750 kilos of cement. The plumber had to be contacted to connect the water back on. Just to explain we do not have central heating at the cottage, so the water from the whole house has to be drained before the winter months. Then reconnect the water in the spring.

Friday afternoon back to the cottage, to take delivery, yes, yes, yes Stoneman had kept his word he would be coming that afternoon to deliver the paving stones. Another skip has arrived, cement has now been delivered and the plumber has connected the water. Where are you Stoneman. Half hour later, I can hear the sound of a diesel engine chugging away in distance, we can see the dust and a large grey truck was approaching us. The army have arrived. A grey military looking truck approaches us cautiously and stops. A large smile on Stoneman's face as he was getting out of the truck, he has kept his word. We had layed out a large plastic sheet to protect the grass and cover the stones. The big grey truck tips the stones and I handed over a wad of cash to smiling Stoneman. I was about to say happy skiing but I bit my tongue in time.

Should we stand guard tonight and ensure that no one steals the stones. We decided to make our way home to Budapest as we have an early start in morning. Hoping that no one is interested in our stones.

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Weekend 23th March 07

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:44:22 +0200

It seems by default (money) that we decided to take on the Weekend Boys to do the work of removing the old concrete path and replacing it with paving stones. During the week, with help of my friend Iliya we had found suppliers for the materials and the skip. The weather had changed to the best. No news from Stoneman. Friday afternoon we went to the cottage to wait for the delivery of material from various suppliers. First supplier was the delivery of fine and coarse sand and then the skip arrive 15 minutes later.

The Weekend Boys turned up on Saturday morning to start removing the concrete path from the front. They also removed both sides of the path and dug a base for the concrete foundation for the cycle shed. See the photos:

Later that afternoon the gas fitter arrivied to advise us on the position of the gas pipe for the future cental heating boiler. It looks like we had to dig a trench 800 mm deep to accomodate for the gas pipe. We gave the Weekend Boys the go ahead to start digging and at 600 mm deep they struck water. Either we hit the water table or we were draining the Lake Velence 1 kilometer away. The boys kept digging and the water stay the same height so the Lake was safe. Oh, I forgot to mention that there was no news from Stoneman. Was he spending our future payment cruising down the Danube. We did not panick. Things don't look too bad, holes around the cottage, concrete half removed as the 5 cubic skip is now filled up. The Weekend Boys informed us that they cannot go further. Good news the weather is dry. I got on my bike and take ride to the Lake making sure it has not drained away. There still plenty of water in the Lake as you can see.

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Week starting 19th March 07

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 22:34:11 +0200

Following the episode of Stoneman, we then had to start looking around for people who can do the job of removing the concrete from the front, side and part of the back replacing it with our planned paving stones. Still waiting for Stoneman to come back to let us know whether he has enough stones for the whole project. I had contacted a work's friend, Iliya who lives in Velence see if he may know someone locally who can take on the whole project, that is removing the concrete, collecting, laying out the paving stones to our design and removing the rubble. Sounds simple doesn't it? He recommended a contractor who could do the whole job. We met the contractor that Monday morning, you guessed it was raining again. We explained to the contractor our plans and gave him our layout drawing. Measuring tapes, catalogues of different concrete paving were shown to us. He was reluctant to remove the existing concrete and suggesting that we should place 60mm thick paving slabs on the concrete, sounds good, except for one thing it would raise the path around the house by 100mm and that could have serious problems for the front gate, steps, etc. and still look awful. Anyway, we asked him for a quotation to our original ideas. In the meantime, we had a phone call from Iliya sugesting another contractor who could be a bit cheaper. That evening, we went back to meet the next contractor. It turned out that these were lads who did this type of work in there spare time (weekends). Next day we had prices for the work from both contractors. The first contractor was about four times more than the Weekend Boys, but it was not as simple, it would mean we would have to organise the purchase of all the material and arrange for the skip for the rubble. Doing a quick calculation on a fag packet. It seems that the overall cost would be two-thirds cheaper with a new professional management team. That's us. Still waiting for the Stoneman. It has stop raining.

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A Diary of Events - Paving the Cottage

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 11:22:35 +0200

17th March 07

I did not think that one day I will be writing a Blog (Yuk, what a horrible word) on paving Kati's Cottage at Velence. I know I sound sad. We have spent many months (Kati has) looking at types of natural stone that can be used to beautify the garden. Currently, the garden has concrete in the front and the side. The back of the cottage has terricote tiles, which still look good. Here are a couple of photos showing the front and side.

Our intention is to remove the old concrete from the front and side and replace it with natural stone.

Back to the drawing board and the help of Microsoft Visio I managed to draw a sort of layout to enable us to cost the whole project. That day, it was a terrible Friday, it had been raining all day and it was cold. We went off to Csepel island in Budapest, I know it sounds exotic but really it is an industrial estate. I know the name well, as the famous Hungarian bicycles are manufactured there. I have a bike from Csepel (not made in China). Anyway, back to the story, after a few drives around the industry estate we gave up and as we could not find this place we decided to give the guy a call on the mobile. Ten minutes later he turned up, it was still pouring with rain. Back around the estate and there it was, we passed it a couple of times and thought it was a building site tip. We went in and there were all different stones in various shapes, sizes, colour and price. After some discussion, we made a decision to select a range of stones. The next question: will Stoneman have enough? Still wet, with dirty shoes and cold, the stones looking sad. I now know how I got this cold. I still have this awful cold in my nose, my head after two weeks of druging myself with soluble Paracetamol. There must be a lesson to learn somewhere. Anyway, a mad rush to get to the cottage 90 minutes later to remeasure the path. Yes, you guessed it we needed more stones. Will Stoneman have enough? It was still raining and I was cold. Six hours later, been to the toilet hands washed, we were in the warmth of IKEA (half way to Budapest) eating our Swedish meat balls. Aren't we a Marketing Man's dream?
Back home in Budapest, I redrew the layout with accurate dimensions. It was still raining, we took the dogs for the a walk. I think the dogs must have more sense then us, they decided to keep their private business short and come out of the rain. I know all you girls are going to say isn't that sweet. They have more sense than humans. Its still raining. Oh I almost forgot, here is the layout. Just to explain the drawing, the left side of the plan is the front of the house

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